Going2spain

Not lost but found.

2009-06-17T12:23:00.002+02:00

I was told that the last weekend an american woman was asking about me and Rocío in the mercadillo of Villahermosa and for what I know, even came across with some family members of Rocío. Nobody thought of exchanging phone numbers or other contact information at that time, but if the person who was asking for me reads this, please write a comment to this post and we´ll figure out a way to be in contact. It would be nice to meet you and hear your story, it being somewhat similar to mine for what I´ve understood.

As they say here, el mundo es un pañuelo ;)

A blog for our dog

2007-10-27T01:08:00.000+02:00

There is a rottweiler puppy on the way into our lives, which soon will arrive to it´s new home, so I opened a blog to keep track of the dog´s life and for it to work as a link between us and the breeder of the dog, she being finnish and therefore unable to follow up on the dog "hands-on". The blog will be written in finnish to make it easier to explain more complicated matters if such arise, but I am considering of writing an english translation on the side. In any case for those unable to read finnish but still interested, there will be photos and possibly videos to see. The link to the blog can always be found in the "Links" sidebar on the right. So far there´s not much content in the blog - except some links of interest - as the puppy isn´t with us yet, but soon enough that will change :)

Barcelona and Andorra

2007-10-17T18:15:00.000+02:00

In the beginning of October I spent a week in Barcelona, also including a daytrip to Andorra. Rocío was with me for the first two days, while we visited the family of his uncle Antonio (you can see him in the earlier posts). Due to a job interview, she had to return to Ciudad Real earlier than planned, but it sure was worth it as she got the job :)

However, I remained in Barcelona for the week, as my friend Jose (a spaniard living in Finland) had come to visit his family and friends for the week as well. The time spent there was packed with new sights and experiences, too numerous to start explaining here, so instead I´ll let the photos do the talking. Behind the following link you´ll find about a hundred to see:

http://picasaweb.google.com/ville.pulkkanen/BarcelonaAndAndorra

On another topic, during my stay here in Spain I´ve met many people from the internet forum of Audisport Iberica in various meets and get-togethers. Besides being fantastically nice and helpful people, after my visit to Barcelona and one more of these meets (usually held in a bar, getting to know the various brews available in Spain;) it seems that now this folk might be planning a visit to Finland some day to try the local brews and rent some reindeers as a means of transportation!!! You never know about these things, maybe it´ll come true after all...

I´ve put some photos online from the first meet in Madrid, held at the same time I went there to buy the car, and from another one combining people from Castilla La Mancha, Madrid and Valencia, held here in La Mancha. There´s also some photos from the Barcelona-meet, but those aren´t online yet. See the links:

http://s112.photobucket.com/albums/n172/Mezzapics/Misc%20Audi/

http://s112.photobucket.com/albums/n172/Mezzapics/Blogger/

That´s all for now, see you soon!

Our new home

2007-10-17T16:44:00.000+02:00

Hello again! It´s been a while since I last got to update the blog, as I haven´t had an internet connection at my disposal, but now I can use the computer room at the university of Castilla La Mancha to do at least some online stuff. A couple of weeks back we found our new home and moved in - the easiest move I´ve ever had, as I didn´t bring too much stuff to Spain. Because of some limitations of the network here I can´t put the photos of the flat directly to the blog for now, but here´s a link that will take you to the folder in Picasa:

http://picasaweb.google.com/ville.pulkkanen/TheApartment

A few comments on the photos and the flat... The first ones are from the yard of the building, showing the building itself and the recreational areas: the pools and the sporting grounds. The swimming pools ain´t really for swimming as they´re a little bit small for that, but it sure must be refreshing to dip in on a hot summer day (about 40 degrees celsius in the hottest period of the summer). This year we didn´t get to enjoy that, as we moved in at the end of September.

The photo with Rocío peeking from the terrace shows our windows. The white things outside them are called "persiana" and are there to block the sunlight and it´s heat in the summer. More or less every house in Spain is equipped with those. Moreover, they also provide an excellent function of darkening the room completely if needed and man, I´ll tell you I´ve never slept as good as here with the persiana down :) The picture shows on the left the terrace, next to it the kitchen window, next to the right the living room and finally the bedroom. The flat has a lot of light as every room has a window.

The next photos show the parking garage and the door to our storage in front of the car, the hallway of our stairway with the mailboxes and our front door.

Inside the apartment, when moving it looks like moving no matter how little things you bring with you ;) In short time we were settled though and this is how the flat looks now. First you see the entrance "hall" and then the kitchen, which I like a lot as it has lots of space and is well equipped. A few pics from the toilet also, and as you can see on the second one, there´s something extra in the spanish version compared to the finnish one. The next photos are from the living room, which also has the dining table. The sofa opens up to be a two-person bed, so visitors are welcome :) The second last photo is the bedroom, or well, the bed mostly, as it was difficult to fit the whole room to the picture (Heta and Äiti, here´s where I sleep ;).

The last photo shows our first visitors, Esther and her boyfriend David, who study English Philology in the university like Rocío.

Out of reach for a few days

2007-09-08T10:52:00.000+02:00

There still are a few places in the world without a mobile phone network, and I'm going to one of them for a couple of days, so do not be alarmed if I'm out of reach until Tuesday or so. More specifically, the event in question is "La fiesta de la virgen de la Carrasca", one hell of a big party of the town Villahermosa, where about all the population and many many people from outside the town go camping to a nearby site. There you can find bars, attractions, concerts, bullfights, games... you name it, it's there. A little like the Finnish Midsummer Night and Labor Day combined. I expect to have fun, and will report on this after I return... :)

A video and some tragic news

2007-08-29T16:42:00.000+02:00

This video I made to show you some sceneries around Villahermosa. I was driving around to see the nearby towns and mountains and made this video by mounting a camera inside my car while descending down a mountain road. To make it shorter the video plays back at double speed.

