Wow. What a brilliant four days that was! This was my first Euro Live, so I was a little bit nervous at first; but it ended up being my favourite CF Live so far :--D
Day One:
After meeting at the airport and receiving our fab 'Goon Packs' full of word-searchy car-stickery name-badgery goodness; the fun began at the aptly named 'Fun Park.' First there was a quick tour of the indoor and outdoor park, then we let loose on the many quirky little attractions they had to offer - a spin-tastic spinning mini Disc-
oh., a Dragon coaster of seemingly infinite circuits, and plenty of Asda Smart Price simulators - all of which were ace.
This was followed by outdoor water-balloon/"B.O. Boot Camp" shenanigans, where Stone Colds slapstick fall-whilst-throwing-water-balloons was hilarious; as was watching MouseAT's face changing when he realised that the big blue wave slide he was currently sliding down had a big pool of water at the bottom - who would have guessed?! But what else would you expect for CFs number one 'water magnet'
Heading back into the indoor section all slightly soggier, it was time to play sumo-suit wrestling and hockey in our socks, or 'Sockey' as I hear it's known in the sporting world. These games got the oh-so-sexy sweat was flowing, but Fun Parks intensive exercise program didn't end there. Simulator golf, tilty climbing walls, 'Just Dance' mats (on which I got the highest score, yay!) pedal karts, and a laser maze that made me feel as flexible as a whale all followed.
Then we found some sofas <3 something you don't expect to find in an amusement park, but they made a very welcome addition! After a much needed rest, we had a big foam-ball shoot out, then finished up any of the other rides/ activities we hadn't done. I was surprised at the amount of attractions in Fun Park, it was a lot bigger than I expected and had a really good mix of rides, games and activities. I wish I could go back in time and have all my single-figure birthdays there!
The long drive up to the hotel turned out to be very enjoyable thanks to Mysterious Sues' great mix cds and stopping for a tasty steak. Once we arrived, I couldn't believe how much nicer it was to stay in a proper hotel, as opposed to the cheap hostels or camping I use when on my own trips. Having a nice shower and a comfy bed with a 'pillow menu' :lol: really makes a difference! My fave moment in this hotel was entering our room in the dark, seeing a person moving in there and screaming - then realising it was my own reflection in the mirror :roll:
Day Two:
The next day was all about the most-northerly creds of Power Land in Power Park, where we had another interesting tour of the park in the morning and ERT on the fab GCI woodie 'Thunderbird' - which is fantastic in the back row, with some nice bits of airtime and a fun first drop.
Then we headed over to the Go Karting track, which - for a completely inexperienced driver like myself, was a bit terrifying. I couldn't seem to control my kart very well and kept accidentally driving into the coned-off areas! Whilst the
wheely good drivers (sorry, I couldn't resist a crappy pun) of CF managed at least 10 laps, I managed to clock up just 3 laps, with a fastest lap time of 4 minutes 40. Pathetic!
All karted out, we headed back into the park to mop up the rest of the creds; which included my first Vekoma BOOmerang. I was told that this boomerang wasn't 'as bad' as the others due to having snazzier newer trains - but it was still pretty disgusting, jerking its' way through the inversions and rattling your head around into the restraints. Not in a hurry to ride another one of these!
There was also a Fabbri 'Spinning Madness' which invoked many groans of pain as it relentlessly slammed us around the track, an average L&T family coaster, and a kiddie cred. The log flume was nice and unique, plus it offered some lovely views of Thunderbird. We attempted to ride the quirky little Crazy House flat ride twice, and both times it refused to perform under the weight of all 16 CFers :lol: so we split into two groups and finally managed to ride what turned out to be a rather pointless ride with effects that failed to function.
At lunch time I tried to find the horses which were pictured in the park guide (which was more like a program that you get at the theater than a map); only to discover that the horses were actually made of plastic. D'oh! Then we hit up the flat rides, including the worlds most silent and relaxing "ghost train" and the "dodge-thems;" before grabbing a few more final re-rides of Thunderbird.
Once it had warmed up and had a full train, Thunderbird was absolutely flying - I'd say it's even better than Megafobia. Power Land was a great, my second favourite park of the trip, and featured my favourite coaster of the trip - Thunderbird. There's plenty of attractions to keep everyone amused for the whole day; and if it adds a couple more quality coasters in the future it could become something special.
The long drive back down to the south of Finland was lovely, with a fun game of 'Wonky Donky' (anyone else remember it from SMTV?) where you have to find an adjective that rhymes with an animal. This led to the all important question: does 'pussy' rhyme with 'fussy'? The general consensus was: no. It was nice to talk with Ian about the golden era of Nintendo, (which lead to us devising a brilliant plan for a Nintendo theme park) and to discover that we both love all the same, important things - dogs, BBC comedy, garlic mayo...to name a few.
Day Three
The next day we visited Sarkanniemi in Tampere, where we had ERT on 'Tornado' - an Intamin Invert (or 'Intavert' for short :wink: ) plus the Intamin Half-Pipe coaster, imaginatively named 'Half Pipe.'
