Danish nature

Gonna post a huge set of pictures, since we had a small vacay and it was super nice summer weather and we also happened to have a car during this time. Good karma! 

Castle in our town. 

We have sooo many swans in our town and they keep making babies every year. Apparently they all don't fly away from parents' place. That's why I'm not so impressed if someone sees swans anymore.

We have had amazing hotel breakfast every morning during this vacay. Probably not so healthy. 

But it's been so warm and summery, we deserve some pampering. We even hit 25 C.

One of the best days was when there was may market and international market at the same time in our town in amazing weather!

It's a me.

The following pictures are from the deer forest in Vejle.

I just LOVE forests for some reason, so I took a ton of pictures. 

I lived next to a forest for 23 years, so maybe that's why I suddenly love them so much.

Check out the sea at the back, wow.

Yeah, there was actually lots of deers in that forest, but they were shy (obviously).

We ended up at a beach in some small never-heard town. 

Every beach we passed by, was packed!

This is from another deer park, this time in Middelfart. We went there by accident.

Very stockphotoey.

Oh shit, we found such amazing place from a forest in the deer park.

I think people like to do biking in crazy places like this.

Wow, look at that clear water and then a fucking kayak came in the middle! Perfection!

So beautiful. I love when I accidentally find natural places like that.

This didn't even look like Denmark!

 That was a huge flower tree, with a huge bee hive. Just imagine the constant ZZZZZZZZ sound.

This is the view from our lovely balcony.

And this is from our kitchen window. Love dat light up water tower.

You buy too much cheap clothes!

In recent years I have reduced my clothe shopping a lot, since originally I wanted to save money and I felt that I already own every piece of clothing I need for any occasion, so why would I have to keep piling the clothes?

I actually started to become super concious about the stuff I own and consume when I moved in to my first apartment in a different country. All my stuff and clothes were in a different country, so there was very limited stuff I could bring from my previous home, since I had to bring it through airplane and several trains. When I thought I was gonna move away from my new country again, I packed my bags and had to donate a lot of my stuff away that I had dragged all the way from my home country (I had brought more stuff everytime I visited my home country during my study years) a lot of stuff got thrown to the trash too, since no one wanted my ugly clothes and I had no space in my bags anymore. After this I have really admired simple life and I totally HATE clutter. It's really not the fact that "oh no, I had to throw away my stuff :(" that stuff was shit anyway! Why not just have the essentials all the time? Nowadays I always have only one bottle of shampoo, cream etc and use it all up before buying new. I used to have several bottles open at the same time and I bet I'm not the only female doing that. Now in our household only my boyfriend does that and I hate it haha sorry. Anyway that was the story of how I became to hate clutter and consumerism in general.

I wanted to talk about how everyone in the fancy countries buy too much cheap useless clothes!

So I watched this documentary called "The True Cost" which is telling the story behind all of our everyday clothes that you and me use and buy. Especially the cheap shit we buy from stores like H&M, Primark, Zara etc you know the ordinary mainstream stores. I thought everyone should know how exactly they are made! I know most of people know the horror stories of sweatshops in Bangladesh and China where the workers get paid 2 dollars a day and work crazy overtimes all the time, but there's actually a lot more horrific stuff behind it.

The most horrific thing to me was the cotton fields part, so I'll just try to write what it is in short and simple, since most people don't have time or interest to actually watch a long documentary about this.

Your clothes are made of cotton. Majority of the world's cotton fields are genetically modified (GMO) cotton fields, only a small percentage is organic cotton and that kind of clothes are super rare and expensive. There is a big seed company that patented the GMO cotton seed, so all of the cotton farmers have to always buy cotton seeds from that big company which has added 1400% more price to it. This brings the cotton farmers in to debt. This results in vast cotton farmer suicides! It's like, everyday a couple of cotton farmers kill themselves. Check the documentary for accurate numbers, I can't remember off the bat.