This week has been the festival -or "feria"- of Villahermosa and the town is full of people, attractions and life. One thing shaded the beginning of the feria on Monday though, as a young man with 26 years of age from the neighboring block was killed by a lightning during a thunderstorm while he was on a fishing trip in the nearby village of Montiel. A 13-year old brother, a girlfriend and the families were left missing him. Things like this leave you without words... Respect the nature and take care of yourself and those around you!

A shot of a lightning during a recent thunderstorm in Villahermosa, taken from the house.

Video of the mercadillo

2007-08-25T18:46:00.000+02:00

Today, as we were returning home from the Ayuntamiento, the mercadillo happened to be on our way and I decided to make a video of it for you to see. Of course its not the greatest movie spectacle ever witnessed, but maybe it'll serve some purpose. In the latter part of the video you will also see a little bit of the house we're living at and some people as well. I'll make a more comprehensive video of the house later.

Siblings, cousins, uncles...

2007-08-24T19:21:00.000+02:00

This family has been at least as active in spreading around as has mine in Finland ;) There are relatives in Barcelona, Bilbao, Valencia...

These are the three siblings on the side of Rocío's mother (from left to right, youngest to oldest): Antonio, Encarnacion and Maria Luisa. Antonio lives in Barcelona with his wife Mari and daughter Ana, whereas Maria Luisa with her family have remained closer - as the next-door neighbors to Rocío's family. In addition to Maria Luisa there are her husband Lorenzo and their son Luis Lorenzo. Their daughter Maria Monserrat lives in Villahermosa but works in the nearby village of Montiel, which is why her daughter Maria Lucia - the grandchild of Maria Luisa and Lorenzo - spends most of her days here. She appears to be a real favorite of all the village!

Here are the aforementioned siblings again, joined now by their mother Felipa, representing the oldest end of the family, and Maria Lucia as the youngest.

In this photo on the left Felipa, leaning on the car Maria Luisa and her son Luis Lorenzo who happens to be almost the same age as me. The man in the green shirt is Javi, the husband of the sister of Antonio's wife Mari. With his wife Mari Angeles they have two daughters, who are the two girls in white and gray clothes in the photo, Eva (the younger) and Marta. They also live in Barcelona, but like Antonio and his family, also come here to Villahermosa for the vacations during the summer. The last two remaining are again Maria Lucia with her back facing the camera and Ana, the daughter of Antonio and Mari, in the red shirt.

To make things just a little more complicated, I present to you another Antonio and his family :) Antonio is the husband of Eugenio's (Rocío's father, that is) sister Alberta. They are the two persons on the right. On the left are two of their five children: Paqui (white shirt) and Inmaculada - or Inma for short. In the middle is the boyfriend of Inma, Juan. In addition, Alberta and Antonio have three sons that are not in the picture: Antonio (one more!), Alberto and Jordi. The whole family lives in Barcelona also, and we have been invited to visit them when we go there in September. Invitation is gladly accepted :) Juan is a man of football (FC Barcelona) and wants to take me to the home stadium of the team...

Oh, and one more thing... There is the saying that every rule has an exception, right? Well, here we have one example of that. In Spanish, the equivalent of my name Ville is Guillermo and that is what Antonio (on the right) has been calling me ever since he learned that! Normally, I prefer my real name to be used, but with him we have an agreement to use the other, as there needs to be an exception. By the way, as simple as my real name is, to the Spanish people it is difficult to pronounce correctly, as they tend to say "V" as we say "B" and two "L"s become how we say "J" in Finland... "BIJJE" is what it sounds like without instructions on how to say it :)

Family photos and an anniversary

2007-08-24T18:55:00.000+02:00

For once, the whole family was available at the same time for a group photo :)

If it still is unclear who is who, from left to right: Encarnacion, Felipa, Eugenio, Beatriz, Rocío and Maria Isabel. The photo was taken at the front door of the house in Villahermosa, after an afternoon trip to the fair of a nearby village Villanueva de la Fuente.

On August 22nd, Encarnacion and Eugenio celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary - and 33 years of life together in total. 33 years! Man, I haven't even lived that long yet ;) Such a time is definitely worth a little fiesta, so we went to dine to a restaurant in the village with the whole family... If someone is wondering, the color of Eugenio's face is not - even though we enjoyed some - from too much wine, but from working outside in the sun for years and years :)

One more time, the "core" family. Next I will present some of the relatives I've met so far...

Two were missing...

