Farewells and far aways

My last few days in Tampere were very emotional, both in a good and a bad way. Many not-so-nice things happened in that time, but I also had many great moments. The first unlucky thing happened on the late evening when arriving home after 3,5 weeks. We had a car at the exhibition, which we’d borrowed from a dealer, and it came with a very heavy info sign. When I opened the sliding door of the van back in Tampere, I did not only realize I’d forgotten to return the sign to the dealer, but it also slipped out and fell on my foot. It hurt like hell, so much that I think my voice organs were paralyzed and I was robbed of the ability to scream out my pain.

Since I had only found out a few days before when I’d be leaving with the ferry from Helsinki and because I’d been very busy at the fair, I hadn’t had the time to arrange any help for the actual move. I was going to drive the Sprinter van we’d brought from Germany, all the way down to Frankfurt, filled with my stuff – including the piano… What a scary thought! Well, I did get some help with the piano and the sofa, but then I was on my own. Sure, I should have asked people earlier, but I just didn’t have the chance, and surely Facebook isn’t the best place to ask for help, but I didn’t really know what to do. The truth be told, I was quite disappointed, that after seven years in Tampere, nobody could spare an hour to come help me with carrying boxes into the van. At this point I’d packed my mattress and my sofa in the van, so I would sleep at a friend’s place. She had an old friend visiting from Australia, and he was amazing enough to volunteer helping me the next day. I’d have never managed taking apart the wardrobe and carrying it into the van without his help! On Wednesday I rewarded myself with a massage and a visit to one of my most inspiring friends. She invited me to stay there the next night, and I happily agreed. After 3,5 weeks of eating heavy restaurant food and meats, I was excited to enjoy organic vegetarian food as well as food for the mind. The day also included getting a parking fine and noticing that my bike was stolen, so the good things were balanced out by the bad ones...

Last moments and goodbyes.

Coffee, cakes and meeting up with friends.

Originally I intended to stay in Tampere until Friday morning, but I had a spontaneous change of heart and decided to visit some friends in Kouvola to spend my last evening in Finland with some more amazingly inspiring people. In the morning I headed toward Helsinki and had lunch with two of my best friends in the heart of the city at a great organic vegetarian restaurant called OmNam. Warmly recommended! In the afternoon I boarded the ferry and prepared myself for 27 hours traveling. Luckily I was prepared with a few good books and a laptop full of movies. The ferry had a sauna area with Jacuzzi, which I enjoyed two times altogether. About 28 hours later, late on Saturday evening I arrived in Travemünde and steered the van towards Hannover, where I spent the next day with family and friends. It was very relaxing and lovely! The last leg of my trip started on Monday morning, when I headed towards Weiterstadt and my new working place. The welcome was warm and I even had four strong men (and a forklift) helping me carry the things up in my small apartment.

On my way.

A few others on their way as well.

Beautiful Hanover.

The best way to spend time is with old friends.

So to add it all together, I drove the Sprinter van more than 2 600 kilometers. Even though I was terrified at first to even jump up behind the steering wheel. My friends in Hannover considered me absolutely brave for driving that huge van, but the van was quite easy to drive in the end, and I can even say I enjoyed it! Time to start my new life! 

Out with the Old, In with the New

Well the headline might be somewhat misleading, because the point of this post is mainly about reminiscing the past year and taking a look at what is to come. My past year has been completely amazing. I haven't had the chance to travel as much as I wanted, but instead I had the chance to make one of my big dreams come true. I went to Australia. But that's not the only great thing about last year. It was a big year in terms of meeting new people. Australia had a huge effect on that, not only while being in that beautiful country down under, but also because of what happened as a result of being there. I started a new hobby. I found the love of my life: west coast swing. For those of you who don't know what it is, I'll tell you. It's a swing dance style that originates from the United States of America. Logically from the west coast. If you are interested, there are loads of videos on YouTube.
 
In Australia I was lucky enough to take two classes a week with the absolutely fabulous Raw Connection in Brisbane, and coming back to Finland I was a bit worried about what the WCS scene here would look like. I was happy to realize that my city has the largest and most active scene in Finland, although much smaller and less advanced than in Brisbane. The people are amazing though and the teachers fantastic and inspiring! Thanks to WCS this fall has been full of dancing and new, amazing people. I have attended three workshops and a WCS cruise, and it's safe to say that it has been the best autumn of my life!