The villages around the cotton fields are affected too. Even though the seeds are GMO they need to be sprayed with tons of chemicals in order for the cotton to grow all year round and not only seasonally + grow faster and other mutant stuff. All of the villages around the fields have very high number of retarded children, mental illnesses, cancers, tumors etc all kinds of bad stuff, probably from all that chemical. The farmers themselves always die early from a disease like that.

And of course the terrible sweatshops, but that is a bit more common subject so I'll just leave it at that. There was actually just recently an incident in Bangladesh, where a garment factory was in a very bad condition. There was visible cracks everywhere in the building and the workers notified the factory owner, but he didn't give a shit. Then the building collapsed killing 1000 slave workers. :(

How can you as a consumer help? I don't know, these people have work thanks to this, but it's like slavery in my opinion. Those countries are poor as hell and you are lucky to have a job. I don't know if enough people in the consuming world can become aware and stop buying these cheap clothes, enough to make the big heads of the companies to take action, right now they only see dollar signs in their eyes. Did you know that every sixth person in the world works in some part of the clothing industry?

Here's me, consuming. Okay bye!

At the movie theater

This is a negative complaining post about going to the movie theaters =) 

I have always loved to go see movies as probably everyone does. Recently I haven't gone too often, since I have become super stingy about using money. I'd say we go to the movies 2 times a year with the bf. I wanted to go see Jungle Book, since I love Disney stuff. So we decided now is the time, since we had free time and had a mini date lol we rarely do those.

Now, usually when we go see "kids" movies there's always english and danish version available, we choose the english one obviously and all the kids go to the danish one. Well they don't show the danish one here for some reason at all, but I didn't think much of it - until we entered the theater. So many kids, but I was like okay I'm not judging this shit, it's cool. 

Then the movie started. 2 kids with their mommy in front of us keep talking in normal voice. They ask their mom stuff and mom just answers the kids. I was waiting for her to tell them to keep quiet, but nooo. The kids commented stupid shit like "Oh look there's monkeys. The monkeys are attacking. Wow look at that." etc. 

There was this individual behind us who also kept talking and occasionally yelling stuff. Those occasions would have been perfect for the parents to say "sshh" but no, they just chatted away with the kid. He was sitting behind my bf and apparently he was kicking his seat the whole time, lovely. One time the kid farted out loud. At the end of the movie he had fallen asleep and his dad had to carry him out. 

My question is: why do you bring your kids to see an english speaking movie when your kids clearly are too young to understand english or read the subtitles? It's probably because the parents wanted to see the movie themselves lol. And I kind of understand the kids perspective, I might also talk if I didn't understand what was going on, but still had to sit through it for 2 hours. But I'm blaming the parents for not schooling their fucking kids how to behave in a movie theater. In finnish we call this "free parenting" and it has a bad reputation. 

My problem is: I don't feel happy paying 100 kr for this kind of shit. As I said I'm very money concious and wow what a downer when my movie experience got so much disturbance. Probably will not be going to the movies in a loong time, since I can just wait a while and see movies at home for cheaper. But it's sad cause most of the time I go to the movies it's awesome. For example Interstellar was amazing to see in a big screen and also We Are Your Friends because all the music was blasting loud! 

I can tell other shitty stories from my previous movie theater visits! Well just the ones I remember now off the bat. One time I was at the movies with my mum and I could smell this weird odour throughout the whole movie. It was a weird version of poop smell, which I didn't enjoy at all. When we left the theater my nurse mum informed me that that smell came from the guy next to us and from his too full poop bag (I'm sorry I don't remember the real medical term right now). 

Then there was this time when a fat guy sat next to me who brought super smelly coffee with him, and he sipped it for 2 hours and breathed very loudly. 

Yeah, most of these things are just small inconveniences which these people can't even help it. And I should know that there can be weird stuff happening when dealing with strangers in a movie theater. I don't know what I'm even trying to chase here. Shouganai! Can't be helped! It's just facts of modern day human life, I guess. 

Okay bye.

