Juhannus on the Cote d'Azur

Juhannus, or midsummer, is a really big thing over in Finland, when people have loads of fun (it’s also the day when most people drown in Finland, but that’s another story…). I’ve heard rumours about midsummer celebrations over here on the Cote d’Azur as well, but so far I’ve not participated in one.

This time around, my former Cote d’Azur colleague Hannu, was visiting here with his family, and was attending these festivities. So I decided to join the rest of the local Finns on the beach, then. So down I headed to Antibes on my bike, armed with a bottle of cider. It was all good fun; great to meet up with Hannu and his family again. Hannu has actually left mother Nokia, as it appears I may too in the near future. The end of an era, indeed… Met up with a few other Finns as well. So all in all, it was good fun.

After a couple of hours on the beach, it was time to head back to Cagnes-sur-Mer, where “the Finnish gang” (meaning Hannu & his family, me and Mathilde as well as Mikko and Marianne) was meeting up for dinner. I’d reserved the San Marino for the occasion – seemed like a good bet for this kind of “big group occasion”. The San Marino is a rather typical Cote d’Azur touristy restaurant, but rather well located on the Cagnes seaside, near the Saint-Pierre church. And we even got a table at the rooftop terrace, with nice views over the seaside.

We spent a rather nice evening there, catching up on the good old times. The food was pretty decent for most people – however my Tajine was kind of ruined by all the honey they put in the sauce – not sure I’ve ever had a meat dish quite that sweet. Still, a great evening out, and great to catch up with everybody again!

Guns 'n Roses @ Toulon

When I was a teenager, Guns ‘n Roses was one of THE bands I was listening to (although if I’d have to pick one band from those innocent years of youth it would surely have to be Metallica). So I was quite excited to hear they were playing a gig in Toulon. Sure, there isn’t much left of the original band apart from Axl Rose, but still… I had seen Slash play a couple of years ago, as warm-up act for AC/DC, and they did play quite a few Guns ‘n Roses songs then as well, but the songs just didn’t sound quite right without Axl’s crooning…

So, me and Mikko got tickets for the gig, and booked a hotel in Toulon, and off we went, on the train. After checking in at the hotel, we quickly made our way to the Zenith Omega center, where the gig was taking place. The warm-up act was kind of lame (perhaps it reflects the fact that the star of Guns ‘n Roses is kind of fading?). Thankfully, Axl didn’t do his “make the audience wait 2 hours for me” act, and showed up with relatively little delay.

The gig was actually really great, almost to my surprise. Axl was on great form - the guy is definitely a pro, and has loads of charisma as well. And his crooning was much the same as I can remember – and it’s definitely true that you need Mr. Rose to sing those songs. I think most of the audience was like me and Mikko – nostalgia fans – since the crowd reaction was quite something when some of the old classics were played, whereas the new songs from the Chinese Democracy album incited little reaction from the crowd (although the songs were pretty good actually).

After the gig, we had a couple of beers in a nightly Toulon, and then hit the sack. The next morning, we had a couple of hours before catching our train back, so we had a walk around the historic center of Toulon and the port area. Toulon sometimes gets bad press (there’s a big military presence here due, Toulon being the main French naval base on the Mediterranean), but is actually a pretty nice town. After a rather good-value lunch at a nice pedestrian square, we made our way back to the train station.

A weekend in Basel

After a rather emotional week in Ulm, it was time to head on to Basel, in Switzerland. The plan was to meet up with Andy and Ed, two mates from my M.Sc. year in Edinburgh, there. Andy moved there from Japan about a year ago... The train journey was a rather comfortable one, taking a rather scenic route, passing by Lake Constance, and following the Rhine River for the last leg of the journey.

The train pulled up on the German side of the town. Basel is quite an interesting city in that it basically sits on the border between three countries – France, Germany and Switzerland. Andy was kind enough to pick me up at the train station, and whilst waiting for Ed (who was arriving on a plane from London later on), we decided to do a bit of exploration of Basel. We started off by heading to Art Basel – which is one of the two biggest contemporary art fares in the world (together with the Venice Biennale). Andy managed to get a day pass to it, which he kindly lent to me, while he dropped off my bags at his flat (now that’s what I call good service!). The fare was pretty cool, even though I’m not such a big fan of contemporary art.