Australia was however about much more than just WCS. The greatest thing about that trip, as well as any other trip, were all the people I met. I think I've made some friends for life and I don't think I've ever felt that welcome anywhere. I miss you guys! The atmosphere was great and since I mostly hung out with dancers, I got to try out a lot of other dancing styles as well: bachata, salsa, zouk and kizomba. Needless to say that WCS was the one that stole my heart.

Going back to last spring, my biggest dilemma was saving up some money for Australia, which obviously meant that I couldn't travel that much. Instead I spent most of my time enjoying dinner parties with friends, but I did do a few weekend trips within Finland as well. What else did I do last year? I recorded a Christmas cd with my choir, Tampereen yliopiston laulajat, and finished my fourth and last year in the choir board. I developed my own company to a level I never would have imagined, and I arranged a lot of fun parties. I baked a lot of cakes, cooked a lot of food, smoked more shisha than ever and hosted loads of couchsurfers from all over the world. I managed to learn a lot of difficult songs and performed them at two different concerts with my beloved choir. With that same choir I attended the Tampere Vocal Music Festival and recieved a silver stamp. During the festival I also hosted the slovakian choir, Collegium Technicum, and arranged a lot of program for them. I surfed for the first time of my life (hopefully not the last time). I checked out the amazing city of Singapore and showed a fantastic Australian girl a good time in Helsinki. I enjoyed the most beautiful autumn since moving to Tampere and got sad because the winter never came. I spent more time than ever with my dearest friend, including my time in Australia, as well as Christmas and an epic New Years celebration. Well that's not all, but I suppose those are the highlights.

One of many cakes.

TYL on stage performing at Tampere Vocal Music Festival.

Picnic in the park with Collegium Technicum from Slovakia.

Little buddy at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, Brisbane.

Visiting the best friend in the world in Australia.

A visitor from down under.

Mind-blowing autum foliage.

So is it possible to top such an amazing year? Well, it'll be hard, but I can sure try. I have so much planned already, so it is looking good. Travel-wise there will be a wedding in Spain, a birthday party in Amsterdam, possibly another wedding celebration in Slovakia, maybe a WCS event in the south of France and a choir trip to Slovakia. Not bad plans, considering it's only the 3rd of January today... There will definitely be more dancing and lots of great dinner parties. Maybe I'll finally even graduate. Here's hoping...

Well anyways, a huge thanks to all the amazing people in my life for making the past year so unforgettable! Let's make this one even better!

Dancing with Koalas

I am an active traveller. What I mean by this is that I don't like to just lie on the beach for a week and do nothing. For me traveling is all about new experiences. My last few vacations have however been very busy. Two years ago I was traveling by train through central and eastern Europe with my best friend. We explored ten countries in 30 days. It goes without saying, that we stayed at one location for a maximum of three nights. Last summer I traveled for three weeks in Sicily, Milan, Hungary and Stockholm. I stayed for a bit longer in Eger, Hungary, but basically I was on the move all the time. So now in Australia, I've really been enjoying having a home base. I am staying with my best friend, Evannette, who is spending six months as an exchange student here, and has a lovely town house in a suburb in Brisbane called Greenslopes. It is a very nice location, about 15-20 minutes with the bus to the centre and a supermarket just a 5-minute-walk away.

Now, I am loving the fact that I have a home base, and don't have to move around all the time. The bedroom looks as such though. All my things are spread around my half of the room... I am doing everything what vacation is about. Sleeping in, long breakfasts and not worrying about time. This doesn't mean that I'm staying put though. No sir! A lot of people back home and here have asked me whether I will travel around Australia. I thought about it for a while, but then I came to the conclusion, that I will just spend the entire month discovering Brisbane and its surroundings. That was a good decision! Brisbane is a lovely city with loads to do, if not directly in the city, but around it.

Brisbane Story Bridge.

