The world of Vappu
In my country, the 30th of April is not a particularly special day anymore since Queen’s day changed into King’s day and changed dates. In Finland, they go all out. Vappu, or Walpurgis night, is a big celebration in the streets and parks where people dress up and party. Students…
Love from the Finnish
In the south of the Netherlands we celebrate carnaval at the start of the traditional fast before Easter. In Finland they’ve got their own way of celebrating: Laskiainen. The day I celebrated Laskiainen coincided with valentine’s day or ystäväpäivä. The university I went to had a cool program for exchange…
Travel Theme: Refreshing
If it’s really too hot to dance, make it work! Instead of sweating in one of Budapest’s ruin clubs, I decided to try a Sparty, or a party in the famous Szechenyi bath. As four girls who had no clue what to expect and were somewhat embarrassed to dance in our…
Like I’m buying a ticket to the moon
Getting train tickets is always a bit of an adventure if you need more than a few. In Italy you easily wait two hours. In Poland you meet a lady who stares at you for a couple of minutes before she answers your request. In Hungary, train tickets are still…
Deep underneath Poland
Every time I come to Krakow I tell my guests about the option to visit the Wieliczka salt mine, just outside of the city. Although no longer working, all the salt they get is from the water that they pump out, they started mining salt here in the 12th century.…
The heat is on!
Every now and then you get surprises on your trip. On Friday I took a train from Vienna to Budapest with 10 passengers in my group. When the train departs I notice there are 2 more groups from the same company! For weeks I’ve not seen any groups and suddenly…
These shoes are made of iron
For my new job I’ve been reading a lot about the second world war and the holocaust. It’s a grim subject, but really interesting. There are so many countries and so many people involved. So much was happening all at the same time. I think I’ve never been interested in…
Travel theme: golden
You know that little cute rooster on top of churches? It was always a cool little thing, until I stared it straight in its eyes. In an old church in Riga I found an old rooster, now retired and stored in a room full of curiosities. That tiny little thing…
Socially awkward: Russian nights
When in St. Petersburg, do as the Russians do. I was there with a big group of international Erasmus students and we opted for a traditional Russian night in a restaurant. There were exchange students that came from all over Finland and not just the uni where I was staying at…
Day trip to Norway
One day on our big Lapland road trip, we planned to go to Norway. The idealists, or fools, among us thought we should go to the North Cape. After two days of being late all the time they still hadn’t learnt this was just not realistic. We opted for a…