Sunday – the Way Home

Actually I had no night at all. After we left the restaurant I had to pack the last few things and try to get my suitcase closed. I managed pretty well considering the wine bottles and other boxes which are always hard to pack.

My plane was not leaving until 7 am, but Chie and Hisa were leaving two hours earlier that I was. There would have been no point in me waiting for two hours and get another taxi. I knew I could not sleep anyway.

Our taxi arrived at 1 am and to my great surprise getting three suitcases in the trunk of a VW Passat seemed impossible at first. The trunk was big but it was not high enough. Two suitcases did not fit on top of each other and the opening to the trunk was not shaped right to get the suitcases in. It was like a 3D puzzle which finally was solved.

I have had difficulties to sleep in cars in the past few years but now I slept most of the way to Tel Aviv. I had to say goodbye to Chie and Hisa after getting inside the airport because our security control gates were on the opposite sides of the hall. They were starting their journey to Japan by going to Italy first and my first goal was Budapest, Hungary.

The security control was strict as always. I was of course asked if I had packed my things myself, if anyone had given me something to take to Finland and all the usual questions. Now however the woman asked also questions I had never heard before. I was asked what the origin of my name is. Well, it is totally Finnish. I have taken my husband’s name when I got married. The next question caught me totally by surprise: “What does it mean?” I knew I should not start joking or arguing about anything at the airport but now I had no choice but answer: “I have absolutely no idea!” I really have not. It has been a name of the house (and probably the whole village) where Jukka’s grandfather was born and generations before him. I have once checked a book where language researchers have tried to analyze old Finnish names but the origin of my name was left open. They had theories, but none of them sounds even a bit familiar to modern Finnish. The problem is that written Finnish is fairly new. Swedish was the only language used in writing originally.

Maybe they were just checking my honesty because the answer was satisfying. This time I also had to open my suitcase. I am not sure what caused that, maybe the wines. I had a very hard time opening the suitcase and had to struggle for a while probably because it was so full. After picking some items and asking if I had bought them myself, the woman behind that counter let me go.

Katri told later that she had counted that they had to show their passport 7 times before they got past all controls but I didn’t need so many. I think 4 would be a good estimate, but I may also have been so tired that I can’t remember clearly. I had about 4 hours to wait. I walked through the shops but I did not actually need anything and decided to go and sit near the right gate. I was really tired, but the chairs were just impossible to sleep on. I tried to solve puzzles and had some coffee. I could have used my computer but I was too tired even to open it.

Finally in the plane I fell asleep. They served breakfast in the plane but I woke up with the tray in front of me totally unable to eat. I drank the water and managed to eat some fruits but then I fell asleep again. When I woke up just before landing I felt like I was really awake again.

The Budapest airport was very small and I had to walk to the departure hall going first outside. The airport was so different from Brussels. Here the smoking area was just separated from the café without any walls. The funny thing was that I had spent two weeks in a country which was supposed to be very hot and now I was sweating. It was hot in Europe also and if the airport had air conditioning it was not very effective. In Tel Aviv the airport had been even a bit cold!

Now I didn’t have to wait long to get to the Finnair airplane. I had a smooth change to getting back to my homeland. I was seated beside a couple and they were speaking Hebrew. The first implication of getting home was the food in the plane. It was a cold lunch containing cuscus, meat (probably pork) and vegetables. The tomatoes looked and tasted like they should have had a decent burial for a long time ago!

Budapest from the air

Helsinki from the air. The scenery is so familiar. Water and trees.

We arrived in Helsinki in time and my suitcase came, this time even among the first. Jukka was waiting for me in the hall. He had come with my car to get me. The airport is not in Helsinki and getting to a train would have taken me too long. Taking all the luggage I had to a bus was not something I wanted to do.

We spent the two hours driving home talking about the last week. Piitu, my dog had survived the kennel or maybe I should say that the people in the kennel had survived Piitu. She had jumped over a one meter fence, opened doors so that they had to lock them and tried to conquer the pillow from the owner. I tried to warn them, but thought that they had seen all kinds of dogs but actually Piitu had surprised them. Who could imagine a Corgi jumping fences :)

After getting home I was so tired that I did not even now open the computer. I just sent text messages to Gil and Dave, ate a bit and went to sleep.