2007-08-23T14:49:00.000+02:00

Here are the two missing persons from my earlier presentation of the family:

Beatriz - the equivalent of my soon-17-year-old sister Silja. Despite being more calm by her character overall, she does from time to time remind me of [QUESTIONABLE HUMOR]what I would not be missing were I to live with my mum and Silja... [/QUESTIONABLE HUMOR]. You know, the obligatory conversations about money, household work etc. :)

So far I haven't gotten to know her too well, as we tend to go around at different times and to different places, and maybe there is also a hint of shyness from her part, but I hope -and know- that this will be fixed in no time :)

This is Maria Isabel, the middle one of the three sisters with 20 years of age, with her dog Rex. At the moment they are both staying at the house in Villahermosa as she doesn't have work for August, but normally she lives in Ciudad Real. Her I already know a little bit better as Rocío and I have been spending time at her place in Ciudad Real. : she reminds me of my dear sister Heta, if not by looks or some other way, but by her temper. And no, I haven't experienced that personally, but witnessed some "sisterly negotiations" or something ;)

I made a rubber carpet for the boot of my car to protect it from dirt that dogs might bring with them. Rex was the first one to try it, here he's checking out the material. I guess the verdict was "approved" as he next made himself comfortable in there by lying down :)

Panoramas

2007-08-23T14:21:00.000+02:00

I was speaking with my mother on the phone this morning. She asked me to put more pictures of the people I've come to know and write about the everyday life here. That I will do next, but bare with me for this one post more, as I will introduce you a couple more landscapes. These are in panoramic form, and by no means perfect as such, because I haven't had the patience (or the skills, yet) to start tuning the color differences etc. between the photos. Anyway, I hope these give a broader look to the wonderful sceneries I've found very close to where I live. Click on the photos to go to their folder and see them separately.

P.S. If some of you know a good, free panoramic photo compiler with options to adjust the colors etc. let me know! Currently I'm using Photostitch which came with my camera, but that is a very simple and limited program as can be seen...

An earthquake in Spain

2007-08-13T17:36:00.000+02:00

Well, now it is official: I can sleep through an earthquake!

A rare event happened yesterday on Sunday, August 12th in Spain. At 9:47am the country was struck by an earthquake, the epicenter being right here in Ciudad Real. The magnitude of the 'quake was 5,1 on the Richter scale. At this hour I was happily asleep, and I must admit that when I woke up an hour later or so, I had no idea whatsoever of an earthquake. The rest of the family was talking about it, how they felt their beds shake and heard a rumbling noise, and soon the tv was also with it. Luckily the quake didn't cause any casualties or damage to property. Should I consider buying a more effective alarm clock than my mobile phone?!

Here's a few links to information about the event:
CNN
Wikipedia (this one in Spanish)

Views of La Mancha - The setting sun

2007-08-11T13:37:00.000+02:00

The sun offers magnificent scenes above the horizon before going down for the night.

This abandoned piece of old farming equipment has seen quite many sunsets from where its resting. In the old days it was used to lift water up from the well, powered by donkeys.

No comment :)

A display of colors that I don't have words to describe.

Views of La Mancha - In larger scale

2007-08-11T13:28:00.000+02:00

The scenery, smooth in it's form...

... but go closer and the smooth may turn to sharp.

The scenery often lush and green, despite the general dryness.

A stereotypical image of a Mediterranean country?

Views of La Mancha - The other side of the nature

2007-08-11T13:17:00.000+02:00

On the other hand, despite the dryness and seemingly hostile plants, the nature is persistent and turns what might be a desolate and empty place into a beautiful scenery with many rich details.

A sunflower in the wild.

"Trespassers will be pinched."

Sometimes the nature is very fragile. A slightest touch and this dried flower would crumble to pieces.

Many different kinds of bugs visit the plants. Most of them I've never seen before. Great coloring on this fellow :)

Views of La Mancha - The nature

2007-08-11T12:53:00.000+02:00

Now a glimpse to what the nature of the region looks like in general:

Strange for the Finnish eye, the color of the soil is red...

... and during the summer it can be very dry. It has rained once or twice during the last three months here.

Therefore, the vegetation is dry as well and often quite hostile by it's appearance.

Its better to change the sandals for proper shoes when you're heading out to the countryside... if your feet are dear to you.

Views of La Mancha - El huerto

2007-08-11T12:39:00.000+02:00

Some products of the land:

Paprika.

Tomato.

Pear-shaped tomato.

Pumpkin.

In addition to these there also grows cucumber, water melon, sunflower, squash, beans, almonds etc.

Views of La Mancha - Las olivas y el huerto

2007-08-11T12:24:00.000+02:00

Olives are an important product of the La Mancha region. Rocío's family grow them like many other families here as well. They belong to a collective that delivers the crops to the factories which purchase the olives and also provide the products to the participants - olive oil and wine for example.

These are the olive trees.

The olives. These are still young, the season to collect them is around December.

The Olive Inspector at work ;)

This is "el huerto", the patch of land where the family grows vegetables and fruits for their own use. In the next post I'll show what grows there.

Views of La Mancha - Ciudad Real

2007-08-09T13:23:00.000+02:00

These photos are from my first visit to Ciudad Real, the city where we will be settling in once the school continues again for Rocío and/or I find work.

This is the main square of the city, Plaza Mayor. Across the square you can see the Ayuntamiento of Ciudad Real.

One of my favorite spots in the city, a small park with palm trees next to a beautiful old church.

A random street view of the city. There's a lot of greenery in the city, trees lining the streets, parks and recreational areas here and there. One park I like especially, Parque Gasset, but that I don't have photos of yet.

This is Calle Calatrava, the street where Rocío's sister Maria Isabel lives and where we have been staying during our visits to Ciudad Real. The view is from the terrace of the apartment.

Views of La Mancha

2007-08-09T13:09:00.000+02:00

The following posts will be more about the photos than writing, as the proven formula of "1 photo tells more than a thousand words" tends to hold true. Here are some sceneries and details that have caught my eye and that of my camera during the first couple of weeks here:

Antennas over the rooftops of Villahermosa.

The patio of the house.

