Beach, partying and some Xtreme heat!

Wow! It is 17th of May today and I just realized that it is only two weeks and I am leaving Sevilla! TWO WEEKS! Time has gone so fast...! Well... I guess everything has to end sometimes. This time it just happens to be so far the best time in my life that ends.. All this should make me sad, but then again, the next 3 or 4 weeks are going to be the best of the best time! Let me tell you more in a bit....

But first: This week has been the hottest I've ever experienced! Ok, we did have this really hot season few years back in Finland as well, but this is even worse since it is constantly hot - day AND night.  During the day the temperature has been something around +36 in the shadow and over +40 in the sun..! During the night time, like at 12 in the night, the temperature in my room (no hopes for air conditioning) is over +31 degrees! Really easy trying to get some sleep.. and it's only middle of May!

But there are some positive sides about the sun and heat as well... Like the beach! Couple of weeks ago we went to a beach between Cadiz and Tarifa and it was really nice. Since there's no beach in Sevilla, it was actually the first time I went to have a day at the beach... and I got burn - so typical for us Finns :D Nevertheless we enjoyed the beach :)

So what's so good about the next 3-4 weeks? Well... first of all, I'm going to IBIZA tomorrow!! It is my long time dream to go visit that legendary party island and now it's about to come true! Secondly, right after Ibiza my cousin is going to come visit me for a week and most possibly we are going to Granada with some friends AND my friend from Barcelona is probably also coming there..! Granada is the one place I still want to visit here in Andalucia.

And that's only two weeks... ;) Like I said, I'm leaving in two weeks and right before I leave, our company is going to arrange a huge pool party for our interns and other people here in Sevilla. Is that the coolest Goodbye-party ever or not?! Not to mention the fact that after leaving Sevilla, I will travel in Europe for a short while and visit Barcelona again, Amsterdam (another dream come true!) and Frankfurt to see a good  friend!!

So, the BEST of the best time EVER! - I think my choice for song this time is pretty obvious....

Don't you give me the stars,

Don't you give me your love,

Don't you give me your heart,

Just give me one night in Ibiza!!

Mike Candys & Evelyn feat. Patrick Miller - One Night In Ibiza

P.S. Besides all that, the national ice hockey team of Finland just got it's way through the quarter finals of World championship tournament today beating USA just 9 seconds before the end of 3rd period! I just hope this will happen again this year:

 

Sevilla: the most Spanish city in Spain!

Okie dokie people, this time I’m going to tell you a little bit about the culture here in the city where live in. Just like I said in the post about Semana Santa, Sevilla is the most Spanish city in Spain when it comes to religion, culture and holidays. Next you’re going to find out what this actually means. Firstly the Easter week was already an example of this phenomenon, but definitely not the only example.

Few years ago bull fighting was prohibited in Catalunya – but not here in Andalusia. In here, the tradition of bullfighting lives on - regardless the people who are protesting on the streets to stop it! Bullfighting is something that is strongly connected to Spanish culture. I mean, the natives consider bull fights as art forms that are linked with their history, art and culture. Even the King of Spain has said that if EU decides to ban bullfighting, Spain will leave the EU :O

Even though I’m not in favor of torturing animals, curiosity made me want to go see it here in Sevilla. I wanted to see what’s so cool about it? Sevilla has Spain’s 2^nd oldest bullfighting arena just after the arena in Ronda. The arena is actually pretty big, it has capacity of 12,500 people and it is considered to be the most important one in the world and so it attracts the best fighters. During the bullfighting season, all seats are full every evening!

For me, the fighting was not anything special. They brought up around 6 bulls and from the 3^rd one I was already bored a bit. I mean, it was interesting, but the show was always the same and actually more interesting was to watch these 50-year-old Spanish guys show in the top shelf of the audience where they drank wine from a flagon and shouted out insolences :D Just like in Finnish ice hockey games

Anyway, I did not quite understand what was so cool about the fighting. Of course, if you haven’t ever seen ballet, you don’t understand it either, do you? It's like a guy next to me said when people were chanting: "Why he's good, I don't know." :D Well, I kind of think bull fighting as "show business butchering". Because that’s what it is: butchering the bulls. And there’s nothing wrong with the butchering part - you can even buy the meat afterwards! It's just that I think those animals could probably go some easier way...

Soy el quimico unico con la formula secreta del destino
la formula del sonido rapido en nuestro universo - galaxia
voy a mezclar ahora un liquido, quimico, toxico, acido y peligroso,
que cambiare la materia humana, ah, ah...

