A Day Out In Clevedon Town

I spent today hanging out with someone I met just as I got off the bus in Clevedon town. Turns out there's a market every week here, so we went there to have a look round. I got some sunflower rolls from the person selling different kinds of bread. Sadly the bread was in plastic packaging, but thought I would put 1 or 2 of them with the sun-dried tomatoes I bought from someone else who sells them and olives and things, then the people who live here can have the rest of them. The sun-dried tomatoes were in packaging today, but then I didn't take any containers with me because I didn't know there was a market on today. I did ask though if I had my own container could I put things in there and she said absolutely. :) There was a cheese stall and a fish/meat stall. I didn't buy anything from those or the yarn stall. Sadly a lot of the yarn was acrylic anyway. One pretty nice thing I did see was some clothes made from recycled saris. I asked a bit about what the actual material is and they're made from viscose (in this case the bark of a tree). I did get a crystal pendant on a chain from someone selling crystals and things. I can't remember what stone it is, but it has different colors going through it. The chain is silver-plated, but thankfully the base metal is not nicol. We went to a restaurant for lunch and I had a rather large mushroom stroganev with some leaves of lettuce and some really thin flat bread. I don't know what bread it was, but it was thinner than popadoms. I also had some lemone grass tea, which I found pretty refreshing. We had a bit of a look around the shops. I originally planned to go to Holland And Barett and see if they have any laundry soap nuts. I've heard people on youtube talking about them and seen them listed on amazon, but really want to be able to just pick things up in person. Well it turned out the people in Holland And Barett have never heard of them. I'm not surprised because I only heard of them this year, but of course they gave me the usual stock answer of look online. Thankfully there is a shop whose name I can't spell on Gloucester Road in Bristol and they ordered some earlier in the week anyway since they forgot, so they should have them by Tuesday afternoon. We also came across a gift shop which had some really nice things like candles and coasters etc. Annoyingly though the person working in the shop couldn't tell me what the candles were made from apart from "natural wax". I gathered that, but that doesn't tell me if it's bees' wax or soy/coconut wax or what it actually is. My companion pointed out a fish and chip shop as well, so I asked the person in there what they cook the chips in and they said olive oil, but then pointed out that everything is all cooked in the same frier with the fish and sausages. So I totally gave that shop a miss. I was thinking some chips would be tasty as well. There's at least 1 bakery in the area we were in, so when the person I was hanging out with mentioned there were breads for sale, I went in and spoke to the person working in there. They can wrap the bread in plastic bags or they can put them in paper instead, and they'll even slice the bread as well! I totally forgot to ask about vegan pastiel and things but there's always another time. After all that we went to the beach and were looking at and collecting rocks for a bit. We separated at the bus stop when I wanted to come back to the place I'm staying at until Saturday. Turns out the bus driver doesn't know the route he's paid to drive. Why are the drivers not expected to know the names of the stops on the route! There's little to no point relying on GPS even if I wanted to, because although it works at times, more often than not I still end up getting off too early or too late. And so once again I had to tell at least 2 more people the stop I wanted to go to so they could find it.

Visiting Bristol, England And Surrounding Areas

I've spent nearly the last 2 weeks visiting Bristol in England and the surrounding areas. It's bank holiday Monday at the end of May at the time of writing this, so writing on here about my thoughts and experiences so far. I started off staying in a place not in the centre of the city, but on the way out. There are trees and flowers in that area and I'm told you can see the countryside and a tower (which apparently is or used to be part of a hospital). The place I stayed at was above a shop and the bus stop was right near the said shop. In fact the bus stop when arriving in the street turned out to be outside a Chinese takeaway. The takeaway was not a place I tended to frequent because I was mainly wondering around the city centre. The bus goes right to the centre of Bristol and near to where the coaches are. I've written previously on this blog about Suncraft, so I won't write too much about that here, apart from to say I've been there a few more times. The only thing I haven't been a fan of so far was a sort of rice pudding thing, because I didn't like the liquid stuff on top and found that although the rest of the carrot and coconut etc had a good flavor, it was rather dry. I spent nearly a week in the town of Thornbury after that. I like the fact that the town has a lot of greenery and trees and birds, but for a market town there doesn't seem to be much happening. I wanted to go to the farmers' market, but I missed it because it's only on something like every 3rd Thursday of the month. The bus stop was right on the next street from where I was staying, but totally couldn't remember how to get to it. I don't know whether it's because Thornbury is quite a way out of Bristol, but I found a certain bus was never on time if it turned up at all. I was out all day every day last week, so spent a bit of time toodling around Thornbury, but more often than not went into Bristol or the somewhat bigger town of Cribbs Causway, which is part-way between the two. I was doing some research looking for yarn stores to visit in Thornbury, but the only one I found was looking like it might close, as people are buying more online. If it's still open and I'm in the area again, maybe I should go there though. I totally don't need any more yarn but whatever. :) I love indipendent shops, so want to support them. Cribbs Causeway has a shopping centre, but although it has 2 floors, there doesn't seem to be a lot there, at least not unless you want to buy clothes. Having said that though, I did find a "modern vigntage" shop, where even if the things and materials used to make the items were new, the designs on them were over 25 to 30 years old. I always thought vigntage meant something had to be over 50 years old or from a certain time period, or is that antiques? But then antiques are supposed to be over 100 years old, yet I've seen things listed as antiques that were only between 60 and 80 years old. In this particular shop though, there were of course some clothes and shoes and bags, but also some vases in the shape of rabbits which I thought were sweet. Also they had plenty of mugs and plates etc with things written on them or different designs. Also in the shopping centre I found what seemed to be a book shop. I never found out what shop it was, but it seemed to have books that it had already been decided were popular, for example Michelle Obama's book and some fictional things I had never heard of. I find Bristol so far to be a good city for living vegan/vegetarian and 0/low-waste. The only down side is that it's so busy, to the point of asking people where so and so bus is and no one knows what buses go where without looking for directions on their phone. Again I ask myself and others what will people do when the cellphones and wireless internet go crashing down? Speaking of phones, I found a couple of potentially working payphones just near Sainsbury on Gloucester Road in Bristol. Yay for things that actually work! There is a really good fruit and vegetable shop in the same street, selling everything from avocados and oranges to apples and probably carrots and potatoes etc. I even noticed a pineapple in the area outside the shop where the oranges and avocados are. I don't know the name of the shop, but it's across the road from Harvest Natural Foods. Harvest as it says sells natural things from loose oats, rice, lentils etc to vegan and vegetarian cakes and pastries. They also have some reuseable bags both for fruit and vegetables and bigger ones for general stuff. I got myself a couple of the produce bags, which are the smaller ones with plands or at least leaves and stems printed on them. If you want to buy a slice of pie, I would recommend taking your own container because they do tend to fall apart. The pasties are all right to just put in the paper bags though. I just hope my stainless-steel containers will be big enough, or one will for a piece of pie next time, because the pies and pasties are so tasty! Also there are 3 shelves full of aromatherapy oils, so I got a pine one to use with my oil burner. I think I'll try the tip several people keep mentioning of using a little bit of water in the dsh with the oil. At least the ones in Harvest range in price, unlike in Holland And Barett. I found a music shop in Bristol as well, selling records and CDs. Although I didn't buy anything, I was glad to see a music shop still around. I was quite interested in a Japanese shop, but sadly they didn't want me touching the bowls and plates at all just in case they might get broken. I found it kind of weird that there was a tea-set of a teapot and a few cups all nicely in a box, but the plates and dishes were not in anything to protect them. If you don't want people to pick stuff up and look at it, don't even have it on display, or have the sense to put it in it's box so it won't break. I know for a fact I don't break stuff just by touching it, because I was in Marks And Spensor later and looking at loads of things and broke absolutely nothing. Everyone picks things up to look at it closer, otherwise how will you know if you want to buy it? I'm currently in the town of Clevedon in Somerset, which I think I mentioned at the top of this post. Tomorrow I think the green grocer and other shops will be open and back to normal, so I'm going to take a wonder around this town. Yesterday at least for a while, it was drizzly and rainy, then later in the day it was still cloudy. This town is a coastal town with farms and countryside nearby as well. So at times I've been able to hear a number of birds like seagulls and sparrows and pigeons among others all at the same time. Not many birds are out today, but I did hear some seagulls earlier in the morning. This area also has lots of trees. There's plenty of grass too, although I don't understand what people's obsession is with lawns. They want grass, but instead of letting the grass grow wild and be grass, they only let it grow to a certain height and cut it. I'm looking forward to wondering around this town a bit anyway and seeing what it has to offer. The people living at the place I'm staying at now want to try and be more environmentally-friendly, so they thankfully have a decent recycling system by the look of it. They have herbs and fruit and vegetables growing outside and said something about having frogs in a pond as well. This residential area of Clevedon is nice and quiet. Come to think of it, I haven't heard a single car. I have come across the odd person on a bike and of course there are cars, but the main road is not right close to the houses.