Once Andy got back, we made our way to the bar at the top of Basler Messeturn, which was the highest building in Switzerland until 2010. A nice introduction to Basel, and a nice way to have an aperitif, I would say, enjoying a beer while checking out Basel spread out around us. And the price of a pint was surprisingly “normal”, only 8 euros (considering we were in Switzerland, and the rather stunning panorama) – Cours Saleya prices, more or less…

We then took a quick but effective pedestrian tour of Basel, as we made our way to the main train station, where Ed was supposed to arrive. The tour crossed the Rhine, took in the main shopping street of Basel, and then took us into the old town and the Basel Munster. The old town was not without its charms, but somehow it felt a bit too sterile, neat and tidy for my “southern French tastes”.

After picking up Ed at the station, we made our way to a nice Irish pub, to watch a bit of football. First we saw France soundly trash Ukraine, and then witnessed England’s stumbling victory over Sweden (after conceding an early lead to Sweden, they eventually clawed their way to victory – but I have to say their victory wasn’t overly convincing). Apart from the football, a fair amount of beer was consumed, naturally.

The next day, we got up to a relatively early start, since we had a long day of cycling ahead of us (not surprising, considering we were visiting Andy – him and Satoko are into cycling big time). The plan for the day was to cycle part of the Alsace wine route (Alsace is just on the French side of the border from Alsace). So we (reinforced by a Japanese friend of Satoko’s called Kaki) started the day by taking the train to Selestat, about 40 kilometres from Colmar. From there, we started pedalling…

Our first stop was at Bergheim, a very picturesque little village indeed. Alsatian villages are to me a kind of cuter version of medieval German towns and villages. I guess not that surprising, considering Alsace was part of Germany for a large part of its history. But the French touch is very much present as well. We stopped at Bergheim for a coffee break, and to study the route a bit.

From Bergheim, we carried on to Ribeauville, another ridiculously cute little village. After cycling up the charming main street, tattered with beautiful half-timber houses, we ended up at the pretty main square, with its peace-inducing fountain. We decided to stop for lunch here – at a place that was apparently serving the best flammekueche in town (this was confirmed by the ladies sitting at the table next to us). Flammekueche is an Alsatian speciality – basically a thin layer of bread dough in the shape of a rectangle or circle, covered with crème fraiche, fromage blanc, onions and lardons. Simple, but ah, so tasty. For dessert, I had another Alsatian speciality; a kind of soufflé with “marc de Gewurztraminer » (an eau de vie made of the «leftovers »of the wine making process).

Our stomachs full, we carried on towards our next stop (in spite of some grumbling from Ed – seems that he had some problems getting along with his bike…), Riquewihr. Riquewihr was probably the most picturesque so far town on our trip, with its extremely well preserved houses and cobble-stoned streets (apparently, it hasn’t changed much since medieval times – it was one of the towns lucky to have escaped undamaged through the two world wars). It felt quite a bit more touristy than the other towns we’d visited – the price to pay for being picturesque, I suppose.

After a bit of shopping and resting, we carried on towards the penultimate stop on our little Alsace wine route tour, Colmar. Colmar is considered the capital of the wine route, and is also one of the more famous historic towns in France. And for good reason, Colmar really is a lovely place to wander around. It’s extremely well-preserved, and rather pedestrian- (and bike-) friendly. I especially enjoyed the area called “Little Venice”; an area criss-crossed by canals. We found a very nice little eatery along one of the canals, where we had dinner. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to spend as much time in Colmar as the place merits, as we had a train to catch. Definitely a town worth visiting again, should I ever find myself in Alsace in the future!

We got back to Basel pretty late; and made our way back to Andy’s and Satoko’s flat pretty much straight away, to get some well-needed sleep. I say well-needed, since the plan was to get up at 5:45 the next morning, to embark on our rather intensive 1-day tour of Switzerland, by train.

We got up on schedule, and made our train. The train, bound for Interlaken (which is located, as the name suggests, between two lakes; Thunersee and Brienzersee), took us through some rather stunning mountain scenery, until reaching its destination. At Interlaken we changed trains for a smaller mountain train, and headed higher up, and one train change later, we finally arrived at our destination, Grütschalp. From Grütschalp, the plan was to hike to Mürren, from where we were then planning to take the train back to Interlaken. From Grütschalp, there is quite a stunning view towards the three main mountains of the Bernese Alps; Eiger (3970m), Mönch (4107m) and Jungfrau (4158m).

