All about Bali & Lombok

Finally after all the Christmas hassle I'm ready to tell you guys about my holiday in Indonesia!
My last post I wrote about my thoughts on the plane, finally on my way to get where I wanted to go and I'm telling you now my trip did not end up being what I expected.

I got over my home sickness and I finally got to hang out with my brother. I feel like I got my urge to travel and explore back again. And this feeling is amazing!

Without further explanation, let's get to the point: My trip.

My first destination was Ubud. Ubud was beautiful, not at all what I expected. Beautiful rice fields and jungle but also a nice city center with beautiful small cafe's and shops. We had a private villa with an infinity pool. It was surely amazing and an awesome start. Unfortunately I only had 2 days there since I was 4 days late from my original plans. Our only full day in Ubud, we hired a driver who took us to a temple, hot springs, waterfalls, beach and a coffee plantation.

But just as an advice to everyone considering this kind of a trip: Don't take the offer the hotel or Villa offers. Get a private driver and it'll be at least half the price.

The second destination was Gili trawangan, which is one of the gili islands in Lombok.
Early in the morning we had organised a bus for us, to take us to the harbor. We shared a bus with heaps of other backpackers. The bus drive was few hours and following that we had a boat ride for about 1,5 hrs to Gili trawangan. I recommend to take a good backpack, nothing with wheels, they are hard to carry and really inconvenient.  There's no proper harbor so everything extra just stands on your way.

At trawangan we stayed in a hotel, owned by a finnish lady. It was a nice quiet hotel with a pool. ( Then again, everywhere was quiet cause of the volcano.) Personally I think it was the best time to travel there. We rented push bikes and cycled around the island. (Must thing to do!) We found all these beautiful spots with swings and beautiful quiet spots to relax. Most of our time in gili went exploring the island and relaxing at the beach or by the pool.

After trawangan we went to Gili meno. Personally Gili meno was NOT my favourite. I'd say it's for couples and people who wan't to be left alone and just relax in the sun. Our hotel was really, and I mean REALLY close to nature. In our 4 days there I had lizards, birds, a CRAB and a nice huntsman spider in my room or in my stuff. I love animals but all that took my sleep and peace of mind. The crab was somehow in my luggage, so when browsing my stuff I came across it. Yikes. Also the huntsman spider was in my bed. A slight nightmare in the middle of the trip.
We did go snorkeling and it was the best thing in the whole Meno island. After a minor panic attack in the water I got really into snorkeling and definitely going again soon! I saw turtles, statues, shipwreck, a moray eel and heaps of different beautiful fish. Anyways Meno island wasn't my favourite. Everything was really expensive, not much to do and it was hard to cycle around cause of the soft sand. They do have these horse carriage taxis there, but the horses look really miss treated so we decided not to support such business.

Our last destination was Seminyak, Bali. Can't begin to tell you how amazing the Villa was. It was a small paradise in the middle of loud and busy seminyak. Not complaining though, after deadly quiet Meno it was a welcome change. I could've stayed there for another week. We had a pool, a fish pond, living room, full equipped kitchen with a freezer full of magnum ice cream and a big beautiful rooms. My room was furnished with my favourite colour: Blue.

First day there we spend shopping and the second one treating ourselves. I got a manicure, pedicure, massage, waxing and a candle wax treatment. Service was great, but unfortunately the work was bad. So if you wan't to treat yourself, check a place with good ratings.
My brother and his girlfriend Jenna left a day before me, so I had a day just for my self. I saw 3 different temples, went to the local markets and to a monkey temple. I've never seen monkeys in the wild before and it was amazing! One monkey even jumped on my lap out of nowhere. What a hungry cuties. I bought them some peanuts. Unlike I was told, they didn't try to steal anything just curiously following and asking for food.

At first I was worried and thought that Bali would be like Thailand. A lot of people kept telling me that. It was nothing like it. I would go again. Not straight away but at one point. People were really polite and helpful and there was a lot to do and see. I found a few most beautiful places I've seen.

Yes, it's a common thing in Asia that people keep selling you stuff and trying to make you pay for everything, but that's the only similarity I could come up with between Thailand and Bali.

thoughts on the plane

In the beginning of last week mount Angung in Bali started to show signs of eruption and spat out ash and rocks. The government started to evacuate thousands of people and the volcano alert was on red, which is the highest level.
Monday to Wednesday Denpasar airport was shut but I was hopeful that everything will be fine by Saturday. When I got a SMS telling me my flight was cancelled I was devastated.
See I was supposed to go to Bali a year ago, before Australia. And for me it’s not just any holiday, its a vacation with my brother and his girlfriend. We had been planning this for a year. I've been writing before how I'm feeling home sick. I miss my family and friends so much and sometimes i’m second guessing my decision to stay for another year. I don’t want my feeling to impact my decision and this holiday was perfect a way to go and spent time with family. If that doesn’t help home sickness I don’t know what does.
On top of all that I was supposed to get to Bali on my brothes birthday. And I love birthdays, they are so important to me.

