Travelling May (cause you some addiction)

Oh gosh, it is the last day of May already. Basically, one week school left to do and then... well, if you think after this post I have been travelling quite a lot - just wait for June. I am having my first summer holiday lasting more than one week since 2010 and well because it is so easy to travel from here I am going to travel a bit more. But I come back to that.

But let's see umm, in May I had quite a lot of things to do. After May Day Eve and May Day (that felt quite Finnish, thanks to my Finnish exchange friends and Finnish people here in Maastricht) there was one week I ended up being in Maastricht. Otherwise, I have used my time quite well visiting nearby places with my friends from Finland, with ISN Maastricht, with my exchange friends and on my own visiting relatives.

First one of my longest time friends (don't know can you say like that in English) Piia and Kaisa visited me on Ascension day (=helatorstai) holidays and we spent our time besides Maastricht also one day in Amsterdam. Here you go with some pictures. In my opinion, Amsterdam is a nice place for a visit but I would never move there.

Piia and Kaisa posing on a canal bridge.

A pancake place recommendation - MOOK Pancakes. Quite near the centrum, really good pancakes.

Next weekend I was one day in Luxembourg and the Monday (day off because of Whit/Pentecost Monday) in the Hague. I liked really much both. I was surprised about the prettiness in Luxembourg with green, bumpy environment combined with cleanness. The trip was organized with ISN Maastricht and we visited the Vianden castle near the border of Germany and also the capital Luxembourg.

The castle of Vianden.

View from the castle.

View from the castle vol 2.

Touring the city of Luxembourg.

Have a duck pose plz.

This was my favourite view.

We had a nice weather too.

The Hague, also known as the governmental centre of the Netherlands and the headquarters of the International Criminal Court, has approx. 520,000 inhabitants in the city and 700,000 in the metropolitan area. Didn't seem that big (or small how you see it) actually, but we had a perfect day (again) for a visit with cheap group tickets. The atmosphere here was really nice, again an endless count of nice cafes and shops in the centre that you would spend days to see your favourites. Next to the Hague is also a cool beach in Scheveningen where we spend the rest of the day and well, because of the public holiday we were not alone. To the beach, you can just take a tram and it takes like 20 minutes to the seaside. Very handy with the public transport card (OV-chipkaart) that worked also here.

The museum where is the famous painting, girl with Pearl Earring, painted by Johannes Vermeer.

Handmade sneakers with alpaca wool. Ohh shut up and take my money. 

Ducks having their daily recommendation of greens from a pond in one garden we went.

Think this is the International Criminal Court or then it was behing this..

Still a bit cold.

Ingrid's sand art.

The sun was soo nice.

Then finally, last weekend I went to Brussels to meet my cousin and her family. On Friday I got a nice city tour with lunch and later we had dinner together with her family. I was really appreciated about their hospitality and I got a chance to see how Finnish life goes abroad. Thank you so much Tanja and co! On Saturday I had a little time to do some shopping and stroll around the city centre on my own before my bus back to Maastricht. Still feels so strange that in two hours you can so easily travel to another country haha. Saturday evening I was with my friends in Food truck festival that was also worth visiting.

Brussels centre area.

Tintin is big in Brussels.

Manneken Pis on Friday...

...and on Saturday. They change the clothing with themes, dunno what was this about.

Tintin shop also had comic books in Finnish!

The Galeries St. Hubert, really old shopping street with a roof.

Jeanneken Pis, the female version of Manneken.

Lisää kuvateksti

This was so fancy. And so good. Melted chocolate inside.

And really fancy cup of coffee with all kind of small cakes and chocolates.

Sunday breakfast at my cousin's balcony.

This chocolate...

These waffles with strawberries, whipped cream and oreo.

Oh yes, I didn't eat enough in Brussels so had to go to the food truck festival.

Under one month to go before going back to basics. I am going to make most of it so stay tuned, although my next post might take a while. Hoi hoi!

Cultural differences between Finland and the Netherlands

Hello and hope you're doing fine whoever is reading my post. I have been wanting to write this post for a long time but because days are full of stuff to do and see I've noticed that writing about my time here is getting harder. Mainly because there's always something to do with friends, school etc. But enough this chit-chat and let's get to the point. So, cultural differences between Finland and the Netherlands. Many things are similar but also many things that are done way better in Finland and another way around. I have listed below somewhat I have noticed, probably there's a lot more...

Infrastructure and bicycling roads
This was the first one that came to my mind when thinking the differences. There are not even two words which country has done this better; Dutch have created a bicycling culture here that Finns can only dream of. Of course, there are some geographical advantages. This country is sooo flat that bicycling here is super easy. You don't necessarily need gears here (even though I am missing them sometimes because I would love to get from place A to place B faster than I can now) and the winter is not the Finnish snow-slush combo with bad ploughing of the roads. But if I could bring something from here to Finland it would definitely be this.