Suncraft

Suncraft is a plant-based/vegan restaurant or cafe type place on Gloucester Road in Bristol England. I've visited it once so far and plan to do so again. I found the staff helpful and like the fact they produce as much as they can themselves. They have a UV and irrigation system for growing mint and herbs (sadly they don't have it outside) and they make their own juices, ice cream and teas. There's also a machine to get some filtered water. They ask for a 20p donation which goes to water aid. I wonder how much they make from that in a day. Probably a good few pounds I should think. As far as food goes, I had a side dish which I thought was kind of small but that's just personal preference I guess, a main course, a desert and a drink. For all of that I payed under £20. The side dish was some potato cakes. I hadn't had potato cakes in years, so it was good to finally get some that were vegan. I can't spell the name of the main course, but it was a Chinese type dish that had tofu, mushrooms, brown rice and another vegetable and probably some herbs. I thought the flavors blended together nicely. I normally steer away from things like tofu, but when it's cooked properly I think it can be not too bad, although it's not my favorite thing in the world. For desert I had banana frittas with salted date ice cream. Don't know if I would have added the ice cream, but it was certainly an interesting taste. I liked both the frittas and the ice cream, but not entirely sure if I would have put the together. I can't remember what else was in the drink I had, but I do know it had beetroot juice in it. On the counter were some cards advertizing an animal rights protest. They had the date and time, but totally missed off where it will be taking place.

Travelling In The 21st Century Without A Cellphone (Working Or Otherwise)

While I was waiting for my connecting coach on Saturday last week in London Victoria Coach Station, a lady turned up who needed to find a payphone to call internationally. She had I think used all the money on her mobile/cellphone trying to make the call but had some cash. She asked one of the staff if there was a payphone and they didn't think there were any left in the station anymore as they had been or were being taken out, so she asked the staff member to borrow their cellphone to call as she couldn't think of anything else to do. The said staff member said they're not allowed to carry their phones with them (I doubt this as I know another member of staff used their phone to call an ambulance for another passenger, so they clearly carry them but don't let on as such unless it's an emergency). Well the member of staff with the lady was finally told that there are only 2 payphones in the whole station, both of which are in the arrivals hall. This got me to thinking, what would people do if there were once again no mobile phones? I think I would personally be fine, as I'm used to either finding about places before I travel or asking for directions, or some sort of a combination of both. I never rely on GPS as I find it partly distracting in the sense that I pay less attention to what's going on around me, but partly I'm so used to technology not working that I don't trust it, so do stuff like get off a bus too early. I've also nover found GPS terribly accurate either, especially in countries like the UK where buildings are right next to each other. If I try and get a location, it either won't work or go a long way about showing me as it does lately, or else it will give me an address a few doors away or across the road! As I'm not able to read the signs giving the names of shops for example, even if I do try and get to a place using a GPS of some kind, I still have to ask someone where I am or learn a route beforehand if it's somewhere I go regularly. However most people while they might know parts of town or city, still rely on looking at "smart" phones or other such devices in order to navigate anywhere. Today I was looking for a cafe that I wanted to visit (Suncraft is its name, more about that in another post), I got off the bus and turned out I had done the usual of getting off too early. I didn't think the GPS or driver would be too reliable as it's a 25 minute or more route. Anyway I got another bus to where I really should have been at and asked how to get to the rest of the way as I knew it was on the same street and so probably close by. Well partly I think people just don't listen to most of what I say as I had to repeat myself multiple times today, but partly the person I asked at that time for directions walked with me all the way to the other end of the street and back before realizing it was on the opposite side of the road! The place was really easy to find and closer, because the odd numbers were on 1 side and the evens on the other. What would we do if we went back to using maps and asking each other for directions? I know how to read some symbols on maps and actually find them pretty interesting, but not many younger than me could. In fact I asked a 16-year-old in 2015 what programming language she made the odd couple of games in at school and she came out with something I had never heard of. Not being too surprised, I looked it up and it was ane where you do very little actual writing of the program but more in the way of moving things around on the screen and adjusting their properties. I'm guessing the same person wouldn't have known what to do if I loaded up a terminal and said she had to use it. I wish at times I had been one of those who had grown up using the command-line on the computer, because I find nothing more useful than typing something and getting either the result I intended or an error at line whatever:column whatever, but sadly I only learned that stuff later on and pretty much self-taught. I think graphics can be useful in presenting of course pictures and videos, but not so if they're not accessible to everyone. To conclude: I think technology has its place if it's used as a tool, but I also think it is very much over-used. I find it nice to not use things like cellphones and wifi for a while. As it is I won't be keeping the cellphone/smartphone around forever, because when I stay somewhere permanently I'll be going back to a nice landline and a wired internet connection. Of course that also means people taking the time to talk or write meaningful messages, which I also think people don't do enough of perhaps including myself at times. We're all guilty if we have a phone or tablet or insert other hand-held device of staring at it and fiddling about with it. One of the first times I left my phone behind, I noticed how much more aware I was of the fact that a journey I regularly took at the time felt like a bloody long time. I don't have a concept of time unless I'm looking it a clock or some other timepiece, but noticed that in physical terms the journey was so slow, yet astral travel is pretty much instantaneous. If I know how long it's supposed to take to do something I can plan accordingly, but otherwise I don't know how long it will take to complete a task for example until I've completed it. That was a rather long conclusion, but that's all right with me. During the writing of this post, for some reason I thought of sending a link for this blog to Howard Hughes, the host of "The Unexplained" podcast and radio show. I have absolutely no idea why I thought he would be interested, but let's send it anyway ... maybe.

