Summer adventures 2006

So it happens that I spent quite nice a birthday in Barcelona. I only made one big mistake: I spent it alone, and was robbed at the end of the evening - like last summer also. My wallet and mobile phone were stolen. This means:

I CANNOT BE CONTACTED IN ANY WAY.

Please send your mobile phone number to my email xmiru@kyamk.fi for future use, as I also lost all of my phone numbers.

It's not that bad, though: I still have a roof above my head and the spanish sun is free for everyone.

The moral of the story is: One should never do anything alone. I miss Suvi, and will wait for my Finnish friends on Placa de Catalynia tomorrow.

Viva el España!

We arrived in Barcelona on Tuesday evening after intensive hitch-hiking through France from Sunday evening.

Everything feels easy here after France, we are very happy

By chance we met an ex-barmaid of Rytmi-Katti, a bar in Kouvola, Finland. Her boyfried keeps an illegal hostel in the best possible location in the centre, and we are staying there at the time.

IT IS STRONGLY RECOMMENDED TO MAKE RESERVATIONS IN ADVANCE WHEN COMING TO BARCELONA - ALL HOSTELS ARE FULL!

Finally in Barcelona!! The first evening - tired but so happy! Final destination for Suvi who was dreaming about bcn during the whole last winter in Rovaniemi.

Sagrada Familia

Casa Batlló

Casa Milà (La Pedrera)

Park Güell

reading couple in Barri Gòtic

Downtown reggae - bnc dancehall fest (also with Irie sound from Finland)

Suvi booked her flight back to Finland on Tuesday 25.7. - She want's to participate the Finnish Faces-festival the following weekend, and also prepare for her trip to Sweden, Uppsala Reggae Festival on August.

We made it to Paris!

We left Hildesheim on Wednesday afternoon, and - thanks to the most kind aid of Danish and especially Polish truck drivers - arrived in Paris already at 8:30 on Thursday morning. On the way we visited the Netherlands again, and also made our very first visit to Belgium - stopped on a gas station

Paris is unbelievable and great, but also the most expensive city we have ever been to. The contrast between Berlin and Paris is huge: here you don't know, if it's the love or the money that makes the world go round. Probably one or the other for each person, but at least all the prices are double compared to Berlin - maybe love then too? At least people here are beutiful and trendy, and even try to speak English with us a bit.

Following Ameliè´s footsteps.

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We said goodbye to Paris on Sunday evening and started travelling towards sud, south.

Private camping place in a small forest - on the way to Barcelona we slept two nights by to the road. Thank you again for all the sweet people helping us on the way (even without a same language)!

It was nice to see the changing scenery while heading the south - Southern France was so beautiful!

Last view before the Spanish border.

We escaped the footballfans of Berlin to the peaceful city of Hildesheim. Even though the city is not well known in the world, it was a very important stop for Mikko, who studied there in the year 2000.

Hildesheim is also a medieval city, and all the roofs are red.

We met many friends, like Johanna in the picture. She studied one year in Kouvola, Finland.

Mikko very happy in the old hoods.

The only friend in Hildesheim from the times Mikko studied here is Sandrine, a French Spaßvogel. She's always kind and happy and took us at her lovely apartment, very near to where Mikko lived before. Before that we enjoyed the hospitality of Kristin, the current flatmate of Katri in Finland. Katri already returned to Finland and Kristin will follow - to study in Mikko's guidance.

The water in Hildesheim was not warm enough for Suvi, so we decided to head on to Spain. Our following stop will be Paris, France, and we hope to arrive there on Thursday.

Berlin is without a doubt the coolest city in the world for creative people, who do not want to follow the example of the majority. Living together with like-minded people in a neighbourhood with endless possibilities and constant action does not require money here, just courage - why are we still in Finland?!

In Fusion we got to know really nice people like Dany, who invited us to stay in her living community. The apartment in earlier East Germany was absolutely the coolest we have ever seen - an old factory renovated for the needs of people who dare to do as they would like to. One could not do this in Finland.

Berlin people are poor, but living in the historically richest environment of all Europe.

The German government works in a building built for emperors, but renovated to work with solar energy. A visit is highly recommended, it's free and there's a great view over the city.

Mikko met a dear old friend, José, from the times he was studying in Germany.

We found a really cool electro-record-releasing party in Watergate, a club by the river that was previously the border between the East and the West.

The nightly scene seen many times in movies.

The monument for the murdered Jewish of Europe worked liked it should - children were playing hide & seek as the adults wandered around in deep, sad thoughts.

The television tower of Berlin is one of its most famous attractions with its height of over 300 meters.

The weather in Berlin was REALLY hot, but also surprising - thunderstorms were best passed smoking a sheesha pipe.

The best festival in the universe is over for this year - next year ALL the best people also from Finland MUST be there! Words (and pictures) can never describe the atmoshere of the total dream festival - just use your imagination and that was there, and more. Wonderful! We are happy to live in this time and place in the Universe.

The Fusion Team: We got enforcements from Finland! In the picture from left: Suvi, Mikko, Katri & Sabine. We went to Fusion already on Tuesday to build up the festival (many thanks to Katja from Wismar) - this was an incredibly good decision, the feeling was like setting up "Sleeping disorder" in Finland, but for 40000 people!

The Fusion symbol rocket.

40000 people and getting bigger evey year - a bit too much actually, we enjoyed the first days the most.

All kind of wonderfull installations and art works spiced the atmosphere. I´m sure we couldn´t even find all the hidden mysteries. Becides the music, Fusion also was full of teather, movies, performances, fire joggling and more. It was a gathering of creative people - every was invited, we saw only happy faces.

Fire is a constantly changing element, and there was a lot of it, like in the first Fusion 10 years ago. The motto of the festival was: "The head is round, so opinions can also change direction". Deep thinking was present, even though the most important aim was to have fun with kindered spirits.

The festival was organized in an East-German airport and its hangars, that are nowadays used exclusively for the Fusion-festival.

24 hour techno-stages with world-famous DJ:s and constant dancing. The lighting effects in the whole festival were bigger and better and more amazing than we had ever seen before.

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The area we were building was called Neuland, "The new land", and was - of course - the most comfortable place in the festival. A magical forest indeed.

The atmoshere got Suvi a bit wild and Mikko had to teach her a lesson.