KUN YKSI MATKUSTUSPAINAJAISISTA KÄY TOTEEN

Meidän matkan viimeiseen päivään tuli pieni odottamaton käänne; me nimittäin myöhästyttiin meidän lennolta Madridiin (kai se kerran elämässä pitää kokea). Mites tämmönen on mahdollista?

Jean Jaurèsin asemalta lähtiessä metroa täytyy vaihtaa, jos on matkalla lentokentälle. Me vaihdettiinkin väärään ratikkaan, sillä kyseinen pysäkki on hieman sekava pääteasema, ja kuljettajat neuvoivat meitä väärin. Hätä ei onneksi ollut tämännäköinen, koska linjat yhdistyvät vielä useilla pysäkeillä ja me huomattiin virhe tarpeeksi ajoissa. Siinä sitten hypättiin pois, ja kun tuli lipun leimaamisen aika, mun kaveri sanoi, ettei löydä lompakkoaan. Se oli jäänyt kiireessä edelliseen ratikkaan. Heihei, lompsa.

Kerrottiin kuljettajalle, mitä tapahtui ja hän lupasi soittaa kuljettajille ja kysyä, onko muut nähneet lompakkoa. Hän ehdotti, että jäätäis laiturille kyselemään vastaantulevilta ratikoilta, ja niinhän me tehtiin. Perfecto - kunnes erään ratikan kohdalla erehdyin hyppäämään sisään tulkkaamaan ja matkalaukut jäi laiturille. Jooooder, adiós, maletas.

Kaveri lähti pää kolmantena jalkana juoksemaan matkalaukkujen perään heti kun ratikka pysähtyi. Yllättäen sain tietää, että lompakko on löydetty, mutta kyseinen kuljettaja ei tiennyt missä/kenellä se oli. Kuulemma seuraavana päivänä voisi käydä kysymässä löytötavaratoimistosta. Eihän meillä sellaiseen ollut aikaa - lento lähti jo samana iltana! Juuri "sopivasti" kaikki ratikat pysähtyi jostain kumman syystä ja jouduttiin etsimään korvaava bussi lentokentälle. Se löytyi helposti, mutta vitsit että sitä odotettiin kauan. Onneksi pysäkillä oli muitakin espanjalaisia menossa samalle lennolle.

En edes mene yksityiskohtiin; lentokentän toiminta oli törkeän hidasta ja nihkeää, vaikka nätisti sanottiin että meillä olisi aika kiire. Tässä vaiheessa meitä oli joku kolmisenkymmentä menossa samalle lennolle, ja kun juostiin portille, oli jo liian myöhäistä mennä lennolle. Kello oli kirjaimellisesti 20:42 ja meidän olisi pitänyt olla jonossa viimeistään 20:40. Ymmärrän, ettei turvallisuussyistä voi päästää ihmisiä tietyn ajan jälkeen, mut c'mooon. Jäätiin sit koko porukka yöks lentokentälle ja ostettiin lippu aamulennolle.

Oottekste koskaan myöhästyneet lennolta? Mitä te teitte sillon?

My Weird And Sad Experience with Manchester

I'm excited to tell you guys about my trip to Ireland & England! I thought I'd start with Manchester, where the people seemed to have a somewhat... unique way to be polite, at least judging by my three encounters:

-at Piccadilly train station-

"Oi! Your not allowed to have a bobble hat and use your phone there!" 

Wait, what? Err... haha?

"Take a seat, take a seat!"

-at a fish n chips restaurant-

"Well doesn't that fish look GORGEOUS!"

Yup, I agree. Why are you stating it, though, all the way from the other table.

Isn't it, it's really delicious!

My GORGEOUS dish, which was pretty damn tasty, to be honest.

-early morning in Gay Village-

"Miss, miss, saw you had a nice camera, could you take a photo of us?"

Umm...they're three homeless men. No, just... no. What would you do?

Sorry guys, I'm not gonna take a picture of you. 

"Miss, I insist. You'd get a nice photo of us bums and our tents."

I'm sorry, have a nice day...

My relaxing 5 o'clock cuppa when it was too cold to stay outside. Trying out mango-strawberry tea.