What I have noticed about danes

So I have lived in Denmark for almost 5 years now as an expat (holy shit) and I have noticed some stuff that the danes do differently compared to finns. And this is a post about that stuff!

1: Danish boys are tall and handsome. Haha it's true, that's why I grabbed one for myself. I think danish boys are the most handsome ones from all of the nordic countries, maybe even of the world. Girls are cute too, but I think all girls from nordic countries are very cute and beautiful so there's no big gap as there is with boys. Sorry other country boys!

2: Everyone's very smiley. I don't mean only near people (friends, family) but also strangers sometimes smile at me. Especially at clubs girls smile at me in a friendly way when they are drunk. And sometimes when I'm walking in the forest people passing by smile to me if we have eye contact by accident. I don't know why, but it's nice and I like it!

3: The danes have a song or two (or ten) for every occasion and they will sing it. Every big family party I have attended included funny danish sing-along songs. I was happy to attend a danish wedding once, and wow, the amount of singing! People were handed printed copies of lyrics to sing along every 15 minutes basically. Also the danes are very proud of their numerous drinking songs at parties! I do enjoy those drinking songs, cause they are very upbeat and fun.

4: They like hot dogs and Cocio (milk chocolate). I actually learned this from Wikipedia before I even came to DK. Also you need to note that the danish hot dogs are very different than your basic hot dog - it's much better!! They sell hot dogs in every corner here and danes like to drink Cocio with it. I thought it was just a kid thing to drink milk chocolate with it, but when I went to a hot dog stall I found out literally everyone drank Cocio and there was only adults in there. And there's a specific way to shake your Cocio too, which every dane apparently knows.

5: It smells like shit in DK sometimes. I'm not sure if this is a fact only in Jylland though. Everytime I meet my uncle in Finland he tells me the usual story how he once drove through Denmark and the only thing he can remember is that the whole country smelled like shit and he keeps asking me does it still smell and I say yeah. Well it doesn't always smell, it's just sometimes when they are fertlizing the farms or something? That's how I have understood it. I still don't understand though how can a whole city smell for many days, possibly many cities at the same time. Wut? Anyway it's not a bad smell, it's just a poopy farm smell!

6: In Denmark people prefer ordering take away instead of going to the actual restaurants. The cities are filled with small restaurants that are only meant for take away orders, cause their space is so small there's not even space to sit and eat! Only a handful of restaurants where you might want to stay in. This was pretty harsh for me, because I really love going out to eat and not always look at the same walls of my home. We used to go out to restaurants in Finland A LOT, then suddenly it just stopped for me :(

7: Job ads for "easy work" such as fast food restaurants and stores say without shame that they are looking for people under 18 year olds for work. Probably because they are cheaper workers! I had never seen this before! Thought it was pretty weird.

8: Kids and teenagers sit in shopping carts in grocery stores and malls. I still cringe at this whenever I see it happen! I don't know if it's only in Finland where you are not allowed to sit in the shopping cart, because of hygienic reasons. I even see people put their babies to lay down at the bottom of their shopping cart?! What if they poop their pants and then the next customer puts their carrots in there. Ewww.

9: You never ever have to show your ID at the store. Well I have gotten too used to this one by now actually, that I forget to bring my ID whenever I buy alcohol in Finland. In Denmark the age limit is 16 to buy alcohol, so the store clerks just never ask. In Finland how ever, the store clerks have to ask everyone who looks like they could be under 30 year old (the actual age limit is 18).

10: There's not much long-haul bus traffic in here. There was no buses from Kolding to Copenhagen at all before, but now it has changed as new bus liners have appeared finally. Also there's no buses from the Billund airport after 9pm, like what the hell man, all my flights arrive later than that since I buy the cheapest ones! I have also noticed that most of the danes I know don't want to travel domestically. They just don't find other danish cities interesting enough! So maybe this is the reason for low bus traffic??

