Tailgate parties allow fans to bond and have a good time before a game. Football players spend time in a locker room getting excited for the game, and tailgate parties are a similar activity for football fanatics. Although you may come as strangers, you can leave with new friends and stories to last a lifetime.

Preparing

The preparation for a tailgate is very important. Showing up to this pre-game event without anything prepared can put a downer on the party. To make your tailgate party a big hit it is important to have enough food, drinks and games. A great tailgate party also includes a tent. It can be a great resource if it is hot outside and you need a place to cool down. These tents can also be every helpful on colder days. Many individuals use these shelters as a center for the games or to keep the food out of the elements. If you are a supportive and consistent fan of your team and go to these types of parties frequently, a good tent can be a great investment.

Showing Support

Showing support before the game is important. It is just as important as showing it during the game. Places like Team Tailgate Shop offer many products, but not just any kind of product. Most of them are custom-made specifically for your college team. They offer all of the essentials such as tents, coolers and games. The tents can be made with the symbol of your favorite team. There will be no question of what team you support. With these products you will be able to canvas your area with your teams colors and logo.

Before a game fans come together to have a good time. The excitement of attending a game does not have to start when the first whistle is blown. Showing up before the game can allow you to share your excitement with other fans. As you wait for the game to start, you can share laughs and food. You can make the entire game day fun and exciting. From the beginning of the tailgate party until the end of the game you will be able to show support for your team.

Lifecruiser Love Tailgate Parties
 

For us, the most important choice for New Years Eve (or birthdays), is the one and only: what Champagne to drink…? Below you see three different choices, from a cheaper Crémant to expensive Champagne.

Lachèze 2009 Crémant du Jura, Moët Chandon Grand Vintage 2004 and our very favorite Champagne, the Rolls Royce of Champagne: Dom Pérignon Vintage 2003, which we brought home after visiting the Champagne district in France at our Europe trip in August 2012.

As you have noticed, so far we prefer French, real Champagne – we yet have to taste more Cavas when we go to Spain later to have something to compare with – or what do you say…?

We wish for you all another very special, fantastic Happy New Travel Year of 2013, together with friends, family and filled with lots of love, passion – and Champagne of course…

©Lifecruiser Love Champagne
 

Some other New Years posts by Lifecruiser:

Happy Bubbly New Year 2012
Happy New Year Champagne Sweden 2010
Stockholm: Happy New Year (2009)
 

The number two birthday present for this Champagne lover was of course the Moet Chandon Grand Vintage 2004 Champagne. Makes memories pop up from our trip to the Champagne district in August, when we visited their unbelievable huge wine cellars in France and their beautiful vineyards!

©Lifecruiser Love Travel Goodies
 

There were Tortilla, Patatas Bravas with Aioli, Albondigas (meatballs in tomato sauce), Serrano ham, different kind of sausages,Feferoni’s, mix of olives, Feta cheese, cherry tomatoes, garlic cloves with herbs and so on…

To go with the Tapas dishes we had prepared a mix of partly bought ready-Sangria which we improved with some more Spanish wine plus cognac. You could say that we all were a bit tired yesterday after the Tapas party…. Ha ha…

©Lifecruiser Love Tapas
 

So how did it taste? Nothing particular special for a beer expert I’m sure and I don’t like the brewery making this beer: Spendrups, but I almost always think a cold beer is tasting good on a summer day…

©Lifecruiser Love Beer
 

Yes, you read right: the midnight sun. The sun don’t really set at this time of the year in Sweden. It never get really dark. That is: if it’s not raining, which it use to do. The weather almost always is very shifting at Midsummer, making the outdoors activities more exciting – you never know if you’re going to be soaking wet or not!

It’s also a very romantic evening, when you’re supposed to find your love, so if you want to catch a Swedish girl: come to Sweden at Midsummer…

You can read more about the Swedish Midsummer celebrations in old posts listed below. Happy Midsummer holidays everyone!

©Lifecruiser Love Swedish Midsummer

Earlier posts about Swedish Midsummer:

Typical Swedish: Midsummer Strawberries
Swedish Midsummer 2011
Midsummer night light sight
Swedish Midsummer festivities Bromma Church Stockholm
Happy Midsummer Stockholm
Our Midsummer celebration trip 13 facts list
Thursday Thirteen Midsummer
Midsummer flower power love
 

Cheers for old Sweden and everything it stands for!