Then let's go over to the sad part of my experience. John Rylands Library was closed between Christmas and New Year, so I didn't get to see that. Shit. They've also stopped doing underground tours for now, so I couldn't explore the tunnels of the city. I did visit the Science Museum, which seemed cool, but I didn't stay there for more than one hour because it was full of screaming kids. It was so cold I practically ran to the hostel around 5 PM, hands all frozen, and stayed in contemplating the meaning of life (actually watching Outnumbered on netflix) Sad, eh?

However, there were lots of things I enjoyed, like strolling down the streets, discovering vintage shops in the alternative Northern Quarter, shopping (which I NEVER usually do while I'm travelling but they have River Island!!) drinks and chats with another solo-traveller and, last but not least, eating. The latter included scrumptious Indian food, the original fish n chips and my childhood favourites like salt&vinegar crisps, monster munches and wispa! Manchester was a lively city full of contrasts in architecture. But like I already said to a fellow traveler; it's probably a nice city to live in but there isn't really much to see for a tourist. 

Harlem, I won't be coming back

Jäi melko epätervetullut olo Harlemin vierailusta. Sehän on pitkään ollut tummaihoisten asuinaluetta, mutta minun on vaikea kuvitella, että vielä 2010-luvulla tietyssä kaupunginosassa vallitsee sellainen ilmapiiri kuin siellä oli. Tuntui että meitä tuijoteltiin hirveästi kaduilla, vaikka me vain käveltiin ja oltiin suuntaamassa Harlemin museoon (joka kylläkin oli harmiksemme kiinni)

I was left with an unwelcome feeling of our visit to Harlem. It has always been the dark-skinned people's neighbourhood, but I find hard to digest that there's still such an atmosphere in the 21st century. It felt as if we were getting weird looks, even though we only walked on the streets and were heading to the Harlem museum (which happened to be close, unfortunately)



Vika niitti oli se, kun joku katukauppias yritti myydä meillä jotain, en muista mitä ja suuttui siitä, kun nätisti sanoimme englanniksi "ei kiitos" Siitähän helvetti irtosi. Hänen sanojensa mukaan me "v***n rasistiset rikkaat valkoiset turistit" ollaan juuri tollasia ja pilataan kaikki. En tiedä, oliko hän oikeasti kypsynyt valkoisiin ihmisiin - jotka ei tietääkseni ole lähiaikoina rotusortoa harjoittanut - vai yrittikö hän vain provosoida. Joka tapauksessa tuli sellainen olo, että nyt äkkiä pois tästä paikasta. Mulle ei oo koskaan tullut ahdistava olo mun ihonvärin takia. Olin ajattelut, että sellaiseen tulisin törmäämään ehkä Afrikassa tai eri puolilla Aasiaa, mutta en Amerikassa, jossa kaikkien pitäisi olla samanvertaisia ja kylpeä vapaudessa.

The last straw was a street vendor who tried to sell us some thingamajig and got cross with us when we politely answered "no thanks". That's when all hell broke loose. According to his words, we "f***ing racist white tourists" are just like that and make all matters worse. I'm not sure whether he had had enough of white tourists - who haven't been doing racial discrimination for quite some time - or was he only trying to provoke. Anyhow, I felt like escaping straight away. I've never felt uneasy because of my skin colour and I thought that maybe some day I would, but in Africa or different parts of Asia. But not in America, the land of freedom and so on.

No mutta, sen jälkeen matka jatkui Columbus-yliopistolle ja Hudson-joen rannalle, jotka olivat molemmat todella kaunista seutua. Sääkin suosi meitä tuona aamuna!

But then we continued to see Columbus university and Hudson river including its vicinity, all of which were beautiful areas. The weather also favoured us that morning!

Joskus täytyy myös jakaa näitä ei-niin-kivoja kokemuksia matkailusta. Ehkäpä ensi kerralla vähän iloisempaa postausta sitten! Ootteko te joskus kokeneet olevanne epätervetulleita johonkin paikkaan?

Sometimes you just gotta share these not-so-nice travel stories as well. Perhaps we'll talk about something happier next time! Have you ever felt unwelcome in some place?

