Outlandish

Every capital in Central Europe has a castle and Prague is no exception. The first version of the castle was built at the end of the 800's by the first Bohemian kings. The current outlook it received under the rule of the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa who constructed it with a lot of passion but did not spend much time there. Apparently she didn't like Prague or the Czech people. Something me and my namesake disagree on :D Going through the two first castle yards you come to the most impressive part of the castle: the Cathedral of Saint Vitus. It's like a "small" Notre Dame towering above all the castle walls around it. The cathedral took altogether 600 years to build. Something that is different in this cathedral is the fact that the stained glass windows are billboards as much as they are depicting religious events; the entities that donated money for the cathedral's construction wanted their names displayed, of course. So, for example Banka Sla...

I may have just found my next home city! All the good things I've heard of Prague have now been proven to be accurate; the city is truly wonderful and full of stories. So full actually that one post would become simply too long. So, here's part 1 of our Perfect Prague Weekend. I traveled to Prague from Bratislava on a bus. But not just any bus: Student Agency is a company that offers super cheap plane, train and bus tickets around Central Europe. I prefer to travel by bus since train takes approximately the same time but is more often late or cancelled. I prefer bus also because Student Agency offers coffee/hot chocolate on the way and every seat has its own screen equipped with several movies and TV series to pass the time. The Hobbit was perfectly over three hours long for the four-hour-ride. For hotel me and my friend chose the Beseda Hotel a short walk from the Vltava river and the Old Town Square. It was a 4-star-hotel but not expensive at all, especially beca...

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...

I've spent a lot of time lately thinking about this summer and my first ever paid summer vacation. People who have never lived in Northern European countries cannot understand the importance of summer for us. So, of course I started thinking about what I want to do on my month-long-visit to Finland in July! I will fly home on 1st July and on the first weekend we will attend one of the biggest summer festivals in Northern Europe: Ruisrock! It's been too many years since we last time went there and I'm so excited! I've ordered some proper summer weather for the whole July but if I had to choose only one weekend when it should be sunny and warm it would be this one.  I am also very much looking forwards to the best place in Turku, the riverside of Aurajoki with its riverboats. These are not like ANY other riverboats on this planet, they are quite unique. Ridiculously expensive but absolutely the best place to spend each and every day of your summer holidays. ...

I consider traveling to be something that has to be done either by boat or a plane. That's why for trips that can be done by a short drive avoiding customs and all inclinations that you are crossing a border I have big difficulties in remembering my passport. Unlike in Finland a drivers licence is not quite enough for an ID apparently. It almost ruined my trip to Lednice-Valtice  before we even got started. So, last week I took several copies of my passport and put them in all the bags that I could possibly take with me on a trip! So, obviously during our weekend in Budapest nobody asked for any sort of ID at any point. But anyway, Budapest, a huge capital just few hours away from Bratislava, which has been "ignored" by me for an entire year. Despite my best friend having lived there and everybody around me talking how wonderful a city it is, I have consented to just using the airport services there. Perhaps that's why I haven't taken people that seriously when...