Back in Africa

Hello to all me friends and family around the world...

I arrived back in South Africa on Tuesday, unfortunately the internet is not like in Finland (24hr-super-fast-internet) so will take a bit longer for me to keep my blog updated..will update soon and put up some photos...

Till later...

Am Bodensee!

The past 4 days I have been visiting my cousin, Kai in Meckenbeuren. A small town in Bodensee, a district in the south-east of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany. The first day we took a train into Friedrichshafen and took a walk a long the promenade.

The second day we took a boat ride to Constance and spent the day in Constance. Constance is a beautiful old city!

Inga, Kai and I enjoying a few drinks at the beach bar along the Bodensee...

On the way to Lake Constance...

Some stunning views at Lake Constance...



On Wednesday I went to the Pfahlbauten museum...a fascinating stone-age village in Unteruhldingen on the bodensee...

Last sunset in Oulu and farewells!

The last evening in Oulu we watched an amazing sunset over the ocean at Nalli Kari, a popular holiday place in Oulu. A perfect way to end my amazing journey in Finland...

The next morning at 11am I boarded my plane from Oulu to Helsinki and met up with Marko and Paul at Helsinki airport, where we played a final round of "13teens" and then we parted ways, Marko flying via Stockholm to Vienna Paul to Berlin and me vis London to Stuttgart...

Upon arriving in Stuttgart I was welcomed with a huge hug from my aunt and uncle who stay in Lenningen. The first day we drove to Bad Urach, one of many beautiful small towns in the South of Germany.

Just before we headed home, we visited a beautiful castle on top of a hill...

Farewell, good-bye, Auf Wiedersehen...adieu!

Sadly the time has come...and I will leave this wonderful place that i called home the last 5 months! This morning at 11am I fly from Oulu to Helsinki and have a 6hour stop over in Helsinki. I will meet up with Paul and Marko at Helsinki airport as they also have their flights today so i will say my last farewells to them at the airport. Then I fly in the evening to London Heathrow and spend a night at the airport as my next flight to Stuttgart only leaves the next morning. So Thursday I will arrive in Germany and am ECSTATIC to be visiting my family there and then some friends as well.


The time in Finland has been unforgettable!
I will miss my apartment...
I will miss Elnadiometra (our basilica plant)
but most of all I will miss my "freaky roomies"...Freaky Elena, freaky Naomi and Petra (who is already back in Slovenia)

So...

FAREWELL FINLAND

Now...

GERMANY!!

Sunset in Oulu...at 11pm!!

And then there were three!:(

Yesterday morning we had to say goodbye to one of our room-mates, Petra, who flew back to her home in Slovenia. So now we are only three in our flat...one quarter of the "freaky four" is no longer with us...sniff sniff!
Naomi, Elena and me...in a rather depressed mood on Sunday morning just after Petra left for the airport...WE MISS YOU PETRA!!

HELSINKI!

This morning at 7:30am i arrived back in Oulu by night-train after an amazing two days in Helsinki. Amy (other South African exchange student) and I left on Thursday morning, but our trip started with a bit of a "hiccup". When we arrived on the train ready to sit down, there was a lady in one of our seats. We thought she had the wrong seat and when i checked her ticket she had a different date to us. Naturally i thought she had the wrong date and was about to point this out when Amy and realised to our horror that the date on our ticket was wrong - it said we were catching the train on Tuesday (which had passed) and not Thursday. We didn't know what to do and the train started moving. All we could do was wait for the conductor...of course we thought of all the worse case scenarios and we prepared ourselves to be chucked off the train but Amy said we should just be honest to the conductor as it was not our faults. Nervously we waited for the conductor to come check. When he came we immediately started explaining to him that they had sold us tickets for the wrong date but all he was interested in was checking whether we were in fact students. At the end, he were moved (upgraded) to a cabin (with tables) that we had all to ourselves...what luck! Amy and I holding up the tickets with the incorrect date...

For the rest of the day, we seemed to have just good luck. When we arrived in Helsinki (after leaving a cold, windy and rainy Oulu), the weather was AMAZING, warm & sunny. We arrived at 5pm, first we went to the Olympic stadium and then we walked to the Sibelius statue and stopped for a picnic. Amy holding up one of the ingredients to our sandwiches we made for lunch...yummy paprika flavoured salami! Afterwards we discovered the most beautiful, unique cafe' that specialised in making the best Pulla I have tasted so far in Finland so we enjoyed some pulla and tea and relaxed sitting on rocking chairs and chatting the afternoon away. At sunset we went to Senate square and took some amazing photos of the majestic building.

The next day we first went to the famous rock church in Helsinki and then we saw the changing of the guard at Senate square (the end of it). Afterwards we took the ferry to Suomenlinna Island. It was again an amazingly warm and sunny day...17 degrees! We had a picnic on the island and made ourselves some "deluxe" sandwhiches of egg, salami, cheese, tomato and cucumber...yum! But while we ate we got attacked by some crazy seagulls and Amy was robbed of some of her tomato, cucumber and cheese...right from her sandwhich in her hand, after which war broke out between us (Amy and I) and the seagulls...we had to fight them off with some stones...crazy seagulls!

One we had departed the island later that afternoon (after sunbathing for a bit in the glorious sun) we headed back to mainland and walked up the Olympic stadium and saw and amazing view of Helsinki!