Liebster Award

♫ Royal Hunt – Another Man Down

Ohai, I found a moment to post here, I've been busy having fun. I won't get back to Berlin posts yet since writing one would take longer, but Clementine Dahling from Unlacing the Victorians was such a darling and nominated me for this Liebster Award a few days ago. So, in order not to forget the whole thing, I'll post it here now. Thank you, Clementine Dahling!

Each person must post 11 things about themselves.
Answer the questions the tagger has set for you.
Create 11 questions for the people you tag.
Choose 11 people and link back to them.
No tag backs.




11 things about me:

1. Surprisingly for a person like me who's been into alternative subcultures for long, especially those which are strongly visual and visually radical, I'm not into tattoos. Don't get me wrong: I don't hate them, I'm not like the elderly who strongly disapprove of stamps on one's skin. I've never wanted to get tattooed, and not because I would be afraid of the operation itself. Sure, if I knew what I could possibly want to carry in my skin for the rest of my life, I'd ignore any possible pain and such. But I don't have any such desires. Besides, I'm a graphic designer and thus, visually very picky. I'm not sure who I could trust enough to do something like that for me. And no, I couldn't design a tattoo for myself as I always learn to hate my work rather quickly.

2. And, as a person who's got close enough to such subcultures which fancy all things dark and romantic and grotesque, I'm such an exception that I don't really like vampires. No book or movie or TV series or anything can catch my attention or interest merely by having vampires in it, quite the contrary. I think they are just boring, and there's absolutely nothing sexy about sucking blood off other people's neck. That's just disgusting. And vampire teeth are just, ugh...

3. And since I've thrown in some hints about certain subcultures, let's say that I do not consider myself a part of any. But I mostly party with metalheads or goths.

4. Since I just revealed this secret to someone special, I guess I can reveal it in my blog as well: I fancy men in suits or otherwise slightly "formal" attire. If a man is good-looking to begin with, he's stunning in a suit.

5. Lately I've slowly begun to flow farther away from the MMO scene to playing games all alone, and I've found it surprisingly satisfying. I thought I would always need company to truly enjoy RPG.

6. My typical breakfast consist of two slices of bread with cheese and tomato, a kiwi fruit and lots of milk.

7. Even though I'm generally very insecure, it doesn't affect the way I dress much. It takes much more to strip me off my confidence clothes wise than it would take if someone was to criticize my work too harshly.

8. Although I like alcohol, I'm relatively strict about how much I allow myself to drink. I've never been drunk, only slightly tipsy. I have no reason to be ashamed of things I've done because of alcohol.

9. I'm good at screwing up my sleeping patterns.

10. I saw Dreamtale live four times in the spring and now I have a feeling that "it's been a while" and want to see them somewhere again. Unfortunately, they're not playing much.

11. Sometimes I wish I had more courage to do spontaneous and strange things.


The questions I got:

1. Name one thing you despite that seems to receive a lot of hype.
Despise? Apple? That came to my mind first, though I could come up with something else as well.

2. What's your favorite animal?
I've grown up with dogs, so naturally they're quite important to me. Family hobbies taught me to like birds. I used to go in for horse-back riding, so I really like horses as well. Finally, dolphins are fascinating.

3. Name one subculture you don't "get" or understand and why.
In a way I "understand" them all, but then again... I haven't figured out what's so interesting about hiphop culture and such. On one hand I can probably understand, but I just cannot like it myself.

4. What was your favorite class in school?
Arts mostly.

5. What's your favorite pop song? (my boyfriend's a metalhead yet absolutely loves "Total Eclipse of the Heart," for example. It happens to the best of us.)
Can I say Total Eclipse of the Heart as well? Or it depends on what can be considered pop here. If synthpop goes, which I listen to quite a lot, then Ultravox's Hymn.

6. What action-movie move or skill do you wish you could have?
I would be fine having a bit more strength in my muscles. If I could thus be more agile, it'd be perfect.

7. What's the most ridiculous Halloween costume you ever wore?
Unfortunately, we don't really celebrate the holiday in Finland.

8. What's the best prank you ever played (or was played on you?)
Oh well... I don't like pranks that much, but we did some phone pranks as a kid. The best was, when calling a number we didn't know..:
The random person: Hello?
Me: Hi, is Charlie (used a Finnish name though) there?
The random person: No, no Charlie lives here.
Me: Ah alright then, bye.
...and a few moments later, calling the same number again:
The random person: Hello?
A friend: Hi, it's Charlie, has anyone missed me?

