Team Fernandezlopez

Well – after blogging about the cobblestones of Porvoo and the towers of Tallinn, life seems pretty mundane! But Gitta probably doesn’t think so! Life has been busy for Gitta this first week. I’m very excited about the time I’ve been able to spend with her and the great socialization she’s gotten. She’s gone somewhere outside of the house almost every day!

Her first night I was crashing hard (jetlag) at about 8pm and went to bed. Esteban valiently tried to take care of Isaac and Gitta, but ultimately I moved to the guest bedroom with Gitta and she seemed quite happy to sleep with me right next to her. The next morning (Saturday), Isaac, Gitta, and I visited my parents for breakfast and socialization (and letting Esteban sleep in after he held down the fort for the evening). From there we visited my friends Sebastian and Amy to show off the new pup (plus Esteban was STILL sleeping in . By this point she was completely crashed out, so they got to see how cute she is when she’s sleeping. She slept with me in the guest room again that night.

Sunday, we went to go visit my friend Debby. Gitta got oohhed and aahhed over by Debby and a few other people that were at her place. We did some tiny puppy recalls, played with a tiny teeter boards, and talked about my trip. On the way home from Debby’s, I met Esteban at Petsmart where Gitta happily loved on (or chewed on) at least 10 other people – 2 younger boys included. Petsmart on a Saturday morning is a great place for socialization!!! That night – Isaac was staying with my parents (Esteban and I were celebrating our 9th Anniversary) so it was the perfect time to try having her sleep with us in our bedroom (in her crate of course). She was great making virtually no noise other than a little rustling when she wanted out in the middle of the night.

Monday was her first extended bit a time away from me while I went to work in the morning (meetings), but I was home around lunchtime and later in the afternoon she had her first vet visit. I brought lots of treats and I’m not even sure she realized she got a shot! That night was her first night of sleeping in our room with Isaac there too. Everyone slept well, and everyone fell back asleep after potty breaks, so that’s now her sleeping spot.

Before I even left for Finland, I had agreed to bring Gitta to work on Tuesday so everyone could meet her. I had intended to just bring her for an hour, then leave and work from home. But Gitta had been doing so well around the house (no accidents, happy in her crate as long as I was nearby, and not overly vocal) that I went ahead and brought a crate hoping we could last a half day. Gitta was SO perfect you would not have known she was there! I brought her in her airline bag (this is now known around the office as being in ‘super stealth mode’), played with her a bit, then put her in her crate under my desk. When she needs to go out – we go back into super stealth mode for the trip down the elevator, and when we get back we play a bit and then she sleeps in her crate again. The day went so well that she came with me to work the rest of the week. The team loves her (ever – or rather especially – our manager!) and I’m just so happy with the socialization she’s getting on a DAILY basis.

All in all – a VERY full, VERY fun, VERY wonderful first week!

Well – I’ll ruin the surprise and say, we made it home. Whew! Now back to last Wednesday (Aug 20th) to sum up the rest of the trip.

After taking the ferry back to Helsinki, we had an hour or so to kill before picking up our rental car and driving to Johanna’s house. We decided to head to the famous Ekberg Bakery (which we had seen on our bus tour) for some ‘lunch’ (that’s a loose term here – it was lunch time, but we were getting yummy confections). The market was between us and the bakery, and while my mom heroically tried to steer us around, I bee-lined through and we of course both found a few more items we ‘needed’. There was a guy selling jewelry made from cutting various coins. I’ve seen stuff like that before, but seeing it in person, with such a wide selection was nice. Mom bought me a necklace with an owl on it (from a Greek coin – go Rice Owls!), and I bought a pair of earrings made from a Finnish coin. Note to BPA Team: I was mistakenly pegged as British by the guy cause I was muttering the word ‘brilliant’ over one of the more intricate coins.

Once we escaped the clutches of the market, we made our way (via an information booth) to the Ekberg Bakery. We picked up more goodies than we could eat, plus a whole batch of something or other to take to Johanna’s and headed to a park to eat round one. It was here that mom and I had one of our more unusual exchanges. I had been talking her ear off all trip about various dog training things as I got pumped up for my new puppy. As we were sitting there, I told her “You know, I really think that I may have a deaf dog at some point” (sidenote: I have often thought of taking a deaf rescue dog – a challenge I really might tackle one day). What my mom heard was “I may have a dead dog at some point”. Thinking I was just coming to terms with my wonderful dogs’ mortality, she was reaching out to pat me on the shoulder, when the rest of the conversation threw her for a loop. When she finally realized her mistake and told me, we were having fits of giggles recounting the conversation and how it sounded to her. It’s like the game with the fortune cookie where you add “in bed” to the end of the fortune. Everything was hilarious when you substituted dead dog for deaf dog. It went something like this: “I truly think I have the patience to train a dead dog. And now I think I finally have the skill to train a dead dog.”. HA! Ok – maybe you had to be there. Oh – it was also on this park bench that I made my first time change conversion error and called my dad at 4:30 am. Sorry Dad!!!

