Back again, again.

Well, that should be the last time I say that. I’ll be putting an ultimatum on the table tomorrow. So I should be leaving and coming home within the month, I want to get flights booked this week, but we’ll see how that all works out.

Where have you been that you’ve come back from I think I can hear you say. Well, that’s a good question. Since the last post, I took a daytrip down to Jyväskylä for a day of climbing on walls that deserved using ropes. There was 3 of us in our climbing party Caj, Magnus and myself. I have usually been climbing in and around Pietarsaari with Caj, and Magnus came up from Helsinki. Although we didn’t do as much climbing as I would have liked, it was still nice to be outside on a warm day doing proper climbing. The climbs we were doing all seemed harder than they should have been according to their grade. But that just supports the idea that the Finns make things hard for themselves.

The following weekend I flew to Helsinki on Friday afternoon and spent the weekend there and stayed with Magnus which was great. He lives with his fiancé in a small student flat (even smaller than mine) a short bus ride from the centre of the city. We did some bouldering on Saturday which was really good and close to the city and right next to a small island that was quite nice to walk around. I saw a bunch of the old buildings in Helsinki and unfortunately didn’t get down to the Sumenlinna fortresses before flying to Heathrow on Sunday afternoon. But it was still a nice weekend.

The following two weeks I was in the UK office on the Isle of Wight again. While there I stayed at Kate’s place again, she was away on holiday for most of the time which meant half the time I had the place to myself. Whilst staying in Cowes I managed to go sailing four times and climbing once (at the gym at Calshot). The sailing was really good although in varying conditions. Twice I sailed on a Tuesday night on Katia and Matt’s 707 which is a 7m fixed keel sportsboat. On the Thursday nights I sailed on the Sonar’s from the Island sailing club where they run a sort of learn to sail race. The first week we finished 2nd out of 4 and the next week in very variable conditions which at one point saw us drop the spinnaker to go around the wing mark and then have to tack and sail hard upwind to get to the bottom mark as we sailed on the tide more than the wind. We ended up being given the win on a shortened course after 4 of the six boats that started had already given up and gone home.

The third week I was away I went to France. I spent the first half of the week in Nice which has one of the most beautiful waterfronts I have ever seen, possibly only second to lake Garda. I’m sure sailing there must be fantastic, the water is just such an amazing colour and is contrasted by the terracotta tiles on the roofs of all the buildings. There are some nice old buildings in Nice and some museums and stuff, but I spent most of my time just walking about, going to the beach and enjoying the view. The Nice Jazz festival was on while I was there and on my 3rd night there I walked past a band playing on the street (not as part of the festival) that I quite liked the sound of so I stayed and listened for a bit. It turns out they are from Melbourne and were on their way to a festival in Switzerland. It’s possible that I was bias’s by the Australian voices, but I did like the music and I bought one of their CD’s. They are called ‘The Wishing Well’, I think I was most impressed by the way in which the lead Violinist could bounce about in the street in the middle of a solo. Eric (a friend in Sydney who is from Nice) gave me the names of some friends of his who are climbers but unfortunately I didn’t quite manage to go climbing while I was there. I meet them in Monaco for Lunch on the Monday and we went to a concert together on Tuesday night in Antibes.

Monaco is pretty impressive, It’s quite obvious there is lots of money there. After lunch I walked up the hill and enjoyed the views out into the Mediterranean and saw Palace and walked through the public gardens. There was an aquarium that I wanted to go inside but I ended up running out of time for the train I needed catch, which I missed as I was on the wrong platform, that meant I missed a bus so I didn’t get to the mountains at all (I should have looked in the aquarium).

On Wednesday I got the train from Nice to Paris. I caught up with my friend Gaby who I meet here in Pietarsaari on both Wednesday night and Saturday which was nice, she was able to suggest some things to go and see and also suggested a hostel to stay in. I didn’t find it but I found one in the same area which was still reasonably priced. I did a whole bunch of touristy things in Paris, and there was still so many more things I could have done. Paris is a really nice city, so much to see and do and quite easy to get around as long as you have a decent map of the Metro.

I did a guided walking tour on Thrusday and then went out for a guided pub crawl the same evening (run by the same group) both of which were entreating. In between the two tours I climbed the Eiffel Tower. I found it hard to believe that people would que for so long to get the lift up. It cost more and the line looked like it was at least 3 times the length back from the sign that said 25 minute wait from this point. Whereas the line to walk up to the second platform was virtually non-existent I pretty much walked straight up without even stopping. I didn’t go right to the top as that cost extra again and the line for that was nearly as big as the line at the bottom, but the view from there was pretty amazing anyway. It’s a very impressive structure to look at close up (especially for someone who designs structures).

On Friday I saw the Norta Dame and then went to the Louvre where I spent 6 hours walking around, mostly looking at the ancient Egyptian artefacts (of which the mummy on display was the most interesting). But I did also go and see the Mona Lisa (which was not overly impressive) and spent some time wandering through the paintings looking at what ever caught my eye.

Saturday afternoon I trekked up to the highest point in Paris for a very nice view (if you could look through the houses that were all built up there and enjoying the view. I did a quick walk through the church that is built there in probably some of the most sought after real estate in Paris. I then took a quick trip past the Moulin Rouge, and went out to the edge (of the centre) of the city for an open air cinema.

Sunday I checked out of the hostel and dumped my baggage at the train station before going into the city to line up to watch La Tour De France go past. The bikes did 8 laps of the city when they finally arrived (after waiting a number of hours). I only stayed for 7 as I didn’t want to get stuck in a crush in the metro as I had a flight to catch. I found a bunch of Australians who had set up in a good spot and was talking to them most of the afternoon. The atmosphere of the crowd when the bikes go past is awesome, so many people are just lining the streets to get a glimpse of what has travelled around the whole country. The bikes are so close together that at speed they go past is hard to tell them apart and they get faster each lap. It was defiantly worth all the waiting around, intrusion of privacy and sunburn to experience it. I would have timed it all perfectly if my flight hadn’t been delayed for 2 hours, but it happens.

Last week I was back in the office on the Isle of Wight, and not too much happened. I stayed in Hambel (Southampton) with a colleague. We went climbing yesterday afternoon (at Calshot) and then went to the pub last night before I got up this morning at 0730 for my taxi to the airport and flights back to Helsinki and then Kokkola. It’s been nice to be back to somewhere that feels (more) like home, although I have a feeling that won’t last long as I’m really looking forward to getting home to Australia. It’s starting to get darker now, it’s been what I’d term dark for about an hour now (yes I should be in bed already) and although it was raining when I landed the sun came out and gave me a nice yellow glow for an hour or so while I had dinner. I was greeted with a Dark Grey Polo this time, it’s the same as the others but it has more k’s on it (probably good as I shouldn’t be too spoiled to go back to the Pug).
Photo’s to come!