Intuition In Animals

I write this on a Friday evening/night from my grandparents' house in the part of the rather large county of Lincolnshire closest to the Norfolk border. About this time or perhaps a little earlier yesterday, Grandad wanted to give some leftover bread (I think containing dried fruit) to the wild birds that normally visit the bird feeder or table. I told him you shouldn't give bread to the birds even if it didn't have fruit, because it swells up inside their stomach. He only responded that people have been giving birds for donkeys' years and it's only ducks you should not give the bread to, because it swells up when it hits water in the rivir or pond. He went on to say that wild animals are not stupid and won't eat food if it's poisonous to them. I said yes they would because they might not know the food is poisonous until they eat it, but he seemed to still think that they won't touch it by default. I got to thinking about it then and later and thought, that makes little if any sense. If someone doesn't tell you something is poisonous and you haven't found out through trying the food, how do you know if the food is poisonous? Yes you can use intuition and logic in part to decide not to eat the food, but on the other hand you could also decide that the food looks perfectly safe to eat and do so anyway. We all know that animals tend to use their intuition a lot more than most humans do, but even those lovely creatures don't know how to deal with the physical existence unless they learn it from each other. If you have little to no hearing and go to an area where birds are singing, you won't know that the birds are singing unless someone tells you so. Even if you see them flying or sitting around or whatever they're doing, they may or may not be singing, but because the physical sense of hearing doesn't work, you won't be aware of such a thing. You can of course go wherever you like and do whatever you like astrally, because the spiritual form is perfectly fine and has no limitations that are imposed on physical forms. That way you can go and hear birds singing or see the trees and animals etc, which then brings the question of why do we have a physical human experience if we have to rely on others to help inform and shape it or we have to look at things astrally anyway? I haven't yet found an answer, but still I wonder ... why are all of us spiritual beings having human, animal, tree, rock experiences etc? How and why did we end up on the planet known as Earth? As to animals, I know the horses and dolphins especially, but all of them in general bother with telepathy, intuition, empathy and whatever else way more than most humans do these days. I think this is partly because people choose not to, but partly because people find it necessary to condition each other into believing that anything other than physicality is imagination or made up.

Travelling By Public Transport In Europe

I can't drive but of course love to travel, so thought I would write today about using public transport both in the UK and the rest of the European countries I've been to or through. In the UK, the train companies used to be funded at least partially by the government, but for as long as I can remember have now been privately funded. I don't know who funds the buses, but I would guess they're privately funded as there are so many companies that run them. I don't know though, because you can normally get information on buses and timetables etc through local councils. Because of the fact that the trains here are privately funded, the companies find every way they can to make them expensive as they can, regardless of the quality of the journey. I can normally get a seat on a train, but it's not garranteed, because the companies sell as many tickets as they can and reserving a seat is only optional. There are discounts that some people can use like if they fall into certain age groups or have a disability. I think there are also some discounts for families. Even with a discount though, I would say at times a train can be the most expensive next to taxing a taxi. I haven't flown on an internal flight in the UK, but I'm told some people find that option cheaper than trains. That's not to mention the price of food on trains and at stations! I've payed at times £2 for a cup of tea and at the same time found out that sandwiches then cost around £3.50! Let's take my own food I think. Well when I remember to get or make something. In terms of local buses it depends on the company, especially with local buses. Some companies charge a rather large amount to go only a few minutes round in a circle, while others charge somewhat cheaper to do a similar distance and journey-length. Again you can get various bus passes making the journey cheaper or even free of charge. Speaking of free travel, I'm told that people with disabilities living in Scotland can get a card to allow them to travel on the trains within Scotland for free! I'm starting to use National Express lately for coach travel. Even if I didn't have a coach card, it would still make it considerably cheaper to travel by coach than by train. I'm going to visit my friend Dawn (who writes the Barriers To Bridges blog and website) soon. Taking the coaches will take a lot longer, but be barely a third of the price of the trains. I haven't used Megabus, so can't comment on their buses or service, but I've so far found National Express drivers friendly and helpful and the buses more comfortable than the Flixbus buses. In Finland and many other European countries, the trains are subsidized heavily by the governments. I say that because a journey from Helsinki to Rovaniemi taking between 8 and 12+ hours depending on which one you take costs 80 euros, but you can pay £80 or more for a journey from Hereford to Newcastle, which only takes about 5 or 5 hours! The other difference is that the Finland journey I just mentioned is normally a direct route and the same price whether you want to go now or book 2 months ahead of time. When you buy a ticket with the train company there, you reserve a seat by default, so the ticket is also the reservation. I like this because it means absolutely no one stands up for a train journey, unless of course they're going to the toilet or the dining car. Speaking of dining cars, they have them rarely in the UK trains, but both in the UK and Finland they have not many vegan options. On the Finnish trains though, you normally find at least 1 option and you actually get to sit down with a plate and cutlery like in a restaurant. For people who read braille, the seat numbers are sometimes in braille on the side of the isle seats on the trains in Finland, but not the compartments as far as I know and there is nothing at all on the British trains. I can't remember if I've mentioned in previous posts on here, but taxi meters in Finland start at 6 or 7 euros, so by definition fares are so much more expensive than taking a bus. To get from Helsinki Vantaa Airport to the other side of the city it costs 40 euros in a taxi but only 5 by bus. I can't comment on any national coach services there, because I haven't used them, but even getting around by local buses is so much eaper than by taxi. Of course walking is also totally free and I like to walk if I don't have a bunch of stuff to carry. I think the taxi meters in Germany start at a lower amount than in Finland, because to go 7 km across Berlin it cost about 18 euros. The cheap taxi companies in the UK start at £1, but normally the start at £2 or £2.50. Although I don't find the Flixbus buses in any way comfortable, I find some of the drivers to be so kind. I like ferries too, because they can be cheap if you book at the right time and the food is normally pretty good. I ate some food in one of the restaurants on the ferry from Turku to Stockholm and was glad to see they were using reuseable napkins or whatever you call those things you wipe hands on. I booked that ferry with ferrysavers.co.uk and the ferry I went on from Copenhagen to Dresden was included in the price of my Flixus ticket. I enjoy being able to walk around on ferries or on the longer journeys you can go to sleep if you want. The sofa in the cabin turns into a bed. I know ferries hold a lot more people than planes, so I would guess they're more environmentally friendly, as well as the fact they don't seem to dump fuel but keep hold of it. I could be entirely wrong though, because there are some statistics that say aeroplanes are the second most environmentally friendly mode of transport. To conclude, I plan on using more coaches for longer distance travelling in the UK rather than trains. I have recently come across a service called blablacar, which allows you to get picked up and dropped off if people are driving in the same direction ... Apparently it's kind of a ride-sharing service. I can't comment on that as it's not something I've tried oud.

