Santa Time!

With real life Santas around at all the shops, why not switch things up with switching on a Santa light?

Harvest time for apples in the PNW

It's that time again when the apple crops are booming and varieties you've never heard of are out and about.  I love it.  So much flavor, texture, coloring and sweetness to get into, and it's always worth trying out new apples that you've never heard of before.  From past trips to Kygyzstan to research apples with my friend Eliza, to working on an apple farm in Virginia, I've had some great times with apples in the past, and one of the best parts of currently living in the Pacific Northwest is the Apple Festival at Portland Nursery every October.  I've been a few times in the past, and went recently with some friends to get our taste on.

Imagine 60+ varieties of apples with names like Hampshire Beauty, Arkansas Black, Mutsu  and Northern Spy, all cut up, ready for you to work your way through, tasting each one, making notes on sweet vs. bitter, texture, etc.  It's an awesome time, and it's free.  Can't beat that.  And you can't beat that the apples are on sale for .99 cents, mainly from local/regional farms.  Simply amazing.  Life is good when you get to hang out with Mother Nature in the form of apple tasting.

Look who was farming for apples along with us!

Sunny baseball end of summer

On the end of a great trip to visit friends in Santa Cruz, several of us cruised over the hill to Oakland to catch an A's game.  3rd year in a row for this group and it was just as amazing as always.  Great weather, barbecuing out in the parking lot before the game, bleacher seats where you can sit wherever you want and a A's win made for a grand trip.  For such a large concrete monstrosity surrounded by parking lots, I'm a fan of the Oakland Coliseum.  Quite a fun crowd despite the top seats covered off, you always have a good view of the baseball diamond and can get pretty close to the fielders.

A highlight is of course the classic mascots racing around the track.  Ricky Henderson, Dennis Eckersley and Rollie Fingers, with their ginormous heads, race from left field underneath us, out around the bases to right field.  We had prime seats for the start of the race, and Eckersley gave me a shout out as seen in this picture.  I didn't tell him that Kirk Gibson hitting that infamous World Series home run over him is one of my favorite moments in Dodgers history.

And you know we went to In N Out after.  California!

Floating the river

Had a great day out yesterday floating in a river with a bunch of friends.  With Portland pass 90 degrees easily, it was a perfect time to get a float in.  End of summer, warmer water and still enough water to have a few rapids, we made a grand day of it. Here's a little video with sound of one of the ripple down rapids:

Finland

Finland has been awesome. Great people, safe and efficient culture. I'd definitely recommend visiting in the summer for warm weather and sunny days. With my friends we went from the Lahti area nearby the summer cabin on the lake out to student friendly Turku on the west (more of a Swedish influence) down though some small towns like Fiskars (home of the scissors) and to Hangko (seaside town) and then Helsinki. Lots of fun over 10 days with a bunch of barbecues and laughs with the locals. Here are a few photos from the trip:

Tallinn, Estonia

As this trip to Finland is for 10 days and we're sticking mainly to the southern section, there was time to pop down to Estonia on an overnight ferry. It's a quick trip and yet you spend the night onboard, getting off early morning to explore all day before leaving in the evening. For the Finnish it's a shopping trip normally, stocking up on cheap products compared to their expensive country. Jukka, Sini and I have been road tripping around in a car, seeing small Finnish towns so it was time to use the feet and see a city of 440,000. 

We disembarked at 7am to wander through Tallinn. Such a fun, medieval dirt with a great heart and lots of history. Sadly the town doesn't start coming alive til 10am so we had some quiet streets to ourselves. Felt like a Sunday morning. We had an awesome walking tour all over the old city, learning the country's history (conquered numerous times over the centuries and 8 different flags ruled in the 20th century). They're finally independent for the second time (first time lasted 16 hours) and have a good attitude in life. 

The city walls and towers are surprisingly intact for a place that was attacked several times. A major church didn't survive a major bombing and when they wanted to rebuild it, the only way the then in charge Russians would let them, was as a museum to atheism, in an old church. Lots of character around this place. Including their huge freedom tower made of indestructible glass that cracks with the difference between hot summers and freezing winters. 

The old town is fantastic, full of historical buildings, towers, churches and a couple of hills with great views. It's easy to get around and get in some good sightseeing. For lunch we got off the tourist trail and found a Georgian (yes, the country) restaurant and I had one of the best sandwiches of my life. Unbelievable spices mixed in with pork belly and roasted vegetables. Plus the inside section of the restaurant was a staunch reminder of communism with its decoration. Another good spot. 