Makes sense why I was so broken after getting the cancellation news?

Well life has a funny way of working out and here I am, on the plane. Thankful and happy. After 4 days of heartbreak and stress. Makes me appreciate this trip even more.
I've never had a cancelled flight before and I didn’t know what to do. Luckily I have a gret travel insurance and they are happy to pay me back what the airline wouldn’t. I would say they made this possible.
Afterall everything turned out good and I didnt have to pay too much more from my new flights. Still waiting for all necessary documents from jetstar though..

I wrote this on top of Australian desert, daydreaming about my next adventure.

Life is better at sea

I grew up in an island, called Suomenlinna sea fortress. It's a beautiful place, good place to grow up. There's approx. 900 people living there and there's a elementary school there as well. I studied the first 6 grades there, and the school had 73 students. It's still there but I reckon they have fewer student's nowadays. Among them my 11 year old sister and 9 year old brother.

Suomenlinna is in the heart of Helsinki, it takes 15 mins by boat to get there from the CBD, and especially for tourists it's the place to go. There's heaps of museums and the architecture is beautiful. So much history in one place. My father and 3 of my siblings still live there.

Maybe that's why I always gravitate towards the sea. Something about oceans make me calm and I feel like home. My apartment in Helsinki is also located by the beach and here in Australia I always wanna go by the ocean.

People in Helsinki have cruising and boats close to their hearts. It's easy and fun and part of most peoples lives. I used to take a day cruise to Estonia at least 6 times a year. Cruises to Sweden are a weekend trip but I've done that too for multiple times. Luckiest people also have their own boats and going to an nearby island by the boat and make a barbeque is one of the best part of Finnish summer.

On this Monday, I had a work Christmas party. It was on a massive party boat that took off from the Sydney harbor. I have to admit I didn't expect it to be as good as it was. The theme was white, and everything was decorated white and everyone was wearing white. Except me. I was close though. I didn't want to stand out but I really don't have anything white in my wardrobe. I have a T-shirt and a basic top but I can't wear those to a party this exclusive.

There was a burger buffet, Taco buffet and a Buddha bowl buffet. Since I'm always hungry, free food do I need to say more? Also trays and trays of wine, sparkling wine, ciders and beers.
Despite free drinks, I had 3 drinks. I need a reason to drink.

The day turned out to be beautiful and it was actually hot on the boat. Good music and happy people.
I've worked with this current restaurant chain for 3 weeks, so I reckon the party would've been even better with a good friend.

Compared to previous work Christmas parties the cruise was absolutely amazing.

Sea you later. Ha ha.

Busy, busy, busy

You know the feeling when you feel like your doing absolutely nothing but actually you are doing everything?

I've been doing nothing for the last 2 weeks. And by nothing I mean everything. I've been working my ass off at the gym and working 6 days a week at work. I've been trying to fit my photo shoots somewhere in there as well, while keeping the house clean and eating right. Why is doing nothing so exhausting? Also I don't have a car, so everything takes double time. If I'm going to the gym in the morning, I need to reserve 2,5 hrs even if I'm doing a 1 hr workout. Usually when i'm going to work I need to leave an hour early cause the next bus would be late and by car it would be a 10 min trip. Everybody gets what I'm saying here?

Oh yeah, I'm going to Bali in less than 2 weeks and haven't even had time to think about that. Maybe tomorrow, when it's my first day off this week.

Last weekend I had a friend over, she lives in manly so she decided to spend the night. I haven't seen her in 8 months but I literally had 10 hours with her, since I was working Friday and Sunday and she was working Saturday morning and only got here 4 PM. It was really good seeing her though. I really needed some girl time.

I've been feeling really home sick lately, after all I've been here for a year already. Today's my baby nieces naming party. I wish I could be there. I spoke to my sister on the phone today, and she promised to send me heaps of pictures. I can't believe my sister had a baby almost 4 months ago and I still haven't seen her. I've got a lot of pictures and I must say shes got her mommas beauty.

And all the above is a reason why I got myself a present. It's been ages since I last had an advent calendar, but this year I got the Nyx lippie countdown- calendar. I'm a bit obsessed with lipsticks and I can't wait it to be December! I mean just look at it.