Viñas - these you can see everywhere, as the region produces a lot of wine.

The Lost Highway - why does this photo remind me of that movie? The full moon lighting our way in the dusk of La Mancha.

More animals

2007-08-09T01:09:00.000+02:00

This is the German Shepherd of Rocío's sister Maria Isabel. He's called Rex and is four years old. At first, he can be quite reserved towards new people and show some guarding instinct, as was the case with me also, but in no time we became friends and now he's just a playful, happy dog that enjoys the company of the people he knows (the secret to this might be the chicken treats and sausages I took with me the first couple of times ;)...

Something you won't see in Finland are geckos, that during the night come out of their shelters and can be seen on the walls of the older houses. They do not present any harm - on the contrary they provide a useful service to people by feeding on unwanted or harmful insects. If you want to know more, click here.

In the corner of the utility room in Rocío's house lives the family-spider... Well, perhaps its not really considered a pet by anyone, but an impressive web-maker he/she is!

The Animals

2007-08-09T00:35:00.000+02:00

"The Animals"... was there a band that went by that name when our parents hadn't even thought about thinking about us?! Ah yes there was, in the year 1964. But these animals I'm about to present to you are of a completely different breed :)

First up, is the cat with the blue eyes. Maybe some roots to Finland in the past, who knows... This one is the older one of the two cats that live around Rocío's house (I don't say "in" because they never come in - the patio is their place. This one doesn't like to be touched, but is social still, coming to lay down close to you if you sit down in the yard.

Another one of this handsome fellow, observing his kingdom from the shadowy side of the yard.

And this here I like to call "Pequeñita" -"The Little One"- as she's almost small enough to fit in one hand of mine. This one likes to play a lot, of which I've made a video for you to see. A cat this small does although have a small head and therefore attention span also, which can be seen in the video, as she suddenly forgets she was playing and concentrates on her rear end... :) Take a look in Youtube!

The Family

2007-08-08T20:59:00.000+02:00

Allow me to present the family Gig... errrmmm... well, let's just call it The Family, as I wouldn't know which surname to use (here in Spain, people have two surnames - one from their mother and the other from the father). Of course it has been impossible to get the whole family in one photo, but let's begin with what I've got:

Here we have Rocío with her parents, Eugenio and Encarnacion.

And here are the previous ones minus Rocío, having a breakfast on a Saturday morning - churros con chocolate. It's something that resembles the Finnish "munkki" and usually is dipped in hot chocolate while eating... delicious!

La abuela - grandmother, that is - sitting in the chair in the hallway doing her handcrafts. She's called Felipa and is a very lovable person, although I find it hard to understand a single word that she speaks ;) She takes turns month at a time to stay the days either with the family of Rocío or that of her aunt. She joins us for the breakfast, then sits in the living room watching tv or doing those handcrafts, eats lunch with us and then goes to her house next door to have a nap during the siesta. In the evenings, she comes back, sitting either in the living room or in front of the house, dines with us and for the night again goes to her house. This is how the elderlies are often taken care of here in Spain. If you'd ask me, I'd say she is just what I would imagine a Spanish grandmother to be :)

Eugenio driving back to Villahermosa from Valdepeñas, where we took Rocío's youngest sister Beatriz to catch a bus to Ciudad Real for a visit to the middle one of the three sisters, Maria Isabel. Of these two I'm yet to have a photo, so I'll have to get back on them later. Next, I will introduce you to the pets and other animals I've encountered...

My first day in Spain (Part 3)

2007-08-07T02:14:00.000+02:00

This you might call a typical view from Castilla la Mancha, but for me this is far from typical! The scenery, although very dry, is beautiful with it's gentle hills, mountains in the distance, patches of vines, olive trees, sweet pepper and a small village every 10 or 20 kilometres. Comparing to Finland, the forests and the lakes are missing, but it doesn't make the scenery any less beautiful.

The day here is quite long throughout the year. The sun rises around seven o'clock and goes down between 22 and 23 o'clock in the evening. That is when the families have a late dinner, older folk living as neighbors go in front of their houses to chat and some head for the terraces. The air is still warm, but the sun is taking a rest to heat up a new day. This is what my first sunset looked like, seen from the terrace of the house.

Even though the nights are dark, most of the time you can see the moon and the stars very clearly. The familiar group of stars, "Otava" or "Ursa Major", can be seen right above the terrace every night. I have taken a custom to go out there every night before going to bed to get some fresh air and take a peak at the stars. Also the neighborhood cats often are there to greet you :)

Well, this is all for now, as the sun has set hours ago already. Tomorrow I'm again off to Ciudad Real, as I wrote before, and will probably stay there for a couple of days. More stuff will be appearing here when I get back! Take care :)

My first day in Spain (Part 2)

2007-08-07T01:55:00.000+02:00

The sky here is very blue and many days without a cloud in sight...

... so the sun really gets to shine and heat up the air, the streets, the houses... To have a siesta is not about being lazy, it's about the afternoon hours being too hot for work :)

The trees not only freshen up the scenery with their greenery, but also provide a cooling shadow to seek shelter from the sun. The picture is of a small park on Calle de la Feria, which is the street you take to go to the Plaza from Rocío's house.

Another picture from the same park. The typical features and shapes of the houses, benches in the parks, the lamp posts in the streets etc. really please my eye - they have something of the old times in them.

