Does anything specially attract your attention in this picture? Probably, the similarity of the different flags, belonging to Finland, Denmark, Estonia (this is different), Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Europe (also different) and Åland. I have been asking myself the reason of this, and even asked some locals whitout any success. At the beginning I thought all of them would be based in the Swedish Flag, as all Scandinavia was ruled once under Sweden, but I was wrong.
It seems that all flags are inspired in the Dannebrog, the danish flag, which is considered the oldest flag in the world, with records back to the 14th Century.
Interesting, isn’t it? =)
I expected to have written a few days earlier, but the last days have been quite work-intensive together with domestic tasks, but now I found couple of minutes to write a short post about my visit to Montreal last week.
It was my first trip outside Europe, and the second time in my life where I needed to show the passport, and I am in love with Schengen… I don’t like filling in forms, answering questions to policemen about why I am visiting their country when they are reading exactly that information in the paper I gave them, and you have to pass two security controls, …
And the country, although it’s not US, it is quite similar. Everything is big, specially when talking about cars and trucks.
And about the city, let’s say that it is strange, when you look at it. The architecture in the city varies a lot depending on the area you are. The financial centre has lots of skyscrapers and everything is new, while in the other neighbourhoods really old buildings (some of them about to collapse) and new ones share the quarters, divided by a bit scary alleys like in the american movies.
And, of course, the water of the river San Lorenzo (this can also be included in the “Big” chapter) and the famous Mont Royal, the small mountain which gives the name to the city, and which allows walks in the nature without leaving the city. In our walk, we “met” some squirrels and a funny woodpecker, which after working for more than half an hour, finally got its prize: two big worms. We also saw some moles in a small island in the river.
And, last but not least, the restaurants. You can find restaurants from all over the world in this multicultural city, but many of them have something in common: Apportez votre vin, which is a quite interesting concept. Instead of selling alcohol, they just serve water and soft drinks, and people bring the wine or the bier from home. With this, they allow people have dinner with wine at a reasonable price (you all know it is always ridiculous expensive), and they don’t need to pay the special tax associated to the right of selling alcohol.
And this weekend, again to Helsinki. This was planned many weeks ago, so I will repeat visit to the city, this time with couple of locals and a bunch of foreigners. It’ll be fun. 🙂
Last hours in Montreal, before taking the plane back to Europe. It’s been an interesting experience. I will posts more photos and some text when I get recovered of the jetlag in Stockholm.