The hike took us through some rather stunning mountain scenery, crossing mountain streams, under a rather overbearing sun. After about 2 hours of hiking, we eventually arrived in Mürren. We were all rather hungry, but unfortunately there was no time for lunch, as we had a train to catch (again)…

The train took us back to Interlaken, from where we jumped on yet another train – this time our destination was Lucerne. Yet another stunning train journey took us first along Brienzersee to Merlingen, where we changed train. The next leg of our journey took us along a couple of other lakes, until we finally arrived in Lucerne.

Lucerne is located more or less right at the centre of Switzerland. It’s rather scenically located on the Reuss River, which flows into the nearby Lucerne Lake. The main feature of Lucerne is its bridges, which connect the two sides of the town across the river. The most famous bridge is Kapellbrücke, a rather beautiful wooden bridge, dating back all the way to 1333 (although a part of it was rebuilt in 1993 after a fire) – it is in fact the oldest wooden covered bridge in Europe. We walked across to the old part of town on the bridge, admiring the beautiful interior paintings the bridge is famous for.

After a brief walk through the old town (which included walking past the pretty Rathaus), we made our way back across the river, taking the other famous bridge, Spreuerbrücke, this time. Then it was time to jump on the train again and head back to Basel, from where I jumped on the bus for the airport.

All in all, I had a very intensive, but fantastic weekend! We certainly saw a lot during the two days of cycling, train-hopping and hiking. A big thanks to Satoko and Andy for putting us up and showing us the sights! And great to see Ed too…!

The last week in Ulm...?

After one week in France, ‘twas time to head to Ulm again for a week of hard work, and perhaps a bit of fun too (not so much fun, as it turned out!).

The fun started with the Nokia summer party, which strangely enough took place on a Monday evening. I was quite happy to find out it was taking place at one of my favourite places in Ulm, Barfusser. However, not to the one I normally go to – this one was located in the middle of a big part in Neu-Ulm (a more modern town than Ulm, located on the Bavarian side of the Danube river) – rather well hidden I must say (the taxi driver, who’s been driving taxi for 10 years, didn’t even know it!). Anyway, no matter, we found it, and got down to essentials (chatting away, drinking beer and eating loads of “hearty, healthy, German food”).

It was rather good fun – all the team was there. And I also ran into Sami, who was on rather excellent beer-drinking form. And for once, the weather was also good – until it started pouring down seriously! After the party finished, we made our way into the time center for some more fun. All in all, a rather excellent night out!

On Tuesday, things were a bit quiet in the office, I suppose a few people were suffering from hangovers and the like. We naturally worked very hard indeed! We didn’t really feel like a big night out after Monday’s summer party, so I just headed out for a quiet dinner with Sakari and David to Zur Lochmühle, a rather nice and cozy Swabian restaurant me and Sakari had discovered during our last visit to Ulm, in the Fischerviertel (the historic fisher’s and tanner’s quarter of Ulm).

On Wednesday, we took it quite easily again, I went for dinner with David to my favorite Italian restaurant in Ulm (Da Franco) – well, actually, it’s the only Italian restaurant in Ulm I’ve been to. But it’s a really excellent and actually rather authentic place (all the waiters speak Italian). After the meal, I decided to check out the Germany-Netherlands football game on the main square. Quite a good atmosphere there, and the beer flowed freely (especially after the final whistle – Germany won 2-1). The downside of the German win was that it meant less sleep for me (my hotel is facing the main square, so I now had to contend with not only the Ulm Munster clocks ringing every 15 minutes, but also the football fans going crazy)

The next day, the big news came… We all knew something bad was going to happen, since everybody had been called up for a “strategy sharing” meeting at 9 in the morning – that’s never good news. But we were hoping it wouldn’t be as bad as it turned out to be – basically our project was cancelled, and with it, the Ulm site closure was announced. There was a rather stunned silence for a while, and then came the questions (some reasonable, others less so…).

