Travel Trivia on Tuesday

HAPPY NEW YEAR! ONNELLISTA UUTTA VUOTTA!

It's the new year and it's definitely time for a new post. I decided that as the past year has been a year of travel for me, that I would put up a post about my travels in the form of travel trivia, as well as questions that friends have asked me.

Let's start!

Number of countries I have visited outside of Australia: 20

Number of countries I have lived in: 4 - Australia, Finland, Greece, and Thailand

Number of countries I have spent Christmas in: 3 - Australia, Finland, and Thailand

Number of countries I have spent New Years in: 4 - Australia, Finland, Estonia, and Thailand.

Number of countries I have spent my birthday in: 3 - Australia, Finland, and Greece.

What do I always travel with: A book or some form of reading device. E-readers can come in handy.

A book on the beach at Christmas... can't get much better.

 Why did you start travelling?

For as long as I can remember, I have dreamed of visiting places like Pompeii and Stonehenge, and of visiting museums like The Louvre and The British Museum. I have always wanted to see more of the world than just Australia. When I was in high school, I found out about youth exchange and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to start travelling, but I have always wanted to travel.

Why do you travel alone? What are the positives and negatives to travelling alone?

I have not always travelled alone. My first trip to Finland was really as part of a large group and most of the travel I did that year was part of a group.

Going back to Finland in 2012, I decided to travel alone, because I was going to be going to a country I already knew. Plus I was planning on going long term and none of my friends would have really wanted to come or been able to at the time. I have done much travel in the past 18 months by myself and I have had as much fun with that as when travelling with people.

Positives for travelling alone:

- You never have to worry about wanting to do something that other people you are travelling with don't want to do.
- You make friends with people you meet in places like hostels and walking tours around cities, as well as buses, trains and planes.
- You expand your comfort zone.
- You don't have any travelling companions, and so don't find yourself wanting to cause harm to anyone because you have been spending too much time with them.
- If something goes wrong and you miss a bus or something, you can be sure it was your fault, and not someone elses.

Negatives for travelling alone:

- You have noone to look after your bags when you really need to go to a public toilet and find yourself having to squeeze everything into a tiny cubicle and get the door shut as well.
- Sometimes you experience something really awesome, that you want to share, and you have nobody to share it with.
- You either find yourself taking way too many selfies as you try to take a picture with some sort of landmark, or you end up with lots of photos, but you are in none of them.

How has travelling changed your life?

I think travelling has made me more open minded and adventurous. I find myself outside of my comfort zone and not minding it. I have experienced things that some people never get a chance to experience and I have met many amazing people from all over the world. Travelling, and in particular travelling alone, has given me more self confidence to do things. I know that if I want something I can have it / do it.

What has been the strangest food you have tried on the road?

I wouldn't say that I have had any really strange foods that I have tried on the road, but I guess eating Reindeer is a pretty strange thing for most people to think about, even if it is delicious. 

I can't think of anything else that I would class as particularly strange in any way. I try to stay pretty safe with what I eat because I guess I am not particular adventurous. I don't ever see myself voluntarily eating insects for example.

Have you ever been scared while traveling?

I don't think sitting at the back of a bus on a road in the French Alps and looking straight down the mountain quite evokes the sense of scared that I think is implied by this question, so I would say no. I am definitely a little bit nervous before I move to a new country, but I wouldn't say scared.

Is there a country you always travel back to ?

Finland. Definitely Finland. But also Estonia. I love Estonia.

Do you have any packing rituals?

Not really. I pretty much just pile everything onto the bed/floor then fold it. I do tend to use space saving bags for my clothes so they take up less room but that is about it.

What is the most beautiful beach you have ever seen?

This is a hard one for me. I have not met a beach that could beat an Australian beach, and even with Australian beaches I couldn't say which one is my favourite that I have ever visited because there are so many.

In terms of other countries, I would say that one of the most beautiful beaches I have visited is Anthony Quinn Bay on the island of Rhodes, Greece. I also recently visited Promthep Cape, on the island of Phuket, here in Thailand. That was a very beautiful beach.

What was your first trip abroad?

My first trip abroad, was to Finland. I was an exchange student there in 2007 for the year.

What are the top 5 on your bucket list ?

I'm horrible! My bucket list basically is visit -insert historical site here- in -insert country here-.

That said let's see if I can do a top 5 of things for a bucket list.

