Outlandish

Listing your highlights from the past year is a common practice for social media users around the globe when the year is nearing its end. I encountered this question as early this year as October and it got me thinking... The years when I have actually achieved a lot (moving abroad; getting a job in a huge, international company; achieving a long-time dream, etc.) I never acknowledged those achievements much. Personally, of course, I was aware of what had happened and been done but I didn’t shout about it publicly. On the other hand, the few years that have truly been the most trying in my life so far I have mentioned. Usually in a form of a prayer or a heart-felt wish that the next year would please be better. So far I have gotten that wish... Most of the time. But honestly, how your next year turns out to be depends a lot on how you embark on it; do you start the year with the Finnish mentality ”it’s gonna be just as shit as the last one, nothing ever changes” or do ...

Finally back in Tallinn after a month of traveling all over the place. Good to be back! I arrived again on the last ship on Wednesday evening and oh how wonderful it was to close the door behind me and see my perfect apartment in front of me just as I left it three weeks before. My couch, my kettle and my bed! I can't even count how many kilometers or hours I spent altogether on buses around the European subcontinent or the places where I slept. Even at my parents' place I sleep in my brother's old room so I didn't feel "at home" sleeping anywhere this past month.  But don't get me wrong, I am not complaining! This has been probably the best June I've ever had, also weather-wise! Instead of going to Turku to home office after my trip to Slovakia I was able to go home and work from there already on the second week of the month. Being able to work from basically anywhere is an absolute necessity to me these days, I don't even understand ...

How perfect it is that I still had time to go check out the Budapest Christmas Market before moving away from Slovakia. And to check it out with the company that I had... I am just so fortunate when it comes to friends. When traveling, the company you have is a very important factor in how successful the trip will in the end be. The worst trip I ever had was unfortunately a long weekend in Paris - as gorgeous as the city always is - because schedules do not belong to a holiday. In my opinion the best thing in Paris, or any destination, would be to get a bottle of wine, some brie cheese and relax. This trip to Budapest was exactly that; complete relaxation, no schedules, no plans (except going to the Christmas market) and in the end we did see a lot of Budapest, mostly places I haven't even seen yet, like the Basilica. I had been quite sick for two days and was really afraid that I wouldn't be well enough to go. But working from home turned out a very good idea and o...

Lately I've come face to face with the biggest cultural difference, not just between Finland and Slovakia, but between Nordic  (and some Western European)  countries  and the entire rest of the world: equality between men and women. I grew up in a world where my sex didn't determine anything for me or the people around me. I had a lot of boy friends (not boyfriends) already in kindergarten and it could never have occurred to me that I couldn't or shouldn't do something that they did just because I was a girl. In my family I was the only girl child and I was usually the one who did all the crazy things that boys are expected to do like climbing trees, walking first in line to a dark forest and jumping off rocks. As I got older I as a person was never seen as someone whose main function in life is to settle down with a man, not necessarily a man I would like, just some man, and produce children and be content with the fact that that's all my life would ever be. ...

Arriving to the Budapest bus station for the first time can be a bit confusing. The bus from Bratislava leaves you outside the station area and there are no signs to anything, ATM, taxis, anything. I remember the desperation, the following of random people to an underground tunnel, of trying to locate someone, ANYONE with even little English. Nowadays I'm a professional bus station goer there but I noticed a woman of about 50 years of age asking different people something. She didn't seem to be getting anywhere so I went to ask if maybe she was looking for an ATM, which there is located to a place that cannot be found except by those who already know where it is (note the clever Pirates of the Caribbean reference). So, I took her to the ATM and then back up to where the taxi stop was and I called her a taxi. She wasn't very impressed with Hungarian people for starters but at least I could sleep in peace knowing that she at least found her hotel. I was very much blessed by ...