different this time.

I have gotten myself to Riga. This time, the plane was filled with annoying semi-drunk Fins. To experience the difference, get on a community bus 7 in the morning and enjoy the silence. These guys however were loud and tested the nerves of the cabin crew. We however made it to Riga airport and I got to my hostel. The "naughty squirrel" hostel is a lot smaller than franks, and thus, has less people. It thus is also calmer (apparently). My first impression was ok. I'll present more scrutiny at a later time. One thing that does bother me is the noise from the back yard to which I have my window, there are cooling units there that make a lot of noise. I fear they will disturb my night sleep. And I left my earplugs at home thinking I would not need them. Bad move.

Riga again!

I was so impressed with the Baltics, and Riga in particular that I decided to go there again. And match my timing with an ongoing mini-YSA conference (YSA stands for young single adults and refers to singles in the age group 18-30). Mini-conference means that it will be quite short, just overnight. YSA conferences in Finland are usually 3 days, and the big ones (Festinord) can be 5 days long. But I will arrive a day early and leave a day late so that I can see some more sights. I in particular want to see the Palac Kultur of Riga, the one in Warsawa was pretty cool. I might do that on early friday. Who knows. Also, I am staying one night in the tried and proven fantastic franks hostel. But I also will spent one night in the "naughty squirrel hostel", it's got superb ratings. I got to try it out. Right now, I have yet to get done with my packing, get train tickets (I'll do that tomorrow before departing), fix a place to stay on sunday night and get rid of my perishables (eat themm not throw), this last mentioned will be a hard task. The pictures shows maps, money of different kinds, memory cards, flashlight (good and well proven maglite 2D led), passport... I love my flashlights, they are reliable in peace and emergency alike! More loyal than a dog :)

Desparate problems need desparate actions

I had a problem with my bike, i first notices something was wrong in the summer, and it's been getting worse for all the time. I finally decided it's time to take action. I have allen-keys, spanners and some other tools at home, but that's not what i needed. However, the local fire station is an array of tools including what i need. And after a couple of times just trying to fix it, i realized that i need a new spare part. Said and done, one day i ran my bike down to the station, took the part that needed to be replaced off, then made a run up to the bikestore (1,5 km) with the part, showed it to the guy in the store and bought a similar one, and ran back down, did the replacement (it took a lot of patience and hard work to replace it). But then it was all nice! I thought.

The same friday evening, I was going back home from outreach when I felt something wasn't quite right. It appeared just like before, I thought "Oh no, it broke already" And I was getting ready to either storm into the bikestore and accuse the guy of selling worthless spareparts on monday morning or just buy a whole new bike.

I did however stop to investigate, it turned out a vital bolt was quickly coming loose, I apparently did not tighten it enough while preforming the repairs. It was off the firestation again. After a few attempts to do some makeshift repairs without tools just to be able to ride there, I realized that just have to walk with it, it was close to 2 km of a walk. And snow was falling down. Once at the firestation I noticed that the bolt was gone! It was friday evening, my local bikeshop was closed and would be so untill

monday morning. I didn't know where I could get a new bold from. I left my bike and my helmet there and grabbed my maglite to look it the bold would be around. I decided to follow my path a little bit, nothing around. So I decided to go untill the traffic lights, I looked very carefully, small rocks and leaves were turned to make sure they where not bolts. At the traffic lights, I decided to trace my path just a little longer... and a little longer. After some point, I just decided to go all the way. The chance of finding it was slim, but without searching, the chances where astronomical. It's not like I had any more important things to do right then. The layer of snow covering the ground as well as possible bolts was getting thicker all the time but I kept going. The last point where I knew the bolt was still in place was as far as I was going to go. And guess what, it was found just after the point where I had decided to start walking. I picked it up, walked back and fixed it. Stubborn often wins :)

While this picture is of terrible quality, it shows the snow, the biketrails and footsteps. I walked some 6 km back and fourth there.

Living within our means.

The blog itself starts further down. I'll however explain what is shown: 1. Sugar cookies. 2. Semi-american pancakes. 3. "Finska klumpar" 4. Scone-batter on the plate just seconds from entering the burning inferno within. 5. The ready supposed-to-be scones.

Now, on with the text itself.

One principle that is taught in within our church is to live within our means, or in other words: Do not spend money that you don't have, save up some extra money for unexpected situations. And more specifically, we're thought to not get in debt unless we really have to (e.g. take a loan on a house might be acceptable, but getting a huge loan to build a swimming pool and to go on a great long trip might be less wise).

I was fortunate to get a summer job for the summer, many weren't. But rather than getting a well payed job at a factory, I was selling paint. Great job, but it's not by far as well paid. As a result, I now have less money than I usually have, and I decided it's time to spend less and save up (so that I still have money to special things).

