Visiting two Sofias, Crete June 2015

June 2015 was really chilly in Finland, so it was a good choice to head for Agios Nicolaos in Crete for a week. The main purpose was to celebrate my spouse’s 60th birthday but the timing matched also in climatic point of view.

We had a quite small hotel run by lady named Sofia. She also had an employee named Sofia who appeared to have Greek father and mother from Rovaniemi and therefore she spoke Finnish fluently with Northern accent.

We liked to see much more than just beaches so we made some organized bus trips. We visited the Spinalonga Island, the main place for the TV series “To Nisi”, based on the best-selling English novel The Island by Victoria Hislop. It tells about the leper patients living on the isolated island and how they decided to start living instead of just being dying patients. The buildings on the island are almost ruined so the film was made in the Upper Village of Elounda – which we also visited.

                                         Pics from Spinalonga

View from upper Elounda village

                                      The night pics after the Spinalonga trip

The next day we travelled to Lassithi Plateau in the center of the island. It is 800 meters above the sea level and our bus had to climb even higher to reach the plateau between the mountains. It is s so high even olive trees seen everywhere else in Crete cannot grow there. So the main articles are potatoes, apples and wine. Our main target there was the huge stalagmite cave which is said to be the hiding place of baby Zeus. At least the bees and goats that are said to feed Zeus were there.

                                             On our way to the Lassithi Plateau     

                                          The Lassithi Plateau

Our last organized trip was to Herakleion and Knossos, the best places to learn about the Minoan culture.  There was a certain division: The actual objects were at the Archeological Museum and the actual places situated in Knossos, now with copies of the original buildings, amphorae and frescos.

                              Artefacts at the Heraklion Archeological Museum

                                                Knossos

For the rest of our time we organized our own schedule, including going to beach, doing some shopping and still one trip to the nearby village Chritsa. 

Actually I bought only a set of jewelry of olive tree. I also needed the simple dress which would be easy to take off and put on at the beach but my spouse wanted to buy a bit better one….

                                    Celebrating the birthday of my spouse in my new dress

I found it quite easy to live there as Anukatariina. The wig was a problem on the other hand when it was really hot and when I went to swim. In both cases I used a silken scarf. 

                                             Getting my bikini tan lines


There was a certain difference when we were welcomed to taverns as a man and a woman and as two ladies. In some cases flirt we got at first faded a bit after the situation became clear to the waiter. 

                                When it's hot you must drink enough, this time a really chilly beer.

We were rather discrete while going out or coming in at the hotel. However in the last evening the older Sofia shouted loudly when we were passing the hotel restaurant and wanted to hug me very tight.

                                       Our nighties pleated by the cleaning lady

                                      The last supper....I gained 3 kilos !!!

My spouse bought a new sun hat and wanted to have the older one, too. So I had to wear the new one on our trip back home. When our bus back to Herakleion airport came to fetch us I saw the tourist guide looking at us, then the passenger list and then the both twice again – When she opened the bus door she had finally figured out what was going on…

This trip was the first one I’ve used my new id card with my female picture. The officials didn’t pay any attention on it - I didn’t see any reaction.    

   

                                                      Back to Helsinki!

Je Suis Lenni

A 4-year boy named Lenni likes sometimes to dress in pink dress. He also plays football and do other “boy’s things." Unfortunately he have got evil comments from the parents of other kids.  One day his mother had enough and wrote a blog about the issue. The result was a FB-group for the day for everyone to get dressed in pink. The day was 8th of June. More than 13 000 people took part.     

Pirkanmaa Pride 2015

Pirkanmaa is the district around the industry city Tampere. Tampere is called “Manse”,  the Finnish Manchester.

We told in advance that we are going there. So we got company, Thea and Gitta would be there, too. We also were asked to present the greetings from DreamWearClub at the request of the organizing association, Pirkanmaan Seta.

So we drove to Tampere in two hours. Or actually it took longer because we met Thea and Gitta on our way to have a lunch before the Pride Parade. I left the others to the starting place of the parade and found the parking place near the end of the parade. It was only 20 minutes trip to walk to the starting point and I found my friends at a mall next to the square where we were about to take off.  We also met the new acquaintances, a wonderful couple from Kokkola.

                                             Thea and Gitta at the Tullikamari Square

There were a football fan club sitting at a bar terrace next to square and they responded to our shouts with their own, naturally supporting just they team.

At that very moment when the parade started it started raining. There was also quite strong wind so carrying the banderol was a rather physical task. Because of the rain there wasn’t much audience along the route. Some of them were rather pissed and didn’t respond our slogans very politely - but there were only a few such persons.

                                      Crossing the windy Hämeensilta bridge

The parade ended to the celebration place in the center of Tampere. The rain has made everything wet and it was rather cold, too. 

After an hour it was my turn to present my greetings. 

             

After that my spouse informed me that her shoes were too wet and to avoid catching cold we left the place. After changing dry socks and shoes we had something to eat and drink and went to the rainbow mass. After that we saw some tiny theater pieces and finally ended to Pride club where we met again our new friends from Kokkola. Because the city was full of other happenings and the hotels were full we decided to go home instead of having a long night in Tampere. 

