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Assi Kalliomäki
I'm a Finn who travels frequently and spends most of her holidays somewhere else than at home. I have always wanted to share my travelling experiences with my family and friends, and when I found this site I decided to start my very first travell blog. I hope you enjoy the blog and its pictures! And sorry about the delays in updating the blog entries!!Axu
Travel Blog Posts
June 7th 2009
Oh our lovely Torley sparkling.... Our most touching experience of the trip was yesterday at the State Opera House. We went to see the ballet Romeo and Juliet. One word - Breathtaking! Today the morning was sunny and warm. We headed towards Gellert Hill to see the Citadella and the view over Budapest. Strongly recommended!!! And the tip of the day: the buss nro 27 takes you to top and it leaves from Moricz Zsigmund Korter. We got to enyou the sun for a few hours until the rainy clouds... We headed back to our Hotel via Westend shopping mall. We had some sparkling and a light snack before taking a metro to another shopping mall at Buda side, Mammoth I and II. We also want to recommend a good dining place near these malls. It ... read more
June 5th 2009
Good evening from Budapest!!! I am travelling in Budapest, Hungary, with my friend Satu. We arrived today and we will leave on Monday afternoon. We had a very early but smooth flight to Budapest. We found our way to our hotel, Best Western hotel Parlament (****). It is in a great location, only about 500m from the Parlament and Danube!! It offers free Internet (yeah!!), sauna, jaguzzi, and refreshments from the bar (till 5pm). Today we walked to the Parlament and got tickets to English guided tour at 3:45pm. I have also found Hungarians very polite and friendly - the Parlament guard said to my friend "she is very nice". :) We had lunch at Biarritz Restaurant and Cafe, a nice restaurant north of the Parlament. The Parlament is worth seeing!! In one word - Gorgeous! ... read more
March 10th 2009
Thanks to Hikoro we had a unique opporturnity to enjoy Japanese hospitality at Jorengein Temple (http://web.kyoto-inet.or.jp/org/orion/eng/hstj/sakyo/jorengein.html) up in the mountain of Ohara, close to Sanzenin Temple. It is a very peaceful and beautiful place offering total relaxation to your body and mind. Jorengein Temple is located about 20 minutes walking up-hill from Ohara busstop. It is surrounded by forest and there is a small river running down the hill. It is a sub temple of Sanzenin Temple. The place has gorgeous garden and there is also a bellhouse in the garden. We took the opporturnity to ring the bell early in the morning. It was fun! The deep sound echoed in the woods and in the garden. We were the only guests staying over night and enjoyed fully the quiet temple. Our hosts were very nice ... read more
March 8th 2009
Here's some detailed information about the places we visited in Kyoto. We visited the UNESCO World Heritage site Kiyomizu Temple in eastern Kyoto. The temple dates back to 798 and its present buildings were constructed in 1633. The temple is impressive! There is a veranda supported by tall pillars and it is built by the hillside. The view of the city is breathtaking. Hiroko told us there is a popular expression "to jump off the stage at Kiyomizu". We can now surely understand what it means! The next day we visited Kinkakuji Temple, also known as Golden Pavilion. It was magnificent. The pavilion is covered in gold leaf and in sun shine it literally shines! The Golden Pavilion is a World Heritage site and is surrounded by beautiful gardens. We also spend some hours in Toei ... read more
March 4th 2009
Hello, Moved to Osaka the other day. Today and yesterday toured around in Osaka City. Yesterday we went to see floating garden at sky building (www.skybldg.co.jp). It was raining but the view with drinks was marvelous! Also did some good shopping. We were pretty tired when came back to the hotel, Weekly Mansion Osaka at Otamae. Today was a good day for tourists. Nice and sunny day. We are close to the Osaka Castle and went to see it today. Also did some shopping and hade a nice dinner. So much fun at downtown Osaka!!! Tomorrow we will go to Himeji and Kobe. love, Assi and Pekka... read more
March 2nd 2009
Hello, We are travelling in Kyoto, Japan. We arrived Feb. 27 early in the morning to Osaka international airport. Then took JR train to Kyoto City. Tomorrow we head back to Osaka and visit the city and its surroundings for the rest of the week. Kyoto is beautiful, historical, imperial city. As gorgeous as I thought it would be. We have visited several temples and shrines, all gorgeus and well worth seeing! Thanks to my friend Hiroko we had a chance to visit and spend a night in a temple at Ohara. So beautiful and peaceful place. And the dinner was so delicious. I will include pictures and more detailed information later when I get back to Finland. At the moment I am writing with a japanese keypad and it is guite hard to find all ... read more
July 31st 2008
I just realized I never finished the story of our day 2 in Romania! So, Romania Day 2 continues - on highway 13 We took highway 13 to get from Brasov to Targu Mures. Highway 13 was somewhat an adventure! The road went through numerous little villages meaning anything or anyone - horse carriage, chicken or other farm animals, stray dogs, children or cars coming from side roads, parked cars (yes, they had parked cars on the lane!) - could suddenly be on the road in front of you! The road also had some very deep ditches that could make severe damage to your car if you hit it. We also recommend, try to stay on your lane and don't swerve too much to the side of the road even though an oncoming car is driving ... read more
July 31st 2008
Romania Day 2 - Brasov We woke up to a rooster's crowing and dogs barking. I guess a typical country style wake-up call! :) It was a gorgeous summer morning. We had some breakfast at our balcony and enjoyed the warm morning sun. About 10 am we headed to downtown Brasov. Brasov has many interesting places to see and visit. We started by walking along the pedestrian street (Republicii) towards the council square. Along the street there are several small stores and restaurants. Good places for shopping and relaxing. The council square is big and surrounded by beautiful houses. One of the interesting landmarks of the town is The Black Church. This Lutheran cathedral dates back to 1477 and is the Gothic style monument of the town. The church was partially destroyed during a great fire ... read more
July 30th 2008
Romania, Day 1 We started our road trip in Romania July 30. The flight from Helsinki, Finland, took off at 10 am and about 2 hours and 30 minutes later we arrived at Bucuresti. We had rented a car, a true Romania "automobil" Dacia Logan 1.4 MDI, from Active Rent a Car (www.active-rentacar.ro). It wasn't a sports car but served its purpose and had an AC, the most wanted accessory during this hot summer season in Romania! We headed out from Otopeni airport towards Brasov. We followed the highway 1 (E60) and tried to get use to Romanian way of driving! It could be characterized as reckless, crazy and risky. It was a gorgeous sunny day. Temperature was reaching 30. The AC was truely needed! The landscape was nice; neverending weat fields, green hills and high ... read more
August 22nd 2007
Hei, Olen muuttanut taas takaisin kotimaahan! Oli haikeaa jättää hyvästit Darmstadtille ja siellä olleille kavereilleni, mutta samalla oli kiva tulla takaisin Suomeen. Seuraavat matkat teen siis taas Suomesta käsin. ****************************************************************************************************************** Hello, I have moved back to Finland! It was hard to say goodbye to my friends in Darmstadt but oddly at the same time it was nice to come back and see my friends and family in Finland. So next trips will be done from Finland. ... read more
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