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August 24, 2004
Back from Scandinavia
OK, I'm back from Scandinavia now, and have retroactively posted material. This new material starts August 18. Enjoy! I have placeholders for restaurant reviews, which I am still working on completing.
Overall, I really liked Finland and Sweden. Both countries are very progressive, and although taxes are high, people seem happy enough. Scandinavia also seems to be more environmentally aware than we are in the States.
Posted by Kathy at 11:19 PM | Permalink
August 21, 2004
Day Two in Stockholm
Today's post is about yesterday's activities:
Today is beautifully sunny, and we take advantage of that by starting our sightseeing before noon. First, we head over to lunch at Ortagarden - umlaut over the 'O', and circle over the 'a'. This is a vegetarian buffet restaurant, and is different from any other vegetarian restaurant I've been to. The slaw and rice dish is especially good.
After lunch, we head to the Vasamuseet, which houses the Vasa. The Swedes built the Vasa in the 1600s, and she sank on her maiden voyage, due to stability problems - within the first fifteen minutes of her launch. I was impressed that the Swedes possess enough humility to build such a large museum around probably the largest disaster in the history of Sweden. Live and learn, I guess. They probably thought about the Vasa when the Volvo was being designed. This is one of the most unique museums I've ever been to, and I recommend it highly. The original ship has been salvaged and restored to great detail, and it is truly impressive to stand in front of the ship and see how much work went into it. Sweden was at war with Poland when the ship was being built, and it is apparent in the details of the wooden carvings that some mokery is being made of the Polish people. We probably spent three hours easily in this museum.
Next, we head to the Royal Palace, where the Swedish royal family lives. Unfortunately, it is past opening hours, and we settle for looking at the outside of the palace. However, I did manage to get some cloudberry ice cream on my way over to the Palace. Apparently, cloudberries - which look like small blackberries, but are yellow - are popular in August.
Next, we head over to the Storkyrkan, which is a 700 year-old cathedral, and is the oldest parish church in Stockholm. The royal family has their own pew there. The church is used for royal ceremonies, and contains a very large painting called 'Last Judgement' which is said to be the oldest painting representing Stockholm. We also see the Riddarholmskyrkan, which is a medieval abbey built in the 13th century, and is the burial place for Swedish kings.
For dinner, we ate at 'Den Gyldene Freden', which opened in 1722, and contains a vaulted cellar. The food there is wonderful, and I have a review on the restaurant, which is in progress. After dinner, we stop by an ice cream shop, and I decide that I want to try the saffron-honey ice cream, which I have never heard of before. I wish they sold saffron-honey ice cream in the States.
Posted by Kathy at 11:22 PM | Permalink
August 20, 2004
First Day in Stockholm
Yesterday, following the Silja Line episode, which we all started referring to as the 'Hell Line', we landed in Stockholm and realized that Stockholm was quite a beautiful city, architecturally. We hung out in a cafe until 10AM, when museums and other touristy sites started to open.
We wandered over to the City/Norrmalm/Kungsholmen district, and headed over to the Humlegarden, where the 'a' in Humlegarden has a circle over it. Here, we saw the statue of Carl Linnaeus, famous biologist. In front of the statue is the Swedish Royal Library, which was quite impressive inside. I would have been more awake if I had managed to snag more than 4.5 hours of sleep the previous night on the Silja Line, though.
Thinking that some exercise would wake me up, we headed to the Stadhuset, which is the City Hall. From the top of the Stadhuset tower, which is 320ft. high, we could see the whole city. The climb wasn't nearly as difficult as the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona was. Thanks to a longer path, the result is a less steep ascent. The views from above were spectacular, and really emphasized to me the nature of how Stockholm is built - on a series of islands.
I thought it would be neat to see Sergel's Torg, which centrally contains a 120ft. high glass obelisk sculpture, but was somewhat disappointed in the sight. I guess it wasn't nearly as dramatic as I was expecting. However, it did bring us to the heart of the city, and we found another cafe to get lunch at. After that, it was back to the hotel for a nap, and then dinner at a take-out style sushi place called 'Roppongi', which had decent sushi. On our way to dinner, we walked through a large park, which was holding a youth festival of some kind, as there were Swedish teens competing in mixed floor hockey, racing go-karts, and listening to a heavy metal band. We also walked by Raoul Wallenbergs Torg, which is a somewhat controversial monument, design-wise, according to my guidebook.
Posted by Kathy at 11:30 PM | Permalink
August 19, 2004
Our Misadventures on the Silja Cruise Line
Since Wednesday's post is about Tuesday's doings, today's post is about Wednesday's doings.
