Last night, she said: "Oh baby, I feel so down. The way you turn me off, when I feel left out."

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,

The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,

I know of no reason

Why the Gunpowder Treason

Should ever be forgot.

As the Bonfire Night aka Guy Fawkes Night came, me and Iris decided to go to an adventure after I got a hot insider tip about great location to see the fireworks and a bonfire. (Note to self: Never ever again trust the British in hot tips or location advices.)

Iris on the way, note the lovely weather

We headed our way towards Crooks and Bole Hill Park. After firstly taking the slightly D-touring route we finally found ourselves from quiet, nice and very posh cul de sac. I bet my chocolates on that the housewives cut the lawn with scissors. But there we were and in fact did saw some fireworks in the distance.

Tsk, tsk, who hasn't taken care of the hedge?

And then we found the park. And in we went and soon out we came since we didn't intented to get ourselves killed or raped. The park was extremely creepy looking and no one was there, not at least having fun and enjoying the Bonfire Night. So we turned around and started to walk back home.

The view between two houses down to the valley

And of course we took another route, just to try our luck. After a little walk we found a bus and the driver kindly told us where we could end up with his ride. So on we hopped. And then in the middle of the journey we spotted a bonfire in a back yard of a pub and of the buss we went and realised that we have no clue what so ever where we were (we were in Walkley). Thank god, nice lady told us where we can take a bus to Broomhill and we were sorted!

Me and the bonfire

Iris and the bonfire

And back to Broomhill we found. We went to get some nice stuff from Spar and went home and had chocolate cocoas. Before going to Arne's and having a drink. Or two. Or few.

Iris hanging out and waiting for the bus to take us home

Next time we're here, we create something golden

And then there was Nottingham, which was cold, rainy and closed like someone described Oulu to me years ago.

Peter Pan is aiming at me, not very nice befaviour

Melissa and an apple

The weather definitely wasn't on our side: windy, cold and rainy. Neither was the tourist attractions: all were closed by the time we had time to reach them. Nice. So we walked around in the freezing cold and looked around.

The entrance to the Castle

Side alleys of the Castle

Cute house next to the Castle

Dungeons for badly behaving people

Quite hilly area

Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem pub

Claimed being pretty old one..

So our trip consisted mostly about walk around the castle area, quick visit to the oldest pub in the neighbourhood, walking around the city centre and long dinner. Then we returned back home to Sheffield.

Sonja and Sara being tourists

That was Nottingham.

First train home, I've got to get on it

Back to the trip reports - this time York. We went there the next day after Oxford and oh, boy! I was already tired and bit fed up with old buildings. But York turned out to be a really nice place for a day trip. If one excludes the horrible gooses that tried to attack me on my lunch brake.

York's railway station was old and beautiful, old time's charm you know.

York's railway station is really beautiful but lacks in direction guides. Once we found our ways out of the station (and luckily to the right side of the station) life got much easier. And after few direction enquires from strangers we found the tourist info and got some maps.

Some kind of war memorial, at least one in every city

Inner yard of a tea house or vicarage or something

The front garden of the same place

The York Minster was really nice and beautiful. And the history of the church, or more actually the way they have restored the place, was really interesting. That side could have been presented more to my liking.

The York Minster

Inside the Minster

The church was horribly cold and after walking it through we went for tea and scones (and to de-freeze) to a tea house nearby. So wonderfully British :) I found my heaven from National Trust's shop. So many interesting things in so small place. Only thing I bought was a book about trees, but I have to go back to a one before I leave this country!

The City Wall

After shopping and tea we climbed up to the city wall and started to make our way towards the castle, which was on a top of small hill. It actually looked pretty hilarious in a such a flat city me thinks :D We continued our way on the city wall and went to a railway museum to de-freeze again to see the trains. The museum was really cool, there was old train coaches. Interesting ones were the old kings' and queens' coaches with bathtubs and all. There was also nice story thingy about the Flying Scotsman.

The ruins of the Castle

After museum we headed to city centre to eat something. It was quite hard in the end to find a nice place to eat. Finally we went to an Italian restaurant we saw earlier. There was a really funny waiter who had very weird fake italian accent :D We hanged in the restaurant till it was time to head back to the train station and take a train back home to Sheffy.

And by the way. In all stations they blow whistles when train is leaving and sometime they even yell that "Train to place X is leaving, all board!". So cute and old fashioned!

Alice, who the fuck is Alice?!

Paul making sure that Iris has really died

My very first proper Halloween is finally over! Yay! Let the Christmas season officially start tomorrow (tho the shops have been selling christmas stuff and decorations for about a month already..).

Michel and a pumpkin

But back to this w-e and Halloween celebrations. I spent most of the week trying to sort out my outfits and shopping like a mad person but finally 3am on Thursday-Friday night (thanks for Cheryl Cole -nightmares I've been having.. anybody would have those after hearing her speak and realizing how awful accent she has) I made final decisions about my costumes. And good ones I did!