Low-waste Living Changes And Improvements

I've been buying things on amazon lately, mainly because I was having trouble finding some of the things I wanted to in the physical stores. That being said, I have since I posted a little while ago about low-waste living and the things I do or would like to do, bought some stuff so thought I would post something of an update. I wrote about the bamboo travel mug with the silicone lid and grip, which I love and think it's great for getting hot drinks when out and travelling. Last week I bought a 1 litre stainless-steel flask. It's a double-walled flask, so according to the description it keeps drinks hot or cold for up to 12 hours. I haven't tested it yet, but I chose a double-walled flask because I heard Imi who runs the Sustainably Vegan youtube channel saying that the single-walled flasks burn or freeze your hand. I gave the bamboo mug to my nan because I thought I won't be needing it now. I realized afterwards that either I'll have to get a rather large amount of tea when I get tea while I'm travelling, or perhaps get another mug. I say that because I didn't realize just how big a litre was and it's rather taller than I expected! Oh well I don't mind lots of tea. I could of course also make tea before I set out or put fruit juice in my flask or something. :) The whole point after all was to get something that I could throw in my bag without having to bother about it leaking. I also got myself some stainless-steel food storage containers with silicone lids. They're stackable in the sense that they fit inside each other. I got a set of 3 and currently have roasted peanuts in the smallest of them. I honestly didn't think the peanuts would fit, but they do just about. Annoyingly I still have the looseleaf tea in a plastic container which in turn is inside a plastic bag, but that's going to change if \I still have any left when I leave my grandparents' place later in the week. I gave the rest of the plastic containers I bought in Helsinki to Nan, who says she doesn't like them for food either because they're so thin so is going to use them for craft supplies. In the same parcel I got a bunch of cotton shopping bags. I took one of them shopping a couple of days before writing this post along with the reuseable bag I got for fruit and vegetables in Helsinki and a paper bag I kept hold of. I managed to fit 3 apples, 3 bananas, 2 potatoes, a pepper and an avocado in the one reuseable bag! Given that the bag is a drawstring thing and not massive, I was surprised that everything fitted and nothing got squashed. I put the fruit and vegetables bag inside the cotton bag I took with me, but also managed to fit a big smoothy drink about the size of a container of soya/almond/oat milk etc, a couple of tins of different kinds of beans, the peanuts and some snacks for the dog Blue. I never give him anything except on the rare occasion, so thought I would get him a little something. I've got 10 of the very good-quality cotton shopping bags. I just have to remember that they're super light, so to either keep the bag on my shoulder or roll it up. We tested out the food storage containers as well, and discovered that they meant what they said about being airtight, because they held water even when we turned them upside down and shook them around. I also sold and sent off my original kitchen scale, so bought the one I wanted to get with the jug that measures liquid as well as solid ingredients. I find it more responsive than the other ones, because it sapeaks and I think displays on-screen the weight somewhat quicker which can only be an improvement. The cool thing is that the scale itself will sort of fit in the jug so I can carry it around. It was amusing when they arrived, because I had the big parcel with the food containers flask and shopping bags and the other parcel with the scale show up at the same time. The delivery drivers literally were at the door together! Oh the flask came with a sort of cleaning sponge thing as well. I got myself a bamboo cutlery set which comes in its own cotton carrying pouch. I guess that's what you could call it. It has a knife, fork, spoon and a reuseable straw with cleaning brush, but for some reason none of the cutlery sets I came across had teaspoons. Strange. Even so though, the cutlery things I do have look to be pretty sturdy. The final thing I managed to get my hands on sadly only on amazon, was a sweet little stainless-steel tea-strainer. I'm loving that thing! I wonder if you can reuse tea leaves actually. I haven't tried, but know some people do that and others find it pretty disgusting. The cup bit where the leaves go is mainly a very fine mesh of stainless-steel and it has 2 handles so it can sit on the cup or perhaps a teapot if I wanted to make tea for several people. It also has a little lid which I've been using as a drip tray at times to avoid apparently ruining the wooden surfaces. It saves using so many teabags if any and maybe it's just me, but I find even if I only use a teaspoon and a half to 2 teaspoons a time, they seem to last forever! I still seem to have a llarge amount of the loosleaf tea I got when I was in Rymattyla! Then again I have also been using teabags while staying with people due to not having a tea-strainer of any sort at the time. The thing I did that I really don't like and was trying to avoid is buying frozen vegetables, especially the kind that you keep in the bag and steam with microwaves. I can't stand plastic around food, especially when it gets blasted with microwaves. Such as it was I found them bland as heck and found the pizza more tasty. There's no point timing anything while I'm here though, because despite my having Nan tell me how long it takes to cook something in the regular over (not microwave) and having her set the said oven, she goes and looks at it and guesses when it's done anyway. I would personally left it in for the full amount since the oven was not preheated, but I guess there's no point telling that to someone who used to be a chef and seems to think they know better than everyone else. Given that they wanted me to buy some of my own food though, I insisted on getting as much of the rest of the food as non-packaged as possible. Sadly that meant avoiding things like the spinach and mushrooms, because apparently there were none in the shop that were not in packaging. The final thing I can think of that I can't remember if I mentioned on my previous post in bamboo cotton buds and a bamboo toothbrush. I've had them for some time now. I like them for being biodegradeable and I find they feel friendlier as well as working better. The bristles of the toothbrush are soft but seem to clean just as well. I use fluoride-free toothpaste when I can, although it is not as effective in the UK as it is in say Finland and Germany, because the British love adding fluoride to the water. I can taste it so if I want to drink water here I either make tea or at least boil it. Annoyingly Nan and Grandad don't have any kind of food-waste facilities or composting places, so it ends up in the standard household bin. I haven't yet managed to find anything to do with the extra clothes I don't really need. I thought there would be loads of charity shops or something around here, but apparently not.