Today, we got onto the Silja Line cruise ship, heading for Stockholm. There are two ship lines that cruise from Helsinki to Stockholm. We stopped by both the Viking Line and Silja Line ticket offices to inquire about tickets, but only the Silja Line had cabins left. We were told by the Silja Line ticket sales person that the cabins available are 'luxury cabins'. So, we bought tickets for those cabins because that was all they had left. However, all of the cabins are booked for the Helsinki - Stockholm - Helsinki cruise, so we settled for Turku - Stockholm - Turku tickets. Turku was the former capital city of Finland. This meant that we had to buy train tickets to get from Helsinki to Turku Harbor, which is a two-hour train ride.
We boarded the ship when we got to Turku Harbor. Before boarding the ship, we had to wait in a huge waiting area, packed amongst other people. Eventually, I got very sick and tired of standing there with luggage, and smelling other people. Our 'luxury cabins' were pretty sparse. The bathroom was less than nine square feet, I swear. It was fun watching the ship leave the harbor from the top deck. After that, we went to the bar and had some drinks - I decided to try some scotches. While in the bar, we could hear the nearby lounge singer. At one point, he was singing 'YMCA' in Swedish. Then, we realized it was already two in the morning, and decided to go to sleep.
We were awakened at 6:30AM by the overhead PA speaker in our room. It was making a alarm-like noise. WTF?!?! Never mind, go back to sleep. At 7:00AM, a sharp knock on our door was followed by the door actually being opened by cruise line staff to let us know that really, we needed to wake up. I had read on a posterboard on the ship's restaurant deck that breakfast was being served from 6:30AM - 10AM, so I assumed that we'd be able to sleep later than 7:00AM. This was starting to piss me off. I can be a real grouch in the morning, when I'm rudely awakened. I decided to ignore the staff opening our door and closing it again. At 7:15AM, she opened our door again, made some noises that sounded to me like 'ah, boh, boh, boh' while slapping her hands together, and actually propped our door open instead of closing it again. I so wished I had a battle axe then. We raced to close the door again. Unfortunately, the door opens outward, so we couldn't just prop something against it, and there's no bolt or chain. OMFG, if I knew that it was going to be like this, I would never have chosen to get to Stockholm via cruise line. Instead, I would have booked plane flights via Finnair or some other smaller carrier from Helsinki to Stockholm. By 7:30AM, we were all off the boat, and waiting for a taxi to take us to our hotel in Stockholm, and we were all pretty cranky.
Posted by Kathy at 11:32 PM | Permalink
August 18, 2004
Helsinki, Kiasma Museum, and Arctic Icebar
I didn't have a chance to update the weblog yesterday, but the day was pretty activity-packed. Todd and John were working all day again, so I set out to explore Helsinki further, on my own. Well, I didn't even wake up until 11, so it was really only a half day of exploration. Plus, the weather was crummy. It rained pretty much all afternoon yesterday.
First stop was the Kiasma Contemporary Art Museum. I'm not usually a huge fan of modern art, but I found this museum to be a lot of fun. The main exhibit was "Love Me or Leave Me", and the works represented within are intended to evoke certain feelings out of the viewer, such as revulsion, anger, happiness, etc. There was a setup of about 29 urns in a room, where each urn is covered by a piece of cardboard. The viewer lifts the cardboard pieces to smell the essential oils inside the urns. The oils ranged in origin from Middle Eastern to Asian, to European and African. Some were pleasant, such as rose and jasmine. Others were not. The urn in the middle was the largest, and contained all of the other scents mixed together. That was truly repulsive.
I would like to write more, about the Kiasma, and about the Botanical Garden, and about the arctic ice bar we went to last night, but the ferry to Stockholm is leaving today. I will certainly be updating this page as soon as I can, though.
UPDATE:
Later on, we went to dinner at Manala Restaurant, where I had sauteed reindeer with ligonberries and mashed potatoes, while Todd and John had reindeer pizza. I guess we've just never had reindeer meat before Finland, and so we're making up for it? Sorry, Rudolph. After dinner, we walked to the Arctic Icebar, where we suited up for the -5F bar. That was pretty neat. Everything was made of carved ice. Of course, we got Finlandia vodka.