Thursday - Jordan River

One more early start; we were picked up from the hotel at 8 am. This time we had 19 people in the bus and Boaz was again coaching us. Only part of us left from the hotel, we picked up more people on our way. Here is finally a good picture of our guide Boaz.

The first interesting place to me was Magdala, because it (probably) is the place where my name comes from. Wikipedia says:

The reason for interest in a place called Magdala is that all four gospels refer to a follower of Jesus called Mary Magdalene, and it has always been assumed that this means "Mary from Magdala", though there is no information to indicate whether this was her home, her birthplace, or whether she had some other connection with the place. Most Christian traditions assume that she was from the place the Talmud calls Magdala Nunayya, and that this is also where Jesus landed on the occasion recorded by Matthew.

Magdalene is translated in Finnish Magdaleena or regarding that gd does not appear in Finnish: Matleena. Matleena is very rare, but the end of the word Leena has been commonly used. Many people seem to think that the origin of the name Leena is Saint Helena, but I think that is not possible. The Lutheran church has no saints.

Our first stop (except for coffee) was Capernaum and the Church of the Multiplication.

"In the same place (not far from Capernaum) facing the Sea of Galilee is a well watered land in which lush grasses grow, with numerous trees and palms. Nearby are seven springs which provide abundant water. In this fruitful garden Jesus fed five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish."

From there we went to see the Sea of Galilee, and some of us took a shower under a waterfall. I was also walking in the water so at this point I got to use my most natural way of walking barefoot.

The next stop was not very far. This was one of the things I was thinking to pass, but Dave and Boaz got me convinced that I should try it. We were rafting the Jordan River. We did it in boats for 2 people and I shared a boat with Dave. Actually rafting is not the right word for it; most of the time we had to paddle and the water was very shallow. In real rapids we got stuck in the middle! Mostly we concentrated on keeping the boat on the deeper part and getting us out with the paddles when we hit a rock and got stuck :) Dave also had to climb of the boat occasionally and he showed how easy it is to walk on water. The images in Wikipedia don’t look at all like the reality was. Even though, because of my inexperience in steering, we made some 360 degree turns we managed to be the first to arrive to the destination. In the rapids our boats always took some water and our clothes were wet. I enjoyed the refreshing coolness of the wet clothes while we were waiting for the others. When they finally arrived we changed for a dry set of clothing and continued.

It was time to eat and we went to a restaurant which served St Peter’s Fish. I think to most people the fish was hard to handle but to me it was easy. I have eaten perch prepared grilled and because it is much smaller, it has smaller bones which can get stuck in your throat. The fish was really good! The yellow thing on the plate is a potato.

After eating we continued the trip to Golan Heights and visited a winery and did some tasting.

The Golan heights have different rocks from the other parts of Israel. The landscape is full od dark geay volcanic stones of basalt. The most common stone in Israel is the beautiful light yellow lime stone.

On the way back we stopped by in a brewery also and tasted some original Israeli beers which were produced on the spot.

In the evening we had dinner again with Dave, Anna and Igor and enjoyed our food outside in the garden of the restaurant. In Finland we have problems with birds but here we had to have big umbrella’s over our table to avoid bat shit :)

Wednesday - Jerusalem

We had an early start on Wednesday and even though the sandwiches were prepared to take them with us, we missed the departure which according to Dave should have been at 7 am. The other mistake was to trust the GPS which did not direct us to the toll road 6, but instead used road 1 which meant that we had to face the traffic jams in Haifa and in Tel Aviv. So we were late from our meeting with the guide in Latrun, outside Jerusalem, almost by an hour! I am a person who hates to be late :(

However it turned out that it was better for us that way. Because we were so late, the original plan to follow the guide’s car would not have succeeded because of the traffic in Jerusalem. So the guide, Boaz Malachy, took us in his SUV. Boaz was an excellent guide and even though I had visited Jerusalem before, I learned so much and heard many new stories.