Lifestyle Choices And Reactions

I decided to be vegetarian when I was 17 and so was all my adult life until nearly 2 years ago. So I was vegetarian for nearly 11 years before becoming vegan. I decided to be vegetarian partly because I didn't like meat much anyway, but partly because I've always seen animals as friends and never thought it right to kill them for food, even less so these days when way more meat is being produced than people know what to do with. All my "family" eat meat and dairy etc, so was nervous about telling them anyway that I wanted to become vegetarian back in 2006. Some of the family members said they didn't mind or didn't really have any reaction. I'm told my mum was vegetarian and at some point vegan, but from what I remember she never tried to stop me eating animal products. I lived with my great aunty and uncle at the time I became vegetarian and they were the ones I had the most issues with. They were the ones who were trying to make me go back to eating meat and went to the point of having a damn good try at hiding meat in my food, then wondering why I didn't touch much. I've never really trusted things like quorn precisely because the meat substitutes and similar things are designed to mimic the meat and dairy products the person wants to avoid. Even now I only buy things like vegan cheese on the odd occasion and if I have someone read the ingredients or bring up the list of ingredients online. Of course everyone finds shopping with or for me a total pain because I'm that person that wants to know where everything comes from why and how, but everyone else for the most part merely wants to go and pick the thing up no matter where it comes from these days it seems. I know there are some people who do read ingredients or look at materials and descriptions etc, but not many and I would quite happily read the information myself if I could. Back to the point ... Because of the reaction I got from telling my family I wanted to be vegetarian, I was also worried about the reaction of my friends at the time. However I was surprised, because I found them so much more supportive than the family. I still remember one of the saying "It that all you wanted to tell us?"! Hahaha" At the time I lost a lot of weight because I never have been great at cooking and there wasn't a massive choice when eating out or eating at college for vegetarians. Normally there would be perhaps 1 vegetarian option and 2 or 3 meat options, or on Sunday there would be no vegetarian options at all except salad or baked potato. Over the years it became easier to find things but I also started making a bit more when I had the motivation to do so. I've also started not really caring what other people think (or trying not to care), because I'm not telling them to do the same as me, just that this is what I do. I therefore found it easier in a way to be vegan more recently. I find it similarly difficult to find vegan options when eating out as I once did vegetarian options. I think that might be as a hotel receptionist pointed out, because people don't know or forget the difference between vegetarian and vegan. It turns out that the "family" members I once thought somewhat supportive are now sadly among those giving me the typical arguement of "if there were no meat-eaters and no one who ate cheese or drank milk, there would be no (insert domesticated farm animals here)". To that I think they're talking out of their bottoms, because there were plenty of wild animals when people left them alone. Another reaction I've had from a family member when telling them about being vegetarian and now vegan was "What made you go like that"? "if you don't have meat or cheese or eggs, how can you enjoy anything?". They seem to think that animal products is all there is on the planet and forget that you can get neutrients from plants just as well. Animals don't think about us when they eat and do whatever they do in their lives, because they are only interested in building themselves up so they can keep themselves alive and look after their own young animals. Such as it is, I try and make my own food more now, because it's cheaper I think and I can choose what I want. Sadly I still loose motivation at times when I'm on my own, especially if I'm staying in one place for an extended period of time. Sexual preference and being polyamorous has also got some rather mixed reactions. Again my own family were those who tried to make it perfectly clear that according to them, it was not ok to do anything with people of the sa e gender. For example when I was around the age of 6, a friend at school told me it was valentine's day and that meant you give cards and presents to your boyfriends or they give them to their girlfriends. I didn't have a boyfriend, so I decided to make a card and give it to the said friend who happened to be a girl and she in turn gave me a little chocolate bar. I went home and either my great aunty or one of her daughters who was in the room at the time asked if I had got any valentine's day cards (or something along that line), so I said I gave a card to my friend (insert name here) and she gave me a chocolate bar. Their immediate reaction was "You're supposed to give those to your boyfriends!". A few years later while I was still in primary school, I was playing a game with a female cousin who was 3 or 4 years younger than me, involving running up and down and kissing then repeating. Once again, the said great aunty told me off for kissing girls. Never again did I tell her anything about being interested in girls or having girlfriends until years later. Then she gave me a shpeel about being sorry I couldn't express that or anything about being polyamorous when I was younger, but didn't mention anything about the fact that it was she doing much of the judging. I've also had the religeous book of choice bashing both regarding sexuality and polyamory. Some of the more supportive people really don't mind and some of the not so supportive people have rather than giving their own opinion quoted bits of text at me. What they don't realize is that the books have all been edited to say what the few want them to say, in the hope the readers won't go reading further into things and looking for anything other than those few books and those few editions. As for being polyamorous, a lot of people don't seem to understand that it's all about conscent, so when telling them or asking their opinion they tend to say it sounds like cheating or that's what it is. Also a lot of monogamous people expect me to be monogamous just because they are. Like I tell them though, I pretended and tried to be monogamous for several years, but for me it failed rather spectacularly, mainly because I still love everyone regardless of how many relationships I'm in. When I've told family members (in response to them asking if I have a boyfriend) that I have 2 boyfriends for example, one accused me of "playing the field" and said you're not supposed to have 2 boyfriends and another accused me of being a flirt. If I try and talk to the second family member I just mentioned about any things I might not be happy about in relationships, her reaction is that I'll find a serious relationship some time. I tell her that if I wasn't intending it to be serious I wouldn't bother getting into any relationships because there would be no point, the only thing she says is that they're just casual or they don't have to be serious. One of the religeous people I mentioned earlier somehow also thought me and another person were trying to convince him that polygamy/polyamory is right. Um no! Having said all that, I have also had some possitive reactions. Mostly from friends who don't seem to mind either way. Then again some supposed friends were the religeous ones so I kicked them ages ago. The supportive ones though have stuck around. One friend recently came right out and asked how my romances are going? :) The last thing I can really think of writing about here is the decision of giving up a permanent place of existence in order to travel. I never stayed in 1 place longer than 3 or 4 years at the most as it is, as well as the feeling of relief when I would leave the house or apartment and go away from cellphones and wifi and other such micorwave and milliwave-emmitting things. I find it freer not having to pay rent and bills all the time as well as getting to meet new people and see new places. I'm always the one doing the running round and visiting everyone else, so it made sense. It only makes financial sense to me to stay in one place if the said place is already furnished or with appliances, or if I can buy the furniture or get it made cheaply and of good quality. However when I told people about travelling and not having a permanent place, they didn't get it apart from the very few people. Most seem to think it's useful to keep a place and travel. One person referred to it as my "stupidness" and again family members. They were among those who decided I needed to get on the council list and get somewhere permanently again. I travelled for 10 months sometimes staying for a couple of weeks or so and found for the most part I was freer and somewhat happier. I only got on the council list and rented somewhere for a few months in 2018 to get society off my back. I notice though that doing what society expects is not what aligns with my own views, beliefs, call it what you will. When I did rent a place for a few months, I felt nothing but trapped. Sure I was leasing some furniture and appliances, but they don't give lightly. I was only a week behind in rent when I got the stuff, but because of that they decided I was not having half the stuff I asked for. Most places in the UK don't come with any furniture or appliances unless stated and carpets and curtains are considered decoration. I felt so trapped there that I went away whenever I could, but because I was having to pay rent and bills that wasn't so often. And so we go round in circles. I was at college for a few months until February 2019, then thankfully went back to travelling. Once again though, I'm back on the council housing list for the Tyne And Wear area (in northeast England), only because I'm starting an art course in South Shields in September 2019 and need some place to stay. In a way I'm looking forward to starting the course because of course I like art and it's a long way of solving the issue of presenting certificates to prove I have qualifications, which is not my issue at all. In a way I'm not looking forward to it, because it means being yet again tied to one place with little freedom. I only hope I can find an energy supplier that doesn't insist on using smart meters, as they work by bluetooth. In terms of travelling, I have of course also met some interesting people along the way as I mentioned previously on this blog, and been to some great places.