Posted by Kathy at 11:34 PM | Permalink
August 16, 2004
Sibelius Monument and Temple Square Church in Helsinki
Today was a solo excursion for me, since Todd and John were at work. They are here for business, I am not. Since they didn't seem too enthusiastic about some of the sites I mentioned yesterday, I took this opportunity to see the sites I was interested in. So, after a hearty complimentary buffet breakfast, which is standard at many Scandinavian hotels, I headed out for the Sibelius Monument. Sibelius is the most famous composer to have ever come out of Finland. He is to Finland as Gaudi is to Spain. The Sibelius Monument is small, but nevertheless, interesting to see. A series of organ pipes have been fastened together and appear to be 'floating' in the air. Next to the pipes is what I saw as Sibelius' bust.
Next, I headed towards the Temple Square Church - or Temppeliaukio Kirkko in Suomi. Most of the Finnish population is of Luthern faith, and this church is that. What distinguishes it from the other churches is that it's buried under stone formations. Check out these pictures of the church. Very neat.
Next, I decided to see what all the hype for Helsinki shopping malls is about. So, I went to Stockmann's mall, near the Esplanade, which is a beautifully landscaped park area. I was throughly disppointed at Stockmann's, which was touted as the largest shopping mall in Helsinki. Sure, it was large. But, I felt like I was in a mall back at home, with very few exceptions. No thanks, I do not want to buy Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren clothes in Finland. At least I didn't see a GAP yet. So, I quickly got out of Stockmann's - there are nine floors - and went to check what's for sale in the local markets. Raspberries, strawberries, red and black currants, nectarines, and chanterelle mushrooms. Yum. I got myself an ice cream, sat down in the park, and watched the crowds go by for a while before heading back. The weather today was gorgeous - 72 degrees and sunny.
For dinner, I met up with Todd and John, and we went to Kuu Restaurant. Apparently, Todd and John decided to walk the four miles back to the hotel after work, and were too tired to do any more walking for dinner. Kuu Restaurant was just a couple of blocks away, and the food was very good. Check out the review.
Posted by Kathy at 11:37 PM | Permalink
Kuu Restaurant, Helsinki, Finland
It was pouring outside, and we didn't want to walk too far to eat today. So, based on proximity to the hotel, and a hearty recommendation from Fodor's guide book, we decided to give Kuu Restaurant a try.
Cozy and charming is how I would describe Kuu's appearance. Although the restaurant is small, the outer portion is glass-enclosed, giving it a greenhouse look. The inside is nicely lit by candlelight and chandeliers. I definitely liked the ambiance.
The menu is mostly modern Finnish cuisine. According to the restaurant homepage, every month, the theme ingredients change. My attention was immediately drawn to the chanterelle cream soup. So, I ordered the soup, and for the entree, picked a vegetarian dish - mushroom and grains patty with pureed parsnips, red currant sauce and slivered green beans. I think chanterelles are a delicacy here in the summertime. I happened to walk by an open-air marketplace today, and there were loads of chanterelles for sale. Anyhow, the soup was excellent. If Campbell's soup would just make their cream of mushroom soup taste exactly like this, I could live off of that. Sadly, Campbell's soup will never be of the same quality as Kuu's Restaurant.
My vegetarian entree was very good, and not too salty. I mention saltiness because that seemed to have been a recurring theme since I arrived in Finland. I especially liked the red currant sauce and the crisp green beans. This is a nice and quiet restaurant to go to if you like good ambience, and don't want to see too many other tourists there. If we have another night where we don't want to walk too far to eat, this would be the place I'd pick again.
Posted by Kathy at 10:39 PM | Permalink
August 15, 2004
Helsinki Rain, Coffeehouses, Cathedrals, and Saunas
It rained a lot in Helsinki today, and we had no umbrella with us. I don't mind warm summer storms, but this was a cold rain. We were hopping from coffeehouse to coffeehouse, getting cups of tea and hot chocolate in an effort to stay warm. Today, "we" is me, Todd, and fellow Syn Ack Labs member John Schweitzer.
Armed with a Fodor's guide, we found the Uspenskin cathedral. Unfortunately, it was not open, so we couldn't get inside. Then, we bought tickets for the cruise to Stockholm later this week at the harbor. Since the cruise lines were out of cabins for the trip from Helsinki to Stockholm, we chose to take a two hour train ride from Helsinki to Turku, and board the ferry from Turku to Stockholm instead. I hope the train ride over to Turku will be pretty. Actually, we wanted to sightsee in Turku, which is the original capital of Finland, but we're not going to have enough time between the train stop and the ferry embarkation. Bummer.