Summing up May 2015

 This May has been more or less like some Mays before it – naturally with some new ingredients.

The belly dance end of the  season –show was at a real concert hall with light technology instead of the ordinary gym hall. Our dance was the same as at the rest home. There were more room so we could do it with more speed. Some of us were very hesitating and thought they couldn’t make it before such a big audience. We tried to encourage them. The other thing to encourage was the audience, they helped us to achieve the right mood by clapping their hands wildly. The ladies who hesitated were so happy after the dance since everything went as well as it could ever go with that amount of practice. 

                                         

Here you can see the video of our performance:

Our coffee evenings have been rather popular – what comes to the media. We have been seen in a document made by the Finnish broadcasting company YLE.

                                           A video still from the YLE document

The other case was a magazine Kodin Kuvalehti which will publish its article in July. We told so much to the reporter that she seemed to be sort of overloaded with information. We hope she can manage to do a decent article. One thing to tell about was also Zarah visited Seta during the latter coffee evening.

                                                   Me with my new glasses and with awesome Zarah

                                                          

Hauho weekend was rather cold so I skipped swimming this time. The theme of the weekend was the middle ages. We had a scholar Tom Linkinen who told us about the crossdressing of the ancient and medieval era. He has made a puppet play about an English man who lived as a woman at the 14th century. We played and sang some medieval and renaissance music with Ines and my spouse. I had difficulties in playing guitar with my long nails but it somehow worked while it was just medieval music with only few strings at the same time. 

Tom Linkinen                        Me playing guitar - unfortunately I don't have a lute.

The other lecturers were a choreographer Tiina Lindfors and Arja Voipio, the head of the European trans organization TGEU. Her biggest issue was the brand new equality legislation which includes the new term "expressing the gender" and meaning us. So since the mid of June it's explicitly prohibited to discriminate a person who just happens to wear or act otherwise that is excepted on the basis of which her or his gender defined at birth. 

                       

       Tiina Lindfors                                                                        Arja Voipio

We decide to collect the stories about a crossdresser at work: How did it go and if it went well, what was the right way to solve problems. The Finnish employer organization wants such information - probably to avoid expensive sue cases. On the other hand we want to encourage us to be ourselves even at work.   


To end May I met Ines at the seashore restaurant in Kaivopuisto Park. We had some coffee and tea and Amaretto and nice chat. We also had a walk along the sunny seashore. The wind was still rather cold so I had to wear my trench coat. Hope the warm summer is coming soon :)

Anukatariina Monthly/ April 2015

This April I haven’t been too busy but there’s still some actions to tell about.

In the Easter time we visited an Estonian town Haapsalu. The weather was mostly poor and we couldn’t enjoy much the walks along the seaside, although we did some. Actually the best place to watch birds was the restaurant at the seaside, while enjoying a delicious dinner at the same time. 

The Keila river falls on our way to Haapsalu

The seaside in Haapsalu


On Saturday we ended up shopping and eating delicious cakes and tapas.

                                                My Easter cake in Haapsalu

On Sunday the weather was so poor we skipped the walks totally and went to Ylemiste mall in Tallinn until it was time to go to ferry. On Sunday I decided to wear as casually I ever could. That made my spouse comment that I was even too casual – for the first time ever…

We have a parliamentary election in Finland in April. The week after Easter I decided to pre-vote at the Post office. This time I had my new id card so there were no problems with that – except the official had an obvious black out while looking at my name and my look in the id card.

                                             In front of the post office where I voted

In the same week I had my web lecture (I’m a lecturer) as the only fixed thing on my day schedule so I decided to do it at home – for the first time ever. I did not want to show my home look to the students so I did it without the webcam.

                                                               A web lecturer

In the end of April our belly dance group gave a performance for the good mood at the rest home in Espoo. The leader of the team had asked for the opportunity to do so and the answer was somewhat hesitating at first: Would the belly dance be appropriate…..? So I was hesitating as well: If the belly dance was a problem, would the man dancing as a belly dancer woman be even more so?

Luckily my team mates convicted me I could dance there. One of them even stated she had regarded me as a woman when we first met in the dressing room. So we had a plan that I would pretend to have a hoarse voice to avoid to use my male voice.

The schedule was very fast so I had to get dressed before I drove to the rest home. I thought I got some extra stares while walking along the street to my car.

                                                        Ready for the gig

The ”stage” was a space organized in the center of the coffee room. It was obviously too small for our team of five ladies with a choreography with fast tempo. So we had to limit our trajectories to avoid kicking or hitting the audience, probably with fatal consequences.  We managed to do it, but because of it we couldn’t show our best.

The reception was thrilled and warm hearted and we were asked where we can be seen next time. My hoarse voice trick seemed to work as well, I think no one reacted in any special way when dealing with me.

                                                Dancing in the coffee room   

 

                                  The whole group of dancers after the show  

In the same day I went to the ball event organized by Mummolaakso lesbian organization to see friends and get to know new ones.

                                                      Me with Veronica