Like there's no tomorrow

A sunny day in Bologna. Taken by my friend and his pretty impressive camera :)

♥ ♥ ♥

I saw a pretty nice dress the other day at H&M and I had to go and get it yesterday.

It cost only 15€ (I've seen these before for 25€ so it was definitely a bargain). We had a huge house party yesterday and I decided to wear the dress there.

This is how I accessorized it. I decided to go a little over the top with the jewellery and I was very satisfied with the outcome.

I decided to take a photo at H&M because I just received my beloved winter coat earlier this week and after wearing it for 3 winters, I still love it like I just bought it yesterday! I also love my black circle scarf, my purple beanie and the black wedges I'm wearing.

This is how the dress looked on me. Ignore the jeans haha.

Now I'm off to bed, I'm so tired and I've had a terrible headache which apparently has something to do with excessive coughing :(

Like a broken record ♫

Ok so the one last post about my trip and this is going to be about the Never Say Die tour in Bologna, Italy :) Which was pretty amazing I might add! I got to see one of my all-time fav bands Parkway Drive plus two bands that I like very much: Comeback Kid and Your Demise. I also saw Bleeding Through, Emmure, War From a Harlots Mouth and We Came As Romans.

Last night I was bored so I made you a map about my trip and where I was located during those 5 days. Oh, and I'm well aware of the map's inaccuracy haha. When I realized it was missing some countries I was too lazy to start editing a new one.

I got the Bleeding Through guitarist's pick, cool! And the ticket for the concert cost 28€, really not too bad considering how many awesome bands I got to see.

We Came As Romans

Your Demise

War From A Harlots Mouth

Emmure


Bleeding Through

Sadly I didn't get any decent shots of Comeback Kid :( The crowd was way too rowdy at that point.

Parkway Drive

Now I'm getting some tea and then I'm off to bed, I feel really sick atm :(

Looking from the window above

My Interrail Trip 13.-17.11.2010!

So here we go, my ramblings about my very short 5-day interrail trip in 3 countries. I purchased a 10-day interrail pass including 5 travelling days and it cost 160€. It might sound pretty expensive, which it was, but the train ticket prices in Europe are sky high so with that in mind it was a pretty good investment. All the photos are from Bologna, Italy.

Our neighborhood in Bologna was pretty modern.

Dortmund, Germany

My first destination was the city of Dortmund in Northern Germany because I have a friend who lives there and I really wanted to see him. The train ride took me through Genève and Basel (Switzerland) and Mannheim (Germany) and was about 12 hours long. I'm really surprised how fast it went without even once opening my laptop or considering to hang myself from the urine-colored train window curtain. The landscapes in Switzerland are breath-taking.

I really liked Germany, it's a cheap country and the people are nice and laid-back, too bad it was raining like hell the whole weekend and we didn't have time to do everything we had planned.

The 'Unaway' Hotel. ...Wait, what?

Simultaneously changing traffic lights for pedestrians and bikers. One question: WHY?

Roermond, Holland

The next day me and my German friends went to Holland because the stores in Germany were closed and apparently that's what happens in Germany on a Sunday haha. Roermond was a small town near the border of Germany but they had an interesting array of outlet stores so I was in heaven. I also got to walk around on the small streets of the town and I really liked the Christmas vibe there. I didn't take any photos there, don't know why.

These are both from the same neighborhood. Italy at its best: contrasts.

And where would that traffic sign be pointing at?

Bologna, Italy

The next day I spent on the road again and when I got off the train in Basel (once again), I found out that my journey to Italy would take 4 hours longer than expected. I was SIXTEEN (yes, 16) hours on train that day and I nearly lost it during. So, if you're planning your interrail trip the most important thing to have in mind is that nothing ever goes according to plans. Ever. Period. And that the trains were invented by Satan itself, not to mention the schedules they are run by. But I finally made it to Bologna and it stopped raining and everything seemed a little bit better at that point.

I met my Finnish friend at our hotel on Monday night and the hotel was surprisingly okay seeing as how we only paid 20€ for it per night including breakfast and everything was all new. The location was also perfect for us because the concert hall of Never Say Die was located within walking distance of our hotel.

On Tuesday we were walking around a bit, took some photos, visited a small mall (lol) and ate delicious Italian pizza in a traditional ristorante. After that we panicked a bit because my Italian friend who also was going to the concert told me that it was almost sold out so we had to start looking for tickets. Well thanks to her, pomegranate Breezer and Mr. Jack Daniels, we finally made it to the venue and were the first ones to get tickets. The concert was AMAZING and I really enjoyed seeing all the bands and meeting people but I must say that my friend's lost wallet at the end of the concert was a bit of a buzzkill. Well, all's well that end's well and I was really happy to get some sleep after a night of mayhem like a good ol' rock concert.

On Wednesday we travelled back to France (in ONLY 7,5hrs) and I was so happy to see all the familiar neighborhoods and people once again. I must say that I've never been that happy to be back home haha. We didn't see much of Bologna on Wednesday, just a grocery store and Bologna Centrale (the railway station). Oh, and annoying Italian people. By the way if you ever consider travelling in a TGV train, please do! It's an experience like no other for someone who's used to slow, dirty, shit-smelling Finnish trains from when Finland was still ruled by the caveman colony. Oh and for the record, the Italian train system sucks if you're on an interrail. I had to pay 20€ extra to get out of that bloody country (in other countries the maximum I paid for a seat ticket was 4,50€).