Ruido sintetico, sonido rapido, ruido incognito, quimico unico...
666 - Ruido Sintetico

Feria de Abril, Sevilla

Feria was something that everyone who lives in Sevilla had been talking about since I got here. “During Feria this, in the Feria that..” Actually they started to build up the Feria area for over two months before the actual happening! So I figured it’s probably quite a big party! I still didn’t have any idea what was it about. But when you think of it, party that lasts for a week is probably pretty big!

Feria de Abril is a weeklong festival, always held in April as the name tells. It’s about eating and drinking good, wearing your best clothes: all the men wear suits and ties and all the chicas wear usually the flamenco dress.

You can’t compare it to the festivals back home where everybody who lives in the city runs away while people from elsewhere come around to party. In here, EVERYBODY in the city participates the festival! For instance, if you walk in the city, everyone is dressed up! It’s unbelievable!

We decided to go and participate the party the next day. Our company naturally didn’t have any days off during the week, but we still had shorter days so that we could participate in to the festival. Actually on Wednesday, we stopped working earlier, headed out to change nice clothes and went to have a late lunch in the Feria area. It was really interesting and nice to see all that. The place was full of people, horses and tents.

Yes, tents. People can rent a tent for themselves for the week. Only the cost is at least 2000 euros for one! Usually you can’t enter a tent, if you are not invited and that makes the tents really desirable for people to get. For those people, who don’t have access to any tent, there are public tents (where to buy food and drinks). Only the prize might get pretty high! Also, there are a LOT of horses around. All the people bring their own horses from the country side and ride them in the festival. You can even buy a horse ride for yourself – if you have the money, it only costs 200 euros for one hour!

In the night time, the Feria area is more about drinking than eating. My friend even said that the Feria is the only place where you can see even Spanish girls going as wasted as their sisters back in Finland! :D The area is lit by over 300,000 light bulbs during the night time and actually the whole Feria area consumes as much energy as a city of 50,000 people. In addition to the tent area, there is an amusement park in the area! All this combined, lasting for a week, now that is a BIG PARTY!?

Make me come alive
Come on turn me on
Touch me, save my life
Come on and turn me on
I'm too young to die
Come on and turn me on
 

Turn me on, Turn me on, Turn me on, Turn me on

David Guetta Ft.  Nicki Minaj -Turn Me On (Michael Calfan remix)

Escape to the sin city, part 1: Semana Santa

Allrighty then, now I’m gonna tell you guys about my great escape from the Semana Santa in Sevilla. I started the planning when I got to know about the stuff going on here in Sevilla during the week. There was gonna be some interesting (crazy!) stuff going on and maybe a “few” people (tens of thousands!) hanging out on the streets in the centre (where I live!).

You see, Andalucía is entitled to be the most “Spanish” area in Spain. Also, it is the most religious area in Spain. And also, Easter a.k.a. Semana Santa is maybe the biggest religious festival. Of course there’s nothing wrong with being religious and stuff, but I still had to get out of the city and next I’m gonna explain why...
 

Festival of Semana Santa basically lasts for the whole week and obviously when the end of the week is coming closer, stuff gets more and more intensive. Every day there are thousands of people on the streets watching these never-ending parades going through the streets.

The parades consist of bands playing religious march music and of these HUGE structures of Santa Maria (St. Mary) carried on by dozens of men. The scariest part, however, are the brotherhoods that are also part of the parades. Basically there are hundreds of these dudes carrying candles and wearing robes. And guess what they look like when wearing those robes? The KKK my friend, it’s pretty scary!

So I was here in Sevilla until Thursday morning and actually it was interesting to see the parades go by my house. They started probably in the afternoon and kept going on until very late in the night. This thing is huge here! The guys who carry the St. Mary structures - they train for this week only for the whole f*cking year! I could see them training with these hugely heavy structures in the streets in February for example.

Anyway, all this stuff was very interesting as we don’t have anything like that in our culture.. BUT besides the fact that I’m not that religious myself and not THAT interested, I also wasn’t very keen to watch AND listen to the parades going below my balcony all day, EVERY day of the week....So I had to get away..! :D

When did punk rock become so safe?
When did the scene become a joke?
The kids who used to live for beer and speed
Now want their fries and coke
Cursing and flipping birds are not allowed,
In fact let's keep noise levels down

Must separate the church and skate!

