Day 1: Flew over to Helsinki, with a change of planes in Copenhagen. Copenhagen airport was nice, with wooden floors and stuff. I like wood. It was nice not flying Ryanair for once, but also surprisingly expensive considering Finland isn’t that far from the UK. Read a lot of “How to Stop Worrying” by Dale Carnegie. It’s an okay book. I feel like I don’t have that much to learn from it, but I like the author. It might be nice to have a reference if my life ever somehow falls apart.

We got picked up from the airport by one of Ronja’s buddies, and he drove us around town a bit. We’re staying in Ronja’s mum’s  (she’s away) apartment for the duration of the trip.

First impression of Helsinki was that buildings are kind of plain looking, and that there’s tons of trees and parks and green stuff. It’s not a very impressive city, but instead very nature-y.

Day 2: We walked to Seurasaari, which is a little island park in Helsinki, and relaxed with beer and snacks. Weather was nice and it was really tranquil. Met up with some more of Ronja’s buddies. The island had some old traditional wooden Finnish farm buildings on it too. There was a lot of Asian tourists there. Asians like old wooden buildings I guess.

Day 3: Visited the city center and ate lunch at a park with one of Ronja’s hot friends (Let’s call her Friend A). Walked around some shopping centers, and bought some Amiibos (!!!) cause they seem to be much easier to buy for reasonable prices in shops here. Got Bowser jr and Jigglypuff btw. Went clothes shopping afterwards. Ronja got a pile of bras, and I got to watch her try them on (!!!). In return, we dressed me up sharply at a fancy men’s clothing store, which Friend A works at. Apparently I look okay when I wear clothes that actually fit me properly. As a nerd, serious clothes shopping is strange to me. Later we had burgers at some American themed placed. We walked home and were exhausted. It was a fun day.

Day 4: It was Ronja’s birthday! We took over a friend’s apartment and made cake and pizza and I helped a tiny bit. The party was cool. Ronja has real life friends unlike me, and 20-odd people showed up. They were all quite chill and friendly. We just got drunk and talked about crap for hours. Afterwards we went to an Irish themed nightclub and it was pretty lame and crowded. I was displeased and complained a lot. I got a lot of piss on me in the bathroom. Ronja and I argued a bit about how annoying she is when she’s drunk (especially since she bought me a McDonald’s, and I hate McDonald’s), but then it was fine and everything was good.

Day 5: We visited Helsinki’s island fortress! It wasn’t much of a fortress, as it was mostly in ruins, but it had some awesome cannons and cave-like bunkers to explore! It was also incredibly windy there, and the ferry ride to the island gives a great view of Helsinki’s seaside.

Day 6: We went to Turku (I hear it’s the asshole of Finland) to stay with one of Ronja’s childhood friends (Let’s call him Friend B) for his birthday celebrations. He drove us over. The weather was really nice for a road trip. When we got there we did loads of food shopping, and had a fancy-ish lunch and dinner and some drinks. Friend B has a huge alcohol collection, and I got to try some interesting drinks, like banana liquor, and also some horrible traditional Finnish thing.

Day 7: It was Friend B’s birthday! We had lots of cake in the morning. No party, but his girlfriend hung out with us too. We went sightseeing around Turku, seeing some churches, the river, and the university. One modern church stood out, it had a very unique aesthetic to it and was quite colorful, while the others were quite traditional. We went for dinner at a viking themed restaurant called Harald! (Me and Friend B also look quite viking-ish) They had all sorts of animal skins up and the staff were dressed like viking villagers. The food names on the menu were amusing and over-the-top (Pork from Valhalla’s Feast, etc). Food was tasty, but we didn’t get the most interesting stuff (sword skewered stuff, etc) cause it was expensive. We were super full but still had some more cake later when we got home.

Day 8: We ate lots of BBQ meat and then drove back to Helsinki and rested.

Day 10: Ronja caught up with her godmother and spent some more time with her friends. Boring.

Day 11:  We and a bunch of buddies went to a cabin in the woods, by one of Finland’s many lakes! Ronja made it sound incredibly primitive, like just a shack, but I was glad that it actually had some facilities, like light and a fridge! No running water though! That was quite unpleasant. Anyway, we BBQ’d some food, picked some blueberries, spent some time in  the sauna, and went swimming! Woop! Also, I think I’m mosquito proof. They don’t seem to bite me. (they shredded my brother in Sweden, but I was fine).

Nature is nice, but I still prefer the comforts of the city. The best example of the horrors we faced was when we had to escort Ronja’s crippled friend to the bathroom at night. (Let’s call her friend C, she broke her leg a few weeks ago) Friend C was incredibly drunk, and was terrified to go out back into the toilet shack. Ronja had to follow her with a flashlight, and I had to stand guard in the rain.

We only stayed one night. I don’t think I would survive much more than that. It was fun though.