My first day in Spain (Part 1)

2007-08-07T01:05:00.000+02:00

4 hours of sleep. That was the best I managed to do after arriving to Villahermosa at 7 in the morning. Why, wouldn't it be more likely sleep like a log after such a trip? For some, perhaps, but I couldn't wait to see better where I was... Although it might be possible that the bread-truck sounding its horn at 8 o'clock and the sounds from the market on the close-by street also had their part with the little sleep I got ;) Off to the market then, with Rocío and her second oldest sister Maria Isabel...

"Mercadillo" is what this kind of a market is called around here. Its a weekly event, and every Saturday morning the tents and people fill the street for the morning hours, until 13 or 14 o'clock when the siesta begins. You can buy almost anything there, from cd's and dvd's to turtles or birds for pets, from pots and pans to clothes and shoes - not to mention food like roasted chicken or churros. But more about the food later!

This is the same street that was occupied by the mercadillo earlier, now empty for the hot afternoon hours. The temperature during my first week here was around +35 degrees celsius, which surprisingly isn't as hot as it sounds. The air here isn't nearly as humid as in Finland or the popular touristic sites in the coastal areas of the country that are more familiar to the Finnish people, I guess. That makes the heat much more agreeable, as long as you don't stay in the direct sunshine for too long, as that is hot enough to boil an egg, not to mention your brain ;)

After the mercadillo we took a little walk to see the village. Our first stop was a small grocery store, where I got my first touch to the selections of Spanish food shops. Later on in the afternoon we drove to another village, Villanueva de los Infantes, to visit a bigger store where I had some time to familiarize myself with the products that can be found here... the selection is impressive! In the above photo can be seen the Ayuntamiento of Villahermosa - the town hall, so to speak - where you can take care of the official things. Every village, town and city in Spain have one.

The Ayuntamiento is located on the central square called Plaza de España, which is the heart of the town in the true sense of the word. The church of the town, that rises above the rooftops of the two-story houses, is another centerpiece of the town on the same square. It is of a gothic design and was built in the 15th century. The square is also occupied by two big terraces, where people gather in the evenings to talk and have a drink or two, accompanied by tapas - something small to eat that comes free with drinks. What differs a lot from Finland is that also the children, from the small ones barely able to walk to the teenagers, are running around the square or sitting at the table with their family until the late hours of the night.

Back from Madrid

2007-08-06T13:40:00.000+02:00

We returned back to Villahermosa from Madrid late in the Friday night, just to continue our way the next day to La Roda, where we met some of Rocío's friends and participated in the "feria" of the town - a party that resembles a lot to the Finnish Vappu (Labor Day) but is held in honor of the town's saint. On Sunday we came back to Villahermosa, but this stay will also be quite short as I need to go to Ciudad Real to take care of a few things with the new car... it needs one tube of the power steering system replaced and a little work with one side-airbag, which will all be paid for by the seller. Here's one picture of what now sits in front of the house, waiting to see some highway :)

Visit to Madrid

2007-07-31T19:43:00.000+02:00

Rocío and I will travel to Madrid for a couple of days, from wednesday to friday. Therefore I will not be updating the blog until the weekend. In Madrid I will buy my new car, we´ll meet Diego, a friend of ours who we got to know in Finland during his exchange year, and also meet some of the people of Club Audisport Iberica, who have been very helpful with things that I have needed... a special thank you goes to Alfonso for helping me with the new car! That´s it for now :)

How to take off and land succesfully (Part 5)

2007-07-30T17:05:00.000+02:00

The flight arrived to Madrid around 2am local time. The office of Avis where we were to get the car was open until 3am. At first, the baggage seemed to take forever to come out of the plane for us to recollect, but finally we got it. Next thing was to seek the Avis office. More easily said than done - the office was located in another terminal, a bus ride away from where we were. There was supposed to be a bus at 2.30am which we were waiting around for, but as at 2.45am there was no sign of the bus, me and the father of another family who also were heading to the same office shared a cab and left ahead to terminal 4 to get our cars. Finally, we arrived at the office five minutes before closing time and did get our cars without problems, although it was quite a breathtaking start for my stay in Spain:) Rest of the other family and Rocío arrived at little past 3am to where I was, as the bus finally had come to pick them up.

Here's one quick photo of a small part of terminal 4. The place is huge...

We got off driving at 3.30am from the airport, around the time that we originally should have been approaching to Villahermosa already. We had no problems finding our way out from the airport and onto the right highway, as I had printed out comprehensive driving instructions from Google Maps. Since then, I have also bought a gps-navigator as it will be very necessary when driving in the cities like Madrid or Barcelona. These two final photos of the trip are of my first sunrise in Spain, already close to Villahermosa in Castilla la Mancha - the land of Don Quijote and the windmills, which nowadays have been replaced with those more modern versions of the concept (see below). The scenery was breathtaking, so I had to stop the car on the side of the road to imprint what I saw on the memory card of my camera...

We arrived to Villahermosa and the house of Rocío's parents at seven in the morning, after traveling for 18 hours. Her father was already waiting in the street in front of the house when we rolled from behind the corner, and soon the whole family was out there to meet us. As tired as we were, it wasn't easy to go to sleep as everything was new for me, so we stayed up for an hour, recapping the trip and giving the presents from Finland to the family (both Rocío and me are equally bad with keeping surprises to ourselves or waiting to know one!). At 8 o'clock we finally went to sleep, only to wake up in a few hours to a new day...