NOFX – The Separation of Church and Skate 


PS. Would you like to know more? Here's another blogpost about the Semana Santa written by another amazed foreigner and actually I had to borrow the picture from there as well!

Unexpected meetings, Part dos!

Ok guys, you have to get used to the fact that my posts are a little bit late. There is in fact quite a lot to do here. So I don’t have so much time to write all these things after all. Quite controversial really: When nothing happens, there’s time to write, but nothing to write about. When there’s a lot happening, there’s no time to write about it! :D But yeah, let’s cut to the point, shall we..

 Couple of different ways to travel around the city centre ;)

My second week here in Sevilla was still pretty cool! I got a better hang of my work assignments and started to realize what it is all about. Besides that, I finally started to know the city a bit better. Yes it’s already my second week, but you see: I work every day with 9 to 5 basis. In addition, travelling to work takes about an hour one-way so when I get back home, there’s not much time or energy to go touring.

                

The week went by pretty fast but then on Friday I was just walking in this Plaza del Duque trying to find myself some roller skates and suddenly somebody shouts my name! I turn around and see this girl from Austria who I met the week before at Malaga (and who I told you about)! I mean, what the f*ck? What are the odds? :D Anyway, I had promised her to show around the city and so I did! We went together on this city tour that my work mate was arranging the same evening and we got to see the most famous places here in city centre!

Sevilla at nighttime, pretty nice-looking place!

The next day, on Saturday, we decided to go out to party a little bit! Some other people I got to know earlier had the same idea so we had a little party at our appartment. In the end there were a bunch of Finnish, couple of Dutch, couple of Slovenians and an Austrian so pretty international again! During the first two weeks I’ve met so many new people that I’m not even sure if I can remember them all! :D Well, at least these two Slovenian girls are worth of mentioning, they were so great! I even invited them to Finland :D And did you know that Finland leads the suicide rates in Europe, Hungary is the second and the third in this questionable race is Slovenia. Well, neither did I!

Oh, sometimes
I get a good feeling, yeah
Get a feeling that I never, never, never, never had before, no no
I get a good feeling, yeah
Avicii - Levels

Unexpected meetings… Part uno.

Allright people! I'm sorry I haven’t posted anything for a while, but I’ve been busy (yeah right!) doing things… :D Anyways, two weeks have passed here in Spain and I guess it’s time to take a little peak what's exactly been going on here, aye? Lot of this is all actually quite unbelievable, but read it yourself!

Let’s start with last weeks weekend which I already mentioned you. Just why did I end up some 200 km away from Sevilla in Malaga for just one day visit only? Well here’s what happened: a good old childhood-friend of mine from Joensuu called me during the week. I was just at work at the moment and couldn’t answer it right then. I thought: “Okay, he’s in Finland so I’ll have to get back to him when or IF I remember.” But here’s the scary part: Just the night before I had had a dream where this same friend of mine appeared! And in the dream I was supposed to meet him, but I didn’t, and he was angry for me because of that – in the dream I mean.

      The first impression of Malaga, Andalucia.           Estacion de Malaga María Zambrano

Well… after that I totally forgot about the whole episode (naturally :D). I didn’t remember it until on Friday night when I was enjoying this marvelous cerveza grande on this nice little street bar in Sevilla. I thought I could give my friend a call and ask what was he calling about. So I called him:
-“Hi, what’s up? You called me earlier this week. You know, I’m here in Spain now so...”
- “Yeah I know. I’m in Malaga.”
- “WHAT? Whatta hell? What are you there for?”
- “Well, I’ve been traveling around Spain for 3 weeks now. Right now I’m in here and it’s my last weekend.”
- “I’m so there!”
And the next morning I was sitting on a train to Malaga! It’s about 200km to the southeast. Takes about 2 hours 45 minutes and 19,85€ to get there by train. So not so bad really!

Some dudes sk8boardin'...

...at the flood water canal! :)

Already on the way there I realized the difference in this country as the level and country-like views of Sevilla changed to these "kinda-like-mountain" hills as I was watching the view on my way to the coast. When I got to Malaga, it felt great! Why? Well because of the coastal climate: Warm but not hot, moisture but not pressuring, just great. As I walked out of the station, I immediately rated Malaga not as close as classy as Sevilla. Malaga is more like a tourist city and obviously a harbour city. But all in all, it felt great!