I spent my first week discovering Brisbane itself. I went to a few museums and did some shopping. Naturally since my best friend is a dancer, I got to enjoy some great dance parties and lessons as well. Back in Finland I've attended a few west coast swing dance parties, but I've never taken any lessons. The dancing scene in Brisbane is just fantastic! On Tuesday and Thurday evenings we've been taking west coast swing lessons with Raw Connection right here in Greenslopes. The teachers are great and I've been learning heaps. There are two lessons every evening: first a beginner class and then you can choose from an intermediate class or a beginner's intensive class. In between the lessons there is some time to practise your new moves at social dancing. I love it! Now I just have to check up on where I can dance WCS back in Tampere... On Sundays there is a dance party at a bar called Casablanca, where they have salsa and other latin dances downstairs and zouk and kizomba upstairs. They also have karaoke in the next room... At my first Casas party I was happy just looking at people dancing, since latin dances really aren't my thing, zouk even less. Last Sunday however the evening turned out a bit different. Since I had met a few of Evannette's friend during my stay, they naturally knew me and asked me to dance. It didn't help that I claimed not knowing how, I was just told "it's easy, you'll learn". And so I spent a big part of the evening on the dance floor trying out my kizomba moves. And I liked it! I think I'll finally have to start going to the bachata and kizomba parties in
Tampere on Mondays...

The Brisbane Lions against the Gold Coast Suns, AFL.

I have been doing a lot more than just dancing. There is an amazing roller skating track around the Brisbane river and I've also checked out the city from another point of view while kayaking on the river. A few days ago we headed to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, which is the world's first and largest koala sanctuary. It was established already in 1927 and it houses around 130 koalas. In addition to koalas the animal park houses a variety of Australian wild life, including kangaroos, kookaburras, platypus, emus, wombats, tasmanian devils and much more. I got to cuddle a koala, and it was so soft and sweet as it clinged onto my shirt. We also fed kangaroos and they were so cute! Lone Pine is however not just a park with animals for people to see. It is taking in hurt animals and caring for them so they can be let back in the wild. Also it is an imporant sanctuary for the tasmanian devil. The devil is an endangered species because of something called devil facial tumor disease, which was first discovered in 1995, and it has taken down the devil population to 20 per cent. Lone Pina is housing a few devils in case the population keeps dropping, so that the animal won't turn out being exctinct. I liked Lone Pine because it is not a typical zoo. It only features Australian wild life and has a lot of information about the animals. Also the staff is very friendly and informed.

Kayaking on Brisbane River, divine!

Squeezed in between the branches.

Ready, set, go!

The other day we also drove down to Gold Coast. The weather was quite cloudy and a bit cold, but I still loved walking on the enormous beach with amazingly soft sand. I'm hoping to go back to Gold Coast or to Sunshine Coast on a sunny day before going back to Finland. Yesterday we drove down to Springbrook National Park to do some hiking. It is situated in the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area and it is absolutely beautiful. It was the third time for me hiking in a rainforest, but it was still as amazing as the first time. Surrounded by gigantic trees and lush bushes the mind rests. There were a lot of enormous, white eucalyptus trees, but unfortunately we didn't spot any koalas. We did see some cat-like creatures though, both in the forest as well as crossing the road into the bushes.

Surfer's Paradise at Gold Coast.

Behind a waterfall at Twin Falls Circuit in Springbrook National Park.

View above the rainforest.

Gigantic roots. The researches still don't know why the trees grow these kind of roots.

Lush and fresh rainforest.

Big roots, eh?

One of the many beautiful waterfalls in Springbrook National Park.

Intestine roots. At least it looks like it. Or worms.

I my last post, I was writing about how relieved I am not having to drive here. Well, now I have been driving. I was the one sitting behind the wheel both going down to Gold Coast and to Springbrook National Park. At first it was confusing, but I got over it relatively quickly, and now I am actually enjoying it. I'm not sure how it would go though, if I had to drive to the centre of Brisbane. Maybe I'll find out...

Enjoy the photos!

First Impressions

After nearly a full week here on the other side of the world, I kinda feel that I might not be qualified to talk about first impressions anymore. The first impressions have slightly faded, but I am going to make an attempt to revive them nevertheless. My first week has been quite full of activities and by keeping awake for the whole first day after landing early in the morning, I managed to escape the jet lag. I've done some sightseeing, visited museums and exhibitions, gone dancing, done sports and naturally met new people, which is my favourite thing about traveling.

Brisbane

 

Weather

In Finland we call this the Christmas Star.