For dinner, we ate at Zetor Restaurant, which Fodor's described as the 'tractor restaurant'. It was somewhat difficult to find this place, and we circled around the building a few times before we found it. It's tucked into a large hotel/restaurant complex. Zetor's is very unique, and I'm glad we did find it. Reading the menu alone was entertaining, not to mention the tractor settings inside the restaurant. The food was decent, and I especially liked the salmon soup. Read more about the food in my restaurant review section.
Afterwards, I decided to try the sauna in the hotel we're staying at. I thought is might be effective in getting rid of the cold, damp chill I had from hanging out in the cold rain. Unfortunately, I was the only person in the sauna, and didn't have a clue as to how to properly operate a sauna. I had read that water can be thrown over the hot rocks to cause a steaming effect, so I filled the bucket up with water, brought it into the sauna, and proceeded to throw four large dips of water on the rocks. What resulted was an instant steaming effect, which made me feel like a lobster in a hot pot. So I quickly ran out of the room, and took a cold shower. OK, no more pouring that much water on the rocks. However, my headache did go away. What do the Finns say about saunas? Something like 'If sauna doesn't cure your ailment, nothing will?'
Posted by Kathy at 11:43 PM | Permalink
Zetor Restaurant, Helsinki, Finland
Zetor Restaurant was described as a 'tractor restaurant' by Fodor's Scandinavia guide, so of course, we were curious to try it. Tucked away in a large hotel/restaurant complex, it took us a couple of attempts to find this restaurant. My first impression was that this is a rustic looking establishment. But what would you expect of a 'tractor restaurant'? Walking into the restaurant, it soon became apparent why this is a tractor restaurant. There were no less than three full-size tractors inside the restaurant. Around these tractors were benches built in so that one could dine in a group around the tractor. I think you need to have a large group to eat at one of those tables, because our group of three did not. Instead, we were shown to a picnic style table in a room decorated with posters like of the group 'Leningrad Cowboys'.
We all tried the rye beer that was available. I can't say much for it, but then again, I'm not a beer connoisseur, and tend to think that all beer is bitter. Todd and fellow Syn Ack Labs member John Schweitzer liked it just fine, though. I ordered a salmon soup, which was advertised as having won several awards. It was also labelled as 'low-lactose', and the creamy salmon and potato chunks with liberal sprinklings of dill was just the ticket to chase away the cold chill I had from walking around in the cold rain all day.
The entree of arctic char with boiled potatoes was good, but not as spectacular as the salmon soup. I could have just ordered a large portion of soup and dined on that alone, it was that good. For dessert, I was deciding between the rhubarb parfait with strawberry jam, or the spelt pancake with whipped cream, syrup, and bits of buckthorn candy. When I asked the waitress which one was the better choice, she said, "Definitely, the pancake." So, I went with the pancake, and got to see what buckthorn candy was. If you've had hawthorn candy before, that's what it's like. If not, I can't think of anything else close to it except maybe prune paste, but that wouldn't be doing it justice, because most people do not look favorably upon prune-anything.
Overall, I'm glad we visited Zetor Restaurant. The food was decent, and not overly pricey. The atmosphere inside the restaurant certainly gave us a lot to talk about. Apparently, John is a fan of Leningrad Cowboys, and I got to learn all about who they are.
Posted by Kathy at 10:50 PM | Permalink
August 14, 2004
In The Land Of The Midnight Sun
Today, Todd and I are in Finland, land of the midnight sun. I've never been to Scandinavia, and thought it would be fun to experience it. So, we're here for ten days, part of which we'll be in Helsinki, and partly, we will be in Stockholm. I've been looking forward to this trip for a while, and it seems a bit surreal that I'm actually here now. Of course, I'm probably feeling spaced out because I arrived in Helsinki this morning, via a red-eye flight connecting through Copenhagen. So far, I've gotten about three hours of sleep in the last 24 hours. Helsinki is actually a bit colder that I thought it would be, temperature-wise, and I'm glad I brought jackets and sweaters.
Every time I travel internationally, I feel bad that I can't speak the language of the country I'm in and end up having to resort to using English. I'm never sure how the native people I'm talking to view this, and I wonder if this isn't part of why the world sees us Americans as being assuming and arrogant. But, there's nothing I can really do about it. It's just too hard to learn so many languages. Before Finland, I thought German words can be really long. For example, the Germans will piece together several words to form another noun. Well, it seems to me like the Finns take that to an extreme. This is especially noticeable when I'm looking at a street map and trying to figure out where Mannerheimint is, and finding Mannerheimvagen and having to look back to the original source address to make sure it does indeed say 'Mannerheimint" and not "Mannerheimvagen". I will do this for multiple pairs of streets in downtown Helsinki.