The locals say that seeing everything in Jerusalem (meaning the old city) would take at least four days and I am convinced that they are right. Describing the feeling or the places is something I am really unable to do. It is something all have to experience themselves. That is why I am only including some pictures.

Behind us is the desert outside the hills of Jerusalem (on the left)

The Dome of the Rock seen from Mount Olive

The Wailing Wall

Mount of Olives

I am not really sure how much time we spent in the Old City, but if I say it was 8 hours, I am not very far from the truth.

To me the biggest amazement was that the same place plays an important role in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Boaz talked us about the Jerusalem syndrome. I think I am starting to develop mild symptoms... :)

After getting us back to our car Boaz helped us filling the tank of the car and made sure that this time we found the right road.

First Day in Haifa

First of all, I apologize for the mistakes I make. Now I have only one hour before the family wakes up and I can't post and find all the mistakes in that time. I'll make corrections later; my last post was a good example of that.

We are staying in Haifa at Hotel Marom, and this is a really beautiful place (all of Haifa is!)

We had breakfast and this is place we have been talking about the whole year. We can fry our eggs and squeeze the oranges ourselves! Best orange juice I have ever had.

After breakfast Olli went back to sleep as he had promised but the girls wanted to go out and lie in the sun. I went with them and took my puzzle magazine with me. When I went to buy some coffee, the hotel owner asked if he would open the Jacuzzi. Of course! The girls were thrilled. He said that it was too cool at first, 27 decrees Celsius maybe which is actually hot for Finns :) The girls jumped in.

Later the men joined us also, but they missed the cool water.

The next target was the Grand Canyon in Haifa, a shopping mall. Driving there we told the children that our trunk would be opened for check up. Jukka told that it was because they checked if we had any terrorists in the trunk! I always thought they checked for bombs ;) This lead to a very funny discussion only my family can have =D

This country is a paradise for Marika, the vegetarian. We ate in an Italian place which sold kosher food. Fish, two kinds of pastas, two kinds of salads, bread... Marika can never get a selection like that in Finnish restaurants not to mention fast food places.

We did some shopping but the kids were convinced that they would love to go there again. It is like I thought. At the end of the week they will be envious of me for my extra week!

In the evening we had dinner with Dave and his parents. Some information for Conceptis members: this is the Conceptis conference room, the local steak house.

The dinner was so enjoyable over good food and delightful conversations. Thank to all the Green's for a good company!

Journey about to start

My journey to Israel is about to start. Piitu has been taken to the kennel where she was born in and I am leaving with the whole family tomorrow morning. I hope that I am able to blog along the way. I have my laptop with me but if I have enough free time is totally another thing.

Gorgi Agility Camp in Kajaani

Almost two weeks ago my daughter, my dog Piitu and I spent the weekend at a corgi agility camp in Kajaani, which is about 700 km north from where we live. Since there were only the two of us and I don’t particularly like driving long distances, we decided to go there by train. That actually meant three trains in one direction. I was very nervous before the journey because Piitu is very wild and I was afraid she would get bored spending so much time just being in the same place. As usual I worried for nothing; Piitu acted like a little angel. I guess just looking around and seeing new things was enough to keep her happy.

Here the journey starts. Piitu had a ticket to stay on the floor, but she kept jumping to our laps. Pets are allowed in a certain department and with one exception the compartments in each train were almost empty.

The second part from Tampere to Oulu was a night train and we had a sleeping cabinet. Piitu is here checking what is happening outside. My daughter slept on the upper bed and Piitu would have liked to go there with her. She actually thought about trying the stairs to jump up but came to her senses and did not do it.

This is the railway station of Oulu where we spent two hours in the morning waiting for the next train. The building is a very typical railway station in Finland.

Piitu in the back seat of the VW Golf we rented; this time totally happy without even trying to get out of there.

Here my daughter is packing. Piitu wanted to make sure that she would be included in the things to come with us and placed herself in the end of the line.

This is from the last part of the trip. Piitu was totally exhausted and placed herself in the middle of the floor. Fortunately there was not much traffic…

And the best part last. Here are pictures from Piitu’s performance. These photographs were taken by Katri Soini. She had the right equipment to freeze the moment. Have you seen flying dogs before?