Going to Mt.Takao

It was my first time riding a funicular... And as I'm a bit afraid of heights, it wasn't a very nice experience! But the people there were so friendly, they couldn't speak English but they saw some things I had bought from Tokyo DisneySea and said they were cute! I couldn't ever imagine that happening in Finland, no offense to us anyway... It's just the difference between our cultures I guess :)

And of course, Mount Takao was beautiful!

Istanbul osa 6

The breakfast was included on the hotel room's price, so of course we used our opportunity to eat (almost) free food! The hotel was quite small so only me, my dad and a Japanese family were having the breakfast at the same time. I heard them talking in Japanese, and even understood a bit! They seemed to like Istanbul a lot!

Then we started walking towards the Topkapi Palace. On our way we saw loooot of cool buildings, here are some of them.

Arkea

I got that a long time ago but forgot to introduce it! I got it from a Korean friend (thanks!), and the brand is The Face Shop. The smell of the cream is a bit strange but the cream itself is very good, I'd recommend ;)

The outfit that I wore on my aunt's birthday. I think I've introduced the other items already but the dress is new to you. I bought it in Spain and it was kinda cheap, maybe 15-20€. Can't remember the brand though, maybe Blanco... Or Stradivarius... Or Zara? I really can't remember!

EDIT// I checked it, the brand really is Blanco!

Details

Maybe some of you have noticed that I haven't posted as much as I normally post, that's because of the summer vacation of course! I have loooots of photos waiting but I have no time!! I started my job yesterday, it was nice but the weather wasn't... Okay, the weather would have been nice if I was on the beach or something, but imagine +28C (!!!) in the shade. AND I had to work in the kitchen which was very hot AAAAND run the stairs all the time! It was really really really hard, especially when the restaurant was full of people. But something very funny happened as well, I had to speak Swedish there for a while! I have NEVER spoken Swedish to anybody in Oulu, because only 0,2% of Oulu's population have Swedish as their mother tongue... But of course, on my first work day, they came to our restaurant! I noticed that they're Swedish so when I was taking their plates away I said ''Har du ätit?'' and ''Tack så mycket'', and they thought it was wonderful and said something about a Swedish-speaking girl(?)... It was funny indeed :D

As you can see, the weather was wonderful on my graduation day... Until it started to rain!

But speaking of yesterday again, this is how the day went:

6:00 I woke up... I'm not able to change this habit!

8:30 Started cycling to my workplace, slowly as always :p

9:00 Arrived to the place which was still closed, waiting waiting waiting...

9:30-16:30 WOOOORK!

17:00 went to eat falafels & bread in a restaurant

17:30 Visited in a bank(+shopping)

18:00 Ate some strawberries........ SUMMER♥

19:00 More shopping

20:00 Finally at home!

What a busy day...

Istanbul, osa 5

Turkey's elections are soon so every place was filled with flags and advertisements and tv was full of political programmes...

But we're only tourists so we were more interested in souvenir shops :p

Walking to Topkapi palace

What a cutie♥

And more cat pictures... Well, there are still 23463564357345 more to come ;)

PÄÄTTÄRIT♥

I graduated from junior high school yesterday (and my summer holidays began♥)! The closing ceremony was quite short, maybe 1 hour. We went to school 8:45am and the ceremony started around 9 o'clock. At first the principal gave us an usual speech (congratulations, future plans and so on...) and then we were given cake, coffee and tea. After that we got the grants/scholarships or whatever they're called. In Finland the schools give little money/book/item prizes for the students who have worked hard in certain subjects or situations. After that we went to our homeroom classes and got the diplomas... Then I went to the beach and downtown with friends to celebrate the beginning of the summer holidays!

I got 4 grants which was really surprising! Well, another student got 4 grants as well but I never thought I'd get so many of them!! This one was a grant from doing well in English lessons... Totally loving that book :D

20€ for having the highest average of the whole class and a memory stick for being the 2nd best of the whole school in the nationwide economics exam.