How to take off and land succesfully (Part 4)

2007-07-30T14:53:00.000+02:00

After the Copenhagen city tour we checked back into to the airport through the security. The security people wanted to search my backpack, as I had a box with all my phone chargers and camera cables etc. in there, which amazingly looked like something that could have been a bomb in the x-ray. Similarly, two metallic candle-holders in Rocío's backpack in Tampere caught the security's attention... Good thing our aviation safety is being taken care of!

The flight from Copenhagen to Madrid was late for almost two hours, so with hindsight one could say that Jacob could've shown some more mercy for the Skoda during our tour of the city ;) Eventually the flight took off at 22:20 local time, at which point we had been on the road for almost 10hrs already.

This time the plane was a little bigger than the last one. My knees say thanks!

About to board the plane... excited, as the next time my feet were to touch the ground was on Spanish soil :) Another reason to be "excited" in a more nervous way was to get to Madrid in time to collect the rental car we had reserved...

Almost there... the night was pitch black at this point and all we could see from the windows of the airplane were the distant lights of villages and cities below. I managed to catch some sleep up until the time of this photo, which was a good thing considering we'd have to drive three hours to Rocíos village from Madrid.

Copenhagen Turbo-tour (Part 2)

2007-07-30T14:22:00.000+02:00

A couple views more from Copenhagen:

Serpentine tower.

A mix of old and new... I prefer the old.

Who on earth came up with this name? Well, that's what you could call "energy with an attitude"... That's all from Denmark this time, but hopefully we get to visit the city properly with more time in the near future. Let's see who gets to visit who first, Jacob ;)

Copenhagen Turbo-tour (Part 1)

2007-07-30T13:59:00.000+02:00

We had some free time in Copenhagen waiting for the connecting flight, but lucky for us our friend Jacob with his girlfriend lives there and took us for a "guided tour" of the city - in two hours! Never have I traveled in a Skoda going so fast ;)

Jacob, big man with a big heart.

Outskirts of the city. In the picture a sign back to the airport... or to Sweden, if that's what you want?!

The center of Copenhagen, beautiful with it's old buildings, which were a little bit hard to see from the window of a Skoda going 200 km/h. Luckily there were some traffic lights, so I had a few opportunities to take photos.

This, I hear, is a place where many people gather to spend the day and the evening in good company with some beers. Looks inviting...

How to take off and land succesfully (Part 3)

2007-07-30T13:45:00.000+02:00

On July 20th at 15:50 Finnish time our flight from Tampere finally departed. The airports were to get bigger gradually, as we were flying first to Copenhagen, Denmark and from there to Madrid, Spain. The size of the Tampere-Pirkkala airport is about the same as that of one tax-free shop in Copenhagen...

Terminal 1, of the two available ;)

"Our" plane - small, but short of space. There are times when I wish my legs would be that 20cm shorter...

A final glimpse at Finland through a gap in the clouds.

How to take off and land succesfully (Part 2)

2007-07-30T03:04:00.000+02:00

During our last month in Finland we traveled quite a bit: to the summer cottage of my family, to an island in the lake Saimaa in eastern Finland, to Kuopio to meet my father and his family and as could be seen in the previous post, also to Jyväskylä to meet my mother's family. I will return to these trips with photos later, but now on with the show... take-off was getting closer.

A week before the flight there was the annual festival Tammerfest in Tampere. That was a good occasion to celebrate a little with some of our friends. We started the evening with a sauna at Rauhaniemi, one of my favorite places in Tampere, with our Spanish friend Jose (above), his girlfriend Paula (right below), Sanna (left below with Hanna, who joined us later, on her right) and of course Rocío and me. The night was long, but before we knew it we were having sauna again at Paula and Jose's place at six in the morning... A party to remember, then:) Jose and Paula were a great help to us during the last days, making them very pleasant with their company, good food that they cooked and letting us stay at their place the final night when there was no bed left to sleep in at our flat. Thank you for that, and we'll be seeing you soon here in Spain!

The Finnish girls with their blue eyes and blond hair...

...now changed to these Spanish brownies :)

This is my shoe that had seen 14 countries so far - 15 as I write. What the heck is Paula doing behind me??!

To be continued...

How to take off and land succesfully (Part 1)

2007-07-30T02:50:00.000+02:00

Oh man, I'm already regretting that I ever decided to write this blog... Until now I've been a little more than a week in Spain and already my computer's hard disk is crying for help due to the mountain of photos I'm pouring there every day. Poor machine and poor me - how am I ever going to make sense of all this flow of information and pass it on to you people in an understandable form? Well, seriously speaking, the first week has been wonderful and I will do my best to relate at least some part of it to you - maybe not with my clumsy words but with those aforementioned photos. But before I start with Spain, let's see how Rocío and me got here at all :)

Our apartment in Tampere almost empty except for the essential things. In the picture my things packed and ready to be sent to Spain beforehand. In the end, a little less than 1,5 cubic meters was enough for everything, and to send the cargo I used a nice small transportation company called Kulkurin Logistiikka. If you ever need flexible transportation between countries, based on my experience I can recommend this company and not the least for the personal and flexible service and affordable tariffs.

The last time in the apartment, half an hour before going to the airport, to check the mail and leave the keys for the future tenants. The last few weeks living in an almost empty flat didn't make leaving very hard, as more creature comforts were waiting ahead... but it was a funny feeling though to see the familiar places knowing that you ain't going to see them for an indefinite time.

Here we are less than two weeks before traveling saying bye to my family in Jyväskylä. Everyone else is in the picture (from left: Mikko, Silja, Eija, me and Rocío) except for the dog... who could be taking the photo?!