9. Favorite animated movie (can be adult-themed content)?
Oh but I love animations and can barely choose the absolute favorite! Though let's say Howl's Moving Castle.

10. Cats or dogs?
Dogs.

11. What's your dream job?
A graphic designer, so yeah. :>


My questions for the people I tag:
1. Do you like your real name?
2. What is your favorite social media?
3. Do you like soundtrack music, and if so, which movies or TV series have the best ones?
4. What did you like to read when you were a child?
5. Your favorite time of the day?
6. What do you enjoy most about blogging?
7. If you could live in any kind of apartment anywhere you wanted, what and where would it be?
8. Which languages do you speak and which ones you don't, but would love to?
9. Is there any song which strongly reminds you of some certain incident in your childhood, and if so, what is it?
10. What is the most unbearable or annoying kind of pain which you've encountered more than once in your life? (So if you have had to have your appendix operated or if you've broken a bone once, it doesn't count, but rather something typical such as headache, a sore throat, an aching stomach...)
11. How old were you when you got your first email address?

And I tag (less than 11 people, 'cos I think so many have received this award already):
Cpt. Purple @ Purple Sails at Midnight
Arkkienkeli @ Polyvinyylikloridi

Seriously, I don't follow so many blogs and I have a feeling most of the others have got this already. Lots of lovely blogs out there. So long!

Summer in Berlin, it's alright PART II

♫ Alphaville – Forever Young

I'll start this part by mentioning three "must see" attractions which are located quite close to each other. Okay well, only one of them is a must-must-see, others very intriguing though.

On our first whole day we took an S-Bahn to Hauptbahnhof, the main railway station, and headed south, across The Spree river.

Moby Dick!

Reichstag
This is the house of parliament, the Bundestag. It's almost "right across the Spree from Hauptbahnhof" and worth seeing since the building is beautiful, though we only settled for viewing it from the outside. We saw groups of people going in and coming out, so I can probably say it's possible to get there – however, the security measures seemed to be strict, maybe for a reason.

I like these photos with my blurry face. :>

Brandenburger Tor
In my opinion, this would be the symbol of Berlin, the first of those. So it's a must see! Brandenburger Tor, being Tor, a gate, is a monument to walk through at least. However, although it's probably nothing but a gate, we managed to spend about two hours there altogether, not at one go, but still. We just took some... photos. Brandenburger by day, Brandenburger by dusk, Brandenburger by night...

Besides the historical gate and its architectural beauty, there may be other interesting things to see at the spot. Maybe something on the back side, towards Straße des 17. Juni (yes, that's a street), but more on the front side, where the quadriga is facing, where the is a square called Pariser Platz. So keep your eyes open! You are probably likely to see a whole bunch of tourists (and if you're strolling "alone" and with a big camera hanging around your neck like me, you might be asked to take a lot of photos for others), but there were many groups offering "attractions" to tourists. Many people dressed up so that you could have your photo taken with them for a few euros (old soldier uniforms with historical flags and such, but also Star Wars characters), a guy making huge soap bubbles, musicians, dance and acrobatics...

Brandenburger Tor, so beautiful that it attracts visitors from other galaxies!

The quadriga

And what I spent money on: a guy who had the uniform of a border guard and who was offering curiosity scraps of paper. For two euros I got a Brandenburger tor postcard with several interesting stamps (which he stamped right there in front of my eyes) such as a DDR VISUM Brandenburger Tor one and a Soviet Berlin related one, a print of 100 DM, a Brandenburger Tor bookmark and a hand-numbered one-day visa to cross the old border (with a DDR stamp too!). Of course they're just pieces of paper, but interesting enough, and I love the stamps! (And as a graphic designer I'm interested in many types of... prints.) And the price was not bad for a tourist who's interested in the history of the city. The dividing of Berlin is one of the most interesting things in recent history since even I have existed while the city was still divided (though I gotta say, back then I didn't care much).

Holocaust Mahnmal
The memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe is just south of Brandenburger Tor, very close to it anyway. Although it's a monument for a remarkable historical event, the site itself is not old: the monument was opened in 2005. It is "only" a huge bunch of concrete slabs put up in a grid pattern on a sloping field, but I found it very, very impressive. Some people call it a labyrinth, but no, it's a simple grid pattern. Just go deep in the middle of the area and you'll see how impressive it is! However, don't try to climb onto the slabs – it's neither very polite since it is a monument for murdered people nor very wise since the security will call you down at once. It's not very safe either. And no, I didn't try, but saw many people doing it.