When you go to a foreign country, the first things you notice - naturally - are the differences. Actually this really applies to wherever you go, even if you travel within your own country. Even though Australia is on the other side of the world in comparison to Finland, it is surprisingly similar. It is a western country after all. But because of it's immense size, there are naturally differences. I won't go into Australias inner differences - being solely in Brisbane doesn't really qualify me for that. In Brisbane, however, the weather is one thing that really stands out. The climate in the state of Queensland is subtropical, which means that it never really gets cold here. At least from a Finnish point of view. As my plane landed on Saturday morning at about 5, it was already 15 degrees. Before I came, my friend told me to bring thick sweaters and a jacket, and the first few days were actually quite rainy, so they did come in handy. It wasn't really cold, maybe around 18 degrees, but it's always quite windy, since it's quite close to the coast. These last couple of days have been great though, about 24 degrees, sunny and warm.

Thanks to the subtropical climate, flowers are always in bloom in Brisbane, even in the winter!

Public transport

Then there's the traffic. In Australia they drive on the wrong side of the road. Sure some might argue that there are no wrong sides, only right ones. Not here. Thank God I don't need to drive here, because it would be seriously confusing. Even walking across the road is difficult, because I need to remember to look right first and then left, not the other way around, like I'm used to. Another thing about traffic is public transportation. I haven't really noticed this yet myself, but I've been told that schedules are never correct. There are different times online, and even at the bus stop. There they have a display and a printed timetable, but there are different times on them. And the ones on the display do not seem to be actual gps times. Well, luckily where we live, in Greenslopes, the buses come quite often, so it's not too bad.

Look out, trees might attack your car. Wait, what?

Brisbane is quite a large city, a bit over 2 million people live here, so there are several price zones when you travel with public transport. This is quite common in bigger cities, but usually you also have to know which zones you travel in, so that you know which ticket to buy, or which zones to click if you have a travel card. Here the system has been made very easy. You just touch the card to the machine when you step in and out of the bus, and it calculates the price automatically. Very simple! Also I think it's nice that most people shout 'thank you' to the bus drives as they step out of the bus. Something which is not so good however, is that a lot of people go out in the front door, blocking the way of people coming in. The bus driver also always waits for people to sit down before they drive along. Maybe these are some reasons why the buses aren't operating on time. I've also been told that public transport is not very good when it comes to getting somewhere outside of the city. We've been talking about visiting some places outside of Brisbane, but it's hard to get anywhere without having a car. Which everyone here seems to have.

If you don't want to get into all that hectic traffic and just wish to enjoy the river breeze, it is also possible to hop on the city cat. Established in 1975, the city cat basically is a public transportation boat that operates on the Brisbane River. Ir's great! The price is the same as for the bus and you get to enjoy the city from a completely different point of view. It is also quite quick, at least in comparison to those in Venice and Budapest.


People and food

My two favourite parts about traveling - as you know - are meeting new people and eating good food. In addition to the whole bunch of people that I got to know during my flights, I've been lucky enough to meet quite a lot of Australians, thanks to Evannette's big group of dancing friends. The social being that I am, I have naturally also talked to people basically everywhere. Ethnically Australia is very mixed. In addition to travelers from all over the world, there are a lot of foreign people living here, as well as Australians with roots from other countries. There are a lot of Asians, which is not very surprising, since Asia is the closest continent. Anyway, everyone here is really friendly and helpful. People seem genuinely interested in who you are, where you are from and what you do. People can just start speaking to you randomly, which is great, but feels a bit unusual being a Finn. I do love it though! My second evening here was my Evannettes' dance partners' last one before going back to Finland, so a group of dancing friends threw him a farewell dinner, which at the same time turned into a welcome dinner for me. I was overwhelmed! It was amazing to come to a group of people I didn't know and still feel so welcomed. It was just fantastic! 

Good food and amazing people!