Ah, and here she is then, our lovely Karo (or Caro, how do you spell it?). She seems to be the only person who doesn't quite get the sense of humor of the rest of us...

To be continued...

Finally here!

2007-07-21T18:15:00.000+02:00

The title says it all :) We arrived to Spain at 2 o´clock in the night between Friday and Saturday and after the drive from Madrid to Villahermosa finally reached our destination at 7 in the morning. Today day has been a little tired for both of us for the little sleep we´ve had, but otherwise the first impression has been very positive and nice. The weather is very fine with about +32 celsius and lots of sun, the food is great and the family of Rocío has been very welcoming. Of course it needs a little adjusting to get used to a completely new environment, but with these circumstances it shouldn´t be too difficult. I will write more about these first days soon after I get the officialities over with and maybe also try to combine the whole process of moving to another country to a clear package from the paperwork-point-of-view. So far so good, but let´s see what happens when I encounter the spanish bureaucracy for the first time on Monday! These are exciting times :)

Almost there...

2007-07-11T21:12:00.000+02:00

The flight has been postponed by one day to Friday, July 20th. We've got only 9 days left in Finland and this will most probably be the last update to this blog I'll be doing from here, as my computer along all the other things are currently on their way to Spain. The apartment is almost empty, we have given notice of the change of address to the registry- and postal office, I have sold my car and we have gone around visiting my family and relatives to say bye for now... and also enjoyed the Finnish summer at my summer cottage and other places. I have a mountain of photos and videos to go through and I will be posting the highlights here when I get my computer set up in Spain and find the time to put my mind to it. At the same time I should also be able to write my first impressions of Spain, with photos of course.

Videobar added

2007-05-15T23:05:00.000+02:00

Added the new feature provided by Blogger: the videobar, which will allow the viewing of YouTube and Google Videos directly from this page. You can find it on the right hand side of the page. There's not much use for it so far, but if you want you can test how it works with one video clip from the first snowfall of the last autumn. I'll be adding more videos in the future.

The flight's been booked

2007-05-15T21:34:00.000+02:00

Today we made the flight reservations. As we planned before, the departure will be on the week nr29 in July, on Thursday 19th to be more specific. The plane will take off from Tampere-Pirkkala airport at 15:50, land in Copenhagen where we'll catch the connecting flight after 3,5hrs of waiting and finally we'll touch down in Madrid Barajas airport at 23:30 local time. The cheapest flight operator came out to be Blue1, with the price for one adult incl. taxes coming up to 137€.

I have also made arrangements for the transportation of Rocio's and my belongings to Spain. A very friendly one-man company called Kulkurin Logistiikka will pick up the things from our doorstep in Tampere after halfway June and deliver to the location in Spain for 500€/2 m³. That's all the space we'll need as we're not taking any furniture or other excessively big things with us - most rental apartments in Spain come furnished.

In the meantime, we've lived through the Vappu - the Finnish Labor Day. It was a nice evening with some friends, beers and a night out in the city. The next day we went so see the Vappu market with it's balloons and all the people wandering in the streets and between the sales tents with their morning-after headaches - or in some cases the continuation of the previous night.

The aftermath of Labor Day

A couple of weeks ago we took a trip to Ähtäri Zoo, some 150km from Tampere, which gives a nice view of the most typical Finnish animals as well as of some more exotic ones, such as the snow leopard. Take a look at a few that we encountered:

The snow leopard

The reindeer

Owls

The moose (is loose)

The cuddly bears

...and two very wild lynxes!

And for a final note this time, a few tips for those interested in the price of everyday things in Spain. Two major Spanish shopping chains have their online stores in the following addresses, where you can see the prices of food, household products and some other consumer goods:
http://www.mercadona.es/ns/principal.php
http://www.carrefour.es/index.html

...and what happened with the NIE-number?

2007-04-19T21:44:00.000+02:00

Well, today I received a letter from the Spanish authorities regarding my application for the NIE-number. The resolution was negative and the instructions on the letter guided me to apply for the number from the authorities of the city I will be living in once I get to Spain. No harm done here, except that I won't be able to take care of all the things immediately once I get there. The only thing that makes me wonder is why the web page of the Ministry of Interior Affairs of Spain says it is possible to apply the number in your country of residence from an embassy or other diplomatic post, yet in the end it isn't. This might be because the legislation regarding the NIE and residencia has been recently renewed and the procedures and rules are still a bit unclear - even for the officials. There is useful information about this in the issue 4/07 of the OLE-magazine and also will be in their future issues. Anyway, I hope this experience might save a little trouble from someone in a similar situation. Here's a quote that confused me from the page in question (in Spanish):

"Las presentadas en España personalmente por el interesado, en cuyo caso habrá de acreditar que se halla legalmente en territorio español y justificar documentalmente el motivo de la asignación de dicho número.
Las que se presenten en España por el representante del extranjero, acreditando dicha representación mediante poder general o poder especial, así como justificar documentalmente el motivo de la asignación del número.
Las que se presenten en las Representaciones Diplomáticas u Oficinas Consulares españolas ubicadas en el país de residencia del solicitante, en unión de los documentos que justifiquen el motivo de la asignación del número."

