Monday, 23 September 2013

Blub




Guess what I did today? Well, obviously I drew this fabulous piece because I haven't photographed my souvenirs felt really generous, but I also went swimming. And went to the supermarket afterwards, and bough one TONNE of food as all kinds of exciting things were on special offer. Then I hauled everything home with my cool bicycle in the afternoon heat and rush hour. Have I mentioned Canterbury has extremely narrow roads even for England? And there are loads of lorries and buses? And that all roads are strange detours because of weird planning and lots of dead ends?  And that it's quite hilly as well? In conclusion, I was a sweaty mess when I got home, instead of feeling fresh and rejuvenated. At least Roomie did the cooking tonight, which was much appreciated (and delicious).

Now for the real reason I post today: I just checked the weather, and guess what? Sunny spells and 19°C over here, cloudy and 9°C over in Helsinki! We won this time, bwahahaa!  >:D (I usually don't mind the cold, but over here I appreciate the warm because it means we won't die of frostbite indoors just yet).


Boom yeah!

Saturday, 21 September 2013

Auld Reekie



 Whoop de day! Back from Scotland. The house is still standing, and we have a new, really shiny tap. And it actually works!

Edinburgh was nice and I liked all the Scottish things I tried (namely whisky, haggis, oatmeal biscuits and deep fried mars) I'll just cut to the chase and post some pictures:




Right on our first morning we started out with conquering Arthur's Seat (250 m above sea level). The above picture is taken from another, more well groomed hill downtown, Calton Hill (only ca 100 m above the sea).
 

On the way up we found the ruins of an old chapel. The hill is an old volcano, so the rock was really interesting, unlike from anything I've seen before (Finland isn't terribly volcanic).



At this point (chapel ruin height) we had barely started our climb, but the view of the city was already nice. Calton Hill can be seen in the distance to the right, with a tower and a structure resembling a Greek temple on top.



I tried my best to take a picture of a crow flying. This was the best I managed.



There was a really cool craggy ridge. the path underneath it was called Radical Road, but was closed due to risk of huge rocks falling on your head, so we walked along the upper part of the ridge instead.
 

To get down from the top and to the craggy ridge we had to walk along a really zigzaggy set of stairs (marked in orange)



Tentacle cat takes care of your trash!



The Edinburgh Castle was naturally perched high on a hill.


That would be me. We are on our way to find the ocean.


And that would be the shadows of my fellow ocean searchers.


We did find the ocean, but there was always somekind of off limits harbour in the way, and we didn't care enough to find a beach, so we had a look at the mouth of the Water of Leith instead.


During a rainy day we visited Glaswgow. I didn't use the camera much that day. Glasgow was way flatter than Edinburgh, and therefore felt more like an ordinary British city in my opinion. We were good art students and visited the gallery for modern art there.
 

Some shopkeepers are simply more creative than others.

 

And last but not least a slightly retouched image of all of us, from left to right: Me, Finnish Friend (who survived Spain and will be living with us for the rest of uni), Longhaired Roomie, and Roomie (who is considerably harder to draw since she ceased wearing glasses (she had eye correction surgery))


That's all for now, if I am a good person I might post a picture of what manners of nice things I found in Edinburgh later.

Monday, 16 September 2013

Haggis and Whisky



Going to Edinburgh today, back on Friday. Heard the train ride is supposed to be really neat.


Sunday, 15 September 2013

Ladybird of Luck


It appears to be ladybird season right now. I saw several while cleaning the clothes line in our backyard, with all kinds of dot combinations. I wonder if they consider it beautiful to have super many or super few dots. Or maybe something in between, or a certain amount. would that amount be six, as the amount of their legs or seven for the days of the week?

Saturday, 14 September 2013

Sweet, Damp Home


We survived! The trip went really well, except for very minor misshaps, such as having to wait for our luggage for some time, and the traditional welcome to England rain. After moving a mountain of mail, we found ourselves in the house. It was cozily redecorated by spiders (i.e. cobwebs in the strangest of places), but otherwise pretty much as we left it. A really nice surprise is a leaking kitchen tap. Not leaking in the drip drip sense, but in the I'M BLEEDING TO DEATH (meaning water gushes out from all the wrong places when you turn it on) sense.

Now the exciting question is: can we get it fixed before going to Edinburgh the day after tomorrow?

Friday, 13 September 2013

Fiuuuuuu!


Going back to England today. Hopefully all goes well and we'll all be whole and well and arrive in Canterbury in a timely manner.


And check out my new red boots! Cool huh?