Outlandish

The bus ride to Vienna airport before the Annecy trip provided some of the cutest sights I have ever seen. The bus didn't drive on a high way but instead went through this small town in the county of Hainburg. It was like visiting the past: the town consisted of houses and barns built somewhere between 1400-1700. There was a little square with a fountain surrounded by cafés, and manor-houses with their big, beautifully kept gardens. It felt like being in a fairy-tale land. I have to go back there to take pictures some day. Even though I love such places, clean, perfect buildings and surroundings, I find myself being happy every single day here in Bratislava. The city is "cleaning its face" but it is still rather run-down from the Soviet times. But still, even with crumbling, gray buildings and the ugliest graffitis everywhere I'm so at home here.  People tend to become content with the very stable life. They don't feel particularly happy being whe...

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...

I can't even remember the last time I was in a zoo. Every summer I planned this year I'll go to the Korkeasaari zoo in Helsinki, but I never did. Then I heard there's a zoo in pretty much every big city in Central Europe. Including Bratislava of course. Bratislava zoo is probably not as big as the ones in Vienna or Budapest, but it was quite nice. 5-10 minutes bus ride from the centre and about 4€ for a ticket. The ticket also includes a dinosaur park in addition to the zoo so it was definitely cheap. Most animals were in different kinds of enclosures, but the camels didn't have any fences around them whatsoever. They didn't want to come any closer though. There were all kinds of animals from (probably) a local bear to white tigers and a pretty blonde lion. But the best and definitely the most interesting dudes were the chimps. There were four or five adult ones and one baby and the baby had ADHD for sure. It was sooo cute jumping on the adults and throw...

I've had a rather negative outtake on Finland in this blog so far. And overall I am happier when I'm far away from there. But nonetheless it is my home country and as such very dear to me. So, thought I should write down some things that I like and miss in Finland. First and foremost I love and miss my home town: Turku. There is no better place to be in summer, seriously! We do actually have very warm and sunny summers, no snow (except this June :D). With happenings like DBTL (Down by the Laituri), Tall Ships Races, Ruisrock and just the plane simple gorgeous river side with its boats... it's awesome. It may be a small town but it's the first one ever founded in Finland and a former capital, so there's loads to see in addition to all the summer happenings. The negative side to moving to Slovakia in June was the fact that for the first time ever I missed the entire summer in Finland.  The second thing, or actually two things that go hand in hand, is...

I love traveling! Actually not the traveling part of it but seeing new places, meeting new people and learning about different cultures. I didn't quite appreciate how far Finland really is from everything until I "won the lottery" and moved here. Here I find myself in the middle of some of the greatest countries in Europe. Greatest especially in the traveling-sense. There was an article in one of the biggest newspapers in Finland about how for some people traveling doesn't broaden horizons whatsoever. In the article the main point were Israeli tourists who travel in packs and only visit Israeli restaurants in the destination. But the writer also mentioned Finns who travel all the way to Thailand only to hang out in Finnish pubs and restaurants eating meatballs and mashed potatoes every day. I can't work my mind around such behaviour at all. Lately I've come to realize that I fear things I've never been afraid of before. For instance, I u...

When moving to Slovakia for longer than three months you have to register with the local foreign police. You have three months to do that and the process differs for everybody it seemed. Since the day I arrived I have heard dozens of stories regarding the foreign police and how they do things there, all of them extremely negative. First of all nobody there speaks English, so make sure you take someone with you who can speak Slovak. Obviously, why would the authorities handling international affairs need to know other languages? Secondly nobody really knows what sort of documentation you should take with you. You would need different papers/photos/stamps for registering and for getting a local ID card and nobody seemed quite sure which documents were for which procedure because everybody had needed different ones. Take the work contract, no, only take a confirmation of work, rental contract but don't give it to them, just show it, and also a paper from the "Ca...

I don't handle boredom very well. I have no trouble down-shifting and doing absolutely nothing every now and then but I think such lazy moment have to be "earned". Busy week at work would be great excuse for a lazy weekend. But when work is scarce, days at the office are short and I have nothing to do at home. So, a weekend without any plans haunted me through last week. I had quite enough free time to last for the rest of my life when I was jobless, so two days of doing absolutely nothing is not an option for me. I then planned myself a Saturday on my own. Sleep long, then went to the beach for couple of hours (and obviously burned my cheekbones rather nicely). Then went to Eurovea to browse around the stores for a while and had some lunch. I don't mind being on my own but the hard part is staying quiet. Sure you can talk on your own but that might gain some surprised looks from the people close by. When I have a lot of time in my hands and nothing...