Let the Champagne be flooding…

©Lifecruiser Love Sweden

As soon as we had installed ourselves in our cabin at the ship, we went to get a walk on deck, since it was such a lovely weather. Sun deck is never a wrong place to be when the sun is shining! Though before that, something fun happened…

When walking along the cabin corridor I noticed a man standing in the end of it, leaning on the wall, smiling and looking at us while we were walking towards him. I though it might be some kind of cabin crew or something since we were so close to the more luxury cabins, but coming closer to him I started to find his behavior more strange. He was looking at us in a way a crew member would probably not do and his smile got bigger and bigger….

When coming very close to him, about a meter or so we finally took a real look into his face and suddenly it came very clear: we know this man! Yes! It was a friend from our summer island, which we meet every summer when he and his family rent the fishing cottage from our farmer! Such a coincidence to meet at this cruise ship, right here, right now!

Even more of a coincidence were that he had been on a bus tour at the exact destinations as we had! How close we had been every day without knowing it…. Sometimes it’s so strange! Of course, as the well equipment guy he always is, he had something for us in the bag: yes, he has a tradition of making toasts with us, with whiskey! Skål x 3 for hubby, one for his belated birthday you see…. ha ha…

After that we went to the sundeck to get some… Champagne of course! Cheers my dears! Very suitable were that the theme at this cruise were: Fiesta! So we had Spanish music on the ship and very skilled Spanish dancers in the evening show – oh, how we enjoyed that!

We had a very pleasant cruise, the Baltic Sea were calm, the sunset were as nice as it can be… This time we arrived safe at home without any sea sickness! Hooray!

Though there was something that was not as it should: now hubby had got a terrible sore throat… oh, no, poor man! Was there no end on the bad things connected with our Baltic Cruise trip…? It really has been a mix of either very bad or very nice things on this whole cruise!

…and I can mention that me too got his cold when we arrived home, so we were sick for a whole week after coming home, hubby worse than me and he is still coughing.

I think he might need some more whiskey or what do you say? Ha ha…

You can see all Lifecruiser photos of Silja Symphony 2012 at Flickr.

Stay tuned to hear what we did learn from the cruise experience Stockholm – Tallinn – St Petersburg – Helsinki and what we really thought about it plus all the pros and cons…

©Lifecruiser Love Cruises

Related Baltic cruise posts by Lifecruiser:

How we escaped from a cruise and ended up in jail… Part 1
How we escaped from a cruise and ended up in jail… Part 2
Our night in Katajanokka Jail
Baltic Cruise Stop Tallinn – UNESCO Cultural Heritage
Saint Petersburg Souvenirs
The Idiots Sightseeing of Saint Petersburg
Photo: Illusionary Window
Baltic Cruise Stop Helsinki
 

After the bad cruise experience at the budget cruise we escaped from, I was determent to make the ending of this trip great, so I made a reservation at a much better accommodation: The Katajanokka Hotel, a Best Western Premier Hotel – which actually is an old prison turned into a hotel!

No, it was not worse than that, we didn’t had to be locked in with only bread and water in a cold jail cell… ha ha… Though I must admit that at that time we really felt like disobedient teenagers on the run!

I was aiming for a room with Jacuzzi from the beginning, but kinda adapted to the country tradition of Finland: the junior suite with an own sauna in the room! How cool (or hot I mean) isn’t that???

The sauna of course demanded a use of the minibar in the room too, despite the fact that those can become quite expensive. One can’t skip the most important part of a Finnish sauna, right? After all, it was hubby’s birthday.

We had a really relaxing sauna before making us all handsome and dressed up (with our nice clothes we had been carrying around all trip to be used this special evening) for the dinner at the hotel restaurant: The Jailbird. Very suiting and interesting name, don’t you think?

So how was the jail food? Well, it didn’t come as a complete surprise for us that it was really excellent! That chef knows what he/she is doing and the ingredients used were very fresh too!

We started with a whiskey drink called Godfather (Scotch whisky and amaretto almond liqueur) for hubby and a modest glass of sparkling Cuarenta Cava for myself.

Hubby did consider Snails with Garlic and Angelica as a starter, but he wanted them to be in the shells and they were not, so he went for the Lobster Soup Flavored with Sherry instead. I did choose the Grilled Goat Cheese and Lettuce, because I just love goat cheese.

    

To go with the dinner we did drink a dry Austrian white wine of Rabl Gruner Veltliner, which went very well to our choice of courses.

For the main course hubby did choose the Grilled Lamb with Smoked Garlic Puree and Garlic Potatoes, since he love lamb and I went for the Glow Fried Salmon with Grilled Asparagus and Quinoa Salad, since I love salmon. Both were excellent.

