Travel

A reflection in a glass screen showed a fellow passenger standing on the other side of the restaurant car. He had spread a few dozen coins on the table and was arranging them over and over again. Once in a while he walked away, leaving the coins on the table, then came back and continued. J walked to the counter to get another beer. The coin arranger was now doing buddhist prayers, followed by slow-motion karate moves targeted to a window frame. Other than that, he looked like a normal young man. Going to Turku, just like J was.

My main reason of traveling to Hungary and Budapest was Sziget, one of the biggest music festivals in Europe. No, actually the reason was that a big group of friends was going there, and I had never been to Budapest, and I figured we would have a great time there. Which we had.

We spent seven nights in Budapest, and on five of them we visited the festival area on a large island in Donau. I saw the performances of Natalie Imbruglia (nice but not memorable), Juliette and the Licks (great act including her stage-diving but I cannot remember her songs either), and Accept (strong German metal). I also heard a small piece of Korn (who had some technical problems), glimpses of Sentenced (should have seen more) and Turbonegro, half an hour of Opeth (somehow didn't appeal to me live), and also some Fishbone. I should and could have seen more bands, but it is quite tiring and after a while you'll happily change the crowds to some gyros on plate and a beer or two with friends.

We also took some time to explore the city of Budapest. We saw quite a few museums: The agricultural museum in the city park (not that much stuff, but stuffed pigs and a picture of a bull with big balls come to my mind), House of Terror (former headquarters and torture chambers of security services now displaying its past through interesting artistic displays and decoration), the Unicum museum (history of a local liquor factory, with tastings of course), and back to the more traditional national and military museums (swords, guns, harnesses and the like). The museums had only part of their texts in English, which limited the amount of information received. However, many of them didn't have entrance fees, so their value for price leaves nothing to complain about.

Other tourist attractions we experienced include the market hall (goose liver paste, anyone?) and the Buda fortress hill and the labyrinth underneath it (maybe not worth the entrance fee, but interesting nevertheless). I found the Buda side of the city more exciting, old and mysterious. Narrow alleys full of stories. The Pest side was more modern, business-oriented and rational.

Our short visit left a lot more to see, such as spas, opera, statue park, more museums. Budapest could be worth visiting again, but as a friend of mine said, there is a lot to see in the world and our time and money are limited.

I recently visited Hyvinkää, a town in southern Finland. I expected a typical small Finnish city, but Hyvinkää was bigger than I thought, population over 43000.

The main street has stores spread over a surprisingly long stretch. I guess there was no shortage of space when the streets were done, many of them are really wide. There are nice boulevards and lot of trees along the streets. Architecture is like in most Finnish towns, no common theme but different kinds of buildings next to each other like there was no desire to make it look nice. Quite a few ugly concrete buildings from 70's and a lot of smaller wooden buildings. The trees save a lot, making the general view quite nice. This was on a beautiful summer day; on winter the view is of course totally different (worse).

We didn't check out the tourist attractions, but at least the railroad museum I'd like to see. There is also a pyramid-shaped church, which might deserve a closer look. In the downtown there was an outdoor art exhibition, with works here and there. Ski resort Sveitsi, while being closed for the summer, provided good views for us. Its peak is surprisingly high considering that the area around it is quite flat. We did also an all-day hike on Kytäjä-Usmi wilderness area, stopping at the fireplaces along the route to enjoy sausages and beer, and cooled down by swimming in the lakes.

Amsterdam is a very nice city, in many ways. About the first time I visited there, I don't remember anything. But that was because I was maybe four or five at that time. Now I spent the New Year's there, and this time I still remember it.

What I did: I checked out works of Dutch master painters in Rijksmuseum (under renovation), which were fine. The line to Vincent van Gogh Museum was too long, so I skipped that. I walked through the Bloemenmarkt (flowers for sale, no big deal) and Begijnhof (peaceful). Anne Frank Huis was again too crowded, and I figured it's probably overrated anyway. The Royal Palace was beautiful with a lot of details to be seen.

We took a subway to a random suburb, which looked nice. Upper midclass, at least. The people were already blowing up the fireworks. The crowds gathered at the main square, the Dam, where a DJ was playing records on stage. Maybe they had planned something bigger but canceled it because of the catastrophe in Asia, because there was no big show or fireworks.

Finally I toured Leidseplein (quite a few restaurants), nine alleys area (lot of small shops), Rembrandt Plein (cannot remember if there was anything interesting), Waterloo Plein (but there was no flea market that day), and of course the Red Lights District.

In the Red Lights District I checked out, in the name of academic interest, a peep show and a live sex show. The peep show was pretty lame. For two euros you can watch a naked woman through a small window for two minutes. The sex show had more content. When I entered the non-stop show, there was a couple fucking onstage. After a couple of minutes they finished and a woman entered the stage. She ran around for a while (I suppose it was erotic dancing, but I could not tell) before stripping, after which she lit a cigar, stuck it in her pussy and puffed smoke with it. Then there was another couple fucking on the stage, a woman who pulled maybe five meters of string from her pussy, a third couple and finally a lady with a banana. She picked three volunteers from the crowd (not me), who took turns eating the banana between her legs. That's pretty much it.

