Exploring Finland

My ''Aussie mom'' Maree, came recently to Finland and she gave me an perfect opportunity to play tourist. See, I've never really traveled in Finland, even though there is quite a lot to see. You wake up to that fact when people ask you about northern lights, Lapland and the differences between different cities and you don't really have an answer. In Australia, I started thinking, where would I take my friends who'll visit. What would I want to see, if I'd never been to Finland before? I wanted to see Finland through someone's eyes, who's never been here.

My wish was granted. Not only did I have one friend visit me, I had two. With the first friend we didn't get to see much more than Helsinki but we did get to go to Poland as well. More about that in my previous post.

It's been great playing a tourist in my own country.

First thing we did with Maree, was a cruise to Stockholm, Sweden. It was our plan B, since we failed to get the visas on time to go to Russia. Nothing wrong with Sweden either, I just have seen it before. But I'm going to tell you guys more about that cruise on my next post that's dedicated only for cruises.

A day after the cruise we left straight to Lapland. We were on a tight schedule really, since she only had 10 days with me, and I wanted to show her as much as possible. We flew to Kittilä, which is all the way up north, near Swedish border. It was only hour and half flight, since Finland isn't that big. At least in Australian point of view. We arrived around midday and went straight to our rental car that was waiting us outside. Since we had the whole day to spend, we headed straight to the reindeer farm.

It was a bit of a drive to the farm and everything was just completely covered in snow. It was mesmerizing. Honestly, I've lived in Finland for over 20 years and I've never seen anything so beautiful. Northern Finland is a whole different world and no wonder a go to place for 80% of the tourists. We were lucky enough to get great weather too. Usually it's pretty dark here during winter but we had 3 sunny days out of 4.

At the farm we had hot chocolates inside by a fireplace and we prepared sausages for ourselves in the traditional Finnish style. Meaning you put the sausage on top of a stick and cook it in the fireplace and then eat it with tomato sauce and mustard. All that got us warmed up for the reindeer sled. We picked the 30- minute one. It was a tight sled but it was very comfortable and nice.. Until the last 10 minutes when your face froze off and you couldn't feel your toes. But really It was worth it. I even got to pat a reindeer at the end! Like the farmer said, he can't tell me if I can or can't, I need to try for myself. I'm pretty sure the reindeer liked my scratches since he was shrugging and wasn't trying to go anywhere. So cute!

Afterwards we went straight to the grocery store and to our cabin. I booked a cabin with everything we needed, engine heating pole for the car, sauna and a drying cabinet to warm up our clothes. We cooked a nice dinner, went to sauna then chased some northern lights at the highest point of Levi. We didn't see anything though. There was too much light. Still I can say it was a perfect first day in Lapland.

Driving itself was an adventure for us. I can't drive here yet, since I haven't changed my licence to Finnish one yet, and Maree had never driven in the snow or on the right side of the road. She did a great job though.

The next day we went to the famous Game of thrones- themed snow village. The whole place was absolutely gorgeous and so much better than I expected. Everything, and I mean everything was ice. All the rooms had themes too, like the house of stark with the head of a wolf and the mother of dragons with 3- baby dragons and Khaleesi. Just beautiful. My toes were freezing solid though. I sat on a ice throne. Felt good. They had an ice restaurant there as well, but we preferred the cafeteria inside in the warmth. We had traditional creamy salmon soup with rye bread. That night we watched a movie, went to the sauna and around 11 PM we left out again to chaise the lights. The tourist information center told us where to go and we were supposed to leave our car at the parking spot and hike to this tiny hut on the top of the mountain but we failed to see where the road was, since it was snowing quite much and we got stuck in the snow. First I tried to dig out the car and push it by myself but it was no use.

We decided to go look for people to help us. First people we found, were an Aussie guy and his Russian girlfriend. We managed to get the car more stuck by trying to reverse out of the snow pile. After an hour or so the gave up and left. Four more people came our way but they didn't seem too keen to help and the just passed us saying it's never gonna work, we stayed behind determined to call the road services and so we did. While we were waiting another group came our way, this time there was a group of German and Dutch guys. They were all super helpful and got us out of the snow in no time. We exchanged numbers and decided to go see the northern lights as a group the next day.