Bank Holiday Train Ridiculousness

I travelled twice over the bank holiday in the UK. People generally take the whole easter Friday to Monday off work or school as both the Friday and Monday are holiday and make for a long weekend. However this year was the year of ridiculousness. I forgot that there was going to be work going on to do with the metro lines in parts of northeast England. So I went on the Saturday from South Shields to Newcastle, which is normally a case of ride however many stops then change and ride another stop. Simple right? Not that day. I rode as far as i could then had to get the replacement bus. As the scanner on the bus apparently wasn't working, a number of people with bus passes were allowed to just walk on. I then got another metro, but got off a few stops later after hearing an announcement from the driver. I thought he said to get off, but i met some fellow passengers who said I could have stayed on that train. I finally completed my metro journey by taking the next one to go in that direction. The metro trains thankfully come every 20 minutes or perhaps 10, but I would very much appreciate knowing why work was done on a weekend when people were bound to be going here there and everywhere! I also took a train in the afternoon of Easter Monday from Newcastle to Peterborough. The thing that has always made me angry about train travel in the UK is not only the prices, but the fact that a ticket does not mean a seat. You can book a seat if you want, but in busy times you probably won't get anywhere near a sittable seat! On Monday I was almost standing for the whole journey. I say almost, because there were supposed seats in my carriage, but they were fixed slanting seats I could do little more than perch on. They reminded me of a softer version of seats one might find at a bus stop while doing nothing more than waiting, not somewhere you would sit while on a journey. This particular train was so full, that the person on my left was standing all journey, the person on my right hadn't moved from their seat on their case/bag before or after I was there, then the rest of the people were either standing or sitting on the floor. The conductor even made several announcements to say that first class was "full and standing" and people might be able to claim compensation if they had reserved a seat on the train and not been able to get to it. I spoke to a lady who lost her spot on the floor as soon as she stood up, then her little child had the choice of the floor or random person's bag. I often agree with someone whose name I'll never know as it was a radio phone-in years ago, but one thing I always remember them saying is "they shouldn't sell more train tickets than there are seats on a train, just as it is for an aeroplane or the theatre". The train not only had more passengers because another line was closed due to work, but of course people wanted or needed to travel anyway. The train I was on ended up getting delayed because so manny people were standing too close to the edge of station platforms. Oh and there was a problem with a signal near a station. The moral of the story? Don't travel on trains during a bank holiday.

Low-waste Living

I'm writing from the computer today, so will have far fewer typing errors now. I just got the laptop and the person who was going to buy it doesn't want it now as they got a new one, so looks like I'm keeping it. Anyway I thought I would write a little about what I currently do to try and produce as little waste as possible, as well as something about what I would like to do in future.

<h2>Currently</h2>

In December 2018, I bought a bamboo travel mug whose lid and grip are made of silicone. Since then I've noticed I haven't used a single takeaway/paper cup. I was at college in January and some of February 2019 and stayed in a hall of residence. I even spent less money and went back to the kitchen to make tea myself instead of buying it at the coffee shop if I had time. When going shopping, I try and reuse bags, even paper ones as much as I can. That way I don't have to keep getting plastic ones. I also got a reusable sort of fabric bag when I was in Helsinki, which I take with me for fruit and vegetables. It comfortably holds 4 big apples and 4 bananas. Of course I also finish as much of my food as I can rather than throwing it away, but who wouldn't. I have some food storage containers, but unfortunately they're of a flimsy plastic and not exactly airtight. I don't really want plastic containers at all, but that's all they had in the store I was in when it occurred to me to buy some. I know so much fruit and vegetables come in packaging (especially if it's out of season), so I try and buy loose ones whenever I can. If I can't get loose fruit and vegetables I get as big bag as I can. I do that with food in general, because I can use some of it and freeze the rest. Why things like single cucumbers are wrapped in plastic in shops I've never understood. Markets if there are any close by are great alternatives though. I only use them for dry things like looseleaf tea. When I'm making things, I put whatever leftover pieces of fabric and yarn I have into other projects. I don't use energy-saving light bulbs because I can't see them well if at all. However, when I light candles I at times use long matches, especially if I want to light 2 or 3 at once. I find I can light 3 candles with 1 long match. Got to love scented candles, although I do also have a cool lantern thing that is in the shape of a house and has multi-coloured windows. I also have an oil burner and need very little oil to get the scent.

<h3>In Future</h3>

In future, one thing I really want to do and am already trying to do is get myself a tea-strainer. That way I can use the looseleaf tea more than teabags. I'm going to be renting a place at some point before September, because I'm starting an art course at that point, so I also want to see if the area I move to has anything for composting or a specific food-waste or garden-waste etc bin I could get. I'll be still travelling as much as I can though, so I'm going to try and take fewer taxis, which will also help in saving money. Sadly this is not always possible because some places are not reachable by public transport and I might have to be places in a reasonable time-frame. Today for example, I only took a taxi to and from the metro station, then I took the metros the rest of the way to and from Newcastle. I really want to do a bit of shopping of sorts and get myself a set of bamboo cutlery and a flask or whatever it's called. The one I want to get has a double-wall so you don't get a burned or frozen hand, but it keeps things at proper temperature for quite a number of hours. I think the flask will be useful when I'm wanting to carry drinks around on a train for example, because I can just throw it in my bag and off I go, but with the mug I have right now I have to hold it upright. I want the cutlery because it's flat and light-weight, so again I can put it in my bag and take it places. Then I can eat without using the plastic cutlery. Quite what I'll do with the straw I have no idea, but all of them seem to come with some kind of bamboo or glass straw for some reason. They normally come with a pair of chopsticks as well. I forgot to mention earlier that I've been using bars of soap again now rather than the stupid big bottles of shower gel or similar. I find they seem to last longer, although that could just be me not using so much, I don't know. Either way, I've heard about bars of shampoo recently so want to see if I can find some to try out. I sometimes just use the water from the shower, but normally use shampoos with coconut oil if I can get it, because I find it helpful for my skin and hair. I want to get myself a talking scale that also has a jug and measures liquid as well as solid ingredients. I have one at the minute that measures only solid things. That way I can cook food hopefully better than I currently do. I'm not sure though, because the most accurate talking scales only measure to the gram rather than say the half or tenth of a gram like standard scales do. I find this wrong, because those who can't see too well if at all have the right to exactly the same information as their fully sighted colleagues,.

Travelling On The Cheap (Continued)

It's later than I thought, so thought I post an update. My plan of travelling on the cheap didn't go quite as I had planned.

I booked the ferry from Turku for28 GBP which was very nice, but sadly because I couldn't remember how to get to the bus stop I ended up getting a taxi to the ferry terminal, which cost of course more than I would have liked than the ferry itself. On the ferry I got some food, which wasn't too bad in price, as well as a  couple o f drinks (tea or pepsi orr something of the sort). Oh now I remember, the food was a fallafal wrap with pitta bread and some sweet potato fries. Sadly and rather annoyingly the ferry had absolutely nothing in braille in terms of signage, not even anything tactile at all actually. So I was wondering around waiting for random people to show up. The people working on the Viking Line ship for the most part were very helpful, but I still thought to mention it to everyone from the people in the restaurants to the cleaner to the guard, or whatever you call those people who go round and make sure everything is fine on board the ship. The only thing apart from not being able to navigate the boat myself even if Ihadd wanted to, was the fact that the staff member who showed me off the boat and out of the terminal at Stockholm decided to tell me that I should tell them in advance or bring someone with me next time. Um no. I have just as much right to ask for asistance as anyone else who doesn't know where to go thank you very much.