We picked up our car deciding the best configuration was me as driver and mom and navigator. I think this worked out quite well! The car was a stick, something I’ve driven more recently, and the traffic was hairy, and we got forced into many turns we didn’t want to make, so mom’s skill as navigator was in demand. We made it from the rental place to the ferry station (where we had stored our luggage) with only one major mishap. We happened upon some serious constructions and weren’t sure we were suppose to drive on the road. It was only one lane (and we weren’t sure which way the 1 way ran!) and it seemed to go up on the sidewalk! As we debated, someone drove up behind us and we smartly waved them ahead and then followed them!!! After getting our luggage, we ran into our next mishap. We could not find reverse!!! I kept trying and trying, and mom tried as well. I knew there MUST be some trick, but we could not figure it out. We couldn’t find the rental place’s phone number and finally I asked a nice gal who was walking by if she knew english and if she knew how to find reverse Turns out there’s a ring on the gear shift that you have to pull up to be able to put the car in reverse. Thanks for the head’s up Budget Rent-a-car *heavy sarcasm*!!!

The trip to Johanna’s was much less eventful (that’s a good thing!). Though a HUGE Houston-worthy storm passed through while we were driving, actually as we were hitting the outskirts of Jamsa and trying to remember how to get to Johanna’s store. We ultimately made it (after trying all three options on a roundabout) and followed Johanna home.

I got to meet some other folks picking up puppies that evening. Voldemort and McGonagall were the two they picked out (I’ll have to wait till Johanna posts the names of all the pups to get the Finnish version of the names!) and those pups will be doing rescue work! I realized as I spoke to them that there must be a big rescue group in Finland with the heavy winter snows.

Johanna and I both got to make fun of each other’s pronunciation during the course of the evening. At one point I was asking her if they had read the Harry Potter books or just seen the movies. She responded “what movies”? I said “Harry Potter”. She said “I don’t know this movie”. I said “Harry Potter! Your entire litter is named after them! Harry Potter!”. “Ahhhh” she says, “Har-rrrrry Pot-ter” (she somehow pronounces both r’s ANDD trills them and both T’s are pronounced in the Pot-ter). Hehe. Then I was making sure I had my own dog’s name pronounced right. Lihava Leidi. Apparently they have a harder H, because when I said it Johanna started laughing and saying “ohh, it sounds so soft and pretty when you say it ‘lihava lihava’”. I couldn’t tell a difference when she said it – except maybe more emphasis on the HA – liHAva. Then we got into a discussion on the pronunciation differences between tuli, tuuli, and tulli (I had briefly considered naming Gitta “Tuuli” which means wind, but you have to pronounce a long uu otherwise it sounds like “Tuli” which is Fire).

Then it was off to bed!

Picking up where I left off. Yesterday (Monday Aug 18), mom and I left Porvoo at about noon and made our way back to Helsinki in order to catch a ferry to Tallinn, Estonia. This was our only planned side-trip of our trip and we were both very excited. We had an hour to kill before the ferry, so we headed back to the market (that we visited earlier in our trip) and discovered a whole other artistic side. We never got past the fruit and lunch stands before, but coming from the ferry side, we discovered jewelry, art, and souvenirs.

Being in an artistic frame of mind after re-discovering my camera, and my newly acquired print, I walked through the art. I fell in LOVE with some very small pastels. About 2 1/2 by 2 1/2 inches. Simple but beautiful images of a tree. And upon inspection, I realized that there were 4 distinct trees, one for each season. Each one was beautiful, but as a set, they were too hard to pass up Actually, I did pass them up, and waited to see how much I pined for them over the next hour. When we passed back through I was terrified they had been sold, which told me all I needed to know about how much I like them I am still so excited that I picked them up, my one splurge of the trip (well – except for Gitta of course!).

As in Turku and Porvoo, we arrived in our new city in the evening, with just enough time to check in, eat dinner, soak in a bit of the ambiance, and get to sleep – ready to REALLY see the city the following day. And boy was there ambiance! There are castles and towers; cobblestone streets and large squares. The place was really happenning too! It reminded me of Rome; not in architechture, but everything is old, the streets are full of lively youth, and corner after corner you happen upon a little square or other site. The nightlife was happening, and after checking into our hotel, we watched it all from a restaurant on the main square.