Vilma Flintstone (Jean) and Godess Sara

On Friday night I went to Mad Hatter's Tea Party in Plug as Alice of the Wonderland. As pre-drinks we had a small pub crawl which resulted me being off me tits very charmingly :D

Vampire Iris trying to eat Alice

I think Iris had slight problems with her fangs..

And again Alice's life is under a threat

On Saturday Melissa's flat had an amazing flat party from where I started the night. I finally had the opportunity to serve one kind of Finnish drink: Koskenkorva Nordic Berries with whipped cream. And no, this time we didn't do them as bodyshots - we were civilized and used plastic cups. From nro 27 me, Paul and Nives headed to Union and to Climax. Again I had a blast and I even survived the whole night in heels! Yay! :D

My Saturday's costume: MUSTACHE!

Me and Melissa are always so close

My flatmates and dear friends Denise and Marianne

Me and this time dead Iris

Melissa, Nives the now-rich widow, our corpsebride Emma and Paul the Police

Will (I have absolutely no idea what he was dressed as..) and Denise slightly taken over by spiders

Serving drinks a la Finnish style

Nives and Paul

Today I was supposed to go city centre to see the Fright Night but two nights of partying was taking its toll (= humangous hungover) and hence I stayed in bed till late. When finally life started to win me back I went to library like a good student and searched for articles for my essay.

I can be who you want me to be, but do you want me?

While I'm doing laundry (and trying to figure out how the timer in the washing machine works) I have time to drop few lines. Like about more recent and less exciting stuff than traveling around the country.

Firstly I have to say: I really love being here. I've met amazing people from all over the world. That kind of people and persons who - I thought - to had extinctioned ages ago. I've found nice way of living life. I've found loads of things to do. I've found new passion to my life.

I really love Sheffy. Everybody's been asking how I find the city and what I think about it. It's amazing, so green, so small and still so big. It's more attached to nature than most of big cities. I love how hilly it is and I love the small and rare views out of the city to the other hills surrounding the city. City View Cafe at the union is one of my favourites cause the view from there is just breathtaking.

I really like the British (of course there's few fockers in the mix but now I mean over all the people I've so far met). It's funny how polite and friendly they are. And I really love the fact that all problems are solvable. When back home most of the places would kick me out or told to come back next week or look it from the net or phone some weird number - here all the problems will be solved at the moment or at least huge effort will be put into the trying of solving the thing out. I love how the people in shops and other service thingys really seem to enjoy what they are doing. I've seen only one or two sour faces while I've been here. And if something goes wrong, oh my! The amount of apologies! Or the sorry's I've got just walking in the street. If someone even thinks they might be on your way they're shouting sorries from meters away.

All this results sometimes in a bad feeling about being rude, cause I didn't realize to say sorry to the gentlemen who I almost made to take few extra steps. Or forgetting to say please in the bus when I'm just flashing my student card to get the right ticket. Or remembering to start sentences "Could I have/I would like to have.." instead of "I want..". And sometimes all this gets very tiring.

It's also really tiring to speak and communicate via foreign language all the time. Oh, the times when I've wished I could say my things in Finnish. I've talked relatively little Finnish (I've even talked more Swedish!) here, but when I do the effect sticks with me for a day or two. I struggle more with English when I've used even a little bit of Finnish. That's why I don't use it that much and find it quite irritating when people want to communicate in Finnish with me. But I have to admit that sometimes I do play the "I'm foreign!" card to the table just to get on easier. Among the Brits it takes sooooo much more energy to keep up than with exchange people cause we tend to talk loads slower and use more plainer and easier vocabulary.

Most irritating things atm: British keyboard, omg! Who the fock invented that one!? Most loveliest things atm: the weather (early autumn! oh!), amazing shopping possibilities, New Leaf-salad bar at Union, Union (!!!!), "Luv" and certain, very very! lovely persons!

You gotta help me out, it's all a blur last night

Yep. And then there was Oxford. I went there, saw a bit, found it posh and that's pretty much it. The city was very basic, but to me it seemed like there's nothing else but the University. And we got kicked out of one of the Colleges :D That's the part of the day I really loved. Otherwise I didn't like the city (but to be honest.. I had quite massive hungover and sleep deprivation going on so, that may explain a bit but not all!). Here are the pics:

St. Mary's Church, centuries old as everything is in Oxford

Fancy windows

Iris, lovely as always, going up to the bell tower for a view over the city

Radcliffe Camera, some sort of library says wikipedia.

All Souls College

Gate to the College. Only Fellows can enter, us mortals have no chance in hell getting in there.

Some library, loads of signs to be quiet.. even on the yard!

Smart people (or just rich and from the right family and the right school)

Me and one of those people

Inner yard of The Queen's College.. And next is how we got kicked out of there

Taking a group pic somewhere where you definitely shouldn't be..

Angry security guy yelling at you..

Get your camera quickly..

And run!

..and run a bit more, just in case!

Funny houses + Iris, Denise and half of Melissa

Half of an old house and a half of Denise

In the Harry Potter staircase.. also a staircase of Christ Church College.

Iris and Melissa

More Harry P scenes..

And more. And all the bloody Chinese. And Italians! Argh!

Vittuuntunut turisti.