Part of this has been to spend less on food. I have been eating macaronis more and try to eat at school every day; Good diverse food that contains all I need for the day to a cheap price, and then live cheaper off at home. It just so happened to be that I have a lot of macaronis at home :)

One part of this has been to bake my own things when I feel I want a little extra something, and I wish to expand upon this subject. First I went to an excellent web page filled with recipes for cookies and biscuits [www.bakakaka.se] I looked for anything that could be made with the available ingredients, I found out that most things wanted either baking powder or eggs, I had no baking powder and my eggs where 4 months old, so the only thing that I would do with them was to throw them out. I however found one recipe for something called "Finska pinnar", I would need eggs and big-grained sugar for decoration, but if that simple unculinary step was disregarded, it was just butter, sugar and flour and into the oven. The name "Finska pinnar" means "Finnish sticks", I however didn't feel like making sticks, I just made small slightly flattened balls out of the batter, and I've decided to call them "Finska klumpar" i.e. "Finnish lumps".

When talking to my mother on the phone, she convinced me that buying baking powder and eggs would be a good idea. And so I did. Next up, I made raisin cookies, they contain butter, flour, sugar and ... baking powder, along with raisins for added feature. I made them, and while they were a little to long in the oven, they probably are the best thing I have made in weeks (unless we count pancakes and crepes).
Since I lack a deciliter-measuring cup, I use my "well trained engineers eye", to approximate the amounts needed, I ended up with extra "flour-sugar-baking powder mix" and I decided to make pancakes out of that, since there was baking powder and sugar in it, it was on the road to american pancakes, I added eggs as a moderator and the result was semi-american pancakes instead.

And lastly and most freshly, I caught a recipe for classical scones from [www.scones.se], I decided to make half a batter rather than full, since it's my and only me on this, it was a good idea :D With no deciliter cup and my t-spoon in a box under my bed, I put to much baking powder compared to everything else. So I could tase that when eating the finished product. Also, my butter is running low. And that's an expensive investment... we'll see what I do next. But so far, I have been happy about my baking-creations. The scones where a happy product, the baking powder taste didn't ruin them, but I know what to be more carefull with next time.

Ok, I'm going to leave travelling to the side, I'll get back to it if I ever find the inspiration. But now, my live goes on. And next up: I am going to keep a presentation about my 2 years in Greece to a school audience, the purpose is to inspire other students to go on exchange studies.

The difference however is that I didn't go on exchange studies to Greece, I went there as a missionary. And I am a bit worried about the whole deal, how will they all react when I expose to them that I have been proselyting my religion for 2 years. Due to the religious taboo we have, I have been reluctant about telling them, a few have been told and another few know parts of the story. I have prepared a nice presentation, it does not focus on missionary work as much as it does on all around it and how I got to get used to greece, the language and culture etc. And I mark some emphasis on the charity actions we did.
Bottom line, I am a bit worried, probbly not as bad as I fear. But I did ask God for strenght about this thing.

Food and liberty

The picture shows the statue of liberty in downtown Riga, during the soviet times. Anyone who laid flowers at the base of the statue got a one-way ticket to Siberia. The statue was preserved thanks to the artist being quite famous in the Soviet Union.

I didn't update the blog that much during my trip because it wasn't possible to post pictures to the blog via my mobile phone.

So, I'll rather make a summary, in steps.

Food in Riga/Latvia.

I noticed that they have yogurt in bags rather than bottles and jugs, they do have them as well, but for larger commodities the bag is the option. I'll search trough my pictures and put it up here. I decided to start out cheap by buying bread, yogurt, liverpaste and more something to drink. I also noticed that milk is available in such bags.

Riga to Tallinn

on thursday I ended up visiting the war museum and made a very short visit to the occupation museum, my visits to the railroad museum and the firefighting museum didn't come to pass. It can be mentioned that they lie further away and probably had an entrance fee. But I went to Jurmala, there I had a dip in the ocean and at the town in Majori. I had a local church member along as guide and company. Afterwards we had a long walk in Riga. The problem was me wearing flip-flops, my other shoes weren't any better, since I took the wrong ones on my feet as I embarked on my journey. So my legs, feet and especially knees hurt A LOT. Long story short, on friday morning I took the early bus to Pärnu and this is where I am now.

Riga

It turned out to be a little complicated to add pictures straight here from my phone. So, the one from the airport was uploaded to facebook and then used web-transfer to add here. I'll just add some afterwards when I get back home. ...enough of the technical details.