The next morning we decided to go try our luck with the husky farm, unfortunately all the ones we drove to had pre bookings only. So note to you, if your ever going over to Lapland, pre book everything! We booked the husky farm for the next day, that also happened to be our last day.
So instead the farm, we headed to the Sami exhibition. Sami people are the indigenous people of Finland, and the only indigenous people of European union. The live and lived mostly in Sweden, Norway and Finland. The exhibition was both in and out doors. Unfortunately the temperature was close to -30c that day and we just ran through the outdoor exhibition part really quick. I can say I learned a lot. The first people in Finland were some bad ass people. Temperatures can go close to -40c up north and they survived in huts farming reindeer. Crazy. After we went to have some reindeer meat.

Later that night after Sauna, we went to look for some northern lights. We went to
Kätkänranta, left the car safely in the park and hiked up to the hut. The hike was just about 1k long. There was a fireplace both outside and indoors in the hut. We were able to cook food and enjoy some drinks. Most importantly we did see northern lights!! The were a bit faint and some local guys did say they were bad, but we saw them! I think they were the best lights I've seen!

The whole trip had been more than perfect and we were down to our last day. On our way to the husky farm we realised our 12.30 appointment was supposed to be 11.30 appointment.  They couldn't squeeze us in and despite all our efforts and calls we never got in to a husky farm. No huskies for us.We did some sight seeing instead. Ended up being a good day.

Hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I did taking them!

A trip Through Poland

Just before Christmas, I found out my Aussie friend is coming over for few weeks so I decided to book a spontaneous trip to Poland.

The flight was to Gdansk, a beautiful seaside city.

We spent the first night in Gdansk, walking through old town and the city. We also had dinner at a great vegetarian restaurant. Our stay in Gdansk was not long. The next morning we were supposed to catch a bus to Krakow, at 5.35 AM. Well, we went to the wrong bus terminal and missed the bus by 7 minutes. Gotta tell ya folks, it wasn't a great morning. That early bus was also the only fast and direct bus. We booked the next bus at 7 AM but it was 4 hours longer with a stop. So we spent the whole day at the bus. 14 hours altogether. That's how far it Krakow is. On the bright side, we had a stop in Wroclaw, and had amazing burgers for dinner. We also had heaps of time to book everything we wanted to do in Krakow while in the bus. We booked Auschwitz and Birkenau for the next day.

In both cities, we stayed at Airbnb apartments.

We had a guided tour that included a pick up by bus. Our bus departure was around 8 AM from a nearby hotel, it was simple and easy. On the way there we watched a documentary about Auschwitz. It was a very cold and snowy day and I reckon it made the experience even better in a way. I think it was a better way to really understand the suffering of all those people when it was cold and uncomfortable for us as well. It wasn't a happy and pleasant tour but it was necessary. Everyone knows how many people died during that war, but everyone needs to go there and actually understand. It was heartbreaking. Out of respect, I didn't take any photos inside.

''Work sets you free'' Filthy little liars.

I was feeling a bit ill the whole day and soon after we got back my fever rose and I threw up multiple times. I slept the rest of the day and felt OK the next morning.

On the second day in Krakow, we went to the salt mines. The whole tour only lasted 3- hours. It was perfect. I learned a lot about Poland's history and the whole mine was amazing to see. With all the pools, mining equipment, statues and more. We were more than 50 stores underground. Unlike the other day, I took plenty of photos. After the tour we went for a stroll in the city, walked through the old town, the monastery and had some Polish food for dinner. It was great. I also noticed that in Poland there were a lot of vegetarian and vegan restaurants and options. Krakow was beautiful, the architecture, snow and the river.

I was determined to find myself a fur hat, been wanting one for 3 years now. I found a perfect one from a secondhand shop for 15 euro. Cheap!