Like I said, few good photo shoots coming next week. Stay tuned, it's going to be awesome.🔜🔜

A fresh start

Like I've written before, I started things here wrong. Okay, maybe not wrong but differently than I planned. I mean I just expected everything to be great and all my problems solved just to learn that it doesn't work that way. And it took me a while to realize that.

Now, after a long 11 months, I finally feel like I'm going in the right direction and doing things the way I intended in the first place. I feel like I've got a fresh start. Another year ahead of me, with no regional work and limitations. I've got heaps of working experience and I'm braver than ever. I've got many positive things to be happy and thankful about, for example;

1. I live in a nice house, where I can be happy and myself.
2. I'm working in a nice environment with less hours.
3. I don't have to stress over long hours and two different jobs and no sleep.
4. My training is going better than ever.
5. I'm going on a holiday soon, somewhere I've never been before and I get to see my brother!
6. Planning on moving to another city in January.
7. I've got a trip planned to go visit Finland next summer! ( winter here, so confusing)
8. Summer is here!

I've been thinking about Christmas too.. Christmas doesn't feel like Christmas here, so I'm just going to have another year here without it and It's fine. My sister Tanja just wrote to me yesterday that she hopes that we could all spend the holidays together. It would be amazing. I invited her here, but will see if it's even possible. Tickets must be ridiculously expensive around holidays.

I have a road trip planned with my best friend around Christmas. It's the perfect getaway. We'll see who's head is going to explode first driving across Australia for 4-5 days in a row. Literally across Australia. And I will be driving at least third of the way. Can't wait. It'll be amazing, just another way to explore all the amazing places!

Now, as soon as the rain is going to stop, I'll switch into my bikinis and go for a swim.

Peace& Love yall

Sun, a friend or foe?

Based on a true story;

I'm sure everyone's familiar with the term heat stroke or heat exhaustion. I'm going to explain it anyway. Heat exhaustion is a heat-related illness that can occur after you've been exposed to high temperatures, and it often is accompanied by dehydration. There are two types of heat exhaustion:

• Salt depletion. Signs include nausea and vomiting, muscle cramps, and dizziness.
• Water depletion. Signs include excessive thirst, weakness, headache, and loss of consciousness.

I had all that and much more. So even though I'm from one of the coldest countries in Europe, I'll never learn not to stay in the sun for too long. Like I've said before, I feel like I'm going to run out of sun and I can't waste it. So I thought it was a smart idea to go to the beach for the whole day on Saturday, go out Saturday night and back to the beach on Sunday for the whole day. Nope. 

@Huskinson

@Bondi

@Coogee

@st.Kilda

I love beaches, what can I say?

I felt nauseous after the beach and decided to go by the pool anyway to enjoy the sun a little bit more. Of course without a hat and not too much water either. I've never been a good water drinker. And few hours later I started throwing up. And that lasted for about 6 hours I think. What a wonderful day. 

I should know better, same thing happened in the beginning of the year as well, except that time I was throwing up for almost 2 days in a row and I hadn't been drinking in the day before. That time my master plan was to spent the whole day out in a music festival without a hat and the next day at the beach without swimming or cooling down other ways. Just laying there, on the Australian sun.

I swear this time I'll learn. I'll promise to swim and drink a bottle of water between every hour. I'll wear a hat. I'll never wan't to experience that again.

A hint for non Aussies; Learn from my mistake!

I'm such a Finn.

pinjaelisa

Back to basics

Sorry guys it's been a while. I needed to sort out my living arrangements and other important stuff. Get my training back on track. Hopefully going back to krav maga next week as well.
Got a new job before going to Bali. I will work in an Italian restaurant for now. I really miss my old job in Melbourne tho'.

A lot of people have been asking me why I left my previous job, not like I wanted to. When I was in Melbourne I was doing house sitting and got to live in a nice house, close to the city
for free. My house sitting gig ended just before my trip to Gold Coast and I've only got 4 weeks in between before I go to Bali. I would have to buy flights back to Melbourne
and arrange accommodation for 4 weeks and then get back to Sydney all in 4 weeks. So I decided it's smarter and cheaper to stay in Sydney for those 4 weeks and go straight to Bali
and after that I can go back to Melbourne, maybe they'll even hire me back or go somewhere new. The world is open.

Anyway, when all that is explained, let me tell you guys about rest of my stay on the Gold Coast.

So, I spent a day in Brisbane. Too bad for me, the weather wasn't too good and it was raining the whole day in Brisbane. I didn't have an umbrella so didn't really do much sight seeing.
We drove around the city, went to the DFO and had a good dinner. And that's about it.
I reckon Brisbane was really similar to Sydney and sometimes I actually thought I was in Sydney. Oh well, I'll take a better look next time.
Sunday morning we went to do whale watching. So exciting! I've never seen whales. There's no big fish or mammals in the Baltic sea.
Yeah didn't really see much. I saw 2 whales when they surfaced for few seconds. And I saw heaps of dolphins. Not disappointed but I expected more.