1. See the Aurora Borealis in person.
2. Visit Pompeii, Italy
3. Visit Gallipoli, Turkey
4. Visit Stonehenge, England
5. Participate in an archaeological dig in some way.

If I hadn't already been to the Tower of London it would be on my bucket list.

Is there any place in the world you are not interested in traveling to?

I think there are countries in most parts of the world that I wouldn't be particularly interested in visiting, but I don't think it's right to rule out anything 100% because you never know what opportunities may arise. If someone told me a year ago that I would be living in Thailand, I would have called them insane because I had no particular desire to even visit here.

What is the one thing you miss at home when on the road?

My books. Definitely my books.

Do you think you will ever settle down and if so, where would you see yourself doing so? Australia? Europe?

I have no idea. I really love Europe, but of course I grew up in Australia, and that is where most of my family lives. I think it would really just depend on circumstances at any given time. If I find a job that I love and that suits me or some other good reason to settle down in a particular place, then I will settle.


What is your favorite airline and airport?

I can't say I have travelled through any airport frequently enough to really have a favourite, but Helsinki airport is pretty good, and I haven't experienced any crazy crowds there either... YAY FOR AIRPORTS IN SMALLER CITIES!

My favourite airline would have to be Thai Airways. I have flown one long haul international flight from Bangkok to Sydney and then one shorter domestic flight from Bangkok to Phuket and both times I really enjoyed it. The service was excellent and the planes were comfortable even in economy. 

How many time zones have you been through in one week?  

I'm going to take this as a how many time zones have I spent time in, in one week as opposed to time zones I crossed over in a plane.

I have spent time in 4 different time zones whilst travelling from Finland back to Australia as well as when travelling from Australia to Finland. 

In terms of actually spending more than 2-3 hours in an airport, in a time zone, then I guess the answer would be 3 time zones. Greece, Thailand and Singapore in a week at the beginning of November. 

What is your favourite place you've been to and why?

My favourite place that I have been to is, I think, Tallinn, Estonia. It doesn't matter what time of year it is, there is something incredibly enchanting about the Old Town of Tallinn. 

I don't think I could ever get bored visiting Tallinn. It seems every time I visit I get introduced to a new cafe, where there is amazing food. The people are friendly and the sights are beautiful. One of the other good things is that even though there are tourists, there aren't the huge numbers you find in some European cities like Prague or Paris which means that even in summer, at the height of the tourist season you can enjoy it. 

Tallinn by night is definitely something magical.

Thanks to my friends who asked me some great questions. This was defintely a fun post.

~~ Random Logic ~~

Books, Travel, Study and Planning a Move.

So I have been planning to update recently with some book reviews but I keep getting distracted by starting to read other good books- I highly recommend the Divergent books by Veronia Roth and the Newsflesh Trilogy by Mira Grant- so those posts will come when I hit a wall in the book reading. I have also been very busy on another note.

I started looking for jobs for when I finished being an au pair, and I was looking all over Europe, not just in Finland to find as many opportunities as possible. I ended up applying for a job in Rhodes, Greece, and I got it! So I will be moving to Greece as of the 29th of August... that gives me just under 3 weeks until I move.

I also travel to Ireland next week for a friends wedding! YAY! Weddings! YAY! Travel! I am there for a week and then when I come back, I think I will have two days here in Vaasa before I travel south and visit friends in Turku for a few days and then a day or so in Helsinki. I am tempted to try get in a day trip to Tallinn just for the hell of it before I leave as well. I love Tallinn and I don't know when I will get a chance to visit again. This also means that I have to do most of my packing for the move before I even go to Ireland, so that I just have to really worry about packing what I take to Ireland with me when I get back to Finland.

On top of all that planning, I have been doing the Archaeology MOOC that I talked about a few posts ago. The final exercise was due last week and the results were given this morning. I got full marks for everything! YAY! I'm happy with that because, apart from my language classes which have often been fairly informal in terms of any kind of homework, it is the first study I have really done on anything since high school. It was really fun and interesting too. I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in history. It is run through the Coursera website and is called Archaeology's Dirty Little Secrets. I will probably also post some more of the stuff I wrote for exercises here at some point. One of the other students had the idea to start a blog for the students to post to with different archaeological themed things and I am going to be a contributor to that as well.

So basically to sum up my life I have been busy. Things are going to get fun and exciting over the next few weeks. I am excited to go to Greece and sad to be leaving Finland. Also I have never been to Greece so I can't wait to see some of the historical sites. At least the history geek inside of me will have fun!