Tornado was a bit sluggish and felt like it was going to stall in places. The cobra roll was very square, and the trains shook around quite a lot. The inversion through the station was a nice touch, and the first drop in the back row was cool; but over all I was a little disappointed with Tornado.
I was quite reluctant to ride the Half Pipe at first as it looked to be quite spinny, I'm not a huge fan of rides that spin a lot. But I gave it a go and it was actually fab. There was some really nice floater air at the top, I loved it when the seats span so you were facing straight down before dropping. Half Pipe turned out to be my second favourite coaster of the trip.
We then got taken into a cute banquet style hall and given an interesting talk by the parks' manager, who seemed to have a fair bit of goony coaster knowledge herself! Then grabbed all the other creds - a kiddie coaster in the heavily themed but slightly off-the-shelf-feeling Angry Birds Land, the family launch coaster 'Motogee' - which was both mine and Rachs' respective milestone cred and 'Trombi' - the Volare. This was my first ride on a Volare and I felt like I was going to fall out of it for the entire ride. I didn't like the fact that I had to spend the entire duration of the coaster bracing my entire body for its' rough inversions and jolty corners. After riding, it seemed apt that when Ciall tried to type 'Volare' into his phone, it auto-corrected the word to 'violate'!
Rode some Dodge Thems in the well-themed Top Gear-esque area, then ordered a childs steak for lunch which turned out to be the size of my entire plate. It was delicious and cost significantly less that everyone else's meals; I would recommend ordering children's' food if you want value for money in this park!
We then rode the parks old school log flume, which is fab and unique; and watched a dolphin show that was themed to the music of Nightwish and Elton John <3 only in rock-central Finland would you get that!
It was then time for the part of the park I had been looking forward to most - the newly created 'Doghill' area, which had a farm featuring puppies! The cute little mutts melted me into one soppy dog-broody girl for a good while
the farm also had pygmy goats, micro pigs, ponies, a baby cow and alpacas. I love it when there's more to a park than just rides, so this was a really nice addition.
'Doghill' also had a rope raft, which we tried to fit as many CFers on as possible. The result: one soaking wet Darren B, one soaking wet Ciall, and one excuse for me to buy some new trainers as they got so wet they changed colour!
We all dried off in the planetarium, where they were showing a documentary about stars narrated by none other than Patrick Stewart! My inner-Trekkie was delighted by this; but it didn't stop the majority of CFers falling asleep...it was so relaxing, they could prescribe that film as a sedative.
In terms of it's layout, atmosphere and varied attractions, Sarkanniemi was my favourite park in Finland. It was spacious, easy to navigate and offered some lovely views of the surrounding lakes. Coaster-wise it was more 'quirky' than 'quality', but it was still nice to ride some types of coasters that I've not ridden before.
After mopping up the last of the flat rides and activities, it was time to drive back down to Helsinki. Had a great time in the car doing collective iPod DJ sets with Tomatron, MouseAT and JayJay - there was so much cheese! Changing the words of Blurs' 'Parklife' to 'Finland' was a stroke of genius; and it was also good to discover another person who likes both Husker Du and the film 'Adventureland.'
Seen as no one had to drive the next day, we went out for the night in Helsinki. After initial faff trying to find somewhere that served food; me, Sue and Mike reluctantly grabbed a McDonalds then found the others - who were now slightly ahead of us in terms of alcohol consumption! We ended up in a sports bar, talking Neil Young "live fast Neil Young" :lol: and Carol Vorderman, of course. It was a really lovely, fun night, one of the best I've had in a while.
Day Four
After failing to sleep on a wonky sofa-bed, I got awoken by Ciall, Rach and Peter discussing the new Kings Island coaster at 8.00 in the morning, as you do. Then it was off to the last park of the trip: Linnanmaki. I was feeling too wiped out to bother with the Maurer SkyLoop, but was lucky enough to sit next to '
Ian from Coasterforce' on his 500th milestone cred :wink: which was the fab little space themed coaster 'Linnunrata'.
Next up came the Intamin ZacSpin - another coaster type I had not yet tried. Decided on ride to time the lift hill against the ride; the lift hill is 26 seconds long, and the ride is only 20 seconds long - which is a shame because it's quite a fun coaster.
Then there was a wooden coaster avec brakeman, which was enjoyable at the front but nowhere near as good as the brakeman woodie at Tivoli Gardens.
After doing various silly tasks for gold stars: walking down the stairs backwards, mincing across the park, hopping from one coaster to another (like literal Park Hoppers), rolling down hills, we got all the creds; and had loads of fun playing Chinese Whispers in the queues for them. Witnessed MouseAT get soaked for the millionth time on the "long and thin" rapids, and cooked up as many terrible egg puns as possible on Egg: The Ride.
Then, in what has felt like the quickest four days of my life, the Live was drawn to an end with a game of CF Bingo. I had such an amazing time, and have come home with lots of fab memories.
Thanks to everyone on this trip for making me smile so much that my face actually ached; thanks to Sue, Tomatron, Lord Morton and Richard for driving; and a huge thank you to Ian for organising such a wonderful trip. Already can't wait for the next one