A suitcase blunder & our hotel in NYC

view from our 25th floor hotel room

Hey guys! I got back home safely from New York and had a great time in the Big Apple. Now I'm just dying to tell about all the stuff we did over there! One week was sufficient for visiting the greatest attractions and experiencing the hustle and bustle of New York. There were so much people everywhere that I'm more than happy to be home right now.

Our trip, however, didn't start as smoothly as it could have had. When we went to the baggage reclaim, I realised my suitcase was missing the address tag. It was also locked, and I haven't been locking my baggage for a while. Why? Because the lock of my previous suitcase had to be broken in order to open the whole bag. It wasn't a very pleasant way to start off my holiday!

Our bathroom at Hotel Beacon

Anyway, as I was saying, the suitcase I was holding in my hands wasn't at all mine. I felt an unwanted sting inside of me; I was exhausted of all the travelling and only wanted to get to the hotel with my stuff and snuggle on the sofa. We reported the staff about our missing luggage and I left the airport empty-handed. When we finally got into a taxi, I felt so tired with my bloating stomach and a rocking in my head that I didn't care about my disappeared luggage anymore. If I got my bag back by next evening, I would be more than happy. And after buying a little bit of food, everything would be lovely for a while.

happy people? yes, just somewhat jet lag

Amazingly, when we were about to head towards the super market, someone called my father. It was none other than the guy himself who had accidentally taken my bag. I was so relieved when I heard he could bring my suitcase to our hotel straight away! And much to the guys dismay, it took him days to get his own luggage at the airport. This is why it's so important to have your name and address on your suitcase but on the other hand, also checking the suitcase twice to make sure it's really yours isn't a bad idea either! I think I'll buy one of those colourful tags which say MY BAG to avoid these kinds of mix-ups from now on.

I'll get to the actual sightseeing, food and other stuff in the next posts. Be right back! ❤

Why dishing out your phone number to anyone is not a good idea

There comes a time when you think it's OK to give your telephone number to a stranger you just met a few hours ago. What bad could possibly happen? Then comes a time when you realize what a huge, irreversible mistake you have just made.

Alright, okay, let's not exaggerate this. I'm just itching to tell you what happened to me in Gran Canaria. Fortunately, giving your number to someone who's nice is usually not a problem at all. But as you may know, usually is not a synonym for never.

After spending some time with two local Canarian guys, my friend and I grew tired of their company at some point. I'm not saying they were annoying or boring, we only wanted to do something else and get to know other people as well. That's why I then thought it would be kind to give my number to one of them, so we could meet up another day. I guess this guy still couldn't handle our going very well, because the first thing I noticed the following morning was 50 calls from an unknown number. And I had absolutely no doubt who was behind all these calls.

I answered him in the afternoon while we were having lunch at our patio. He told me he had a special gift for me and wanted to see me again. I thought for real that I could, perhaps, meet him and see what he has in mind. Then I started rethinking the whole situation. He hadn't given me his real number the previous night and kept calling from an unknown one. He had also told me I could call him 'Lado', after having a suspiciously long break when asked for his name. His mystery was definitely not cute, it was annoying and something inside me told this person didn't have a clean slate.

I apologized and told him politely that I wasn't going to come anywhere with him nor did I want to stay in contact.  I suppose that was something you shouldn't have said, since he started nagging and telling me how he loves me. Oh yeah, because those things tend to happen in one day. The calls went on and on and on. Every night he would call me 5-50 times and a few times during the afternoon. I got so full of his behaviour, I had to answer him once and yell at him how horrible a person he was for not leaving me alone.

As you might guess, he still hasn't entirely left me alone. He has actually called me three times and tried to contact me via Whatsapp after we left Gran Canaria in March. Talk about desperate or what? (or maybe bored, who knows) I've just ignored him.

Well, if there was something in it for me, I'll definitely consider to whom I give my number from now on! You can always block someone on facebook, twitter etc. but when someone doesn't call you with their own number, there's nothing you can do about it except change your number. Not very nice, is it!

