Ion Ciorici

During the past week there were not so many gay events in Stockholm, except the Quarnevalen .
Quarnevalen is kind of Scandinavian Rio de Janeiro carnival, the only difference is that you don’t see nicely dressed Brasilian ladies, but strange Swedish students from Royal Institute of Technology, still there were some exceptions :

More pictures HERE

Oh yeah I forgot about the Olympic stadium from Helsinki, quite a nice place…

front of the medal:

back:

The following weeks: exams, projects, presentations, work - see you in 2 weeks!

Our group for one of the projects

Maybe the main reason I agreed to go to Finland is because Finland is the motherland of the most weird events. You won’t believe what the Finns are up to when it comes to weird annual events, contests, and similar activities…and so here they are, the world’s weirdest events!

1. Wife Carrying World Championships
Each summer, this weird event in Sonkajärvi, Finland, becomes more and more popular. The wife-carrying contest has been at a world championship level for over 13 years now.

2. World Cell Phone Throwing Championships
Finland is the home of cellphone manufacturer Nokia, but it is unclear if they have anything to do with this weird event. Ever wanted to throw your phone? Join the World Cell Phone Throwing Championships taking place each August in Savonlinna, Finland.

3. Ice Swimming Events
Whether in the nude, or clothed, ice swimming is popular in Finland. There are events in many areas. So whether you’re looking for a quick ice-cold shock, or nude beaches in Scandinavia, Finland is the destination for you!

4. World Cup in Snowshoe Football
Finland also has football! No, not the regular kind, but the unique kind: Snowshow Football.

5. Finnish Sauna World Championships
Not quite as weird as other annual events in Finland, the Sauna World Championships test how long the competitors can tolerate a humid 110º Celsius in a Finnish sauna.
Perhaps the Finish sauna, is their sole contribution to human life as of today (except of course, nordic walking and the totally useless Nokia ). Some like to say that the Sauna really comes from Russia, but don’t be silly: everyone knows the only thing the Russians ever came up with is the AK-47.

Before describing the trip to Helsinki, I will present some fact about this lovely country:

* One of the most successful countries in the Eurovision Song Contest.
* Finland’s natural resources are composed mostly of non-vegetative soil, prairie, and cell-phone minutes.
* The climate in Finland is pleasant and temperate. During summers it rarely snows and during winters it doesn’t rain so much.

Government:
Bureaucratic Demorcratorship.
Official language:
Undecipherable with lots of unpronounceable vowels.
Location:
Far away from USA, so far from Japan, quite a long way from Cairo, lots of miles from Vietnam, but it´s there.
National anthem:
The Nokia Tune and any HIM song.
Currency:
present day EU rubles, before that Säkkiwulesi, ihQseteli and flying squirrel skins.
Population:
Maybe a bit over 1000, nobody cares.
Exports:
Saunas, Love Metal, snowboards, Lappi, Turunmaa, Jarkko Ruutu, Vowels.
Imports:
Russian vodka, African husbands, Russian wives, Beer, Used German cars.
Kings:
0.001 %

I guess to many facts and now some pictures:

It seems that in Finland everybody used to be or is a sailor-man, so this leads to another Finish record - the highest number of hats per capita

My impression is that people are not so conservative and cold as it is stated in all crappy cross-cultural literature.
They are actually very friendly, all the time ready to help and give a hand for the people in need:

They will listen to you very carefully and also provide time for retort:

will make you company and serve with cold Finish beer:

For a while I thought that I am actually in Georgia or Ukraine when seeing all those demonstrations for the 1st May:

I guess the best word, which describes the last week is spontaneous random adventure . It started with a peaceful Monday morning in Sweden, but ended with less peaceful late nights somewhere in the Baltic Sea

Monday - Tuesday

My responsibilities at my old new job are becoming more significant and more varied so that on Monday and Tuesday I was appointed as the official paparazzi of the that mysterious company . The only thing remains to increase the salary for this risky and hazardous job . Monday and Tuesday were really busy, full of meetings, quarterly reports and so on. I guess the purpose of these meetings is to accentuate that the main reason for being successful is not because we have a strong and tall CEO , but actually it’s because of us, every employee who is making the company more successful day by day. To motivate us for better results and to perceive this successful first quarter, our manager reserved a small boat and invited us to go for a short-long trip to a nice and lost island.

After some traditional Absolut Swedish food:

we were ready for some tango moves

since it was a natural park, alcohol was forbidden and everybody respected this rull

even the exclusive RAMBO :

More pictures from this event - HERE

Wednesday

after the boat trip on Tuesday and not drinking any alcohol you may imagine how motivated I was to work . Life is Sweden is so spontaneous and unpredicted, that I am not surprised anymore.
This time Mr. Mallon called me:
Mallon: hey Ion, what are your plans for the next 2 hours?
Ion: 2 hours or 2 days ?
Mallon: how about to take the ferry and go to Finland?
Ion: ohhhh no, again alcohol

The thing is, that most of the exchange students from SSE went on Wednesday on a trip to Finland, Baltic countries and Russia. However few students cancelled the trip, so some free tickets were in the air and without any modesty I took one and the opportunity to see the country of sailor men.

The cruise-ferry

The trip took around 15 hours and you got to see how younger people party together with senior citizens and also how they play the slot machines like they’re in Vegas.

Speaking about cruise-ferry it’s a new type of ship. The enormous demand for sea travel in the Baltic (approximately 15% growth in recent years) together with the ferocious competition between the existing lines has promoted the development of so called cruise-ferry. The English word “ferry” is used to designate a ship that allows passengers and vehicles to travel from one port to another. Ferry designers always try to increase the number of passengers and vehicles, and also improve the turnaround time (loading and unloading) and the crossing time. The factors previously mentioned (demand and competition) have made the atmosphere, the comforts and the leisure activities on board more and more necessary.

So, the ship itself has become a tourist destination as important as the two ports. This has allowed the operators to increase their revenues from passenger sales and services (duty free stores, foods, casinos, etc.). This represents up to 40% of the total revenue, allowing companies to lower, or at least maintain, present prices.

It is quite unlike anything I have seen before. Normally I tend to think that to be scenic an area must have significant undulation if not mountains. Here there are none. The islands are so low that a ship like the one we were on could be spotted even if there were two islands between us and it. It is the sheer number of islands and the immense sense of peace which give the voyage its character.

And now you may ask yourself, why 25 springs on 2 boats - yes you are right , somebody just turned 2,5 years and now has the official permission to buy alcohol without showing his birth certificate