Nature and geography 
As already mentioned, this country is flat. Like I mean it. Maastricht is the hilliest place in Holland and well, the "hills" they have here are quite easy - except the hill of Cauberg in Valkenburg that is worse than the Rapamäki in Hämeenlinna or the hospital hill in Jyväskylä. But anyway, Finns had fun on the first day in university when coordinator showed us the "mountain" of St. Pietersberg from the window. Oh well, I guess you could say that is a mountain here.

Nature here is more just fields and meadows with wetland and rivers. It is pretty on its own way. But it seems I am too Finnish and I started to miss the forest and untouched nature with ponds, swamps and trees. Might be that Finnish people are a bit hillbilly but the nature in Finland is something that most people in this globe won't experience in their lives. There's definitely a reason why Finland had its first flag day for out nature last year - and we should be proud of that.

The national view of the Netherlands.

The national view of Finland.

Living and housing
There's a lot of fuss in Finland about how the houses are built too quickly and they begin to grow mouldy (and for a reason usually that is correct). BUT mainly the housing is really nice because people require quality and nobody rents a room or apartment that is not looking ok. Well, here in Maastricht the problem is the supply and demand relationship. Too many people are looking for a room compared to how many there actually is. The housing market is pretty wild west - and the apartments are not that quality what Finnish people are used to. Here a good studio's asked rental price can be easily over 700 euros and more, even over 1000 euros.

Some things I have noticed from living here. The renovation is made roughly and probably only if e.g. the kitchen is that bad nobody wants to move in. There are also some really strange apartment solutions. For example, the bathroom entrance can be from the kitchen. The stairways can be so narrow that I have no idea how people can move their stuff. The isolation of the windows... well, maybe better just say nothing. Also heard that the heating system is sometimes turned off due savings (luckily not in my apartment). The taps are quite old-fashioned in some places and for example, you don't get warm water from university's lady's room. The kitchen stove is usually working with gas and oven is luxury in most places. 

Recycling and waste disposal
Just the thing I don't understand here. Maastricht advertises itself having "the unique system for sorting and disposal of household waste". Well yes, it is totally unique at least that you need to buy a certain type of waste bags that they are collected from the street(?!) on a certain day (and if you dump them on a wrong day the neighbours scorch you)...  And recycling is otherwise really good but can't the houses or even streets have their own recycling points? I prefer the Finnish system but I guess it also depends on the architecture.


Food
Food or groceries here are in Finnish prices. Some things are cheaper and some more expensive. Beer is a lot cheaper and e.g. meat is more expensive. Depends also what you buy of course. And I am definitely missing the Finnish luxury - cheap student meal. Students in Finland are so privileged having that healthy meal every day.

When talking about groceries one can also talk about the local salmiak - drop. After strict testing with Finnish friends, we still think that salmiak is better and they taste quite different. By the way, Holland chocolate is far from the masterpiece of Finland - Fazer's blue.

People and the own personal space
One thing that I am going to miss from Maastricht is the people's openness and small talk. Everybody is really friendly and eager to have small talk. Well, somebody also too much. Reminds me when I was one day strolling in the centrum and I had a waffle from Pinky in my hand and suddenly an old man walks towards me and acts like he's gonna grab my waffle. Quite bad joke honestly, nothing comes between me and my waffle.

On the other hand, I am too Finnish to enjoy going to the centrum on weekend. Especially when it is good weather - too crowded for me. Same is in Amsterdam. Having own personal space without too many people - that is the luxury of Finland.

Well, sometimes there is enough space ;)

Cafes and bars
I also wish that I could bring the cafe culture (nb. not coffee shop) from here to Finland. There's no way that I would have the time to visit all of the cosy and sympathetic cafes here in Maastricht but oh how I like them. Their personality and friendly staff make me feel like I am always welcome. 

However, the habit here is also turning the cafes to bars in the evening. The idea is actually very good - but because of the small size of cafes, the result is something else. Bars are crowded and you can't say they are nightclubs. There's a need for a proper nightclub in Maastricht. One thing I didn't expect when I came to the land of EDM.

Payment method
Don't know really what is this thing. It is always 50/50 chance does my Visa debit/credit card work or not in cafes, in grocery shops... There's just no logic in that. And wtf it is the visa that works everywhere! Fortunately, there's always an atm around the corner but I find it very weird that cards don't work everywhere here.

Dutch stingy
"Let's go Dutch" = let's split the bill. Well, that isn't really so weird, quite common in Finland. But I still must say very stereotypically that Dutch people are stingy (= wants to save money in everything they do). Or maybe it is nicer to say that they are precise how they use their money.

Anyways, the Netherlands is quite an easy country to adapt when coming from Finland. Have enjoyed my time here. A lot of travelling again done but think I leave it for another post.

When in Maastricht.