New York - State Of Mind

The first day in New York City is almost behind us. It has been a long day since we arrived at the foggy JFK airport at 5:30AM ET. We got to our hostel, YMCA West Side, around 7AM without knowing that the check-in would be no earlier than 2:30PM. So, there we were with three over-weighted suitcases and three full carry-ons... Fortunately we got our bags to a storage room for the time we would be spending wondering around the city. We ended up walking for a good 7 hours and taking a few pictures of the really foggy city. We thought of going to the Bronx Zoo, 'cause their Wednesdays are free but decided to postpone it 'til next week. :) Walking around almost got us to the Eyewitness News!

After we finally got our teeny tiny room, we both just crashed and slept for a good 3 hours. Miko got both of us up and ready to go to dinner. We walked up to 80th street and walked into a restaurant called Chirping Chicken - finally a place where we could get sweet potato fries! Yummy.

So, as you can tell the first day has been pretty slow though we have still done a lot of walking. Miko just got back from the store, we'll have a relaxed night and get ready for the next 8 days of walking, walking and some more walking!


xo,
J & M

Go Salmon Kings !!

Oh !!

Almost forgot to tell you guys how fun we had for the rest of the time without spending any money!
On Saturday we got tickets from my USA cousin for a ice hockey playoff-game; Victoria Salmon Kings (from Canada) VS. Utah Grizzlies. Of course we were cheering for the Canadian team and sure were the only ones! We got really good seats too, on the third row! Got to see those nice tackles really clearly - awesome! :) Though, there was family of five sitting on the first row; parents and three boys. Oldest most have been maybe 11 years old and youngest probably 4 or 5. The kids were shouting all kinds of stupid, retard stuff at the players and the refs.. "You fat ref, get your fat ass out of my face, I'm trying to watch a game here.." and the parents were even worse. So, finally when the Grizzlies lost and the boys realized that we had been cheering for the other team they started shout all that crap at us.. There was only one comment left to say: YOU FAT FUCK, SHUT UP! We left it at that. It was a fun night though. Haha.

Here are some pictures from that night..

Without zoom

The family of five...

xo,
J & M

Farewell Salt Lake City

The last days in Salt Lake City have been pretty laid-back.





On Wednesday I took Miko to one of my favorite places in the Northern Utah, town called Park City. It's famous amongst celebrities, thanks for the gorgeous views, amazing cottages and the fact that the people let them have their space.




Near Park City is one of my favorite shopping malls, Target Outlet, including Guess, Nike, Levi's, Volcom, Vans.. We took my bestest friend, Kiara, with us too!

Me & Kiki

We spent the whole day up there and the moment we decided to hit the road and head back home, the most craziest snow-sleet-storm came in! I literally didn't see even eight of a mile in front of me, it was pretty scary to drive down the hill with all the trucks driving way over the speed limit in that weather.







Rest of the days we pretty much spent time with my (host) family.
I'm excited and sad at the same time. I feel miserable. The thought of leaving doesn't feel that bad when you know that your trip will still continue. I can't wait to get to New York!

Last night's view.

xo,
J & M

April in Salt Lake City, Utah

Utah..:)

New continent new scenery and culture.

Plane landed Thursday-Friday midnight Utah time. IT IS COLD! We're coming from 27+ to 2+ ;( Janina was happy to finally get back home, but for me it takes some time to adjust.

Salt Lake City is a lot like Texas geographically except the breathtaking mountains. The set up in the house is pretty much the same than what we had in Australia. There are 9 people living under the same roof; Janina's host parents (Marion & Alvin) and cousin (Douglas), two exchange students from Russia and Germany, two veterans and us. Oh and a one year old dog who bites everyone.

On the first day we went to Taco Bell, like I expected everything is waaay cheaper than in Australia, meal around 5-6$. Dinner wasn't that good experience at AppleBee's had a fatty sirloin stake with a cheesy prawns which added 3.50$ to the bill what the waiter must have forgot to mention!

So we went to couple malls around Salt Lake City, I never know where we are driving but it's good that she does most of the time :P We finally got to get some protein and supplements from GNC. We also started to train again at the local fitness center. At one of the malls we found a Nike factory store hence we spent almost 500$ on shoes and clothes..! :) There goes our budget...

It's getting a bit warmer in Salt Lake, around 20+ now although there's a storm coming..:(

J&M

Last Supper

Tonight is the last night of our this year's Australia trip. We're going to have a dinner with Teddy's parents and go bowling afterward. Probably we'll drink too much and miss tomorrow morning's flight. Hopefully not though, 'cause I can't wait to get to my USA home. :)

The last few days have been cloudy and rainy. Though last night was only partly cloudy and we drove up to Adelaide Hills' Mt. Lofty Summit to see the sunset over the city. The view was once again breath taking.






All of you, remember the earth-hour on March 26th at 8:30PM! We'll be watching it above Salt Lake City. :) Where will you be...?


xo,
J & M

Shark attack...

Saturday morning was Tomi's last, and it was time for pancakes! Miko got up before anyone else and prepared a really tasty breakfast. Yummy yummy! :P

After breakfast we had some champagne and a laugh. It was time for Tomi to go, so all of us jumped in a car and drove to the airport. The time at the airport went so fast that Tomi almost missed his flight! After Tomi was safely in the airplane we ran some errands and came home for a lazy night.

Sunday Me, Janina, Kati&Teddy wokeup early to do some surf up, drove about an hour to Middleton. There was lot of people surfing this morning, it was a pretty long beach. So we managed to get some surfable waves and i managed to carve a nice piece of my middle finger and what a colourful little photo we have :) Didn't hurt though so we kept surfing for a while.