And naturally the food was delicious! We went to a thai restaurant where everyone ordered their own meals and then we shared, so you could try different things. Here in Brisbane it is quite common to go out for dinner with a big group of friends, which I think is great! The cost for eating out in a restaurant differs quite a bit, but in general you can say that it is a tad cheaper than in Finland, but not a lot. Just like back home, the prices naturally depend on where you eat. The big city that it is, Brisbane naturally has a lot more variety than any Finnish city. There is a restaurant at every corner, and most of them have terraces, because people love to eat outside. Just like any city, some parts of Brisbane are cheaper and some more expensive, but I haven't quite figured out yet as to where you can get the best food for the best price. West End seems to be quite nice and there are many cozy restaurants and cafés there. Cafés are everywhere though. Lots and lots of small, charming places, with wonderful personal flair, but so far only one place where you can smoke shisha. Coffee (read espresso) is better than in Finland (except for Signora Delizia), but not as good as in Italy. The food scene is very mixed. You can find almost any kind of food, from Japanese to Argentinian and everything in between, just have your pick. Oh, and kangaroo steaks are delicious!

The cutest café in West End!

The Farmer's market is held in the City every Wednesday.

Wild life

The Australasian Darter.

Australia is proud of its' wild animals. I am still looking forward to seeing kangaroos, whales, dolphins and much more, but I have already been lucky enough to spot quite a few wild animals. The other day we went rollerblading and we spotted an opossum. It was sitting in a tree eating leaves, and it froze as it saw us looking straight at it. It is quite unusual to see opossums during the day, so I was naturally very happy! There are also quite a few lizards here. I've mostly seen small ones, but I also managed to spot a huge one by the river yesterday. Then there are birds. Lots and lots of birds. On my first day I saw an Australasian Darter as it was sitting on a tree in the river and drying its' wings. My favourite is a huge white bird called the Australian White with a black tail and a black head. The funny thing about the birds here is that they don't seem to sing. They screech and squall! Another night-being in addition to the opossum are the bats. They are quite unpleasant. They fly around as soon as the sun goes down (at around 6 pm) and they can come quite close, since they fly downwards as they leave the tree, because naturally they hang there up and down. It takes a while to get used to the bats, but luckily the ones here in Queensland are not blood sucking vampire bats...

The Australian White is hanging out at the Bogoda.

More wildlife at the Museum of Brisbane.

All in all my first week here has been quite amazing. My first impressions of Brisbane are very positive and I have had the chance to explore quite a bit, but at the same time not packing my time with activities, so I have also been able to relax and take it easy, what vacation should be all about. I have about two and a half weeks to go, and I will surely keep myself busy. I'm hoping to catch some waves at Surfer's paradise and Byrone Bay, see some whales and dolphins at Fraser Island, go for a hike a bit inland and much more, so stay tuned!

The Queenslander, the typical house in the Queensland area. Why? Stay tuned to find out!

The beautiful Story Bridge connects Kangaroo Point and Fortitude Valley.

South Bank.

Streets Beach at South Bank.

The beautiful auditorium at Brisbane City Hall.

On the Way to Adventure

My life-long dream is about to come true. As I'm writing this, I am sitting in a Qantas Boeing 747-400 on the way to Brisbane, Australia. Like I said, Australia has been one of my dreams since I was a child. I was fascinated by kangaroos, boomerangs and Crocodile Dundee, that I watched a million times with my mother, when I was little.

So, now the time has finally arrived to head down under. I'll be visiting my best friend Evannette, as she is spending half a year in Brisbane as an exchange student. 

My first flight from Helsinki to Singapore was also with Qantas, but operated by Finnair. The flight was not very pleasant. The space between the seats was timy, the food was bad and the cabin crew only did the most necessary things. Well, at least the company was nice. I was sitting next to this very nice indonesian girl, who was returning back home to Jakarta, after visiting her sister and her sisters Finnish husband. She gave me some great tips for Singapore, where I'll be spending 2,5 days at the end of my trip. Also I now have a reason to visit Jakarta as well as great ideas for Bali! This surely is one of the main reasons to why I love traveling: all the new people you get to meet!

Upon landing in Singapore, I headed straight for the rooftop pool. Changi International airport is an absolutely amazing place. In their three terminals they have for example a butterfly garden, a orchid garden, a cactus garden, a movie theatre, a game centre and a already mentioned swimming pool. It's safe to say that it would be easy to spend even a longer flight change at Changi, because in addition to all the entertainment, there is a vast amount of restaurants and shopping as well. Changi is indeed rated as one of the top airports in the world - and it deserves it!