All in all, it was a great trip to Tallinn. A super fun city with lots to do, buzzing with life in the summer and with cheaper prices than in Finland. The ferry trip is pretty sweet too. Getting your own cabin felt deluxe and the duty free and other shops were entertaining. Solid outing!

Pictures from a summer cabin in Finland

Helsinki airport

The men's toilet at the Helsinki airport has full wall pictures of trees and the speakers burst out bird chirps. Great first intro to Finland!

Hiking in the Bucegi Mountains

After the medieval towns, it was time to get back in with Mother Nature. I couch surfed with an amazing Romanian family right at the foothill of the Bucegi Mountains. These are huge mountains that go straight up from the river valley below and are filled with rocks, trees, narrow trails and sheer drops. While these are popular trails for everyone, they cover a lot of height in a short period of time and there is more rock climbing than you would see in other countries. Doesn't stop Romanians of any age from going up there. Quite impressive to see families on a 4 hour difficult trek going up the mountains. 

I'd spent my first afternoon on my own hiking to a waterfall and then higher up for great views. What should have been a 3 hour hike turned into 5 as I tried out a new trail to go back. To put it politely, the trail sucked and even with my mountain goat legs, I had to turn around 35 minutes into the trek. But the scenery all around was amazing. Kind of like Yosemite in California, but with way less people and small villages visable below. Prettty impressive up there and worth the trek. 

Day two, my couch surfer went out with me for a long hike. Way up past where I was, to the top of the mountain to explore. We made good time, speeding up the mountains. On top was an abandoned chalet with great vistas of the countryside below. It's a bummer it's been let go, but other areas became more popular over the years and it is hard to get to. The landscape changes on top of the mountains with wide open meadows and rolling hills with barely a rock. 45 minutes later and we were at the cable car chalet for a well deserved break. No cable car for us today, all legs. Then we checked out the Sphinx, a natural creation similar to Egypt and other cool rock forms. 

The cross, way above the valley is another trek. Keeping those feet moving we reached the gigantic cross made of railroad ties for some of the best views around and lunch. 5 hours of epic hiking and going up almost 2000 meters and putting lots of steps in to get there. A lot of people take the cable car and hike here or there is a parking lot on top, both an hour plus walk away. But the cross was mighty popular and a fun vibe. 

Going down was next. From being up top for hours hiking around, thr towns below looked mighty far away. And they were. We took a different trail, making the trip a sort of loop, not repeating our journey. This section was both the most beautiful and most challenging as the trail was often just barely a half meter wide and over lots of lose rocks. Definitely a place to be careful and watch your step. Of course, this was where we saw lots of families. Crazy. Going up didn't look like fun and for us going down, it was a slow process. It was one of those trails that you look at from afar and think that there is no way you can go down there. But we made it, using chains attached to rocks for support at times, stopping to look up at where we came from in awe. Loving it!

Around Transylvania

I've been weaving in and out of Brasov now for a week. It's been a grand time, from wedding festivities to a yoga retreat. This was the fun, big city nearby with the Brasov sign up on the hill. To go anywhere, all roads seem to lead here. Even after leaving the yoga retreat to head further north, back to Brasov I went, already knowing the roads and city layout. And then it would be back out on the same roads before finally making a new turnoff and heading north. 

Sibiu was the first destination, another town with a fantastic old town, filled with church towers and remnants of past city walls. The history just walking around this area, knowing how long the towns have been around and what people lived there is impressive. From Vlad Tepes fighting off the Turkish to the Saxons settling and building fortified churches to the Austrian Hungarian empire having major towns, Transylvania has been an important place. Sibiu had some amazing sights, but left me wanting more. Too much clustered together in a decent sized city and after a 15 minute stroll, I'd seen most. Still some great views from a church tower, a nice city park and fun shops to explore made for a decent experience. 

Next up was Sigihisoara, the birthplace of Vlad Tepes. Finally a connection to Vlad the Impaler aka Dracula in folklore. He has been everywhere even with little connection to the area. His birth house is available for tours and there is a bust of him overlooking a square. Even more souvenirs being pushed here, but at leas they have a reason. 

Quite the fun medieval town, Sighisoara has some of the best architecture, with the old city being up on a hill overlooking the land. Even higher up, through a 400 year old covered staircase is a church at the top. I came here for the Medieval Festival, an annual event showcasing the city and embracing the past. Sword fights, maidens dancing, old time food, medieval music with lutes, lots of costumes and tons of people. Quite fun!  Lots to explore and enjoy and quite nice to learn the city in two days there and make some new friends. I even got in a good hike to a nearby hill to do some yoga and have city views. Good times in Sighisoara!