Both big roads from Brandenburger Tor, the aforementioned Straße des 17. Juni (west of it) and Unter den Linden (east of it) are interesting and beautiful in their own right too, but more will come later. Unter den Linden also crosses Friedrichstraße (mentioned in my previous post) not far from Brandenburger. Until the next time – so long!

Summer in Berlin, it's alright PART I

♫ Iron Maiden – The Talisman

The first part of my Berlin trip journal! I'm not going to write day-by-day or anything, especially since many of those were extreme performances anyway; running from one place to another with a camera hanging around my neck all the time. Instead, I'm going to write travelling tips, hopefully someone will find them useful!

Public transport
When I first laid my eyes on the S and U Bahn route map, I just thought "bloody hell" and wished I wouldn't have to do it ever again. However, I was trying to find a way from the airport Tegel to our hotel. Well, I later found an updated version of the map which was only slightly different, but enough to make it simpler. As a graphic designer who made her thesis on using colors to convey information, I could still complain to the designer of the map, but well... :> Things get much easier when you try it in practice once or twice!

Seriously: using public transport in Berlin is ridiculously easy. We used the S (local train) and U Bahn (underground) daily, and relied mostly on those. We only used buses on our way from the airport to the city center and back (and in Potsdam). Same tickets are valid in all those forms of transport (and in trams, which we didn't use). It's also quite easy to get off at the right stop since the following stops or stations were displayed somewhere in those vehicles. Some U-Bahn carriages were an exception though, but it was usually easy enough to see the name of the station when the train was only slowing down. The trickiest part was finding your way out of the biggest stations! :> And if you were changing from S to U or vice versa, it was potentially difficult to find the right track – however, usually there were not too many different tracks for public transport, and by following the U and S letters in signs it was easy enough to find your way to the right place. That was particularly useful at bigger stations with long-distance traffic trains.

Besides, the trains were usually on time, and even if they were not, you never had to wait for long. I cannot remember what our longest wait really was, but waiting for the bus to the airport for seven minutes felt long after the local trains.

At the main railway station

The Warschauer Straße station, in the east (surprise)

Berlin Welcome Card
This is a good option for tourists to consider! Public transport tickets for a few days (a few different options, we took the five-day one since that's how long we were there), with the fare zones AB or ABC. The AB zone is probably enough for those who only stay in Berlin, and Tegel airport is inside that area as well. But since we wanted to visit the neighbouring city Potsdam, we took the ABC zone cards. 35,90€, and besides the unlimited use of public transport, you can also get a lot of discounts with the card. For example: We got 25% off the entrance fees to the TV tower and the zoo. And at least we never had to wonder how to use the ticket vending machines. Ah, extra saved brain cells.

Kurfürstendamm
This is a remarkable, big street in Berlin (on the western side). I'm mentioning it so soon since it was so close to our hotel. It is considered the most important shopping street too, though it depends on what you want to shop. :> If you're looking for high quality brands, then sure yeah, they all have stores there. Louis Vuitton, Prada, Rolex, Gucci... Not my cup of tea. Some H&M stores as well, but I wouldn't visit them in Germany. And on the other hand I didn't go there for shopping to begin with. A big and posh department store called KaDeWe is very close too, not in Kurfürstendamm though, but if you continue east from where Ku'damm ends and another street begins, you'll soon be there. Europa Center, another shopping center, is very close too, west of KaDeWe towards Ku'damm. There is quite an awesome cafe and restaurant on the top floor of KaDeWe! We only tried the cafe though. If you're into pastries and such, go try. Although the department store itself is expensive, I thought the cafe prices were reasonable. My piece of apple cake was less than four euros, but oh damn – it was HUGE. And seriously: there's a lot to choose from.

KaDeWe, only near Ku'damm

However, I thought the best thing in Ku'damm was Hard Rock Cafe! So yeah, if you're hunting for those experiences, it's on the southern side of the street.

