Last Workdays and Midsummer Week :3

It's midsummer's day here in Tampere, Finland - sunny, all the shops and restaurants are closed, public life is dead and most people are sleeping off to recover from a wild drinking-party night. That's a good opportunity to take a rest, sit down and write about these last days and my feelings about them.
In short, I feel glorious! - but here's the reasons why and more detailed explanations and stories:

Thursday was the last day at work. Enkku's closed for summer holidays and when it opens again in August, I won't be there anymore. Many families brought presents for us teachers, which is, I think, not really common in my own home country, but maybe it's because this is a private day care place, so the relationship between workers and families are sort of closer. I did my best to devote enough time to each and every child before saying the last goodbyes and I'm so grateful and happy that I had the chance to come to this specific kindergarten to spend this schoolyear at. The final day seemed so short and before I knew it, the last one of the children was picked up. I feel like I didn't quite realize it until the moment I stepped out through the main door for the last time, but I did well holding back the tears that fought a battle to fill my eyes. Saying goodbye is always the hardest the more you enjoyed what's come to an end, but instead of looking back too much, I have to direct my eyes forward, for I still have a lot of plans for the summer, many beautiful experiences to take delight in and eventually coming back to visit Enkku and it's people once again. :)

Yesterday was also Midsummer Evening here in Scandinavia, which pretty much meant - drinking. A little bit like Vappu, but more of a private thing and most people were heading somewhere to the north to their "mökki".  As a matter of fact, I don't have one of these summer cottages on my own, so I headed to a beach in Pispala with some friends, equipped with enough to drink and a spoonful of party mood, where there was maybe the only public happening. Lots and lots of Tampere people gathered in front of the lake (Pyhäjärvi), sitting on blankets, going swimming, listening to some bands playing and drinking, drinking, drinking. Midsummer is, except for Vappu, most probably the only time in the whole year that you will be able to see Finnish people singing at the bus stop (and quite skilled that is!) and strangers just coming up to you talking and inviting you to even join them!
Time moved on and soon it was evening. Busses were cut down so much that the last bus was running at 23:30, but due to heavy drinking and partying plus the fact that the sun was still high up in the sky, it felt kinda unreal and you tended to loose all your sense of time. By any means, it was a great night - thanks to Christin, Jani, Nele and Guille and all the other people that I didn't know!

In addition, the best host mother ever and her cute daughter came home from 3 weeks of holidays on legendary Hawaii - and they brought the mood along with a lot of souvenirs with them! Decorations, food and oldschool music playing keep the ambience of this tropical island still lingering in the house.

"Thank you again, Mirkka, for the beautiful dress and accessory! <3 You are the best!"

Also, my return flight home is booked now - travel time 15.07.
Just a couple of days after my departure from Finland there will be a barbecue party of some old classmates and good friends awaiting me. Furthermore, my family annouced a big "Welcome back"-happening and I will accompany my sister and her friend to Vienna for a couple of days, so I have a lot to look forward to even then. ^o~

What's left to be done is - of course - seize every chance of experiencing some more of Finlands peculiarities, enjoying Tampere during 3 weeks of holidays and maybe travelling some more!

In a nutshell, I feel quite ecstatic in consideration of every moment of these last 10 months and my plans for the next one to come, so proud and amazing! Here's a super big heavy thanks to everyone involved in making this possible!! <3

Lovex @ Klubi, 14.06.2013

Now with that, I can say that I've seen every band that I was hoping for this year in Finland, except for Apocalyptica :3
So close to my return flight home, it came around quite unexpected that they announced the gig under the title of "Rock the Sky", which also included Frail and Superscar, but then all the more I was looking forward to it and quickly got a ticket at Swamp Music Store.
Thirza joined me, equally happy, since her departure is even closer. In front of the entrance doors we also met two German girls that turned out to be on holidays in Finland (hahaha of course I'd again meet Germans, just as it is at almost all the gigs I go to here in the north xDD ), but they were really nice and we already made plans to meet again!