My friend was living at this nice, clean and laid-back hostel almost in the city centre. One night cost 10 Euros so it wasn’t too expensive either! At the hostel we met this nice girl from Austria who's going to appear in the story later! Basically, what we did the rest of the night, was partying our reunion in Spain by visiting all kinds of bars and clubs in the city. I felt a bit tired somewhere around 4 am so I left back to the hostel. My friend, he still stayed, although he had a flight back to Finland 11.30 am the next day…

They sure got some big churches in Spain!

The city at night time.

The next day I awoke at 10 am… aand saw my friend still sleeping in his bunk! I woke him up and said: “If you catch the taxi right now, in 5 minutes, you just might make it!” :D He had been partying until 7 o’clock in the morning and then slept about 2-3 hours! Obviously “Johnny, la gente esta muy loca” is not very far from the truth! :D I went to have a long shower and my friend had gone by the time I got back. Did he make it? Well make a guess in the comment box I'll tell you guys... ;) Anyway, I took the next train to back to Sevilla and kissed Malaga goodbye… At least for a while!

Soundtrack: Sak Noel - Paso (Nini anthem)
I'm telling to you mama, there is no need for a drama,
but I don't wanna study, I just wanna party.
I'm a nini ma', you know what a nini is? 
Don't wait for me awake, I'lI come at home late. 
Maybe at five, maybe at six,
look at me mum, I'm dressing like a... bitch.

Getting to know the basics

Alright I guess it’s time for me to tell you guys a little bit about my first few days here. So as you know, I departed Spain on Monday the 9th at 10 pm in the evening (or the night). The first work day was already the next day. So I had a very brief introduction to the apartment I would live in and then get straight to bed. The next morning we left to work at 8 am with another intern working in there.

      Another day at the office? My fellow intern Miika.                      Here's Susanna, another owner of the company.

The first few days at work were mostly just about observing and trying to learn what was going on there. The office is actually very cozy, although it is quite cold inside in there as well. But altogether it’s a really nice place to work! The company owners are also very nice and friendly. It’s especially great that they are quite young so it’s easy to be on the "same level" with them (when it comes to humour for instance)!

             The view from my very own balcony!                            There are hundreds of alleys like this all around the city centre!


The second night, on Tuesday, we went out for a little clubbing on “Super Tuesday” –student party. It was ok, but not great (wonder if I’m starting to get old?) so I was a little bit disappointed… But it was still nice to go out with some new people and meet some more people! In the other hand, it wasn’t nice when I had to wake up for work at 8 am again the next morning. You can imagine it was quite difficult, as I was awake and had been drinking until 3:30 am in the morning! :D After a day at work with quite bad hangover I decided that I’d skip the Super Tuesdays in the future… And that's all I got to say about Wednesday!

    International dinner with some Dutch, Spanish and Finnish people.

On Thursday we went out to have dinner with a mixture of Dutch people, Finnish people and a Spaniard. We had a dinner together because one the Dutch interns was having a kind of like going-away –party. I would have the next day free so I thought it would be best to get a good sleep after a hard week. On Friday I slept until 12 am and after waking up, I decided to go for a walk around the city centre. The city of Sevilla, it is so magnificent… There’s nothing like that in Finland. It’s different, old and still clean and nice. It’s a romantic city!

Sevilla's got some style, baby ;)

Soundtrack: Manu Chao - Me gustas tu
Que voy a hacer,
je ne sais pas
Que voy a hacer
Je ne sais plus
Que voy a hacer
Je suis perdu
Que horas son, mi corazon

The Enlightenment

It’s the day when I’m flying to Sevilla. At the moment I’m sitting at a lunch bar in London Stanstedt airport and I’m thrilled! These last few days I’ve visited good friends all over southern Finland for the last time. First met this nice girl, Kalla, in Helsinki and we had some great time in Helsinki’s night life. The next day I left out to Turku where I met with another nice girl, Anna, who I went to Lapland together last winter. Unfortunately another friend, Marianne, who also was on that same Lapland journey, had recently broken her leg and couldn’t participate in our reunion :( But greetings to her as well!

The night in Turku was even better than the one in Helsinki and it was sad to leave to Tampere, my final destination in Finland. At Tampere I spent the night with my dear cousin Toni and her girlfriend Henna. The flight was the next day so I thought it would be wisest to get some rest. Toni and Henna live right next to the train station, where the bus to airport leaves, so it was really nice from them to accommodate me for the last night. Thanks!

