Outlandish

I am the kind of person who doesn’t do well when there’s nothing to do. The state of boredom is more likely to cause me symptoms of a burn-out than a month of explosions on the work front and overlong workdays. That is one of the main reasons why I do not see Finland as a place for me to live in. People there are like a negatively toned gray mass, even more so during the past year than ever before in my lifetime. Excitement and new experiences are not interesting to my fellow Finns. Whereas I count myself among experience addicts; I need action, I need speed, I need experiences! All of them are not good, of course, but they are still experiences, excitement, diverging from the routine, something to talk about. As a child I thought that I would never want to live the kind of life that my parents’ everyday life was: going to work, coming home, watching TV, sleep, going to work, coming home, watching TV, sleep, and this continues endlessly. And I succeeded to avoid such a life...

I've spent so much time at home in Turku this past Spring and Summer that I'm not quite sure any more which country I live in, Estonia or Finland. But now I think it's time to leave the cruise ships in peace for a while and hopefully people will visit me, so I won't need to compare the times for buses and boats because they never really match the way I would want them to. But before I walk to Linnhall and wave my goodbyes to Finland for a while I want to go back to last weekend, which turned into a proper Turku Experience.  All sorts of little happenings and businesses offering things to do pop up around the city of Turku in the summer. Especially around the Aura River at the moment you can find anything from restaurants and river boats to a couple of very Finnish phenomenon; a mini sauna and a hot tub that you heat up with wood in a little stove. This hot tub is special, though, because you can sit in there while floating in the river. We found the idea...

This gorgeous summer weather already in May (yes, up in these latitudes it’s a rarety that May is warm and sunny, usually we can expect snow any minute) is making me nuts! I’m so happy, I feel like a balloon that’s too full of helium on the brink of exploding. Any moment I might just jump up from my work chair and start climbing the walls and laugh uncontrollably without any proper reason. Just because I feel like it and it’s this woooonderful warmth and sunshine that is doing it to me! Last week I traveled home to Turku on the first morning boat. I was sooo tired and as always also quite grumpy. Before 10AM is just too early to be expected to be jolly about anything. But sitting there on the view deck at the front of the ship, watching the sun rise from the East and two swans flying diagonally past the front of the ship no matter how tired and grumpy, I smiled to myself. On Thursday morning me and my brother and his girlfriend drove to the Turku Archipelago to ...

UK: We call it Autumn from the French word 'autompne' and later the Latin word 'autumnus'. USA: We call it fall because leaf fall down! Stumbled across that in Facebook and actually took it as a fact :D Knowing that Americans have "simplified" words from the UK English before (pavement - sidewalk, bin - waste paper basket... bwahahaha!) I didn't find it too far-fetched.  Nonetheless, for me it's Autumn because teacher told me so.     So it's September finally, start of my second-most-hated-season. In Finland people have already dug out their woolly jumpers and ankle boots and scarves, whereas here you wouldn't realize which month it is. The summer goes on. This year I really realized how short the summer in Finland really is. ONE MONTH! Whereas here it starts in April and goes on aaaall the way until October.  Even though I prefer this 6-month-long summer to the one month in Finland I have to admit that I miss the Finnis...

My first ever proper summer vacation and I can't imagine any better way of spending it than the way I did!  Just before flying to Finland the cultural differences and the leaving of important people from Slovakia was getting to be too much for me to handle. So a month in the same country with the most important people and all the familiar, if still boring, things couldn't have come sooner. Weather was horrid all month (minus the first weekend) but I had so much dog therapy and a perfect balance between activities and doing nothing that I couldn't care about such things as rain. The Best <3 Just after landing in Finland I started my vacation with a blast in  Ruisrock festival . Sunshine, best friends and awesome artists, what else do you need to throw off all the stress and gloomy feelings of the last couple of weeks! After the festival I was exhausted beyond any measure. So much so that before driving to our summer house I moved my wallet including my dr...

I've spent a lot of time lately thinking about this summer and my first ever paid summer vacation. People who have never lived in Northern European countries cannot understand the importance of summer for us. So, of course I started thinking about what I want to do on my month-long-visit to Finland in July! I will fly home on 1st July and on the first weekend we will attend one of the biggest summer festivals in Northern Europe: Ruisrock! It's been too many years since we last time went there and I'm so excited! I've ordered some proper summer weather for the whole July but if I had to choose only one weekend when it should be sunny and warm it would be this one.  I am also very much looking forwards to the best place in Turku, the riverside of Aurajoki with its riverboats. These are not like ANY other riverboats on this planet, they are quite unique. Ridiculously expensive but absolutely the best place to spend each and every day of your summer holidays. ...