I also had my laser done, since it's ridiculously expensive to do in Finland. And by expensive I'm talking about hundreds of euros. In Australia it was 39$. However, I got tricked and I'm just reminding everyone to be careful. I went to 3 different places and all of them had really good prices but no more available appointments for such short notice. The price was around 60 euro. I found one place from google, a place that was a bit further, called them and found out they still had 2 appointments available. Asked about the prices for 2 areas all together. They told me it was around 80 euro. I told them I'll call back cause it's a bit expensive. However, everything else was booked out so I called again. I confirmed the areas and the price once more. The next morning was our last day in Krakow. I started the morning by getting my laser done. Costume service was great and everyone's English was really good. When it was time to pay, they asked something around 200 euros. 200!! I said I called twice and was told 80 e. I cannot afford 200 e. They sat me down to ''find out the misunderstanding.'' They came back and showed me the price from the website that was around 120 e. Better, but still ridiculous. We argued for about 15 mins and I just gave up, paid and left.
Only reason I wanted to do it there was the fact that it was supposed to be 60% cheaper. Turned out to be almost the same price as it would be in Finland.

After the unfortunate morning we had a great lunch and circled the shops till our late afternoon bus. We had 2 buses to Gdansk and during the transfer we had time to grab quick dinner from the mall. Bus ride went fairly quick and we got to Gdansk around 4.30 AM. From the city we went directly to the airport.
What a trip!

Tomorrow I'm going to Sweden and Wednesday I'm going to Lapland, for the first time!

A week in Tokyo

On my way back to Finland, I went to Tokyo. I have to admit, I was skeptic on going during autumn. But my research told me it's the best time to go. I was not disappointed.  Tokyo was beautiful. The weather was perfect, around 20 Celsius and sunny. Colors in the city were gorgeous. I was there for 6 days and it was the perfect length for a city vacation. My original plan was to stay for 3 weeks, a week in Tokyo, a week in Hiroshima and last week in Kyoto. My bank account disagreed. Unfortunately, that's been happening a lot lately. Anyway, I got to see one of the biggest cities in the world. I can always come back and see the rest of Japan.

The public transportation system and amount of people was quite overwhelming. I'm usually great with the public transportation systems and I've used them in many countries for quite sometime and never had any issues. In Tokyo, the system is next level. Took me few days to figure it out but by the end of the week everything made sense. It's always a challenge to travel somewhere where people don't really speak english. Every time I would ask people, if it's the right train they would agree and that's how I got lost few times. The info desks however had people with really good English.

First few days me and my friend spent with this lovely American girl we met on the plane. She had done her research and always had great suggestions of what to do. With her, we went to see multiple temples and markets, and just walked around a lot.  I Loved walking around. (till your steps are over 20k or so.) But I reckon walking is the best way to get to know a city.

I wanna say something about the temples. I've seen temples in every Asian country I've ever been to, but their always so different. That's probably the reason why they have a certain appeal to me. I love the tradition they have and do in there. For example, in japan they bow before entering. Another fact about the temples was their locations, in the middle of the city, but still surrounded by woods or bush. And it's not just the temple, it's the surrounding area too, with ponds and smaller buildings. When the sunlight hit's the temple area through the trees it's absolutely beautiful. One of the good temples was close to the Harajuku district and another one was called the Nezu shrine.

I've grown up hearing about these ladies that dress and look like dolls. And their called Harajuku's. So naturally, I was very keen on going to the harajuku district to see all these doll people. I was a little disappointed. Not so much of the place, it was great with lots of shops everywhere with goofy stuff. But barely any Harajuku people. Around the area there was also a street named 'Cat street', and obviously mistaken again I thought all the shops would have crazy cat stuff. It was a great shopping street with all the good brands, but nothing too crazy I was looking for.

We also went to few big botanic gardens/ parks. It was actually amazing. In Japan, people truly love parks. There were people there dancing, joggling, playing with different toys, having a pick nick and taking out their pets. It was beautiful and the weather was really great for all that. One of the parks had a Spanish food festival. It was super popular and the lines for the food were enormous. We managed to get some good sangria and food anyway and ate it with hundredths of other people at the park.

Other cool things along the way were the never ending vending machines, a man made island and crazy 15- story high malls for Anime stuff etc.

Oh yeah, in Japan, there's pork in everything. Seriously it was annoying. I haven't eaten pork for about 6 years, I even hate the smell of it. 5 out of 6 ramen places had menu of 3, all pork options. Pork broth. Pork slices. Few times I would order something from the menu that says ''fried noodles with omelette.'' And when I would get my dish, underneath the omelette there were thick slices of pork. The absolutely best ramen I had was Veggie ramen. It was the best ramen I've ever had.

Next time i'm definitely going to Hiroshima and Kyoto.

#TOKYO