 

     The last person I talked to in Finland!                             Moment of truth :)

You can take my word when I tell you that the last 12 hours before the flight I started to get a bit excited! Actually, when I stepped on the bus to the airport I could say I was terrified :D Yes, I had travelled by myself earlier never in this magnitude. That, combined with the fact that I don’t like flying, the airport terminal was actually the crappiest I’ve ever been to and the flight was the cheapest one I could’ve gotten no wonder I was terrified :D

Then, during the flight it really struck my consciousness: This is it. This is really it. There's no coming back! I was so thrilled. I was enlightened. The feeling was just incredible: anxious, relieved, happy, sad, scared and enthusiastic all at the same time! Plus, already in London it was so “hot” (+11 celcius compared to -14 in Tampere) that I was sweating like a pig :D So yes, if someone asks me should he/she go to an exchange to another country, I’d say definitely yes only based on this feeling you get even before you reach your destination! It’s crazy!

Soundtrack: ShinyToy Guns – Major Tom

Standing there alone, the ship is waiting.
All systems are go. Are you sure?
Control is not convinced, but the computer,
has the evidence:
No need to abort. The countdown starts.

All systems go!

Today it started, it finally started! The moment and the journey I’ve been waiting for and been thrilled about for 5 months. Today I stepped onto the train to Helsinki at Joensuu train station and kissed goodbye to my dear hometown for the next 5 to 6 months. My travel plan for the next few days ahead is to travel to Helsinki and Turku by train and meet some good friends of mine for the last time before my departure. After Helsinki and Turku I’ll travel to Tampere and fly off to Spain for the next 5 months!

Why I'm so anxious about this moment is because for the last five months I’ve done tons of preparations and arranged my life in every aspect so that this could be possible. And I’m now finally starting my journey to Spain. My name’s Aaron Ilmakari and I am 23-year-old BBA student from Joensuu, Eastern Finland. I study in North-Karelia University of applied sciences and am majoring in marketing and entrepreneurship. Now I’m off to complete my practical training as a marketing assistant in a small international office in Sevilla, Spain. Now, how cool is that? ;)

Feelings that are going through my head right now are most controversial. In the other hand I’m thrilled as hell because I get to see a whole new country, new culture and a whole bunch of new people. Also, I’ll surely get some very useful professional knowledge and experience. But in the other hand I’m also a little bit afraid or should I say reserved about the fact that I’m leaving virtually everything behind me and from now on I'm on my own and nearly everything will be new to me. But I think it's just healthy: people do tend to get stressed about lesser things, right?

As I started travelling, I started wondering what I will miss from Finland. The first thing that comes in mind is of course friends and relatives. But I can’t start whining about that, because it was me who chose to leave and they’ll be here when I get back – if I get back. Another thing I’ll most likely miss will be food. It’ll definitely take a while to get accustomed with only white bread and so on... But they’ll probably have kebab in Spain as well? ;D

“All systems go”

The thing is that this very moment I’m feeling that there aren’t so many things I will miss from Finland. I’m somehow so full of all the serious, dark-minded and arrogant people in there. It's no offense to anyone, but Finns tend to be a little bit like that. I’ve also had so many bitter disappointments in my human relationships past year or two so I’ll feel incredibly relieved to leave it all behind me and get a new start from “a clean table”. There’s nothing that holds me back or gives me second thoughts about leaving – nothing – de nada! Instead, there are rather things that are pushing me to leave. I’m at “all systems go” –mode at the moment!

Another thing is that I really can’t say what to expect from the time in Spain – besides the fact that it isn’t dark all the time and it isn't raining water filled snow all the time. The weather in general is a bit more humane :D But the big question is whether the grass is greener on the other side or not? You see, this journey, it isn’t just a “great experience” or a “possibility to improve my professional skills”. It’s more to me. It is an end to one section in my life and a beginning of another. It is a chance for me to rethink my life and the direction I will head.

Well, maybe I’m now getting a little too serious about all this. I really should consider my energy on how to adapt to Spain and my soon-to-come working assignment. I don’t really know much about it yet, but I’m pretty confident about it. I’m a fast learner and relatively good with people so I don’t believe there will be any objects that I will not eventually overcome. Although I maybe should feel a little skeptic about how do I go along with people and how do I manage my tasks, I am determined that I will not stress about it! This journey, it’s not about performing; it’s about having the time of my life! Period.

Soundtrack: Metallica – Turn The Page

Here I am, on the road again
There I am, up on the stage
Here I go, playin' star again
There I go, turn the page...