Teddy, Kati & Miko

Kati on the board

Teddy on the board

Miko's finger after "shark attack"

Afterwards we headed back, but stopped couple times on the way to get something to eat and some venison meat patties for the BBQ later. After arriving home we started cooking and didn't have half the stuff so had to run to the store to get some, and while there we got an idea with my sis that we should bake a cheesecake so we shopped some more stuff from the grocery store and came back to cook and bake. Once we got home we started to make thai chicken soup, made it in a big pan so it took a while to cook. In the meantimeTeddy was cooking venison burgers on the BBQ. And we got the cheesecake in the oven before we started eating. While waiting for the cake to be ready we watched the movie 127 hours. The cheesecake came out perfect!! After the first movie was done we started the Black Swan.

xo,

J & M

The Reinforcements Leave...

Friday morning Kati and Janina went to drop off Tero,Sanna, little-Eevi and Maija to the airport. It was very emotional to see them go. :( Kati went back to work and Teddy came home with Janina because we had planned a bouldering trip over to the Bachelor's Pad.

Kati came straight from work to the pad and after an hour or so of bouldering we went off to the Scenic Hotel for a dinner. The view from the restaurant was over the city, the sky was clear and the sun was setting.

xo,

J & M

Port Adelaide

Thursday morning we woke up pretty early. Tomi had gone through Adelaide attractions book and seen a neat photo of Port Adelaide, town that none of us hadn't been yet.

We arrived in Port Adelaide around noon, spot on right before the dolphin cruise left. The cruise took 2 hours and we mostly saw only the fins of dolphins, luckily we bought lunch tickets and got something to eat - otherwise the cruise would have been kind of waste of our time.

After the cruise some of us went to see the Marintime Museum and the rest went shopping in PortMall. The mall wasn't the way we thought it would be, there was hardly any stores. The boys and Maija wanted some beer so we headed to a hotel that brewes their own beer. Before getting to the hotel we stopped at different hotel called, Railway hotel. The hotel's bar was empty, bartender stood alone behind the bar and the employee sat outside sipping coffee. Pretty laid-back employer. The bartender, Fredrick or Freddo as we call him, sat us down wanting us to taste different kind of beers, for free. He had beer that has been discontinued, but he had saved some for special occations and somehow we were one. Being the driver, I couldn't drink, so he gave me a bottle to take home. Finnish should learn from that kind of hospitality!

After the beer we Kati&Teddy @ TeaTreePlaza, did some shopping and came home for BBQ. It was the last night of Maija, Sanna, Tero & Eevi, we stayed up late, drank and had fun.

xo,

J & M

Siobhan turns 23 !

Wednesday was cleaning day we all cleaned up Kati & Teddy's place, did some laundry and took a breather and chilled in the backyard during the day. The evening Benen's wife Siobhan had her 23th Birthday. We all went to Modbury Civic park to have a picnic birthday party. We ended up having a lot of food (including feta salad, vanilla cheesecake, all kinds of cup cakes etc..) and even more alcoholic drinks like beer, spirits, white & rose wines.. The evening went past so fast and it started to get cold. Any of us didn't really have that much on, so we were forced to leave. We continued the night at the Heng resident, unfortunately without Siobhan & Benen.

Siobhan & Benen

xo,

J & M

Surf's Up Again !

After the Grampians we all took yet another trip to the beach called Moana on Tuesday. It was a long drive to the beach which turned out to be about as long as to Glenelg. This beach was so much nicer, had a nice cafe close by.

So after couple hours sun bathing, swimming in the waves and trying to surf Janina, Tomi and me went to have lunch pizza and some chicken wraps which were pretty good.

After lunch we want back to sunbathing and let other people to go and have something to eat aswell. After probably two or more hours of even more sunbathing and swimming we decided to head back for the cafe for dinner and wait for the sun set. It was beautiful but a bit cold because the wind. Had to do a small run to keep warm :)

xo,

J & M

@ The Grampians

We headed back to Grampians for the weekend, drove 8hours for a 5.5hour trip. We drove through wicked swarm of locus like a shower of rain, broken windshield wipers didn't help the situation, but we managed allright. Checked in to a nice motel with 6ppl in 2 rooms and 2 more ppl on the way. Our motel room, or Deluxe Cabin as they called it, was pretty nice and spacious. With two single beds and one queen bed, we easily fitted 4 ppl per room. Our friends, Siobhan & Benen, slept over 'cause they weren't able to find a space at the camping ground, Monday is a public holiday in most of the Australia, so surely it was crowded.

Janina tried bouldering for the first time (see picture under) and did really good, looked like a natural climber. She got two problems done on the first day and one is under progress. Miko's feet are bigger than anyone elses', so we couldn't find shoes for him. Which was sad 'cause he would have loved to boulder more. We hopefully will continue to climb and get Janina more strength for bouldering.

On the top after 30 min hike!

HOT

Teddy, Kati & Eevi

Janina almost stumbled into its net..

Mom & dad a.k.a Miko's parents left on Saturday. It was weird to see them go, after having them here for almost a month with us.

"Moi moi mita kuuluu" Teddy says. G'day mates from the land down under. What a pleasure and a challange to have Finns living with us here in Aus. I have to say I have consumed more beer and scotch in the last 3 week then I have in the last two years. I am struggling keep up but am trying to doing my best. I've had so much fun with them all. The Finnish really know how to live life. All the best for the rest of miko's and janina's journey.

^ We love Teddy!

xo,

J & M