10 memorable photos from Gran Canaria

 1  This cute cat came sitting on our terrace; the terrace where I loved to have breakfast and little breaks from the sun. The whole resort area was really well-kept as one morning, besides the cat,  there was also a man trimming a palm tree in our garden. Meow.

 2  This is the professional way to dry your jacket abroad. Tuck the sleeve in and insure that it won't fall off five times like mine did. To be used at your own risk! No seriously, I wouldn't recommend this to anybody. I was just really desperate before a dinner.

 3  We went dining in a quiet Chinese restaurant in Playa del Ingles which seemed a bit peculiar, truth be told. When my friend's food appeared, it occurred that we would be cooking it ourselves in the table. I might have been able to understand that with steaks, but this was chicken. Goodness gracious!

 4  Oh no, wait a second. On second thought, I need my sunglasses as it's way too sunny out here and I don't want my eyes to be closed. Go on, take it! No, not yet! #holidayphotoproblems

 5   Yeah, we had a good time reading the menus in Finnish. It's hard to translate the mistakes in English because of the complex grammar, but let's just say every other one is written incorrectly. But it was cute.

 6  The sexy sipping face. Or less sexy. Do I really look like that? This isn't even the only one, I think I have about three of these in my archives!

 7  This was one dried out river in Puerto de Mogan! This bridge itself was beautiful, but this truth lay beneath it.

 8  Absolutely no one at Burger King in Las Palmas! Then we saw a family of three: a mother, a father and a small child probably around 3 years old. And they happened to be.... Finnish! Wow, I just feel sooo much abroad right now. I decided to use Spanish and order an ice cream, which was great, but I couldn't catch what the cashier said. So much for that. Switching to English immediately...

 9  Trying on shoes at Primark. Primark is a shoe and bag paradise. I just love it. But apparently I didn't approve of this moment for photographing. However, I happily left the shop with new sandals, and a few more purchases. Ahem, ahem. I've got to praise the Argan Oil I bought for my hair; if it hadn't been for Primark's cheap little bottles, I wouldn't have ever bought this amazing oil at all. My hair sends love to you, whoever invented the oil!

 10  Last but not least, when taking a "unique" holiday photo like this, make sure your horrid plasters aren't ruining it. The pool looks nice... Oh well. It was the first day at the pool so we were all excited!

Weird situations while travelling #1

Reminiscing one of our nights in Puerto Rico really brings smile on my face. I could say that it makes me laugh hysterically rather than just smile if I really start to think about it.

So what happened then?
After having a great dinner my friend and I wanted to relax and sit down somewhere. So we just strolled until we found a perfect empty bench in the middle of the park, which was simply crying out to be sat on. Well, the two of us didn't get to sit there for very long because an old Canarian man came along. It would've been normal if he hadn't been wearing white clothes from head to toe, carrying around a metal detector and riding a bicycle full of small flags. Nicely put... the whole apparition looked a bit out of this world.

centre of Puerto Rico

So he started telling us about his life by showing us how his metal detector works and some necklaces he had found with the help of it. Our communication was more non-verbal, because no one knew which language to talk. I think the only question he asked clearly in English was "do you smoke marijuana?" Unfortunately he had to deal with a lot of headshakes and no-nos as an answer from us. Suddenly he started raking up his backpack and took up a little bag. I was certain that he had something dangerous inside it, as the whole situation was completely random. Well I was wrong. This guy took out his recorder and started playing it!

Restautant la Bolera in Puerto Rico

I've studied Spanish for about two years and decided that it was the perfect time to practice it a bit - even if this man was a bit weird. I told him I had played the recorder for some years when I was a little girl. You should have seen how he got excited! So he began to tell us in Spanish how he loves to go to the mountains in the morning, play his recorder and sing over there with his six little dogs. This fellow even listed their names - from what I can remember, one of them was called Coco. Tenemos que irnos ahora, lo siento, adios. It was time for us to leave, for we didn't want to spend the whole night with this weird man.

This must be one of my most random memories from travelling. It's these kinds of things that make travelling so unique. Anddd that's why I'll share more of them whenever I can.

What's the most random thing you have experienced during your holiday? 

