Rauhan mä saan kun palaan kotiin, siellä mä nään sen rakkauden. Sieltä siivet tuotiin mun elämään, niillä mä lennän halki taivaan enkelten.*

I decided to spend this Christmas here in Wroclaw with my boyfriend, since he has to work. Of course I still wanted to see my family and friends, so on 7th of December I flew to Finland after being away for four months. It's amazing how time goes so fast, it did not really feel like I haven't seen my loved ones in Finland for so long. Luckily we are living in a world where we can easily keep in touch even we would not be in the same country. It's amazing how with good friends it always seems like we just met yesterday. :) And I want to believe it's not only because of Facebook.

Breakfast in La Torrefazione & Christmas feast.

I got to meet almost all of my best friends, got to spend time with my family, and of course fill myself with Finnish Christmas food. I also tried if I am still able to work, so I took couple of shifts in a restaurant (read: I need money). Finnish people's ability to absorbe alcohol when "the firm is paying" is unbelievable. See, this time of the year every respectable company throws a pre-Christmas party "pikkujoulut" to its' employees. (Now days the amount of these firms have significally reduced because of the savings. Might be good thing for Finnish people's livers...)

All in all, I proved that I am still capable to work as a waitress, but I also noticed that I would really not like to. So here I am again, with no clue what I would like to do when I grow up. Well "third time's a charm" as they say... :P

Helsinki

I had wonderful 10 days at home, it gives me so much energy and makes me so happy to see all my important people. Wherever I am, I will always remember where I'm coming from. But I'm glad to be back here with my love, and I have no regrets towards the choices I have made. I hope all your wishes will come true this Christmas like mine has.

Merry Christmas! Hyvää joulua! Wesołych Świąt!

*Antti Tuisku - Palaan kotiin

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.

I wanted to see how does famous German Christmas market look like, so we drove to Sachsen last Friday. We booked a room in a small town called Bautzen near Dresden. This was very good idea since Bautzen was the most beautiful city, with its extensive old town. Our room had a perfect location, we could watch the Christmas market opening seremony from our window! All the glory for my travel agent. ;) We got also lucky with the wheater, it was snowing on Friday, and everybody knows how important snow is for Christmas atmosphere.

Bautzen.

Medieval Christmas Market.

After breakfast on saturday was time to see "the big city", so we took a train to Dresden. Dresden is about the size of Wroclaw and Helsinki, but it was hard to believe when we saw all the people. Apparently the first Advent is a big thing in Germany, and Dresden is, if not world-famous, at least Germany-famous of its Christmas market. I mean one of them. In total there was suppose to be 11 different markets, from which we saw something like six only by walking around the city center.

Dresden.

Even behind all the tourists I could see that Dresden has its share of remarkable old buildings. I did not have any image of how it would look like, but I must say that I was not expecting this Prague-like city. It's unbeliavable how much amazing places there is I've never even heard of. And I thought I have to travel to the other side of the world to see something. :P And what about the Christmas markets? Let's say Senaatintorin joulumarkkinat will feel a bit sad after these...

By now maybe some of you, my friends, might know that I love breakfast and teddy bears. And myyrä! And cooking and baking. On Sunday we had a cookie making party, and I made so much piparkakku-dough, that I decided to sacrifice some of it to make a piparkakkutalo. I have to say that I'm pretty proud of it. Was not my first one, but definetely the nicest. And I did not even burn myself or the sugar!

I also made some Christmas foods already: potato, carrot and swede casseroles. We are spending the Christmas here, and they don't sell Saarioisten casseroles or piparkakku-dough in Carrefour, so I had to learn to make them myself. ;) So far so good. Now I only need to figure out how to smuggle kinkku here...

P.S. I'm coming to Finland on Friday!