“The past is behind, learn from it. The future is ahead, prepare for it. The present is here, live it.”

Two weekends ago Brooke I decided to take a last minute trip to Edinburgh, Scotland for our weekend off. The Astrom’s were nice enough to let us borrow the car and we were off. Since we booked a discount flight with Ryanair we had to drive 4 hours to the airport they fly out of. We managed to find our way there without any problems. Edinburgh is a beautiful city with a breathtaking landscape. We were only there 3 days but we were able to squeeze in as much as we could. When we first arrived we checked into our hostel. Brooke and I had never stayed in one so we were a bit unsure of what to expect. We stayed in an all girl’s room with ten other people and had no problems. I was impressed with my hostel experience and would definitely stay in one again.

We decided to waste no time and ventured out to see what was around. We quickly realized Edinburgh was a pretty small city and we were able to navigate around quite easily. We took a tour of Edinburgh Castle, walked the Royal Mile, climbed the 287 steps of the Scott Monument, visited St. Giles Cathedral, Museum of Scotland, Gallery of Scotland, Holyrood Palace, House of Parliament, the Royal Botanic garden and hiked Arthur’s seat. The hike was pretty neat and only took us about 35 minutes to the top. You had a panoramic view of the city and it was incredible. We were able to enjoy ourselves and get our minds off Kokkola for a few days, but come Monday we were focused and eager to continue our season.

Saturday we traveled to Vantaa by train to play against VJS. It’s a team we hadn’t seen yet this season but we were ready for the match. The field was in pretty bad condition as it had been raining quite a bit. We started the game out strong and scored already in the 2nd minute. Jonna played Tess through on a breakaway that she finished. Ten minutes later Jonna beat her player wide and lofted the ball far post over the keepers reach. Right before the half Tess was able to score her 2^nd of the match to put us up 3-0 going into the locker rooms.

 

In the second half VJS got a little stronger but we were able to hold them off well. We created chances and finished the game 5-0 off two goals from Brooke. We now sit in first place but are trailed by Merilappi who are only 3 points behind and have 1 more game to play than us. We need to continue to take it one day at a time and we will become closer and closer to our goal. We have this weekend off due the Finnish cup Finals and we continue play on October 6^th, when we travel to Jyvaskyla to play JYPK.  Everyone is focused and continues to work hard day in and day out. Our time here in Finland is coming quickly to an end and while I will miss the time here I am excited to get back to see all of my family and friends at home!