    

Not to mentioning the staff, our own prison guard. I must admit that he must have been the best prison guard ever, giving us such a great service! Ha! He had humor too and you know how we love people with humor.

As a dessert I did choose a Champagne sorbet with strawberries – what else for a Champagne lover like me? Hubby were celebrated by our prison guard with a birthday cake in the shape of e Creme Brulee with a lightened candle in the middle! Surprise!

    

I’m very happy over the fact that we didn’t have to eat the same as the former prisoners: mostly soup and occasionally salted meat, for breakfast gruel or porridge. Once a week boiled potatoes and salted Baltic herrings…

- And no, we did not hear anything from any prison ghosts, no wandering about or making any noises, not even any knocking on the walls – to my disappointment… ha ha… I think that would have add up to the experience as well, don’t you?

Helsinki County prison years 1837 – 2002

Helsinki County Prison, called Nokka or Skatta was a pre-trial detention facility. Criminals were sent there from all around the Province of Southern Finland to wait for their trial, so more than 40 % of all prisoners in Finland was passed through this place. The prison also housed default prisoners, people who couldn’t or wouldn’t pay their fines. the prison had 164 cells with 128 places for male and 7 places for female prisoners. In reality there could be more than 200 prisoners in the quarters at the same time. The cells were 7 m2 in size without toilet or shower.

Source: The Hotel Site of bwkatajanokka.fi

Ouch, that fact that there were no toilets would have been really devastating in my case, considering my "lock-up in the toilet experience" you could read about in the earlier post!

Click to see some more Lifecruiser Flickr Photos of Katajanokka Hotel and Jailbird Restaurant.

Stay tuned to read more about our sightseeing time in Tallinn and St Petersburg, which included an Idiot (or maybe more) and Russian Vodka!

©Lifecruiser Love Katajanokka Jailbird

Related Baltic cruise posts by Lifecruiser:

How we escaped from a cruise and ended up in jail… Part 1
How we escaped from a cruise and ended up in jail… Part 2
 

Now, the reasons may be that I’m not young enough to hear about any nightlife, therefor I have done some research for the next time we will go there, that I thought I should share with you. I’ll start with a few other evening/night pleasures we have picked out for ourselves.

If you’re a golfer, ask for the twilight round at Vilamoura Old Course Twilight Rounds, really good value for a round for a discounted price on a great course and the lights are making it a very unique experience. (Reminds of the time I played winter golf in the dark with a self-luminous ball…)

Take the night walk in the impressive Arabic castle with defensive walls in Silves. The red walls, white houses and street lamps gives a true medieval touch. There is also a Laser show, Aquavision at Fabrica do Ingles (Cork Museum), with images projected to the walls of the castle, music, dance, Fado, Flamenco dancers and more. Also hosts the Silves beer festival in July.

If you’re a party person, preferring a really crazy nightlife, bars and clubs, stay in the Areias de Sao Joao area, the strip Avenida Dr Francisco Sa Carneiro. Or maybe Montechoro, about 2kms from Albufeira old town. (We will stay closer to the Old Town to get more peace and quiet, we can’t manage to party every night any longer).

Some popular places to remember: Kiss in Albufeira, Kadoc in Vilamoura (gigantic: takes 7.000 visitors!) with open-air terrace. Rock: Round Up Saloon in Carvoeiro. Discoteca Ubi and Bar Bubi in Tavira has foam parties… Monte Gordo: Bar42 with DJ, Karaoke & live music.

For a more romantic choice go to Breeze Algarve, Praca Vale de Lobo, to sit on the terrace in the sunset kissing… Or take Champagne and something to eat, some blankets and your beloved one with you to some beautiful place to watch the sunset… and perhaps the sunrise.

If you’re uncertain where to go to eat, the best way is to ask the locals where to go and eat their traditional dishes and you’ll get plenty of alternatives! That way you might get more unbiased answers, because if asking at the hotel as an example, they often favorite just a few restaurants – and sometimes very touristy.

Even if you’re not much for the nightlife, the Algarve region has a lot of picturesque fishing villages or small towns rich of culture and history along the long coastline, which is filled with long, sandy and always gorgeous beaches. A perfect holiday destination if you don’t mind some waves and a bit cooler water than in the Mediterranean, because this is the Atlantic Ocean.

We will for sure visit both Lisbon – and maybe even the north area – as well as Algarve next time…

©Lifecruiser Love Algarve

Other Algarve travel related posts by Lifecruiser:

Portugal Algarve Dream Stay
Portugal Trip Monte Gordo
Portugal Trip Tavira
Portugal Trip Ayamonte Spain
World Dogs: Portuguese Water Dog