Outlandish

I've been struggling big time these past couple days, I must admit. The plane crash in the Alps has totally thrown me. I can't concentrate on work, or anything else for that matter, I am just in shock for what has happened and what the poor families of everyone on board are going through. What makes this case so much worse, in my opinion, is that it seems that it was intentional. Not a fault in technology but a decision made by a person in charge. Flying is a great way to travel: you can cover huge distances in no time whatsoever. But in my life I've encountered so many setbacks when it comes to flying that I've lost faith in it almost completely. I don't trust that I will get to the other side in one piece. Biggest reason for my fear so far has been the fact that when it comes to machines in the air, it only takes one tiny loose part and the thing comes down with fatal consequences. Still, I recognize that statistically it is a safe way to travel.  Human e...

Every time I step out of the Helsinki-Vantaa airport and start my way towards Turku I feel like I've never even been anywhere. In Finland nothing ever changes. It has a sort of consoling effect on me to know that you can always come back to the familiar and safe place. What also hasn't changed is my friends; despite getting married and having babies they are still exactly the same and thank goodness for that. I do appreciate even the hangover on Friday morning because my friends told me to join them into a student party (we graduated in 2012...) rather than spending the night in the house where the walls had started to fall on me already.  For Friday we had planned a dinner and a movie with the girls but the movie had to move when a party invitation turned up. We did have dinner though, in restaurant Fontti. They had re-done their menu completely from last year and it was brilliant. I took a pulled pork burger, but couldn't get a picture of it because it was ...

We have enjoyed amazingly sunny weathers here in Turku since I came home. It being only March the huge light bulb up there somewhere is a rare phenomenon in these latitudes! It's amazing what effect the first Spring Sun has on Finns: for a little while, they are all sooo full of joy! I love it. And honestly, how could you not be when you're in such a beautiful place as Turku bathing in the light and warmth.   There are so many new cafés scattered all around the city centre and the first one I wanted to check out is Tiirikkala. It's in a gorgeous old house with two floors and a roof terrace, live band playing most days. I've read some reviews already and everybody's saying nothing but good things about the place. So, Mum had a Monday off because she turned 50 so we decided to go for lunch in the most beautiful part of Turku: Vähätori. Right next to the Aura river and the Cathedral. But instead of going to Tiirikkala there, we went to a place next to i...

Oh Turku, Turku, you beautiful, wonderful city. Even though it's been only couple of months since I was last in Finland it's good to be back again. Especially because the weather has been amazing! Spring is here... which only means that the second wave of winter, we call it after-winter, is only few days ahead.  I don't see any point in coming home for just a week so I'm staying for a month. I do appreciate having a job which I can do also from home! A month is quite enough time to see all my friends and family who I didn't have much time to see during the Christmas holidays. I came home because my mum turned 50 and she obviously had a big party.  The party was held in a beautiful wood-house area just outside the city centre in a theater. As is customary my parents had traveled to Estonia couple weeks before to buy alcoholic beverages and I had to go shopping for a dress (because I can't wear a dress that the people invited might have seen before...

When I received an e-mail at work about a trip being planned to walk from Bratislava to a chocolate factory in Kittsee, Austria I didn't need much persuading. Actually I was supposed to go on a date on Saturday afternoon but sorry men, chocolate comes before you. So, over the bridge we went to Petrzalka and walked over the border between Austria and Slovakia. I still find it somehow weird that that was even possible and so easy :D I'm due to fly to Finland next week but walking in this spring weather and already being able to wear a leather jacket I don't really feel like going... I'm gonna miss the Sun so much! Did you know that Chikago is not just a city in the US but also a street in Austria? Well, now you know. Apparently the street was named Chikago because the houses along it were built as speedily as houses in Chikago were... Go figure. The road from Bratislava to Hauswirth chocolate factory is about 3,5km long, so quite easily walkable....

I like history in the way that it's full of good stories. Some of them true, some not, doesn't matter as long as it's a juicy story. Slovakia is full of ancient castles and each castle has their legends and stories, one of the juiciest stories being the one of Countess Bathory who lived in the Cachtický castle an hour's drive from Bratislava. Countess Elisabeth Bathorý was left a widower when her husband died in 1604. She developed a nasty habit of luring and kidnapping young women from the near-by villages.  There are many versions of what she did to the girls but one of them is about how she had built a room into the castle with a grid floor. The girls, who had to be young and virgins, were tortured an killed in the room so that their blood would trickle down to the floor below into a bath. She then bathed in the blood believing that it would maintain her youth and "good" looks. For ten years she was able to keep this up until she was sued. By o...