I've been quite amazed with Riga, it's a very nice city. I've been equally amazed with the Hostel, it's totally super! It's noontime on tursday now, and I'm about to embark on a little journey to some museums now, what I can manage to get done before it's off to the beach at 1:30. Yesterday evening, I met up a church member that I knew from before, and today I'll probably meet up with her again and anothe member that I also know. I'll have to enjoy the day, because it's my last. I'm taking the buss to Parnu tomorrow morning.

I got to Riga, Ryanair wasn't that bad after all. Just cheap ya know. And my impression if Riga is all good so far, even if I haven't seen very mucn of it yet. Once in the bus i took out my map and followed the route. It was fairly easy to follow the route of bus 22. And I was happy to noticed that we stopped at the RMR works :) The hostel is really nice and I found some people to talk to right away, people with whom I've been talking till now. I'm was really hungry, I ate before I got on the train, that would be at around 14:00, after that an apple on the train and a sandwich at the train station in tampere. But these people were kind enough to offer me some bisquites as well, to slightly calm my stomach. But I'll seriously go and buy some food tomorrow.

Welcome to ryanair

The Norea bank in town didn't deal Latvian currency because the rate is to unstable. I say cheap suckers, I'll use another bank next time. Next up, I only found a map of Tallinn, the country maps were all sold out. I'll manage any way. So all that done I've done the trainride and I am now on the bus. It displayed the text "ryanair", the driver was very fast, he only stopped for a minute, no waiting for anyone that might not have been outside. I instantly got the feeling that ryanair indeed was very cheap in their ways.
Oh and by the way. i managed to leave my home with the wrong shoes on my feet. I might have to do some shopping.
Since it wasn't that long since I published the last post, I'll just add to it. I got to the airport checked in and I am now waiting. Takeoff is in one anda half hour and terminal 2 is very small, it took me 2 minutes to look trough the shop. So now I'll just wait.

4 hours left.

Ok, it's the morning of the day I'm going. I have to go to town, get some foreign currency and look for good maps. I have a map of Riga, but I'd like something of Estonia and Latvia. I haven't packed my things yet either. 4 hours till my train goes.
My train ticket, plane, hostel in riga and boat ticket is all booked.

I am certanly very amused!

A group of people, members from church, went to an amusement park today. The name of it is Power Park, it's a bit weird since it's located in the middle of nothing. There's a small town around, but that's it. But it has a lot of cool rides and is within comfortable travelling distance from several cities since it's located in the middle. We had been planning to make this trip for quite a while and now we did. I haven't been to power park before. I had a blast. I have two favourite rides: The big wooden roller-coaster aka "Thunderbird" and the big blue roller-coaster aka "cobra". If you go there, you certanly know what I am talking about! The picture shows me and a girl in a ride, and the cobra roller-coaster in the background. The webadress is: www.powerpark.fi

Other than that, countdown for my baltic trip continues, I've booked my hostel now as well :)

Travelling to the Baltics.

Right, so I am planning to visit the Baltics, I've been to Estonia twice, and my visit time last summer was a real eye-opener. Estonia was really great, and now I'm planning to go visit again, and also to feel a little of the other Baltic countries. I will fly in to Riga, and then do it backpacking style, but I'm afraid there won't be time to visit Lithuania this time. I fly out Tuesday evening and I have to be back for an appointment on native soil on Monday.

I have ordered my airplane ticket with Ryanair , but other than that it's still open.
Man, I hate booking Ryanair, Blue1 is much nicer, and still really cheap. I wouldn't be surprised if I have to pay another 200 at the airport because I messed up or missed something while buying the ticket.

Below is my preliminary plan:
I come in on Tuesday evening, plan to stay 2 full days in Latvia, sleeping at a hostel in Riga. One day to explore the "further aways" and one day to get acquainted with the city, I have made contact with some members of my church there, and one has suggested to show me a few things in Riga.

The following morning I'd take a bus to Pärnu, watch the city for a bit and then take the evening train to Tallinn. Then I'd spend a couple of days in Tallinn. So, that's the plan. We'll see how it turns out in reality, I plan to keep a travellers blog here. Stay tuned.

This is it.

First, I will introduce myself. I am a 27 year old male student. I live on my own. I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints, commonly known as the Mormons or the LDS church www.lds.org

I don't know how it is in other parts of the world, but in Finland. Religion is very much taboo, one does not speak religion here. One is expected to drink alcohol, have sex and not go to church. Mine is the very other way around. I don't drink, in my belief sex is reserved for marriage and I do go to church, pretty much every Sunday. I am not going to start deciphering my belief, but rather just go trough life trying to be a saint in a world that expects me to be something else. I have no idea what this will turn out into being, I just started.

M. Russell Ballard encouraged me to do this, and so I did!