Since today wasn't a full day in Helsinki, we didn't do a whole lot. We did manage to get dinner at a nice restaurant that specialized in Lapland cuisine. Tomorrow, I think I will try out the hotel sauna.
Posted by Kathy at 11:50 PM | Permalink
Lasipalatsi Restaurant, Helsinki, Finland
Since we're staying at the Scandic Hotel Continental in Helsinki, and it seemed to be within walking distance from a lot of restaurants, we decided to just wander outside and see what we could find. It was in this fashion that we stumbled unto Lasipalatsi Restaurant. I'd been thinking that it would be neat to try Lapland cuisine, and here was a restaurant that serves said cuisine.
The restaurant was nicely decorated, and Todd noticed how much wood was used for interior decorating. I remarked that this seems to be common in the Scandinavian region. Looking at the menu, two entrees looked particularly interesting to me: the grilled reindeer and the whitefish with crayfish pate. August is crayfish month in Finland, or at least, Helsinki. Fortunately, my dining companion liked both of my selections as well, so we decided to get both the whitefish and the reindeer so we could share.
Although the restaurant had an extensive wine selection, I chose not to imbibe. This is because I had so few hours of sleep in the last 24 hours - three, to be exact - that I was afraid I would fall asleep right after dinner if I had any alcohol.
The rye bread we had before the entrees arrived was dense, chewy, and full-flavored. I had read that the Finns were very good at baking rye bread, and I definitely agree with that assessment. For the entrees, we had the grilled fillet of reindeer with baked Lappish potato and cranberry sauce, and whitefish gratinated with crayfish pate served with a black chanterelle risotto side. The reindeer was surprisingly tender. I had expected that the meat would taste gamier, but it didn't, which is a good thing for me. The whitefish was on the salty side, but still good. I thought the risotto was very creamy and tasty.
I'm a sucker for desserts, so I persuaded Todd to split a Tosca cake with me. I chose this dessert because it is served with ingredients which I'm not familiar with, namely, red currants and marinated black currants on top of vanilla sauce. The Tosca cake is kind of a cross between bread pudding filling, cobbler crunchy top, and a nutty tart crust. It was scrumptious. I would definitely go back to this restaurant again.
Posted by Kathy at 10:24 PM | Permalink
August 03, 2004
Happy First Birthday Mercury and Apollo!
First off, today is Mercury and Apollo's first birthday. As I mentioned in earlier logs, they are our two cute little kittens. Today, they are no longer kittens, but are adults. *sniff*. I'm planning on serving them salmon with a candle on top. Happy birthday, guys!
Whew! The travel bug has struck. I was out in Honolulu and S. Korea for a business trip two weeks ago, and last week, after returning from S. Korea for four days, I flew out to attend DEFCON 12 conference.
OK, so I enjoyed Waikiki quite a bit. Too bad I was there for only one-and-a-half days. The thing was, I had to travel to both Honolulu and S. Korea in one week. That's where it got difficult. For example, it takes two days to fly to S. Korea from the States because of crossing the international date line. However, the most challenging part was the fact that I was traveling all by myself - one, I've never been to Korea, and two, I do not speak Korean. This was further compounded by the fact that EVERYONE in Korea thought I was Korean, and went ahead and spoke Korean to me anyway. So, I had to explain to everyone that I didn't speak Korean, at which point I would get puzzled looks, as people wondered whether I'm Korean anyways, even though I can't speak the language. You get the idea. Anyhow, I was glad to be home after a week of travel, at which point I got to rest for four days before flying out to Vegas for DEFCON 12.
This year, I'm a speaker at DEFCON. That was a really good opportunity for me, as I got to speak to a crowd of somewhere between 500 and 1000 folks. This is probably the largest it gets, and I'm happy that I got through it well enough. Afterwards, Franck Veysset, one of the authors of the RING timing analysis OS fingerprinting concept came up to say hi. It turns out that they had some legal issues with a company, and RING is now known as Cron-OS. Anyhow, I was thrilled to meet Franck, since he's the first author of a tool that I mention, who actually came up to talk to me after my presentation. I'm really psyched about working on incorporating Morph's timing analysis fooling technique now. I really think it's entirely possible - I just need to find the time to work on it. The projects are indeed piling up - I'm going to help out with the Cutlass effort pretty soon as well. Plus, there's a trip to Finland and Sweden coming up on my horizon. I'll talk more about those when I'm there. The hotel I'm staying at in Finland has FREE high speed Internet access. w00t!
Posted by Kathy at 11:55 PM | Permalink