Amsterdam has a lot of brick buildings, canals, bicyclists, tourists, tourists smoking dope, narrow streets and a lot to see and lots of fun. Highly recommended.

Tallipiha (Stable Yard) is an idyllic group of handcraft shops in downtown Tampere. In addition to shops and cafe there are also animals such as horses and sheep. This is a great place for tourists to buy souvenirs, but for locals too it is a nice target for a weekend walk.

Honolulu and its Waikiki district on the island of Oahu is usually the first place to visit in Hawaii. I was equally interested in the night life, beaches and nature, and Oahu offered the first two of them. For nature you'd better head to the other islands in Hawaii. But the beaches are great, and the nightlife is quite good. There are also good opportunities for expensive shopping in Waikiki. The weather is great all year long, the atmosphere is very laid-back and relaxing and the locals are friendly. Of course there are tourists everywhere, many of them from Japan.

The opportunities for watersports are great. The water is very warm so that you can swim as long as you like. If you like to increase your risk of getting melanoma, there are plenty of beaches with very good views. I did some snorkeling in Hanauma bay and saw lots of colorful fish but unfortunately no sea turtles. I also burned by back pretty badly, so I advise to wear a t-shirt in water too. You should also try surfing, there are several instructors available.

To clear up hangover I climbed on Diamond Head, which provides a wonderful view over Waikiki. After reaching the top I found out that the new memory card for my digital camera didn't work.

Downtown Honolulu has quite a few interesting places to visit. I saw 'Iolani Palace (but didn't have time for the full tour), Chinatown (pretty much like any other Chinatown), Maritime Center (quite nice seafaring exhibits), Aloha Tower (ok view), state capitol building (as interesting as you can expect) and Foster Botanical Garden (be sure to attend the tour). There's still some places I wanted to see but didn't have time, such as the Bishop Museum.

To see other parts of Oahu you pretty much need a car. I rented one for a day and visited the Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor (one of the places you have to visit even though there is not much to see), Dole's pineapple plantation (everything you wanted to know about pineapples) Halei'iwa and its surf museum (better in winter), the Polynesian culture center (nice shows), Byodo-in Temple (beautiful) and Nu'uanu Pali Lookout (good view, was very windy).

Hawaii is to Americans what Canary Islands is to Europeans. They are similar in nature and climate, but Hawaii is a bit more upscale.

The capital city of the United States of America has just as many government buildings as you might imagine. We did an extensive tour of the usual attractions, including Pentagon, the White House (from outside only), Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, US Capitol, Library of Congress, Vietnam and Korean war veteran memorials, National Air and Space Museum and Arlington National Cemetery. The nightlife seemed to be good in proper neighborhoods and the public transportation worked fine (there is a subway station at the Ronald Reagan airport). And of course you must not miss the Suomikauppa nearby in Maryland where you can buy all sort of things Finnish. There is a lot to see in DC.

Having been heavily exposed to Donald Duck and his gang in my childhood, I naturally wanted to see Disneyland in Anaheim, California. While it is the original Disney theme park, it is surprisingly small. I was expecting something much grander (which I later got in Disneyworld in Orlando, Florida). There are two theme parks, the actual Disneyland and the newer California Adventure. Disneyland has most of the famous attractions while California Adventure was pretty lame. In addition to the Disney theme parks there didn't seem to be much of anything else in the area. If you can choose, go to Disneyworld instead.

It so happened that we had to find something to do on a long weekend, and decided to visit Seattle. Which was nice. We visited most of the usual tourist attractions: We took the Monorail to the Space Needle and checked out the views, both day and night. We walked through the Pike Place Market, but it was already closing down for the day, and we heard about the Crapper on the Underground Tour. One day we did an excursion to Redmond, and walked around the Microsoft campus until a security guard told us to leave. Not that there was anything to see. The public transportation system is good, one night there was even a free rap performance on a local bus by the local youth. Unfortunately the bus driver didn't appreciate it as much and told the guys to "turn that thing off". The night life was a bit of a disappointment, the downtown was really quiet at night. Probably we should have gone to some other neighborhood. There would have been more to see, but we had to leave that for the next time.

I spent a couple of days in Chicago in September 2003, and I must say I liked it. It's a real city, something that cannot be said about all American cities. The capital of modern architecture, they said on an architectural cruise on Chicago river (recommended). In addition to the cruise, I visited Sears Tower (of course), Navy Pier (a tourist trap), Museum of Science and Industry (the coal mine was nice) and The Art Institute of Chicago (several famous paintings and tons of other artwork). I ate the famous Chicago-style pizza (not that good) and famous Chicago-style hot dogs (not that special). The public transportation is good, there is even rapid transit service from both airports to the downtown.