Guess Who Am I

I have been quite busy lately. Xinyue was in Finland for one month and of course I wanted to take every possible freetime to spend with her. Also, in the office, I have been extremely busy. So many things are happening now at the same time that it just keeps me very busy during the days.

Xinyue enjoyed the time in Finland, we were actually also able to visit the Chinese New Year celebrations at the local university. And also we were able to spend some time in the countryside near Tampere as well time in Tampere area. There would have been so much to do but somehow the time just flew very fast. I guess it is true that time will fly when you are having fun.

She just flew to China yesterday and has arrived safely. Now there is again a distance between us in the form of physical distance and also a time difference. It will probably take some time to get used to that and remember that things are now again going to happen in two places across the world. I have to remember to start thinking about time difference.

Well, I decided to write something about the vacation in Germany. It was a good idea to spend my winter vacation somewhere outside of Finland and because it has been quite a long time since I last visited Germany and Berlin is also always a nice place then that was the choice. The trip included a visit to Münich to see the famous Disney castle, which is actually Neuschanwanstein castle.

You can see some of the photos in the gallery now. I was surprised how easily everything turned out while neither one of us actually speaks German (I know few words) but generally everything went really nice.

And of course if you are driving in Germany, you have to try the autobahns - driving very fast is always somewhat fun. I was surprised that there was unlimited speed areas still in use in certain parts of the autobahns while it was raining and the weather was not the best possible (you can see it in some of the photos, it is raining a combination of water and snow). Well, everything went really nicely and we were able to get to the castle from the airport and back to the hotel in a day.

In Münich, the hotel choice was Dorint Sofitel Bayerpost Muenchen, a really nice and very modern hotel. For example, all the elevators and doors were operated with RFID cards and elevators for example knew your floor by just reading the card. The rooms were also decorated very modern way and I must say that I was very positively surprised about this hotel. First time for me with Sofitel and definitely not the last.

I haven’t flown with Lufthansa for a very long time but now the trip contained two flights with them and I must say that while Scandinavian Airlines just seems to reduce their service level, then Lufthansa has managed to keep up their level and is providing very punctual and efficient service.

The weather in Germany was of course quite a much warmer compared to Finland and especially of that -26 Celsius degrees (-14.8 Fahrenheit degrees) cold weather, which was waiting when it was time to come back to Finland.

Short vacations in Europe are very nice and relaxing. And you can fly pretty much anywhere in Europe within few hours. Well, almost … usually you have to make a connection somewhere along the way and it brings more waiting time. But as you know, I love airports

CSSA Tampere organised the traditional Chinese New Year - this year it was February 17th. This was also the first year I attended - I must say that it was very nice party, I liked it a lot. There was a possibility to watch the CCTV New Year’s Gala and also locally there was some program arranged. As usual, it was nice to see some friends along the good food.

It is getting warmer again. I was in Germany last week, left from Finland on Saturday 3rd of February and then the weather here started to get colder during our vacation. The car was at the airport when it got really cold and when we came back on the night between Wednesday and Thursday last week it was -26 Celsius degrees (-14.8 Fahrenheit degrees).

I was walking to my car and noticed how they were taking away a brand new BMW, I guess it didn’t start or something else was wrong with it but I was thinking how it will work with my car. The car was all covered with ice and snow and doors were frozen. I tried to start the car and it actually started right away - not even a long startup time and no unstable running. So nice, it is really a winter car as they say.

I will be putting some of the vacation photos online very soon. I promise

Bugatti Veyron on display in Bugatti store.

I am enjoying some free time in Scandinavian Airlines lounge in Copenhagen before the next flight.

Here we go again. First flight to Copenhagen. Plane is in the middle of snow.

Or evening in Helsinki and in the movies

The movie was actually very good - lots of action happening most of the time and still very funny. Who wouldn’t like to see a dinosaur … and a cute one

We were the third group to see this movie, only theater owners and press have seen this before this group where we were also included. And Fazer provided the chocolate bars and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. Yummy.

I will not tell you more about the movie … it is going to promoted heavily in the next weeks and premier in Finland is 16/02. Go and watch it yourself.