(left - right: Thriza, me, Lily, Juliane)

Lovex is rather popular, even in the southern countries, so we were expecting kinda big thing with lots of people, but Finland being Finland, we ended up standing in the front line as the first of the 3 bands, Frail, was playing - along with 2 other guys!! There were some more sitting on the tables in the room, but that was it! Our new German friends were especially mindblown by that, as everyone knowing how things are going when Lovex comes to their country (also about the fact that every now and then some of the main band's member were in the room too, listening to the other bands!), but we were having our fun anyways! At least then, it wasn't difficult to keep the place. ;)
Also the music was quite good and when the second band, Superscar, started their show, even a handful of more people came xD Thirza had the best time of us all, even more when the singer realized that we were talking in a different language and continuously began to talk in English.
At the point where Lovex entered the stage there were at least about 30 people standing beside and behind us, but still so insufficient for the fact that it was actually them playing after almost one year of break. At any rate, the gig itself was awesome and soon we were carried away by the music, unable to give a second thought to the amount of listeners in Klubi. They played many of their most popular songs, along with some old and some new ones. Inbetween they played covers, changed instruments and had some acoustic versions as a surprise. Julian even left the drums and grabbed a guitar. And we rocked and rocked and rocked and rocked...until it was over ;P

So what I brought home from the gig was a setlist, a bunch of photos both from the concert and with the band members and a great amount of fantastic memories. Kiitos paljon Lovex!

 And here's some exclusive news: When I talked to Jason, he told me that after the shows at a couple of festivals here this summer, there will be a change in the live acts of Lovex! So, whatever it is, be prepared for some sort of surprise. (:

Sauna Open Air 2013 @ Ratina, Tampere \m/

From the very first moment I set foot on Finnish grounds it was a sure thing that I'd go to Sauna in summer! After all, it's one of the biggest Metal Festivals here - and it was a blast! (despite some complications concerning my ticket, which happened to get lost in the streams of northern waters >.< )

So on Saturday I left the house all geared up for headbanging non-stop and went to the festival area, accompanied by Mizuki (kyaa, so great to have you here again!! /(= > v < =)/ )

Háha that guy on the left side sort of photobombed us xP

Super big thanks also to Mizuki for the most awesome Japanese birthday presents!! <3 ありがとうございました！

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And after meeting Children of Bodom... ( >:P dear David, from the very beginning you never had a chance to win this bet)
...it was Egokills and Stratovarius that heated up the two stages. I've never listened to these bands before, so I didn't know them, but they did quite a good job:

Next was Children of Bodom's turn. Yeah, one of those that I was definitely looking forward to and they offered nothing less than a breathtaking concert:

We were standing pretty close to the stage and suddenly people were forming a moshpit pretty much around us xD

They were then followed by Opeth and Finntroll. We decided to get some water and sat to the stadium seats while Opeth was playing their first songs. Thanks to the fact that Finnish people often aren't all crazy about standing in the first rows at gigs, it was quite easy to still get rather close to the stage again.
Finntroll's gig was like a huge party and take a look at the awesome makeup and the fancy elf ears:

Last band of the day then happened to be Nightwish. Hearing this and that opinion about Floor Jansen to replace Annette, I was really curious about this one. Some say that it sounds like Nightwish again, because her voice resembles more Tarja's, while others think that it can't be good anymore without Annette - and after all, Nightwish was the band that introduced me to Metal music, as they were the first one I ever listened to. Nightwish was clearly focusing on playing more of the older songs, which was in my eyes the best decision, since Tarja's pieces fit her voice a lot better than Annette's, but after listening to them live, being carried away by the melodies and memories and even having sent shivers down my spine at +25°, I cannot possibly say that Floor is unfitting for Nightwish:

Plus they had flamethrowers and fireworks at the end!!

At the end of the day we were all done and happy to fall into our beds to gather energy for the second day.

Mizuki left to Lehtimäki and I went again, this time with my Au Pair girls Thirza from the Netherlands and Anna from Greece.

Next band playing I didn't know either, only a friend of mine recommended them to me - here we go - Stam1na:

It was kinda crazy to see the stage decorated Hawaiian-style and then the band entered dressed in these hula skirts and started to play fast Finnish Thrash Metal xD

Next in schedule was Hardcore Superstar, Rock from Sweden. Compared to the previous ones, this band was playing music from an entirely different genre and it was all the more an interesting change in the day.

At some point, they decided that they'd need some girls on the stage. In order to fight against this lack, they picked 2 girls from the crowd, called them on stage, drank with them and then let the show go on with the two of them still there xD

And there were Sabaton and Volbeat. Kiveen really recommended me to see Volbeat live and that's what I did - truly great! As for Sabaton, just as expected after the gig at the end of last year in Pakkahuone, they were probably the most enthusiastically welcomed. Once again, it was proved that Tampere people love the band as much as Sabaton loves Tampere and it's citizens. 

And with that, one of the most exciting weekends that I've spend here in legendary Tampere came to an end.   If by any means it's possible, I will come back next year to rock this festival once again! \m/