Diploma for being the 2nd best of the school in the nationwide economics exam... Speaking of which, I heard I got the best grades of the whole school (9th graders) in the nationwide English exam and my best friend was the 2nd best! I'm really happy about that because English is absolutely one of my favorite subjects :D

''Congratulations for doing well in mathematical subjects!''. It was worth 50€! The blue paper was with the grant, it was some kind of advertisement of The University of Oulu, noticing me that the university has programmes for becoming a master of science in engineering, structure area. Well, I'm not sure about my future yet so I didn't throw the paper away ;D

I laughed so hard when I saw this... It's a certificate for participating in the student association activity as a reserve member! I also got a pouch of candies from them. The funny thing is that I went to their meeting only once because I was selected to become a member even if I didn't even want to be one!

My junior high diploma! The average of the theoretical subjects was 10, and I was so happy because I worked REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY hard to get that! During this spring I raised my Finnish and geography grades and I at the moment I don't regret it at all♥

Well, the other subjects, such as textile work and sports, are another subject to talk about... They didn't go as well, the only 10 I got was from optional sports. I got a 8 from compulsory sports, so I'm wondering why the teacher gave me a 10 from optional sports then...? Well, I was really pleased with my textile work results as well, a 8 from textile work is really good to me because I'm so bad at making things with my hands :p From arts, music and cooking I got 9s, so I'm quite pleased with them as well.

And this is how I spent the first day of the summer holidays: sunbathing with my cool España cap (see my nose and neck, the sun was a bit too strong to me)... I know, it looks really stupid but I just love that cap! Guess why I wore it today? Because Rafael Nadal will play against Roger Federer, and it's not a big surprise which one I'm supporting ;)

Istanbul, osa 4

Wondering why I took 23346743573634 photos of cats while staying in Istanbul? Because there are no cats in Finland!! Well, of course there are cats but they're shy and with their owners all the time... So I was kinda surprised when I saw cats (and dogs) everywhere in Istanbul! I know they carry all kinds of diseases and illnesses but they were also so cute♥

The buildings looked the same as they look in Finland...

... except some of them of course.

Istanbul, osa 3(?)

The view from our hotel room was absolutely beautiful. Well, the price of the room was only 183€/4 nights/2 people and it included a breakfast so it wasn't so bad...

And as you can see, the hotel's name was Emek Hotel. Guessing why the text in the key says ''Emek Otel''? Because otel means hotel in Turkish (just checked it from a dictionary...;). I actually liked the hotel a lot, so much that I'd recommend it. For budget travelers, though :D

The walls were kinda beautiful in my opinion, the pattern was colorful but not too colorful!

We took a walk around the hotel before breakfast. The streets were messy because they were building all kinds of new things around, such as shops and hotels :)

What a scary cat! Hopefully I didn't disturb him too much :(

Ruokaa Istanbulissa

This is what we ate at Helsinki-Vantaa airport while waiting for the flight: my dad ate rye bread with salad, cheese and meat and I ate a salmon sandwitch. It was really delicious!

The meal that we were given in the airplane. Kidney beans marinated in olive oil/Zeytinyağlı Barbunya  (at right) was really good even if I thought it wouldn't taste good at first because I hadn't ever eaten beans before! Kinda crazy isn't it? I've managed to avoid them for over 16 years......... And now I'm curious about the recipe!

Herbed sautéed chicken, ratatouille, rice/Baharatli Tavuk Sote, Sebze Türlüsü, Sade Pilav (down, covered... Sorry, forgot to take the cover off).

Almond cake/Bademli Kek (at left)

+ bread, tea, coffee, soft drinks, butter, jam, cookies etc were served as well!

This was definitely the best meal that I've been given in an airplane. I'd recommend Turkish Airlines to everybody who plans to travel Turkey :)

And finally in Turkey! We were so tired that we just bought some junk food. We bought two Snickers bars (to my dad, he didn't feel like eating anything ''exotic''), some cookies and that yellow, cake like thing. It was surprisingly good! The free nuts given in the airplane are pictured as well :D

Treasures?

Something I found while cleaning my room: old Mother's Day cards... Why are they in MY room?? I made those cards when I was 5 or 6 i think, and even wrote ''to mother'' into them!

THE LEGEND♥♥♥♥ My pencil case from kindergarten! The text in it says ''OOGA-CHAKA, the dancing baby''.... Just write that into YouTube and you'll see the scariest video ever, if we don't count ''the brain movie'' (I just can't remember its real name......) :D

My diary! The coolest diary ever... Put all my old stickers into it so I wouldn't have to throw them away *cough*

Some pages from my diary... Yeah, I never write to it.