The last word

I came home to Finland two weeks ago and I'm doing fine... I hope you have a nice summer whoever you are. I wish the best for all the people I got to know in Spain, I'm sure I will see some of you again one day.

Got to go now... ¡HASTA LA PROXIMA!

Climbing in Buñol

On Sunday we made a trip once again to the nearby valencian pueblos (it's amazing what kind of nature and climbing possibilities you can find that close). We went there with two cars. We were Fernando, Joel (esp) and I in one, and Stephane (fra), Titus, Peter (hol), Robert (ger) and Anja (pol) in the other. We left as early as we could, at 8, because it was going to be a very hot day.

Buñol, the pueblo famous for its tomato fiesta Tomatina, offers a luxurious climbing valley just a twenty minutes drive from the city of Valencia. After leaving your car behind and following a small river you come into a canyon that is full of walls that rise on top of you. The good thing about this place is that as it is so narrow you can climb all day in the shadow of the sun. That's a big deal as the temperature usually goes way over 30 degrees and it can be even dangerous to be climbing then. Joel had sugary hot tea with him in a thermos bottle, it really tasted awesome under the burning sun.

It's still nine o'clock and we had time to find good walls



Fernando rappelling (securing the other climber) and Joel going up



Some Spanish guys, Titus and Robert


The finlander who came down with a bloody finger after climbing 10 meters


Stephane rappelling with ease and Titus checking that everything is alright


Joel had a great day - he finished every route he started


This is the wall that I also managed to climb all the way up


Stephane enjoyed this beautiful roof (a horizontal wall)


The water in these river pools was, as the Spanish say it, fresco!


We spent half a hour trying to catch the fish with Peter




The Spanish and Arabic boys went nuts with the cold pool and were jumping down from the rocks - a bit of Maroccian music and.... VOILA!


Coming back after a long day

Montesa

...some fotos of the climbing we did last weekend

Crossing Sierra Bernia

Last Thursday my dutch friend Titus called me and asked me to join him and Stephane to the mountains. I had been waiting for this kind of chance to get out there to the nature, and also climb outdoors for the first time. Straight after my audio synthesis exam on Friday I packed my stuff and got to Titus' place. About nine o'clock in the night we were in Stephane's Peugeot 307 and on our way to Benidorm and Sierra Bernia. When I left in a hurry I didn't know exactly how much hiking we were about to do, and afterwards I had to regret wearing indoor shoes out there in the mountains (still wearing sandals because of my sore toes).



First we walked in almost total darkness a couple of hundred meters up (using as our only torch my Nokia phone!!!). We then crawled a small cave that went through the sierra and found this inexplicable beautiful place, where we were high above the sparkling lights of Benidorm. I guess I suprised Susanna quite much when I called her on her mobile phone to Finland from such an exotic place...



After sleeping there in 800 metres over the sea level we got up at seven and started to climb up on the first mountain top. These ants made such a noise with our empty beer cans in the night that they woke me up and made me afraid of rats. I guess they were thirsty for beer.. :D




The sierra rules the hilly landscape around Benissa, a pueblo right next to Benidorm. Especially for Finnish people this typical Spanish scenery of steep slopes is something very strange and exciting.














About half past two in the evening we had really made our way over all the sierra to the last top, 1120 meters high. Sitting there and drinking my last drips of water and a tropical juice which I had specially reserved for this occasion I had a good reason to smile.

PS. I left in the guestbook a small note for all you who do the same some time in the future and can read Finnish ;-)

La capital de España bajo la vista de dos finlandeses

My friend Juha came from Finland to see me and wanted to try what it's like to travel without tour guides and tourist buses. So I took some time off from my university classes and we jumped on a bus and headed to the capital of Spain.



Madrid struck us with the same astonishment I got the last time I was there. Madrid is situated in over 600 meters from the sea level like most of the central Spain. Is that what gives this city the feel of an anthill..?



In the museum of modern art of Reina Sofia we ran into a work colleague of Juha. After 3 hours of sleep it was confusing to look at the abstract paintings made of lines and circles. Nonetheless we had some laughs figuring out the meaning of some famous works.




Madrid is a city of millions of people but the center is easily crossed by foot. The liveliness of the city feels everywhere (but wait till you see the streets by night!). In May Madrid already starts to warm up and you can feel this especially in the evening. It's much warmer than in coastal Valencia. We walked so that our feet hurt, and then kept on walking (a word of warning: do not wear pumas on a three day sightseeing trip!)
Too bad we didn't get a chance to do any shopping! Well, next time..








We had blue skies and burning sun and the Retiro park was full of people.



The original plan was to see the important local Valencia-Barcelona game. However, when they began asking over one hundred euros for the tickets we thought it was maybe better to save money and just go to watch Real Madrid kick Santander's ass. Outside the stadium, a crooked old man sold us some left over tickets but once inside we sneaked lower on better seats. This is what football is all about!







Maybe the thing that made this trip so memorable was that we met so many new people and saw many truly friendly Erasmus parties (Big shoutout to Moritz and Johannes!). The nightlife madrileño is not famous for nothing. It's really normal to party till six o'clock (we went to sleep at 6 and 7.30 am). At first it feels crazy but I can tell you that every morning people continue their lives as normal. Somehow they have just learned to manage without sleep.