Day 13: We didn’t start with much plans, but while walking past Helsinki’s theme park we decided to get all-day tickets. I actually didn’t expect much for some reason, but the theme park was much better than anything we had in Scotland. They had seven rollercoasters in total, all of which were at least moderately exciting, with some rather extreme ones too. This yellow rollercoaster in particular was pretty hardcore. That was probably the scariest ride I’ve been on so far, and Ronja was practically in tears, even though she’s been on it before. You spend a lot of time upside down, and there’s not much holding you in your seat – just a restraint around your waist. The weather turned out quite nice and the queues for most rides were quite short, so we got through a lot of rides and stayed a long time. Apart from rollercoasters, the river rapids and freefall towers were also a lot of fun. I definitely need to visit theme parks more often, as I think it’s been seven years since I’ve last been and they’re a lot of fun.

Day 14: Had a nice dinner with Ronja and her lady friends. They brought their boyfriends, so it was like a triple date!

Day 16: Went home. Brought some cloudberry liqueur and Finnish snacks for people. Didn’t bring any of those salty sweets though. I hate those.

The end.

Hey guys, I’m going to Finland with Ronja for a while. So see ya’ll later.
Mostly I’ll just be meeting all her friends and seeing stuff around Helsinki. I’ll be back at the end of the month.

In other news, president of Nintendo Satoru Iwata passed away.
Dude led the development of the Wii and DS, and also did a lot of programming work on early Kirby and Pokemon games. He’s done a lot for gaming and will be missed. ):
(Click image for source)

Hey guys, I thought I’d write about my epic 3 week adventure with glandular fever (aka “mono”).

So it started with me just feeling very tired for no reason. I thought “hey, I’ll just take a day off and rest a bit”. Nope.  4 days in I found a lump on my neck. I was also a bit feverish a few times. 7 days in I was still super tired and saw the doctor. She found that my lymph nodes were swollen and I had some sort of infection. I got put on antibiotics.

9 days in and Ronja came to live with me and look after me! That was cool, because my parents pissed off on holiday, and if I had to go through this whole thing by myself, I would have offed myself.

10 days in and the antibiotics hadn’t helped at all. My throat was starting to hurt, getting a bit worse every day. Eating solid food was difficult, and I started transitioning to mushy food. I also started throwing up almost every day! I think it was a side effect of this antibiotic, because it only happened when I was on it. So things were getting kind of crappy for me.

12 days in I saw the doctor again. Was diagnosed with tonsillitis cause my tonsils were all horrible and disgusting. I got put on a new antibiotic. Eating was incredibly painful. Even drinking water was painful. Talking was a little bit painful too. Normal painkillers didn’t really help. Nothing really gave me any pain relief.

16 days in and my throat was feeling a tiny bit better. Then suddenly red dots started appearing on my neck. Oh well, went to bed. Next day my face was red and most of my chest was all rashy and diseased looking. Great.

17 days in and I saw a doctor again. It was a weekend so I couldn’t go to my usual nearby place, and had to drive myself to hospital. I was quite lucky that I felt well enough to drive that morning. Well this doctor finally gave me some pain relief! Hurray! I got super strong codeine tablets, a 3rd antibiotic, and some anti-allergy tablets, just in case my rash was caused by an allergy. Doctor suggested I might have glandular fever, but it’s too early to say for sure.

I felt worse than ever, but the codeine tablets got me high, so I was in a good mood for the first time in ages. Was quite feverish for a few days. My rash kept spreading until it covered my whole body. It looked really bad but didn’t feel too bad. Mostly my skin was just really sensitive to touch. Even just the feeling of my clothes touching my skin was quite uncomfortable at times.

20 days in and I was starting to feel a bit better every day. Was starting to look like I would make it out of this alive. Went to see a 4th doctor for advice and blood tests.

25 days in and I was feeling almost normal. Went to the doctor’s again. Got my blood test results and they finally confirmed I had glandular fever! Woop! This was also my birthday, and the doctor gave me permission to have a few drinks, so that was cool. I still had to take my antibiotics for a few more days, but after that I should be safe to kiss people again!

So all of that was a huge waste of time. I was very unproductive.
For a lot of the time I was too tired and sick to even play video games!

Luckily once you get glandular fever you are immune for life, so I’ll never have to deal with that crap ever again. Apparently if you get glandular fever when you’re a kid, it’s quite harmless and most parents won’t even notice their kids have it. But if you get it in your 20’s, it will fuck you up. It’s a shame I never got it when I was a kid.

They should really work on a vaccine for that.

Anyway, I’m at 99% health now. My skin’s still a little bit red, and I’ve lost some weight and strength. But I’m feeling pretty good. I think I also managed not to infect Ronja. We’ll see how that goes.

Here’s us, by Ronja.