So I arive in Stockholm Sweden and meet the bus driver who will take those who want to the city terminal where the buses and trains are. I ask the very helpfuul driver how much the ticket is and surprisingly, he tells me the price not only in chrona, but also in euros and informs me that he takes card payments. Fantastic! I got to the city terminal and sat talking to a lady who got there with me. She was waiting for her daughter and I for the flixbus I had previously booked to go to Malmo then to Berlin. We separated when that lady's daughter arrived and some people were also hanging around waiting for the same bus as me, so we boarded together. I might addd here that the buses were the cheapest part of the journey. I really wanted to go an a direct flixbus from Stockholm to Berlin, but that was full so I had to take a couple of separrate buses. The driver of the bus from Stockholm spoke German and little to no English and my first language is English with the odd half-fogotten bit of German, but the driver was lovely. More about him in a minute. The jjourney took all night and into the morning since it was a night bus. I really wish night buses would have beds, because the seats are not exactly comfortable on flixbuses. We got to Mamo Sweden at something after 7 in the morning and I had a 3 hour or more wait in the bus station. The driver decided to wait with me as he had nothing to do until he left for his plane a couple of hours later. It was bloody cold, so we went to sit in the bus station and he bought me a cup of tea ( gave him my travel mug to not have to bother with the disposable ones) then he asks if i want something to eat. I tell him that would be nice but I didn't know what was around or something to that effect, so he sys he will buy me a sweet roll. Next thing I know, he comes back with some sort of pretty sasty local pastry thing with nuts etc on. Although we spoke little of each other's languages, we managed to get the messages across and have something of a conversation. I knew the German for the numbers when he was asking how many sugars I wanted in the tea and I know the German for "speak", so after we got that figured out we were good!  He would say whatever he was wanting to say and have google translate say the English, and I would do likewise and have google translate say the German.. As I say, this lovely bus driver whose name I can't remember stayed with me until he had to leave for his aeroplane, at which point he had the police at the bus station show me where my bus was. Sweden has so many more police than Finland. In Finland you barely notice them, but in Sweden in the bus stations you see them walking around. Anyway I noticed some lines on the ground and upon asking the police person, discovered that they were to lead blind people to the exits. If I remember right they were also present in Stockholm station.

So off I go on another bus to Berlin. I had tried to book a cheap place on air bnb because I was tired, but they only accepted if it was for 2or more people, so I bookedd a more expensive place in the centre of Berlin. This meant getting a taxi to and from the place and the bus station. I stayed in a pretty big house run by Andreas. He's lovely and I would totally stay there again. The room was big but then it was a 5 person room. I got talking to him as well as some of the other guests over the 2 days I stayed there. Andreas loves his gramaphones and there's a lovely one in the kitchen/dinin-room. It lookl something like a cupboard, but you open the lid at the top and there is the turntable for the record to go on with the needle and everything. The winder is on the sde. There are a couple of doors which are actually cupboard doors lower down, but at the top are 2 smaller doors which at first I thought were cupboard doors with oddly-shaped shelves, but it's really a speaker. From what he told me it was a total pain getting it to Germany since he bought it at an auction in England. I stayed there from Friday to Sunday mainly resting. On Sunday me and Andreas went for lunch at an Asian restaurant. I can't remember its name off the top of my head, but I had some vegetables with some tofu and rice and probably some kind of sauce. Andreas had duck. I took a taxi back to the bus terminal and on the way got into a discussion with the driver about the rather stupid taxi laws in and around Berlin. To cut a long story short, he's a Berlin driver and he can pick people up from Schonefeld Airport which is 1 km outside the city, but he can't go back and join the queue with passengers. He has to carry no passengers. The Schonefeld drivers can pick people up and take them to Schonefeld, but they have to go back to Berlin with no passengers. He also said that the uber drivers in Germany don't have to have actual taxi licences or be familiar with the area. He as a fully registered tax driver has to carry his personal licence, taxi licence and documents relating to the car, but the uber drivers only have to have their own licence and car documents. Also he had to go through an exam to make sure he knew all the popular tourist sites and how to get to them, the hotels and an other similar places as  well as having a good knowledge of the streets around the city. Apparently the book he had to read with all this information was around a thousand pages long, but again the uber drivers have to do none of that, just rely on the GPS. We all know that this is flawed, because one day the battery will go flat or the technology in the said GPS will malfunction, so while it's a good tool to have perhaps, it shouldn't be the only tool I think.

Anyway I find the staff at Berlin bus sttion amazingly helpful. Despite the fact there was only 1 person dealing with enquiries where I was, he sent for someone to help me get to the bus. Not 1 but 2 peole came and introduced themselves as being from Flixbus. There are lines at that particular bus station to indicate where people should wait for the bus at each stand. On I get to a cold and annoyingly uncomfortable bus heading towards Collone. Oh I forgot to add, on the way from Malmo to Berlin, my bus ticket included a ferry crossing at some stage to Copenhagen. I payed 22 euros on the ferry and got 2 plates of salad and pasta stuff and 2 lots of bread as well as some tea. It was actually an all inclusive buffet, so I could probably have got more.

The journey to Collone was uncomfortable, especially as I was tryingto sleep but couldn't. The wifi on flixbus buses is irritating as well, because it never actually connected for me, or if it did it wouldn't stay. I didn't know whether I was meant to connect my phone to the network called flixbus or the one called flixbus wifi. I changed buses at Collone and got the one to London. I don't know what I think of that bit of the journey in terms of how environmentally friendly it was or otherwise. When you get done with passport control in Paris, you have to get back on the bus, which then gets on a train with a load of other vehicles to carry everyone from Paris to Folkstone England. Then the bus has to drive off the train. I had some passport issues at the French border control. To cut a long story short, they decided that the world passport was a fantasist passport. They weren't having any of it when I told them I'm a world citizen and answered their questions and presented them with the universal declaration of human rights, a copy of which I carry around. They only way they would let me through was if I presented the British passport.

Well that's my story of getting back to the UK. I got back late on Monday evening. If I had been staying closer to Turku than Rymattyla in Finland, and carrying less stuff, I would have probably been able to get a single bus either to the ferry terminal or to Turku, but from where I had been staying I would have altogether had to take 3 buses - 1 to Naatali, then 1 to Turku and finally one to the ferry terminal itself. Also I could have not stayed the couple of nights in Berlin, but then I would have probably been more worn out. Speaking of cheap travel, I find the Express coaches in the UK to be more comfortable than Flixbus. I wonder how much the ferry to France from Dover England costs these days. Maybe I should look on ferry savers. At least you can alk around and do things on the ferry and perhaps go outside or sleep if it's a longer journey.

Travelling On The Cheap

Given that I think buses trains and perhaps ferries are more environmentally friendly and cheaper than flying, I thought I ould share my journey I'm planing to the UK. I say I think these things are perhaps more environmentally friendly, because if aeroplanes have too much fuel, it's common for them to dump the remainder into the ocean so they're not too heavy. Well I'm going to be leaving Rymattyla super early in the morning tomorrow. I'm getting the 06:25 bus from here to Naatali, then the next bus to Turku. I'll then have to find a way of getting to the ferry terminal which could get interesting. Another thing I'm really hoping is that I can pay with card on the buses. I know yu can pay by card in taxis here, but then those journeys are much more expensive.