As mentioned in the beginning, I am sitting in a huge Boeing now. According to schedule, it's supposed to take 7.20 hours from Singapore to Brisbane. I'll be arriving at 5.15 in the morning local time. In Brisbane time is seven hours ahead of Finland, so they'll be heading to bed back home once I land. Well back to the flight. I don't know if it's the pool or the holiday feeling (no, it really isn't), but the flight is amazing so far. The crew is fabulous, the food (and wine) is quite good (not quite as good as with Singapore Airlines, but not too far from it) and the entertainment screen is huge, at least in comparison to Finnair where is was SO tiny. Also it doesn't hurt that I have three whole seats to myself! :)

So, I am on the way to an adventure of a lifetime, and I am so excited. I'll keep posting as often as I can, so stay tuned!

Step out of your comfort zone!

I've had an exciting year. Both in good and bad. A lot of things have happened that have made me think about my life and existence. Last summer I had an epileptic seizure while traveling in Budapest. It was really scary. I woke up in the ambulance and nobody spoke English. Around the same time I started having some problems at home. Balancing my job, the uncertainty of the reasons behind the seizure, writing my thesis, starting my own company, the problems at home, not to mention my keeping up with friends and hobbies have been quite hard. But I managed it somehow and it is all looking better now.

I am quite the restless person. I like to be on the move and I'm not big on staying in one place for a very long time. Needless to say, I love traveling. A full-time job has restricted my traveling time quite the bit, but I've managed to get away a couple of times. Having a daily routine is a good thing for most people, and I can't say that I haven't enjoyed it (with free weekends and all), but at some point I noticed that I'm falling into a pattern. Waking up the same time every day, breakfast, the same route to work, working for 8-9 hours, going home, gym, sleep. Basically the same stuff every day. Which I don't like. How are you supposed to evolve and develop yourself if every day is the same? One small help might be to mix it up. Have something different for breakfast. Take another route to work. Look up on from your shoes, and take a look at your surroundings. I found this video, that inspired me a lot.

I was lucky enough not to be taught at home to "make sacrifices" or "accepting my fate". My mother always told me that I can do anything and I should always dare to dream! I always enjoyed leaving my comfort zone. I'm not usually scared of doing things differently. And I believe in the magic zone! Surely I have my moments, where I stay in the comfort zone, but I do try step out of it quite a lot. At least I'd like to think I do. The thing is, I am taking baby steps. I am longing for something more. As I bought my flight tickets to Australia for July, one of my collagues at work was impressed and horrified at the same time. "You are so brave, to travel so far away alone!". In her eyes the fact that I am going down under to visit my best friend, didn't lessen the being brave part. Do you dare to dream? Yes I do!

There are other things that I am working towards, where I am forcing myself to step outside of my comfort zone. Big time! I can't really talk about it yet, but I will, soon. I promise! A part of that step is finishing my thesis, which I have been working on for quite a while now. Well kind of. I was quite far along, when about a month ago I decided to change the subject for my research. It might not have been really well thought through, but I was slightly forced into it, since proceeding on my former subject became quite impossible. I have set a deadline this time, partly because I was semi-forced to do it. Mysterious, I know, but I'll reveal my secrets in time. Be patient! Anyways, the thesis must be done by September, and I really need to pull myself together for that. The fact that I am going to Australia for a month in July doesn't help. I guess I just have to get on it.

Quote by David Bowie

Today I heard a great quote. I was watching the Gilmore Girls, and in this one scene Luke says to Lorelai:

"You've just gotta jump in, be scared and stick with it until it gets fun."

I really liked this quote, because sure, change is scary. But if it's a part of going towards something you want to do, then it'll be worth it. And if not, then you'll at least be an experience richer. I've done some decisions in my life, that people consider brave. I'm not sure I see them that way, but I can agree on them being quite big decisions. For example moving to Finland for school when I was 15 and moving to Germany after high school with no plan whatsoever. And I have not once regretted those decisions. Sure, I have looked back and thought about what my life would've been like, if I'd made some other decisions. But I've always come to the conclusion, that I've made all the right decisions. For all those decisions have lead to me being the person I am now. And I wouldn't want to change that. So I will keep making life altering decisions, because I am sure that they will lead to great experiences. After all, like John Green said:

What are your biggest life-altering decisions? Have you made any big decisions you regret?