I've had some of the best seafood in Sydney, and I mean really good food. I've also tried heaps of new food in Australia and fallen in love with lobster.
After whale watching we went to a seafood restaurant in the same harbor, the plate looked great but was the worst one I've had so far. Such a disappointment.
Rest of the day we spent by the hotel pool, even though it was cloudy. I could get used to this. Nobody has a pool in Finland, mainly cause usually summer is short and cool.

Monday I decided to try indoor skydiving! My best friend was supposed to do it too, but they didn't have a guy working that day that could've been his safety man.
So yeah, I was mainly scared not excited when I found out I had to do it by myself. It got 2 flights, both for 4 minutes. On my first flight My whole body was shaking and at first
it was hard to breathe. I have to admit it felt unpleasant. Second flight was better but it was really hard to concentrate on what the safety guy was trying to tell me. I also did a high fly
all the way to the roof. I'm terrified of heights but it was great. I think I did alright. But I definitely recommend, it was great and I want to try it again!
We also wen't to the Ripley's museum and I found a guy who's finally tall enough for me.
I'm 180 cm ;)

Baby face vol 10000

And last but not least, one of the best burgers I've had in Australia:

Now I'm just going to enjoy the next 4 weeks in Sydney and then go to Bali to see my big brother! Can't wait. I miss him so much.

My Birthday night(s) in the gold coast

7 Weeks in Melbourne went quicker than I never thought.  It probably has something to do with the fact that all I pretty much did was worked. I really do love Melbourne and I can easily say I prefer it over Sydney. I'll definitely be back one day. But I got to keep moving and my current location is Gold coast, QLD. What a place.

We flew here 18th of October with my best friend. My first thought was that it looks really similar to other cities in Australia I've been in. But in the daylight I saw so much more. It really is a paradise. At least my idea of a paradise.

Palm trees everywhere and lagoons and crystal clear water. So much to do and see.

Thursday, 19th of October was by birthday. I always put massive expectations on my birthday cause I want it to be perfect. The day after made me realize that that’s my way of ruining it. To expect too much. Nothing feels good enough in a way I guess. Don't get me wrong, Thursday was a great day but I reckon Friday was even better cause I wasn't stressing about it.

On Thursday I had pancakes for breakfast, went to get a haircut (summer hair!) and then we went to sea world. It was great and definitely not just for kids! It was such a cool place with all the cute animals and amazing things to do. For example I pat a stingray, sea cucumber and a starfish, took a boat ride above water filled with sharks, rays and turtles and made friends with SpongeBob and his crew.

After lunch I wanted to pamper my self a little bit and since we are staying in a spa hotel I got an hour deep tissue massage. I used to get massages regularly but now it had been over a year since I last got one. It was so worth it. Only thing is I got so tired I couldn’t get myself moving after. Finally we had a birthday mud cake in the hotel room and the day turned out to be perfect. I was stressing out that I NEED to go out and get dressed up cause it's my birthday and I felt like something was missing. But now realizing it was only cause of my expectations.

Friday we were supposed to go snorkeling. I was really excited about it since I've never snorkeled before, but they cancelled it. So we decided to go to the Q1 sky point observation deck right next to our hotel. Didn't think much of the idea but It was amazing. What a view! I reckon you can see the whole GC from there. We ended up having breakfast there and it was the best view I've ever had eating anything.

And finally it was a great weather 26c and sunny so we went to the beach. My absolute favourite place in the world. For now. We spent at least 5 hrs there, swimming and tanning. I've been waiting for this for the last 5 months. Seriously. My dear ausssie friend is really white and I told him to put on 50spf sunscreen but he refused and said he wants to get a good tan.. Yeah, he burned bad. I've got a pretty good skin tone and I rarely burn. I did. I was using this new The Fox Tan product which is supposed to make tanning faster and darker. Only burned in the parts I used it on.

Later we did a 45min workout at the hotel gym and had sick dinner at the hotel restaurant. The place had 4.4 ratings and I'm not surprised.

Last but not least my ''Australian Finns'' group gave me a hint about a candy store nearby that sells actual Finnish lollies. Best shop hands down! They had REAL salt licorice (salmiakki) and all my favorites. To any Finns in Australia, it's the place to go. The shop is called ''all sorts of sweets'' and the address is: Shop 227 Paradise center, Cavill Ave, Surfers Paradise QLD 4217.

No more cravings. You are welcome.

As I'm writing this, we are on our way to Brisbane. Fun! I'll keep you updated.