I'm going to take the ferry from Turku to Stockholm in Sweden, so just need to decide which cabin I want to book. Got to love Ferry Savers. On the page where you choose which cabin you want it has a little piece of text saying "accommodation is compulsary". I'll be arriving in Stockholm in the evening and was hoping to take a flixbus all the way to Berlin Germany. Sadly though the direct journey is full for that night, so I'm looking at either doing some sort               of transfer in Malmo (no idea where that is in relation to Stockholm), or staying a night or 2 in Stockholm itselt in order to get the direct bus. I'm not too sure how much the buses will be from here to the ferry place, but I really don't feel like paying 62 euros (can't find the euro symbol on here) for a taxi to take me there. Even if I take the most expensive flixbus journey from Stockholm to Berlin (21 or so hours), that's still less than 95 GBP and the ferry will be 50 or less. In fact thhere are some flixbus jourseys for just under 90. I really wanted to see what I could find on eurolines which I heard about recently, but so far find the website a total pain to navigate.

I know this is taking the really long way round, but that's all right with me. If I didn't have so much stuff I was carrying, I wouldn't mind staying a while in each of the places, but then that would not be so cheap as I would have to get accommodation.

After Berlin I should be able to get buses from there to Amsterdam, then from Amsterdam Netherlands to London England. I think the UK has surprisingly few flixbus stops, because it only has stops in London and Dover. Then again Finland has precisely 0 stops by the look of it. I'm also going to look at ferries from Amsterdam to Newcastle England. Actually the ferry terminal is in North Shields you silly people. I'm thinking about seeing how much eurostar and megabus are as well to compare prices. I forgot about megabus. The only reason I mention Newcastle/North Shields is because hen I can pick some stuff up I accidentally left somewhere I stayed and go and visit some people further south. There's a direct train from Newcastle to London Kings Cross and vice versa which stops at Peterborough along the way.

Before I post this, just a quick thought to ask who wants me to do a comparison of things I've noticed about differences between the UK and Finland? I know people have done similar already, so really don't want to bore everyone, but feel free to comment. :)

Visits To Finland

This is my second time visiting the northern European country of Finland. My first was in September to early October 2017, when I spent much of the time wondering between Helsinki in the south and Rovaniemi in the north. Durring one my my first times in Helsinki, I found a little Japanese restaurant which I normally like to go to. The people working and running the place speak Finnish English and Japanese, and one time I met a really interesting guy who retired from his previous job and later worked as a healer. I won't tell his whole story here, but he was one of those people that you meet once then never see again. Wonder whatever became of him ... While in Rovaniemi I met some super friendly but shy reindeers and some equally friendly huskies an a reindeer farm and husky farm. I recently found an experience listed on air bnb that Iwant to go on where you get to make things with local wood and reindeer antlers etc. I mention it in more detail on my craft blog at http://harmonyscrafts.blogspot.com/ but think it would be fun to do some time.

I like the fact that the people heredon't generally do small talk, so they mainly talk when they actually have something to say. For that reason, I don't find te silence awkward as it is the UK and probably other places. I find that people are more helpful in explaining things as well, wheras in other places, they seem to think it perfectly acceptable to grab hold of say someone with a white cane in order to apparently help. They do that a little here, but not so much by any means. Speaking of travel, I like the trains here, because you can't not reserve a seat when booking a train ticket and the conductor will look at every single person's ticket on that train. To the point of if you don't have a ticket, how do you know where to sit? So even if people are only going for a fairly short journey, no one stands up on the train unless you're say going to the dining car or something. The Finnish logic is kind of interesting too. In kitchens here there's a cupboard abone the sink where plates and cups go. The shelves of the said cupboard are racks so once you're done washing the dishes you can just put them there and they drip dry into teh sink. I thought tat was a Finnish thing, but actually someone in a youtube comment on a video said it's the Caribians who invented it, so the Finns didn't get to patent the design. Oh if you go to a hotel and have a double bed, they normally put 2 single duvets rather than a double one. Apparently that's so if one person gets hot it doesn't matter because the other person can keep their own cover.

This time I'm in the coastal town of Rymattyla in southwest Finland. I had heard of the city of Turku but never actually been there. When I looked up the place on air bnb, this little apartment was the cheapest I found. I didn't realize at the time that it was so far away from the city. I like the fact that the town is quiet and one side is the forest and the other is the ocean. Sadly the old windmil is no longer making flour, but stands empty with its sales still turning occasionally in the wind. I wonder why they just closed and abandoned it. :( I sit here now hearing it on the odd occasion and listening to the birst and the cars going past. For a coastal town though, I find it pretty environmentally unfriendly, because the only options we have for rubbish disposal here are rubbish that gets burned, biodegradable or plastic. This leaves me at a complete loss for what to do with teabags and tins etc, because teabags are lined with plastic so not biodegradable and tins don't really do anything except rust, and they're not plastic either. Then again certain plastics are not recylableeither, which is even worse for the environment. While I was in Helsinki I managed to get myself a reusable bag for fruit and vegetables and a paper shoping bag (at some point I'll either buy or make myself a cloth shopping bag or 2), but the local shop here has only plastic bags for fruit and vegetables and just about has paper bags for carrying shopping. Also the said shop has more prepared things than I even thought possible. I never knew that slicedd tomatoes in a box was a thing someone could buy until the other week! and there are no loose mushrooms or carrots, only packaged in boxes or yet more bags. This apartment where I'm staying is nice enough, butt I find it cluttered because there are loads of stools and tables and random things around. Then again the people ho own this place do tend to rent it out until they want to come and live here. The most irritating thing though is that the middle or outer bits of the windows don't open, only the inner ones so no air can get in. That's probably nice for the winter, but it's spring now and I wanted to let some air in here.

I leave here on Thursday, so will probably spend a few days in Turku itself and have a look at the ferries. I either want to go from Turku to Sweeden, then take buses from there to Berlin then Amsterdam then London, or else take the ferry to Germany and go from there to Amsterdam and London. I don't like airports at the best of times, plus I want to go the cheapest and hopefully most environmentally fiendly way possible. I know it's going to take a lot longer, but although I've heard that flying is friendlier, I don't know that it is as planes make a habit of dumping fuel in the ocean if they have too much of it. I find buses trains and boats take longer, but are actually less stressful, because there are normally fewer supposed security checks to go through if any and you can either sleep or walk around and do stuff. With a ferry you can sometimes go outside if it's daylight. Of course they shut the doors at night for safety, but then people are normally sleeping if it's a long journey anyway. I want to go back to the UK only for as long as I need to to minimize some of my stuf, then I want to come back and explore a bit more of the European countries. I say minimize because I have for example 2 of the same clothes just in different colors. Partly I bought them, but partly people give them to me. I also want to either pick up my kitchen scale or get a better one that measures liquid as well as weight, so I can make more of my own food better. Making own food is so much cheaper than eating out or ordering it.