Speaking of hotel, oh my goodness, is ours amazing!!! We are staying at the Merchant House, just off the square. I reserved a standard double, but when we were lead to our room, we had a much larger room; a suite in fact: the courtyard suite (so big it has it’s own web page!!!). I don’t know if they messed something up? Or perhaps had run out of regular rooms (we did get in late). I wanted to ask, but mom said she was not giving up this room and we’d argue it on checkout (I have my confirmation printed). It’s pretty spectacular with old vaulted brink ceilings, a fireplace, a sitting room, and bath with shower, plus a separate shower and a private sauna.

Well, that’s it for first impressions of Tallinn. More later on all the wonderful Tallinn sites we visited today!

Yesterday morning (Sunday Aug 17), we left Turku and headed to Naantali. This small town is only 20 mins by bus from Turku and is suppose to have a very cute ‘old town’. Maybe it was the cold, wind, and drizzle, or maybe it was the fact that we couldn’t get away from the Moomin stuffed animals, even in the quaint old town, but we only found it to be ‘ok’.

A step back, Naantali is a very quaint old town which happens also to be where Moominworld is, a Disneyland like park featuring characters from very popular Finnish children’s books. We weren’t there for the themepark (we didn’t go in), and we enjoyed our time in the ‘old town’, but found little to do after the first hour of walking around.

Naantali does hold a very lovely Convent Church which is part of the Order of St Birgitta. This was my mother’s proof that Gitta is not just a german name, but a finnish one as well. Gitta is a diminutive of Brigitte (as it is spelled in Germany), while the ‘official’ finnish diminutive of Birgitta is Brita or Piritta or Priita. But I still love Gitta – so Gitta it is!

From Naantali, we took the bus back to Turku, grabbed a cab to the train station to catch a train to Helsinki that left in just 20 mins from the time we picked up our bags at the hotel! Whew! Did I mention that we have had a knack from jumping on transportation right as it’s about to leave? No waiting at bus stops and train stations for us! Everything seems to be waiting for our arrival and then leaving promptly! From Helsinki, we nabbed a bus (just about to depart) for Porvoo.

Porvoo is a unbelievably adorable little town with a gorgeous ´old town´. In fact, it’s only fair to note that part of my disappointment with Naantali probably stems from the fact that Porvoo was so much cuter. The old town is full of twist and turns on cobblestone streets, while along the river are the distinctive red houses. In fact all the houses here were just too adorable with a surprising consistency in saturation of color, even with different hues. Meaning, whether the house was a deep red, spring green, dark yellow, or sky blue, they all had the same deep, rich, feeling of color.

We chose to stay in what our guidebook indicated was ‘the’ place to stay and I’m so glad we did! The Hotel Onni holds just 4 rooms, but is lavishly decorated and smartly run by relatively young folks (we met a brother and sister, and one other young woman) whose family bought the hotel a few years back. The link above shows some pictures of the rooms (click on different pictures to get a feel of the hotel). We were in the ‘peasant room’, though there was nothing peasant about it! A breakfast menu was provided on checkin and we chose what we wanted and what time it would be served.

We enjoyed a short walk around the city and then had what we both felt was the best meal of our trip at Timbaali. Mom had the snails they are famous for, while I had an amazing lamb fillet. There was nothing left on my plate when I was done. Even the vegetables were gone, and the sauce mopped up with bread. A pleasant walk back and we headed to bed.

When we walked into the breakfast room the next morning, we were greeted with enough food for 6 people!

Porvoo is a place that you just enjoy being in. The museum was closed, as was the church, but we enjoyed just walking around and checking out the shops. I found inspiration in a small store that held small prints (as in metal plate press prints), that reminded me that prints can be small and simple and still be beautiful. Mom knew I was unwilling to spend money on myself and noticed a dragonfly print that I hovered on, went past and hovered on again, and she treated me to this little print. After some shopping, we headed to the bus stop and hopped on a bus back to Helsinki.

More later!!!

As you should know (loyal readers) is that my “unnamed rottie pup” is unnamed no longer. Our breeder gave her the name “Manouman Lihava Leidi” and I have given her the callname “Gitta”. It’s a German name I fell in love with right away; plus all rotties are German at heart, no?

Mom and I are currently staying at the Sokos Hotel Hamburger Börs in Turku. We just returned from a fantasic seafood dinner at Svarte Rudolf. I think we will have a full day taking all of Turku in tomorrow. Tune in later for more!