Friedrichstraße
Another big street with shopping possibilities and some culture. The S Bahn station with the same name is located closer to the northern end of the street, between Hauptbahnhof (the main railway station west from it) and Alexanderplatz (the former eastern center) (with some S-Bahn stops in between). A good plan might be to go to the Friedrichstrße station and head south; you will find shops to visit, and you're heading for Checkpoint Charlie. However, if you choose to walk from the station to the checkpoint, don't do it just because "it's just a few U-Bahn stops away anyway" – it's much longer than it would seem. That's what we thought, and we were doing just that late on Sunday evening – couldn't pop to the stores. Checkpoint Charlie is the most famous East-West Berlin crossing point with those "YOU ARE LEAVING THE AMERICAN SECTOR" signs. American sector huh, pun intended with that McDonald's restaurant right at the border these days?

Yours truly looks a bit exhausted, but we had only been walking for ten hours at that point...

The next part will follow as soon as I find the time to write it! I've been trying to update my portfolio as well, it's such a dull chore. Auf wiedersehen!

No reason to stay is a good reason to go

♫ Hammerfall – Glory to the brave

I hope my post title doesn't sound suicidal as it's not supposed to, it was just a good quote I found when Google suggested I look for "quotes about moving on". I thought I would be all hyped about realizing my dreams when I would get back to updating my blog, but well, life's a roller coaster. I realized one dream – visited Germany and Berlin for the first time. On the day I returned my boss called me (although I am on vacation, yes) to tell he would have to lay me off "for the time being due to economic reasons". Well, we all knew what the situation was, but I certainly did not expect this – I had (my favourite recurring) a project coming up very soon after the end of my vacation, but then... Things didn't go quite as expected.

I refuse to think there was something else behind it but the fact I was probably an expensive employee (though still remarkably underpaid). I know my place and the level of my talent and know it's not overshadowed by my workmates'. And although I was not fired and I figured they want to get me back as soon as they get more clients and more money, I'm not going to sit still and wait for that day. I think they think I'm doing just that – but no, although I liked the atmosphere and had some nice projects as well, I had been thinking of looking for a job where I could get a reasonable salary and some new challenges. I have no reason to do much in July since most companies in this field are on vacation, but I will soon start to look for a new job... It's probably about the time I listen to all the people who have told me to do that even while I still was working without a threat of unemployment or a temporary lay-off.

I will soon flood you with Berlin posts, but not yet. I took over one thousand photos during the five-day trip. I spent over twelve hours a day mostly on my feet more than once, and still didn't see everything.

Yesterday I went out with a friend couple to celebrate the lady's birthday, looking like that. Didn't bother to take an outfit photo as my SLR camera was somewhere with a memory card full of Berlin. I opted for double-buns after a long time again. :> I think I heard something about "fucking Mickey Mouse" once, but I was also complimented by another person who told me I'm stunning (why, thank you!) and since I was asked, I told I'm a graphic designer, and this person thought it made sense I have such a sense of style. Though I'm glad the conversation died quickly, I feel a bit sensitive talking about work-related things at the moment. :| Almost felt I couldn't say I am a graphic designer.

So yeah. I suppose I'll get back to posting about Berlin soon enough. Somewhere between fighting bureaucracy and trying to rediscover my self-confidence and find a new beginning with a new job. With such hopes, so long.

Greetings from the Middle Ages

♫ Dreamtale – Firestorm

We popped to the Medieval Market in Turku on Sunday. It was a nice trip, the weather was quite nice (=okayish for me, hot for the others) and company was awesome.

Now I'm going to flood you with pictures. Sadly, some of them turned out, eh, not so good. I had the energy to edit some, and while I was resizing those edited ones to be posted here, the software I used seemed to compress the jpg-files quite a lot! Of course you lose some data each time you resave a jpg file, but oh dear, I've done the same procedure innumerable times when posting photos online and never before have I seen such a radical change. So yeah, the images which were supposed to be the best turned out the worst with the hardest contrast and such. :> But I don't have time to redo the whole thing or otherwise I'd end up posting these photos when they'd be anything but fresh.

Some of the photos are not exactly from the Medieval Market but just generally from summery Turku.

Sometimes I try to capture the names of the places I've visited with dates or years printed somewhere as if in order to remember when I've been there. After taking this photo, it took me a while to realize it says 2011 in the shade.

A proof that yours truly was there for real.

The Gear Yard

We were watching from the wrong side, didn't even figure out what exactly was going on...

Um, yum?

Home-brewed beer. I also tasted a bit, it wasn't as bad as I expected.

Poor little fellow was all alone in the corral.

I really liked the contrast between the fresh grass, the blooming flowers and the dirty river Aura.

Have you ever been to some Medieval events? Other types of historical events? This was my first time visiting a Medieval event although there's a similar annual happening near my original home town. So long!