Las Palmas Gone Wrong

There was a day when we decided to have a day off and go to Las Palmas for some serious shopping. Everything was fine. Sitting in the bus and thinking of all the shops we could go to when we get there.

When we finally got there, we asked for a couple of maps from the info desk. A woman gave us few maps and kindly pointed out where we were at the moment. But when I asked how we could get to the shopping centre Las Arenas the easiest way, the woman looked at me strangely and calmly noted that all the shops were closed because of the carneval. Excuse me?! We couldn't believe it. In other words, we had just traveled for an hour only to hear that the shops were closed in Las Palmas.

I decided to check this piece of information from another desk and we heard the same words: "Yes, all the shops are closed. Come back tomorrow or any other day" It was relieving to hear that we could go shopping later on this week, but at the same time extremely annoying that we had chosen this very day and come up all the way to Las Palmas.

This was the reason for our cancelled shopping day!

So we headed to the nearest McDonald's to sit down and think of a plan b. I ordered a Kitkat McFlurry but it suddenly lost its delicious taste and the ice-cream became something I just shoved into my mouth.

"Playa del Inglés. Let's go there," my stepfather suggested. Well, what could we say. We didn't want to stay in Las Palmas, that was for sure. We didn't even feel like waiting for a bus, so we took a taxi to a "shopping centre" called Yumbo which was in Playa del Inglés.

Can you see the difference between the weather of Las Palmas and Inglés? It's unbelievable. Travel for only 45 minutes from Las Palmas and the cloudy spring weather will turn into a blazing heat. All's well that ends well, it was nice seeing a new place and buying some mini cactus souvenirs for Finland!

I'm doing a frequently asked questions post about EF language courses, because I get asked lots of questions about my trip.
If you have something in your mind, do not hesitate to ask!
I will be doing this post in Finnish because obviously it's the Finns who have been asking me different sorts of things. I will, however, answer in English as well :)

French taxis are crazy

Okay, so maybe getting around in a new place isn't the easiest possible thing. Especially under some circumstances it can get a bit... interesting, to say the least.

It's 10:45 PM. Strolling around the beach with the Finns, I just realise I haven't really seen my room mates or neighbours anywhere. Apparently we all just missed the 10:10 bus, so we have to go home by taxi. This is when I start to feel a bit left out, since the other girls are together and I'm alone sitting at a carousel. Luckily one of my friends calls me and tells me not to move anywhere, they can pick me up from that place.

I saw familiar faces through the window. I feel absolutely relieved. It's great to get into the taxi after all that waiting. Not that I couldn't have waited for longer, but I was starting to feel quite lonely and it's dark. I realise that the taxi is slightly full and count quickly that there are 7 people now sitting in a 5-seat car. No big deal, I guess. The driver is a polite, young guy who just laughs and asks if everything is okay. Of course everything is perfect, we are in France!

Calvin Harris ft. Ellie Goulding - I Need Your Love (Remix) French taxis drive fast. And I mean it. To make matters worse, the roads are short and have roundabouts at the end of each one. Opened windows, music blaring on full volume and neon lights on both sides of the road. Then again I just think about the moment. This is what summer should feel like. I might never go back this  place so I have to enjoy every moment of it. It's lovely how the taxi driver keeps talking yelling to us, asking where we come from etc. I love little small talks in another language, even if you're not so good at it. The local people can be so sincere of your language skills.

I smell trouble coming. Everyone notices straight away some policemen at a roundabout, not far from our home. And no one can miss their long looks since there are three sitting on the front and four at the back in the car.  Just after a few minutes we continue normally until we hear merde and are stopped by the police. Party's over now.

All I understand of the polices' and taxi driver's conversation is that the driver says it's an emergency and he's really sorry. After some time (feeling like eternity) we find out, that the driver has to pay some fines. It think we all feel kind of guilty. Luckily the fines aren't so high, because all us girls are underage. I don't know what that has to do with it. My Swedish friend and I hop out and wait for the taxi to pick us up again. Surrounded by some policemen, standing on the side of the road it all looks like we've done something wrong. Luckily everything ends well.

I guess that's just the way the cookie crumbles. At least in France. There's always something new to learn!