The Potsdam part

24th of July: We woke up at 10 am and updated the web page. Aleksi and Pirkka jogged a little around the town. We ate brunch at the local Indian restaurant. Erica and Jonah study classical music in Potsdam and Erica promised us a private piano concert so we dropped her off to the school for practicing. The rest of us headed for a grocery store to get ingredients for the dinner we promised to cook in the evening.

After dropping the stuff back to the apartment we went to the school and took a small tour around it. We met Erica in a lecture hall, and the show was about to begin. And what an amazing experience it was! She played a few classical pieces and even sang a pop song in japanese. We were stunned. The music was so beautiful that we could have stayed there for an eternity. She will be something great in the future. After Erica had played Jonah showed his talents also and even Pirkka entertained us with the 150.000$ piano.
In the afternoon we headed for a park to play badminton, soccer and ultimate. It was the action we needed after the spiritual afternoon. We even had a ultimate match in the end in which Pirkka, Erkka and Tuomas crushed the others.

As a gratitude to the guys we prepared dinner to the whole gang in the apartment. The Mènu was following: For starters Avocado shrimp cocktail with chili mayo à la Aleksi, Main course was Pasta carbonara with a finnish touch à la Tuomas, Greek salad was made by Erkka and Pirkka washed the laundry.

At 11 pm we went to a near park/camp site and started a bonfire after finding the wood in the forest. Jonah teached us how to make smores: a toasted marshmallow and a piece of chocolate in between two crackers. Delicious! We chatted around the fire and listened to bullfrogs speaking to one another. At 1 am we hit the bed.

The Beginning of our journey

20th of July: Aleksi, Erkka and Tuomas left Helsinki behind as they took a plane to London in the afternoon and continued to New York from there. Late at night we arrived in JFK and took a moonlight taxi to the "luxury" hotel in Manhattan. The room was really small and it smelled terrible, but the location was great. We were exhausted from the day of travelling so we just hit the bed at like 2 am.
21st of July: We started the day with a traditional american breakfast in a small diner nearby our hotel. Eggs, bacon, toast, pancakes, coffee and fresh orange juice. With our stomachs full we headed to the centre. Just walking around, watching the life in the big apple, visiting some stores. Pirkka joined the group in the afternoon after his plane had arrived. Took his luggage to the hotel and went to crabbed some lunch to go from a deli. We ate in Cenral Park which is really a haven in the middle of the busy city. There were a few baseball games going on in the ball park in Central Park and we enjoyed them for a while. Did some shopping and it started to get late so we headed for the hotel. Dropped by for a few beers in an irish pub on the way.
22nd of July: Erkka was feeling sick in the morning so he stayed in the hotel as the other guys had breakfast the same style as yesterday. We got some stomach drug for Erkka and headed downtown. Aleksi got crazy shopping and we dragged ourselves behind him. Finally the shops started to close and we could go for a dinner. We ate pasta at this intimate place in Little Italy. The food was amazing although expensive. We had walked close to 20 kilometers during the day so we were ready for bed. Erkka was feeling better also when we arrived to the hotel.
23rd of Juy: Woke up early and got sandwiches from Subway for breakfast. Tuomas and Erkka went get the rental car from Avis while the boys checked out from the hotel. This was the real start for the roadtrip. Erkka drove and Pirkka navigated our way out of NY. It looked like a lot of trouble but the guys did a great job an d in no time we were on I-87 heading north. Ate at McDonalds on a rest area. With a half mistake we drove the rest of the way on the small roads seeing the real America with all the small towns and great scenery. 8 pm we arrived in Potsdam, NY where we met Erica, Erkkas exchange strudent friend, and her roommate Jonah. They were kind enough to bunk us on their sofa. Ate some pizza and just hanged around and went to sleep happily after a long day of driving.