11: There are ryebread rules. And other food rules too. Danes are famous for smørrebrød, which is ryebread with cool stuff on top. But beware, you can't put just any stuff on it! It has to be specific stuff combined with other specific stuff! A lot of it is fish. I'm not going into detail now, if you want to know just google it. But anyway, usually these ryebread dinners are served as "buffet" where you have to build it yourself, and I'm always shitting my pants cause I never remember what is supposed to go with what. Oh, and apparently no one eats ryebread in the morning. Huuuh??? I do that every morning in Finland man, don't tell me what to do! Also you can not eat nutella during dinner, even if you are having sandwiches for dinner. :)

12: It's a danish duty to write a Facebook post after your birthday, to let everyone know that you had a hyggelig birthday with your friends and family. I have a variety of FB friends from all over the world, but only the danes feel the need to write to FB the following day of their birthday what they did on their special day, and then they get tons of likes. Even people who don't update their FB that much, do this. People from other countries might post "Thank you for the wishes" but the danes will tell you in detail what happened, I think it's pretty cute.

13: Girls say "eeeejjjjjjjjjj" a lot.

14: The crazy amount of danish flags everywhere when someone has a birthday.

Well that's all I have for now! I probably find more quirky things about this little country and make another post some other time. I really love Denmark and am happy to live here! <3

Finnish winter

Decided to post a few winter pictures from Finland. I love the real finnish winter when there's 2 meters of snow, from -15 up to -30 C of "pakkanen" (minus degrees) and no wind. 

I have noticed while living in Denmark that all the danes truly hate snow and feel sorry for me when I go to Finland during winter, I really get offended by that. But I have now realized why they think like that. It's because their idea of snow and winter is pretty shitty. When it snows in Denmark, 90% of the time it's sleet (mix of snow and water) and it just violently pours down and makes everyone's lives miserable. Some winters Denmark doesn't get any snow (sleet), some winters they have it for a few days. Of course we get sleet in Finland too, especially in the spring all the roads are full of sleet and ice. But back to the winter! When it's snowing in Finland, the snow falls down slowly and gracefully. Really peaceful. Unless if it's time for snowstorm, but I'm not talking about that now.. Most of the time when it's snowing it's just amazing winter wonderland. 

Another thing the danes feel sorry for me is the fact that it's so damn cold in Finland. Yeah, it is I agree, but it's fine! We are not pussies! We put on thick warm winter clothes! Then it's warm outside! Also no one really knows this, but Finland has extreme temperatures. In the winter it can be -30C, but in the summer it can climb up to +30C. Sometimes we have "helle" (heatwave) for many weeks which means it feels like being in Italy, Greece or similar and everyone goes swimming in one of our thousands of lakes :) 

I feel like I wrote really aggressively... I'm sorry if I offended someone, I didn't mean it. 

Well enough of the ranting, here are the winter pictures. 

This is from Russian border, my dad's childhood village. 

Frosty little bastards. 

Abandoned house that my dad bought. 

I'm always shitting my pants driving these roads in the winter. Super slippery. 

Btw all of these pictures are from eastern Finland. 

Joensuu Church in the winter.

 Joensuu is known for its birches!

Snow everywhere man.

More birches. Very finnish.

Pictures from Oslo

 So I went to Oslo, Norway in March 2016 for the first time. We were lucky to get really nice weather! Here's some scenery pictures I took. Really nice city!

 We climbed a quirky looking opera house to see this awesome view. 

This is from the opera house as well. 

We climbed a pile of snow in front of the Royal Palace to see this nice view. The main shopping street was on this same straight street! 

We found a nice little fortress by the harbor, by accident. 

This is from Kampen, a suburb in Oslo with really cute wooden houses everywhere. 

I guess there's lots of hills so you get to see views like this without expecting them. 

Cute little flower shop in Kampen.

Most of my pictures are from Kampen, because it was actually the cutest spot we went to.

Kampen reminded me a little of Denmark actually, but it still has its own little norwegian spice. 

I love all the colours man.

Check out that pink house.

Well that was it. Here are some bonus pictures of Elmeri, my friend's cat. Okay bye.