And finally... I don't have the words to thank enough our hostess, Caroline, who gave us a place to stay and showed us around the town. Fue un viaje inolvidable. Hope to hear from you again and you know who to call when you come to Finland some day :)

Fiesta de Moros y Cristianos en Alcoy

This weekend I traveled with Jussi to see another big fiesta of the Comunidad Valenciana. We enjoyed Alcoy and the parades around the town and participated in a typical dinner of the Guzmans (a christian warrior group). Later Javier gave us a nice place to sleep right there in the center. We met dozens of Javi's friends and had a lot of fun!



According to the story the miraculous San Jorge came out of nowhere in the middle of a famous battle in the year 1276 and led the christians to defend their town against moors (or muslims) who reigned Spain and Portugal at the moment. This fiesta is about celebrating the glorious victory of christians over moors.

On the first day of the fiestas groups presenting either christians or moors circle the streets with music bands. The second day is more about honoring San Jorge and on the third they make up a big battle in the castle built on the central square. There are men, women and even children wearing theatratical armors of leather and metal. They are carrying swords, sapels and spears. Though people are mostly dressed up as warriors there are farmers, gunsmiths and dancers as well. Every group is followed by a big band of horns and drums that play the same medieval martial music which I had heard before in alcoyan houseparties.

This is known to be the oldest fiesta in Spain and internationally qualifies in the same cast with Sanfermines of Pamplona and Las Fallas of Valencia. It is celebrated also in other nearby cities with slightly different habits. The first evidence of a similar party dates all the way back to the 15th century. Now the celebration takes place in Alcoy every year on 22th to 24th of April.

See the Wikipedia entry about Moors and Christians

The fighters follow their leader who shows his weapon handling skills





Xavi with friends from his fila


See here the level of detail in the armors


Tabea, Xavi's father, Sophie and Jussi


There was paper on the streets like snow


These are fotos from Plaza de España



Our nightstand, what an interesting place!


Nacho and another friend




Plaza de España just minutes before a mascletà


On the way back home

Puppies and babies in Finland

I took a small vacation and flew back home to Finland. When I arrived to the airport it was dark and cold, definitely not anything like in Spain. But my girlfriend was waiting for me and I felt really good being back again. The weather was already getting warmer there and we got many sunny days.





One friend had a two months old baby girl and the other kid had grown up and was running around and shouting weird words. Seemed like anywhere we went there were small babies to see.



Not much had changed in Helsinki. Some bars had new names so those were now the places everybody was going to. The construction site in Kamppi (building another shopping center and a major bus station) had got taller and the giantic hole on the ground was gone. They will be opening the underground bus terminal this autumn.

The renovated cathedral that you always see in Helsinki brochures


We are on Mannerheimintie, the main street in Helsinki.
Not that much people here in the night time? Almost looks like it was christmas.


We visited Susanna's friends, Jan and Petra, in Porvoo. They had this adorable chihuahua puppy. It was running around hyperactive and tried to bite everything. I bet I would like to buy one too if they weren't that expensive. I'm not very familiar with this old Finnish city so we went driving around to the old quarter. It is full of small wooden houses that sell clothes, jewelry and other souvenirs. The old white church is the place where many Finnish celebrities get married.

Nit del Foc video

Click here to see a videoclip of the last minutes of the biggest fireworks on last friday. It is now saved in Quicktime .mov format. Click the right mouse button and choose "Save as..." to download it on your computer. I hope you like it!

Las Fallas - Saturday

The city center was full of people during the final day. There were macletas and bullfights. It was the last chance for the tourists to see the best fallas around town. The last night of Fallas was a much more peaceful one than the others. Ten o'clock they started burning the fallas infantiles (small playful statues for the kids). At midnight all the other fallas were burned down accompanied by ten minutes of fireworks.

I saw the burning (la cremà) of one of the bigger fallas near my neighbourhood. The scene was surrounded by firemen who gave the impression that they had worked there many times before. Trees and walls near the flames were kept cool with water. Still some curtains got burned and fell down on the other side of the street. As the papermass in the statue began to catch fire the temperature got really high. It suprised even the firemen and they had to move the fences ten meters back. I think everybody there got what they were waiting for. Looking at the wooden frames burning red and collapsing we realized that the fallas was suddenly over. People then continued to bars and discos just like on any other saturday night.








Also, the funny rooster-falla on my street had been burned to ashes :(

Las Fallas - Thursday & Friday

The last two days I have been around the city centre with Jussi and Sophie and some other friends. This party just keeps getting bigger. Right now I am kind of excited what will happen tonight. The fallas will be burned starting at ten o'clock. Nobody will sleep tonight.

Every day the macletà at two o'clock draws more and more people to the central square.




The Plaza de la Reina has a marvellous monument made of roses. I hope to add some more info here.




At night the riverside was full of people, by hundreds of thousands. Music, lights, outdoor bars and of course, fallas...







This is the falla that won the premium prize. We did not think it was as funny and detailed as some others but it sure was big.



Now you see falleras (women and girls dressed in a traditional suit) during both night and day. They even have their small children with them dressed up. Around seven the Cabalgatas (parades) start all over the centre and people rush to the streets.







We have seen the fireworks they put every night on the river. Last night was the biggest fireworks display, Nit del Foc (Noche de Fuego, night of fire). They used 2000 kilograms of powder on a show that went on for 30 minutes. According to the news this morning there were like 500.000 people there watching the fireworks. I had never seen so many people at once. Our places could not have been any better, so we were very lucky.