Source: http://www.mir.es/SGACAVT/extranje/regimen_comunitario/tarjeta_residencia.html

What else is new? Well, nothing much really. These weeks and months seem like only passing the time before getting on the go actually. During the easter time we did some traveling though, visiting my family in Jyväskylä and Kuopio. We also spent one night at our summer cottage, which was a nice experience: having sauna in the middle of the night and sitting out on the porch in the chilly air, seeing the starry sky the way you never can in the city... And while on the road, it seemed as if it was just the time for the swans to do their migration as we saw plenty of those. Here's one picture I took of those beautiful birds:

Oh, and there was a couple of new experiences in store for Rocío as well on this trip: her first icicle and of course since it was easter - mämmi! Take a look:

A little check-up

2007-03-06T13:22:00.000+01:00

Hola de nuevo!

So, as the title says, I thought it would be a good time for a little check-up at this point. A couple of months have passed since the first posts, and slowly yet inevitably the summer is getting closer and closer... In November there wasn't much sight of winter and it already started to gloom in our minds if we were going to see one this year at all. But no worries, sure as anything, in January and February we got to spend Rocío's first proper Finnish winter in the -20 to -30 degrees Celsius weather and got to try some of the traditional finnish winter activities like "pulkkamäki"... go and figure what that would be in english?! Another new thing is also that Rocío moved in with me from the beginning of February, so we already know what it is to live together before going for it in Spain. So far, things are looking peachy :)

Now come March, and you can feel the spring in the air - suddenly the sun is shining a lot more, warming up both the air and the people and melting what "little" snow we had this year. And by the time the first leaves appear in the trees, I should be well prepared to shake the dusts of this country off of my shoes, figuratively speaking. The actual day we'll be traveling isn't set just yet, but the week is going to be nr. 29 for sure. Soon we should book the flight I guess :) Just today we also got confirmation that me and Rocío will be able to travel to Spain together, which is a very nice thing. Earlier we were a bit unsure if it is necessary for her to go and take care of some paperwork regarding her exchange year before I'll be able to go...

They say, that an embassy is a piece of the country it represents on a foreign soil. If so, then on the day after tomorrow -Thursday- I'll be taking my first steps on the "Spanish ground" as I travel to Helsinki to put in an application for a N.I.E.-number (Número de Identidad de Extranjeros) at the Spanish embassy. That number will be my identity number in Spain and is needed to do things like opening a bank account, buying a car or for doing paperwork with different officials. It is possible to apply for this number when you are already in the country, but I prefer to do it beforehand via the embassy, so that there won't be any delays taking care of things when arriving to Spain. Another thing to do while going to Helsinki is to drop in an application to the Autoliitto-office (the automobile union of Finland) for an international driver's license.

Tomorrow on Wednesday, a Spanish friend of Rocío's will come to visit us for a couple of days from Dublin where she is spending her exchange year. The trip to Helsinki, besides being a short, yet welcome change from the daily grind to us, is also a good opportunity for her to see the capital of Finland. And for me, despite the several occasions I've been in contact with Rocio's friends or family with internet-calls or via webcam, this visit will be the first time I meet any of them "live".

So, besides people I've heard a lot about becoming "real", or official things like the N.I.E. and whatnot, some other things are making the move more concrete too. I've decided to put my car on sale here in Finland at the end of March. It's not exactly what I want to do, since there would be alot of use for the car during the summer, but it's necessary to have enough time to sell it before going. I've also been scouting a replacement for the car in Spain, and have already found one very interesting. If necessary and possible, I'll have someone purchase the car for me before I go there myself. My home is also missing some things already... so far I've sold my couch, some loudspeakers, cd-towers, most of my dvd's etc. Some things you'd like to hang on to, but when you let them go it's a surprisingly nice feeling to lighten the "load" :)

That's it for now, I'll write more when there is more to write... I'll end this post with some photos of Finland, for people abroad to see how it is like, and for me to remember when I go :)

Nos vemos!

From the winter time:

And from the past summer:

Places

2006-11-27T13:47:00.000+01:00

The city we are moving to is Ciudad Real in Castilla La Mancha. It is situated in the central Spain -around 200km south of Madrid- and is the capital of the province bearing the same name, which means "Royal City". The population of the city is around 65000 inhabitants (though students raise this number to around 100 000) and it's said to be a growing long-distance commuter suburb of Madrid, thanks to the high-speed train connection between these two cities making the time needed for the travel less than 50 minutes.

Ciudad Real homepage

Here are some pictures from Ciudad Real, taken by Maria-Isabel (gracias!)

Above: The substitute for Sputnik???

Presentation

2006-11-27T10:21:00.000+01:00

Hola y bienvenido! Hello and welcome! Moikka ja tervetuloa!

This is the blog of a finnish boy who met a spanish girl who came to Finland for an exchange year in the summer of 2006. In the summer of 2007 after the exchange year is over, we'll head towards Spain together and that's what this blog will be about. The main reason for writing this journal is to share the experiences to come with my family and friends, but since this is my first blog-attempt ever, it remains to be seen what will eventually turn out of this.

The starting point of this blog -the present time- is a month or so before christmas in the late 2006. What in the beginning was merely an abstract idea of going to Spain, has over the months become more and more concrete. It's still a long way to go before the actual day of departure, but things have started to happen and take shape. And I have to say, this kind of migration to another country does take some planning and adjusting to go smoothly - both from practical and emotional standpoint ;)

So dear reader, I welcome you (and whoever else is/are peeking over your shoulder) to read my blog and hopefully find something of interest.

Here's some links about anything spanish that I've found useful:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spain
http://www.wordreference.com/
http://spain.info/
http://www.renfe.es/
http://espanja.org/
http://www.mir.es/
http://www.mapa.es/
http://www.coches.net/
http://www.audisport-iberica.com/