Well that's all for now folks! I will try to post something up between Ireland and Greece at the very least.


~~Random Logic~~

Yksi Vuosi Sitten....

One year ago....

One year ago, I left Australia.

One year ago, I was sitting on a plane.

One year ago. I moved to the other side of the world.

One year ago....

That's right folks! If you haven't guessed it already- today is one year since I left Australia for Finland... and what a year it has been.

I didn't really know what to expect when I decided to come back to Finland, especially coming back here and becoming an au pair. It has turned out to be an amazing experience.

When I left Sydney airport, my mum, dad and younger brother were there to see me off. There were lots of hugs. I got on the plane and flew to Finland via Abu Dhabi and Dusseldorf.

The first people I saw when I got into arrivals at Helsinki-Vantaa airport were my friends Veera and Nupur. One greeted me with a sign, the other with chocolate, both with hugs! I almost ran them over with my baggage cart. Nupur drove us into the city centre where we had lunch and chatted for ages and then drove me as far as Salo where she lives.

When I got off the bus from Salo to Turku, I was met by two more friends, once more with a poster as well as chocolate and other Finnish goodies. It was a good day.

I stayed with one of my friends for most of a month before I started working as an au pair, and we caught up often on weekends after I started working. The best thing about some friendships is that it doesn't matter how long it has been since you have seen that person... you still get along and it doesn't really feel that long. And that is definitely the case with Sanni!

This last year has been a pretty amazing experience. I worked for one family until mid-February and then started with a new family in a city called Vaasa at Easter. Both have been interesting, and as with any jobs there are ups and downs.

I have learnt a lot more Finnish than I knew 12 months or even just 6 months ago- especially since I came to Vaasa because I speak only Finnish to the children here. I learn new things every day!

I have renewed my love affair with libraries. In Australia over the 5 years before I had not borrowed very often from libraries as I would just buy the books that I wanted. If there is one thing I do miss from Turku now that I am in Vaasa... it's the library. Vaasa does have one... it's just not as big.

I got to visit Spain last September(yes I know I never did end up writing a blog post on that!), Stockholm in December, London in March, and Estonia last July, over new years and then again in March. I have seen parts of Finland I had never visited before, and seen new things in some places I had visited. In August, I am going to visit Ireland and attend a friend's wedding. I just booked my tickets today!

I have made some amazing new friends in the past year. Au pairs and otherwise. I've made friends from all sorts of countries, who speak all sorts of languages. I've travelled with those friends and introduced them to places I love. I've discovered new places to love and rediscovered old ones.

 

I've been to my first music festival, sunbaked in parks like the locals, eaten new foods, relearned to ride a bike, experienced the aftermath of a snowstorm and the chaos it can bring on a large city(thank you Stockholm!).

All in all I have experienced! I have put myself out into the world and experienced. How long I will be in Finland for, I don't know. What I do know is that I will not regret having been in Finland. I think that if I do leave Finland this year I would like to try and stay in Europe. Maybe I will see if I can find a job in another country and move there. Maybe try and learn another language and experience more but that's for another time! So, sorry to all you people in Australia.... I don't think I'm coming home anytime soon!

~~Random Logic~~

Out and About in Finland.

This weekend, as I mentioned in my last post, my cousin came to visit Finland from London where she has been living. It was fantastic!

She arrived Saturday and after a picnic lunch next to the river we started the touristy stuff with the Aboa Vetus and Ars Nova Museum which is a museum of history and contemporary art. The history side is the main part that I love and I visited several times when I was last in Finland. It has changed a little since then though. You are able to walk through the streets and remains of buildings of medieval Turku which is all enclosed within the building itself and maintained in the condition in which it was found. In addition they do continuing archaeological excavations on the buildings and area and are actually currently in the process or removing all the built up dirt and soil from within one of the 6 buildings within the museum.

After that we wandered down along the river to Turun Linna (Turku Castle) which is another of my favourite place to visit. It dates back to 1280 when construction started on the castle. It was in use for a long time before it fell into ruins. Since World War Two, it has been fully restored and is now used as a museum.

Dinner yesterday was reindeer steak with a lingonberry-red wine sauce and we followed it with some sampling of cider including a blueberry cider... Om nom nom nom!

