Outlandish

When life kicks you in the stomach repeatedly for months on end it’s good to keep in mind the wise words of the great thinker, Taylor Swift: Shake it off! Different people have different ways of ”shaking off” all the shit that life has seen fit to pile on your shoulders and mine is spending time with friends. How fortunate then that one of my best friends arriving for a long weekend visit coincided with so far the worst week of this Autumn! I received a crushing ”Thank you but no thank you”-message from a job that I was sure was mine (yeah, no sign of Finnish humility here) on the same day that my friend cruised to Tallinn and thank goodness for that! I needed her cheering company more than ever. After a quick visit to my local supermarket we decided to make a little curve on our way to my place. The curve had a  conveniently  situated  sushi restaurant on it. There is nothing in life that sparkling wine, sushi and good company couldn’t fix! Ev...

Another November is behind us, the most devastatingly lame month of the year is over! And that means that Christmas is literally on our doorsteps. A little comfort is brought into the crushing darkness all-day everyday by Christmas lights twinkling in people’s windows and at the markets. The Central European Christmas markets are world-famous but what about doing things differently this time and visiting a proper Northern atmosphere with genuine Christmas treats like glögi (aka mulled wine, a better option for the hot wines served in the South) and traditional Christmas tarts shaped like stars with plum jam. Finland has recently brushed up its game when it comes to Christmas markets and there are all kinds of performances and handicrafts on sale. But they are still missing an enormous beat: Christmas markets are all about good food and drink! So, while Finland contemplates whether serving alcoholic glögi in their Christmas markets will ruin the country completely or not you might ...

Yesterday after work I was sitting in my favourite café here in Bratislava, Urban House, having a glass of wine and looking out of the window at people coming from and going to the Christmas market. And it hit me like a ton of bricks: what the hell am I doing? Why am I moving away from a place where I have been nothing but happy 100% of the time? Why am I changing a job in a huge, international company to a job in a small, unknown company?  I had to really pick my brain and list some pros and cons again in my mind and eventually it all comes down to one thing. Family. That's why I'm moving away from here, closer to home. It's my brother's and my best friend's birthdays at the end of January and if I lived in Slovakia I wouldn't be able to attend either. At this moment, when panic is rising in me, the fact that I wouldn't have to fly to get home made it certain to me that this is something I have to do right now. If I didn't go to Tallinn a...

How perfect it is that I still had time to go check out the Budapest Christmas Market before moving away from Slovakia. And to check it out with the company that I had... I am just so fortunate when it comes to friends. When traveling, the company you have is a very important factor in how successful the trip will in the end be. The worst trip I ever had was unfortunately a long weekend in Paris - as gorgeous as the city always is - because schedules do not belong to a holiday. In my opinion the best thing in Paris, or any destination, would be to get a bottle of wine, some brie cheese and relax. This trip to Budapest was exactly that; complete relaxation, no schedules, no plans (except going to the Christmas market) and in the end we did see a lot of Budapest, mostly places I haven't even seen yet, like the Basilica. I had been quite sick for two days and was really afraid that I wouldn't be well enough to go. But working from home turned out a very good idea and o...

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...

Reality starting to set in. Last week I handed in my resignation, for the first time with trepidation. I'm utterly aware that most people would never do what I'm about to do: leave a job they like in a company they like and move away from a country that they absolutely love. Yes, I'm completely nuts! We have this saying in Finland that rolling rocks don't get mossy and I think that's the story of my life in a nutshell. I get bored easily and boredom is my worst nightmare. I need new experiences and excitement in my life all the time and even though I am completely happy here in Bratislava, if I let this opportunity of discovering a new country slip away I would never  forgive myself! And as a single, childless, independent person, why wouldn't I go and be nuts :D I'm an experience-addict! But, I still have a lot of time left here and thankfully it's one of my favourite times of the year: Christmas. The markets are lit up and there's ...