Outlandish

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...

Sziget Festival is one of the biggest in Europe, organized every August for a week in Budapest. My best friends purchased tickets there in the Spring and since Budapest is a bus ride away from Bratislava it would've been stupid to miss this chance to go check it out. We stayed in a hostel/hotel on Téréz Körút, a very nice area walking distance from the centre and the river. The place was really nice and rooms clean and with modern furnishings (points for that!), but with the price we paid (53€/night) I would've expected the owner to be in the reception when he was supposed to. As a punctual Finn there are some situations where I want service exactly when it is promised; for example if check out should be done between 10-11am I would expect someone to be in the reception to receive the keys. Not a big issue, really, we were in no hurry on Sunday, but I like things working smoothly when I travel and I'm willing to pay extra for that. In this case I felt I paid the extra ...

Midsummer is the time when Nordic people withdraw away from the cities into hiding in their summer houses in the countryside. No matter what the weather is you sit outside and have a barbecue for four days. Last year I moved to Bratislava just before Midsummer so I didn't have much time to spend in our summer house. Neither this year. I am traveling to Prague for an alternative Midsummer with one of my best friends in Finland.  I feel like I'm a professional when it comes to packing. I've been moving around Europe so many times that most things come automatically for me when it comes to packing... not passport, though. No, that's way too obvious. I've been very happy to carry enormous bags on my travels instead of getting one with wheels. But now, going to Prague for five days, I thought that the bag would have to be so big that I probably couldn't carry it. So I had to go searching for a small, pull suitcase. There were these regular ones, nicely c...

Another funny thing came into light again this week where Finns and Eastern-Europeans differ a lot. OK, I can't say this applies to most Slovaks but definitely to most of my team here. Holidays.  In Finland we work for the sole reason of having a long, lazy summer vacation. I started here last summer and people were being   told  to use their vacation days from 2013... I can't imagine how that is even possible?! And still, before Christmas people were really being told that you   absolutely HAVE to   take days off. I mean, if people here really aren't that eager to have days off I volunteer to help them by taking those days from them! But anyway, we had a funny incident in a grocery store this week with my neighbour/colleague: we were queuing behind an elderly woman talking in English, of course. When the woman got to the counter she started talking to the salesperson about us. My neighbour translated to me: according to the woman it is so important...

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 ...

Sometimes it's a good thing that people don't chance. It's also amazing what kinds of friendships you can make in just four months. I did an exhance in Aberdeen, Scotland in 2010-2011 and spent most of it with people from France, Germany, Denmark, Spain and Finland. With some of them I have stayed in touch with through all these years and now it was time again for a reunion. In no time we had all booked flights to Geneva from where we drove over the border to France to spend a weekend in a small city, Annecy. First impression of the city: soooooo beautiful! All these building that look like they could have been built in the Middle Ages (maybe they were too) had been beautifully preserved. I love old stone houses with their intricate details. And Annecy had loads of them! We arrived late on Thursday night but still had energy to go party. So, in the morning a proper breakfast French style was required! After which we went for a lazy walk around the town. The weather...

What an exciting start for the week! I always travel to work by cable cars and as an honest Finn I always pay for a ticket... Actually I don't. There aren't machines or anything on the vehicles to check the tickets so it's easier and much cheaper to travel without one. Except, on Monday on my way home I saw a girl taking out her travel card on the way and instantly I knew: trouble's coming! A guy in a black shirt was moving through the carriage with a contraption beeping people's travel cards. Oh, the adrenaline rush! Next stop, come oooon next stop!! Fortunately there was another unfortunate foreign soul traveling without a ticket and the contraption guy got to him first. It took them so long to find a common language and then to start considering whether he had the right to be on vehicle or not that the next stop arrived and I hopped to freedom. And got right on the next cable car. After the incident I've had this daredevil feeling when on public tr...

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...