Outlandish

I have never been very interior design oriented. Maybe because most of my adulthood I have lived abroad with the knowledge that I will not stay here for long, so the state of the apartment hasn’t played that big of a part in my life. Which has resulted in me staying in some pretty dodgy apartments. For me they haven’t seemed like such bad places to stay in, it has been enough if the apartment was warm and clean and there were the basic furnishings, which include a window, a nice(ish) bed, table and a chair. My family has only recently admitted how horrified she was of some places where I have stayed along the years. But now (finally?) I have so many kilometres under my belt that I feel like I should be content staying still for a little bit longer than just a couple years, which is why finding an unfurnished apartment was a must this time around. In the end finding such an apartment wasn’t even that difficult in Tallinn, although it might have been without a little help fr...

Along the years I've had many homes around Europe, but four of them I still consider as a home to go back to long after moving away: Turku (obviously), Brighton, Aberdeen and Bratislava. So, how can someone who has moved abroad multiple times always forget how expensive it is?! Well, here I am in my awesome new home counting whether I can afford to eat at all for the next three weeks or should I just not buy a vacuum cleaner and live surrounded by dust and stuff...   Even if I have to go on a hard core fast I have to say I'm bloody happy to have this flat! Before I've always stayed in furnished flats because I didn't plan to stay long. But usually in furnished rental flats the furniture is far from nice, so this time I opted for an empty flat so that I could see whether I have any taste for home decor at all.  People tend to spend a lot of time figuring out the furniture in their new apartment one piece at a time. I had a week to figure out the decor ...

Me moving to Tallinn in the time-frame I did and with all the new furniture would not have been possible without my parents' help! They drove, much to a lot of people's astonishment, to Bratislava and back to Finland with me and aaaall my things onboard. I got a lot of comments from friends and random people suggesting that I'm a spoilt prat because no normal kid would get their parents driving through Europe like that. But that just shows how little they know; in our family it has always been very clear that one looks after one's self. That doesn't mean, though, that help wouldn't be needed and offered. In addition almost every Finn I have met in Bratislava have had their family members drive from Finland to Bratislava and back. Also, this was the easiest and the most adventurous option, which suits me fine :) I didn't have any furniture, only clothes, shoes and bed linen. But it was pretty damn close that not everything would have fit in ...

It's December so I am "allowed" to spread open my suitcase and start filling it with shoes and clothes for the Christmas holidays in Finland. Three weeks is a relatively long time for having only one suitcase but this time the biggest challenge is that I should fill it with things that I can leave home when I fly back after Christmas. There's no point to drag, for example, summer clothes and shoes from here to Tallinn when I won't be needing them for at least six months. 1st of December is also the holy day when everyone gets to finally open the first doors on their Advent calendars. I remember how difficult it was as a child to wait for December to dawn on when we knew in which closet the calendars were standing and waiting. I also remember one time when the first of December came and it turned out that my brother had already emptied the entire calendar of all chocolates. Why he had then closed the doors again and left the empty calendar in the close...

Summer has arrived in Bratislava. Or at least it did for couple of days. This week we've enjoyed absolutely wonderful weather with Sun every day and temperatures between 20 and 26 degrees. As a person who cannot handle cold and cloudy climate I can honestly say I fit here quite perfectly.  Even though I have totally enjoyed myself when it comes to weather I have also been putting a lot of thought on a simple thing called helping. Something that in Slovakia can almost be taken for granted but which can't be expected from almost anyone in Finland.  I have received help a LOT in my life time especially in my travels. Whether I took the help that I was being offered is a different thing. But even if, while struggling in the tube in London with two huge suitcases I said I can handle it on my own, I've always appreciated the fact that people at least offered to help. In Finland there was never any need for refusing help because nobody ever offered it. There...

Sometimes I surprise even myself. Or life does. Like this Thursday when I flew from Helsinki to Budapest where I had booked a hotel for the night. First of all when I got out of the airport there was a "black taxi" driver waiting for stupid tourists. I guess I looked stupid enough because he came straight to me: "You need a taxi?" As a regular customer to Budapest airport I knew that to get a legitimate taxi you go to a booth outside the airport and they assign you one. This guy tried to rip off 400 Forints more from me than what the drive really cost. So, I got a legitimate taxi, told him the address and the name of the hotel and he took me to the centre. He stopped in front of a hotel, yes, but it didn't have the name I was looking for. Despite my doubts that this could not be the right place he assured me "Yes, the right place" and was already loading my luggage on the pavement. Turned out the "hotel" I had booked for 16€ a night was ...

When reading Finnish newspapers I couldn't be happier that I do not live there. Not only because they've dug themselves into a ditch from which they will not get up for many years, but also because for the past week all headlines have been about the weather getting rather wintry. Whereas here in Bratislava it couldn't be much more summer-like! On Saturday I thought I'd go to Ikea to get some things for my new home, but instead I got stuck on a terrace by the river with lunch and cocktails.  But anyway, last Wednesday I finally moved to a place that I can actually call home! Thanks to my wonderful colleagues the move went super smoothly. Moving isn't one of my favourite things in life, especially when in only 4 months I've managed to gather so much stuff that even 4 suitcases could not take it all. Packing everything was easy enough, but the unpacking... well, it sort of took me 4 days. It was a busy week so Saturday was the first day that ...

Packing... the ultimate nightmare. But unfortunately it is also a necessary evil that has to be faced when moving abroad. Although the process is very familiar to me, it always succeeds to overwhelm me: how on earth am I supposed to fit all these clothes, all these bags and shoes, all my books, bed linen, shoes, tea mugs, shoes, etc. into a single suitcase and one hand package-sized bag??   The picture above shows not even a third of all my shoes. All important to me, all beautiful (except maybe the sneakers) and all of them shoes that I want to wear still in future. But, unfortunately, some of them have to be left behind. Good thing some of my friends have the same shoe size, it would be difficult to give my darlings to strangers. Because tossing them is not an option!  The summer weather here is also proving to be very distracting. Instead of swimming in shoes and clothes I'd much rather go out to sit by the river Aura with a nice cup of coffee from Café Art...