Today we went for a drive with one of my friends to the archipelago near Turku. We briefly visited the ruins of a castle on one of the islands first off then we went to a town called Nauvo which is not very big. There are lots of summer cottages in that area and it's pretty tourist oriented feeling but they whole area is gorgeous. It was nice and even the wait for the ferry to get back from the island wasn't any issue.

I think the highlight of today was probably our very Finnish dinner. We had smoked salmon we bought on one of the islands on the way back, as well as makkara(Finnish sausage), potato(can't go without potoato!), and karjalanpiirakka. It was delicious.

So all in all an awesome weekend. I loved seeing my cousin. I loved showing off the country I love and I just had an all around good time.


~~Random Logic~~

Excitement!!!!

My cousin is coming to visit me from where she has been living in the UK this weekend. I am excited. It is her first trip to Finland and I get to show her around some of the stuff I love here. Also I haven't seen her in over a year. YAY! I hope to take a decent amount of photos this weekend, hopefully I will get a chance to upload them as well.

Pack, Pack, Packing....

So... first blog from Finland. I have been here two weeks now and have been having a pretty awesome time. Also this particular post will most likely be somewhat random and rambling.

It's currently heading towards 3am and I still haven't finished packing for my trip to Estonia. I have to be on a bus at 6am to Helsinki, and then catch the boat from there at 10am.... really should go pack. After this blog I will.

So two weeks in Finland and I was met at the airport by two of my friends. Between them they had one sign and multiple chocolate bars- to get me started. I love Fazer chocolate. We had lunch and then I continued my journey onwards.

When I finally got off the bus in Turku I was greeted by two more friends. One is the friend I am currently staying with and the other is a German friend who I met when she was doing exchange at the same time as me. They also greeted me with chocolate and a sign. I love my friends!

I attended Ruisrock music festival which was three days of amazing fun and I got to catch up with a few more friends at that and see plenty of awesome bands. Still not sure how Snoop Dog fits into a rock festival though.

Since Ruisrock I have caught up with more friends, eaten plenty of chocolate, done a bit of shopping, and generally been relaxing and having fun.

Now onto more packing and Estonia! I figure I don't need sleep tonight... I have plenty of time to sleep on the bus, boat and in the car today...

~~ Random Logic ~~

Oh god, oh god, we're all going to die...

Well not really... I just have that particular line from Firefly stuck in my head at the moment.

So today marks 7 days left until I leave this sunburnt country for a land of ice and snow. I finished work a week ago now and have been packing frantically to move out of where I'm living. 4 days of the last week have been spent essentially in transit to and from where my belongings are being stored. My dad and brother spent today moving another load.

All that's left to move now are basically the things I will be taking with me to Finland.

As I started packing my suitcase today it kind of hit me what I am doing. This is a major move. It's a one way ticket. It's the opportunity of a lifetime. I'm freaking excited!

But at the same time I'm kinda scared.

I won't be able to just call my parents up at any time or even just jump on a bus to go visit them. I won't be able to just call up some of my best friends and ask them if they want to hang out and catch a movie or anything like that.

And then I balance it against what I am doing.

I am moving to a country I love.

I am going to be doing something that 10 years ago wouldn't have even crossed my mind.

I am going to be catching up with friends  haven't seen in 5 years. I can call them up if I want to hang out.

I am putting myself out there.

Talking to a friend tonight I asked her if she felt the same thing when she moved to the centre of Australia for a job. She did, but she settled and I know she loves what she does. I guess it's just a matter of getting settled into my job in Finland and back into the country as well. I guess the best thing about it is that I will be in an area that whilst I am not entirely familiar with it, I am familiar with the region and I have friends around who can help me if I need it and who I can just chill with if I need it.

I guess the biggest motivation behind all of this move is the fact that I felt a little bit stuck in a rut. I love Australia for sure, and I have made so many amazing friends here over the past couple of years, but it's something beyond friends and family. I have had a couple of jobs since I finished high school and my youth exchange. I never seem to stick in the same kind of industry either. The only constant is that all jobs have been administration based... something which I do not want to be doing for the rest of my life unless it is in a position that I absolutely love and adore.

I'm looking forward to this more than it scares me and I think that is the best thing possible when all is said and done. I know I will have an amazing time and the experience of a lifetime.

So I will go back to packing secure in the thought that life goes nowhere unless one is willing to a take a chance, and we are all in charge of our own future even when it seems like we aren't.


~~Random Logic~~