After we all spent a couple of hours on-site to absorb the news, we decided to go to Barfusser to continue absorbing the news. Which we did for the rest of the day… Whilst drinking quite a few beers. For me it was quite emotional, since I suppose it was the last time I was seeing my colleagues (I was leaving Ulm the next day). But, at the end of the day, we all knew what we were getting into was very risky, and today we paid the price. At least I was glad to be in Ulm when this happened. And kind of appropriate to have the last night out at Barfusser as well ;).

The next day, I woke up with a surprisingly mild headache. I had a train to catch to Basel (where I was spending the weekend) at around noon. I didn’t really fancy going to the office after the previous days’ news, so I decided to have one last walk around Ulm instead. I guess the likelihood is quite big I will never come back, and I do like this town a lot. So I spent a couple of hours in the morning strolling around aimlessly. Took the opportunity to visit Ulm Munster properly, walked along the Danube, walked around Fischerviertel. And then it was time to board my train, and say my goodbyes to Ulm.

If any of my Ulm colleagues happen to read this blog – thanks guys for a brilliant year, and see you around ;-)

Una serata Italiana

This year, I've been continuing my Italian evening courses I started one year earlier – and at the end of it, I passed my exam for the B2 level – or rather just scraped by, would perhaps be more appropriate... I had a somewhat unimpressive score of 55% - but oh well, the main thing is I had more then 50%, anyways... Also, I unfortunately had to skip my oral exam due to my trip to Ulm last week, so unfortunately my B2 is somewhat incomplete (until I get a chance to do the oral part of the exam).

Anyways, to celebrate the end of the “school year”, we decided to meet up for dinner in an Italian restaurant, as custom would have it. This time we went for a place called Via Veneto on the Cagnes-sur-Mer seaside. I don't know whether there is much Italian about the place, apart from the name and the fact that they serve pizza, but oh well, turns out the food was pretty decent, which is the most important thing...

Pretty much everybody showed up, and we all had a great time. We also solemnly agreed to continue Italian next year – so C1 it is, I guess (well, first I need to get the oral out of the way, of course...)? I have to admit I am not quite sure I will sit the exam (apparently it's REALLY hard...); but I am definitely motivated to continue taking the courses...

Isabelle's Big Day!

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After my flight touched down in Nice, I barely had time to drop off my bag at home, before it was time to head off to the airport again. We were off to Nantes, in the west of France this time, to celebrate Isabelle's 40^th birthday.

We were met at the airport by our good friends Aude and Magaye, who were kind enough to let us stay at their place for the Friday night. Before heading back to their flat though, we made our way to Trentemoult, a nice little former fishing village (the fishers left quite a few years ago, to be replaced by artists and their like) near Nantes, for dinner. We were lucky enough to get a table outside, by the river, at the Guinguette, a really nice little eatery. The views from the terrace towards Nantes are fantastic as well... Our stomachs were filled up, we continued catching up over a few drinks at a sort of Irish pub in Nantes... Very nice to catch up with Aude and Magaye – even though it was sadly short, as we made our way to Isabelle's party quite early the next morning.

Isa was organising the party at her parents old farmhouse, rather beautifully located in the Loire-Atlantique countryside (almost in Brittany, right Isa? ;) ). Rather a large number of people were attending – including quite a lot of Isabelle's friends from her years in the UK, quite a few of whom I know, and haven't seen for donkey's years. Nelle, Ollie, Raphaelle, Katja, Kartsa (and his lovely girlfriend Reija), Sophie, Manue; and many, many others...

For dinner, the Sannier family didn't go for half-measures – they actually had a lamb spit-roasted for us! It's quite a sight, and the meat was absolutely succulent as well. The party itself was fantastic fun; with Sophie especially being in a rather entertaining mood (when isn't she – I'd forgotten how mad that woman is!), and especially Katja also showing that Finnish people can have fun! Apart from the usual drinking and eating, there were naturally birthday cakes, singing, dancing of various kinds and just general madness.

In short, it was fantastically good fun. Things wrapped up with some eau-de-vie in the house (naturally!), and then it was sadly time to go to sleep (me and Mathilde were lodging in a tent). All in all, it felt like a very happy reunion party – so a big thanks to Isabelle and her family for putting us all up and organising such a fantastic party! It felt rather sad to leave...