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Published: February 26th 2009
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Coffee!
My high tech coffee making equipment. A good first night in Finland! My room was quiet, the bed was very comfy and they don't overdo it with pillows. I stuck with the pillows I had, even though they offer a "pillow menu" that I'll experiment with later.
Well, first thing I got the coffee going... Like my trip to Australia the in-room coffee consists of instant coffee or tea and a hot pot. It's funny how European instant coffee is better than most American brewed coffee.
The shower is definitely workable, not stereotypical European where you have to squat, sit, whatever while you wrestle around with your shower-on-a-hose. This is on a hose, but it has an adjustable holder to turn it into a normal shower. Now Dave has a tub/shower in his twin bed room, my king bed room only has a standup shower. The whole bathroom is tiled with a raised barrier to the living space; the shower is just sunk a bit down from the main bathroom level. Basically you can soak down the whole place and not worry about a thing other than wet socks.
Another interesting note is that the faucets all have a little red button. The sinks
Faucet
Don't push the red button! have steaming hot water, like brewing coffee hot, in most all faucets, but you can't get to it unless you depress the red button. Then you can turn the faucet further to hot.
All cleaned up and ready, I headed down to breakfast. Good bread, cereal, coffee, tea and the usual... Now the not so usual... Pickled herring, onions and hardboiled eggs slices. Assorted cold cuts, e.g. salmon loaf, cheese, salami, tomatoes, greens... Good, just unusual. Although I hear they do this in Germany too. I wasn't sure if it's for breakfast or to pack a lunch... Seems as though it's for breakfast. We leave too early for work to get the hot breakfast, but maybe I'll report on that someday when I get it.
The drive to work wasn't too bad, took just over an hour. I'll save you all Dave and my bitching about the Prius... I think I'll review it after the rage over it's shortcomings passes. Lots of changing speed from 80 to 100, back to 80, wait... 100 now... You get the idea... All in the dark so I can't comment on the scenery.
Work went well the first day, met at
Shower
Note the red button ;) the gate to get vehicle passes and visitor badges. Once inside got a nice office, computer works, need to get the printer mapped, got a phone... It's just like home. Nothing too exciting from work today, just the usual meet n' greets and settling in. Seems like a great bunch of guys to work with.
Drive home went easy too... Had some light so took a couple pictures of the scenery. It's beautiful, Lots of tall pines, frozen lakes and snow. Got back to the Holiday Inn, put the bags away, finished up some work emails and then met Dave in the lobby to head to dinner...
Decided to try a place close to our hotel, Ravintola Myllarit. Note for the uniformed: Ravintola = Restaurant in Finnish. Nice place in an old brick building and the menu had a relatively French theme. I chose one of their "menus" that had an escargot starter, a peppersteak filet main course and a chocolate cake dessert. All was incredible, I paired the escargot with an Australian Semillon... Note here that the escargot was extremely hot and I scalded the roof of my mouth, but I don't blame the chef... It was
Driving
My gorgeous drive to/from work. That's right, be jealous. my own reckless eating 😉 The filet was cooked perfectly... Just like my reindeer last night, it seems if you order medium-rare you actually get medium-rare, how novel! I paired the steak with a hearty Chilean Malbec... The Malbec lasted thru to my dessert and I was reminded again how much I love dark chocolate and heavy red wine. Dave ordered the goat cheese soup with tomato and steak (beef filet) on top of some garlic mashed potatos. Overall a great meal, we'll have to go back.
Not much to the night after that... Room, bed, sleep...
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