Some photography took place at Bologna Centrale.

While chugging a big McDrink! It's good to remember that some things never change.

The most familiar scenery during the trip. Landscapes passing fast by in Milan.

Who the fuck are you to predict my future?

Okay, my 2-week holiday, that I very freely decided to have in the middle of the semester, is now officially over. He went back to Finland and it makes me sad because we had such an awesome time together for the past week both in Italy and here in France. I still haven't gone through all the photos I took on our trip so I'm going to get back to them later. Hopefully maybe even tomorrow if I find the needed motivation.

Anyway, here's all the shopping I've done this month and I'm really glad the result turned out to be pretty decent and not over the top haha.

I already had this shirt in white but I really liked it and decided to get another one in different color. They didn't have the black one anymore so I went for the blue and I'm really happy I did!

I'm absolutely head over heels in love with these cropped shirts. They can be worn with almost anything and look really nice with skinny jeans. My dear roomie made me get the raspberry red one instead of the black and white one and I'm happy with her choice hehe.

I didn't have mittens and it's getting a little bit cold also here in France so I bought these pretty ones from H&M and they cost only 2€.

This must be my fav top at the moment. It was on sale in New Look and cost only 12€.

I guess I mentioned my need for a brown belt to be worn with some of my shirts and I found this one in New Look as well. It cost around 3€ so not bad at all!

During my trip in Europe I didn't wanna put all my money on shopping but of course I had to get a Parkway Drive t-shirt given the chance! I modified the collar a bit. The blue one I bought for my French friend.

This is the front of the shirt.

And this is the behind. I love the text, it's been my slogan for the past couple of weeks and I was really happy to find it on the reverse side of the shirt.

I also needed Vans or Converse shoes and because they are far too expensive here in France I decided to buy a pair on my trip to Germany. I actually wanted to buy these in grey and black but I didn't find them and fell in love with these instead. These cost 40€ in a skate shop.

On my trip to Germany we also went to Holland and visited a pretty sweet Vans Outlet store. They had shoes for 8€ but I didn't find any pair I would have wanted to give a home to. BUT I did find a cool beanie that I regret a lil' bit that I didn't buy :( Well maybe one day.

A couple of weeks ago we also found a ridiculously cheap cosmetics store here in Lyon (Bellecour) called Saga Cosmetiques. For example I found a nail polish for 2€, one litre (!!!) of salon conditioner for 3,80€ and a conditioner for blonde hair for 2,80€. I predict a visit for the store in near future...

I'm gonna get back to you on my interrail trip next time. Right now my brain doesn't seem to function in English so let's leave at that for today.

On a Friday

Hello long time no see! I was travelling a bit around Europe for 5 days (Germany, Holland, Italy) and I didn't have internet or any interest in blogging. I'm going to post some photos here later about my trip. Now I'm hanging out here in Lyon with my friend who came to visit me all the way from Finland so I don't want to spend my time on blogging while he's here. Next week I'll be back in the picture for sure!

I edited the layout a bit and here's the new banner and the version 2.0 of Sweet Wonderland. I was so fed up with the old version so here's some very much needed change! What do you guys think? :)

P.S. If anyone knows how to center the banner, please do tell me! I'm running out of ideas and lack the motivation to make yet another new banner.

Quand on arrive à comprendre

So we didn't make it to 5 posts this week but 4 is pretty well for me too. I've had an amazing weekend, on Friday we ended up going out and having a good time at a Russian bar and yesterday I went to the concert of Chunk! No, Captain Chunk!, Can't Bear This Party and At Last You Can Fall. I have to say that this was the best concert I've gone so far here and maybe the best one I've ever been to, which is weird because all the bands I saw last night were French and not some very well known super groups.


The crowd was totally insane! One girl next to me fainted and another one apparently broke her nose, that was super scary.



At the end of their set people from the audience went to the stage and sang the rest of the last song with the band, that was so cool. And the crowdsurfing was totally out of hand haha.



Sorry for posting so many similar pictures of the bass player but he was sooooo hot! Why don't we have those in Finland? Or actually: why was I born in the wrong country?

This was cute as well.

At the moment Chunk is one of my favourite bands ever, they're basically all I've been listening to for the past month or so and I love their songs and their sound.

Haha I really was a tornado last night, I don't remember taking this picture but I guess the idea behind this was to take of picture of that No Guts No Glory sticker haha. I know one dude who plays in that band and they were supposed to play this summer in Finland too!

This last picture is once again from the Soon Night site. We went to Ayers Rock last Monday and got photographed once again haha. They had all cocktails for 4€ only, super cheap. And goood!

So that was a nice weekend all in all. Yesterday I realized once again how much I love it here. I don't get to experience the culture that I feel I belong to to this extent in Finland. I hardly ever get to see good bands or hang out with people who all share my taste in music or get to be paid for drinks the whole night haha. One word: AMAZING!