Helsinki

A couple of weeks ago I ventured to Helsinki to visit one of my closest friends who had just started a Masters program there. I picked a great time to visit. The trees were making it clear autumn was in full swing, but it was still warm enough to spend most of the day walking around the city without freezing our tails off.

After a long overnight bus ride and a ferry from Tallinn, I reached my friends' house where I was greeted by a couple of attention-hungry cats. I then proceeded to nap while I waited for her to come home feeling slightly like goldilocks having just walked into someone's house and choosing a place to rest.

When my friend came home we made our way to the city to check out the many recommendations given to me by Nea - a Helsinki Local I found through Showaround - this cool website anyone can sign up to be a local guide and show around their city. I recommend checking out the site before your next trip, quite cool to meet locals and experience the city through their eyes. Since Nea is also interested in design she had some cool suggestions of interesting design shops and galleries to visit as well as cafes, bars and museums.

We were quite lucky as both museums we visited - Helsinki museum and Helsinki Art Museum (HAM) were free admission. Therefore, I happily spent the money I saved on postcards - sending which has become a travel tradition of mine. If you haven't ever received a postcard from me, it's not that I don't care, I probably just don't know your address so please tell me what it is and I might just send one your way on my next trip ;) .

One recommendation for food that we decided to test out was this sushi burrito chain Soma. I was a bit sceptical at first, but oh man were they good! Pretty much giant sushi so what's not to love :D Full and happy we decided to check out this bar with one of the best names I'd ever heard- "Why join the navy when you can be a pirate". Why indeed :) There also just happened to be live music so double win!

The next morning I woke and up and actually did yoga which I have been doing almost every day for over 3 months now. We had decided to go to the university campus for some cheap student cafeteria food (2.60 compared to 10eur we'd spend in town, Helsinki is frickin' expensive man...). Before going there we visited HAM which had an exhibition of paintings by the artist of Moomin and where I bought another postcard... it was a Moomin one so had to be done... maybe I should decide on a limit for postcards before the next trip though :D

Spent the trip playing "Spot the Moomin"

After checking out the campus and eating some free pizza after a talk given by a visitor about augmented technology and implants we made our way home with a quick stop at the grocery store where we bought ingredients to make Pisco sours - a cocktail M. learned to make in S. America. We managed to make a nice one after the third attempt and I gotta say, they're pretty good, might order one next time it's on the menu. We then proceeded to groom one of the cats... as you do... because his fur was so tangled it had formed dreadlocks catching all sorts of things in it and so desperately needed a makeover. He got annoyed after a while but we all know he loved the attention. After I left he began to demand more cuddles and since we cleaned him up a bit I'm sure people were more willing to give him some :)

We spent the next day walking around the city some more and just happened upon an anti-racism protest in the centre which naturally we joined in on for a bit. It was organised following an incident where a man was beaten up in a train station the past week, Was great to see so many people coming together. After this small detour, we continued to visit more sites including a small cafe with a lovely view of the sea where we snuggled up in blankets and got free refills of tea (score!).

Later that evening we checked out a "Music and food tasting event" one of the cute covered markets they have and waited to hear back from others of any suggestions and invite for going out. We decided on a party and made our way there. The night was pretty fun due to the nonsense we got up to. We also ended up walking halfway home getting in at 7:20am... well our plan to take a day trip the next  (turned out to be the same) day pretty much went out the window.

Instead of the day trip, we decided to check out Helsinki sea pools- basically, a complex including a section of the sea sectioned off as a pool, a couple of heated outdoor pools and a sauna right in the centre of the city. This was perfect for a lazy day and so the obvious choice.

I left Helsinki by plane the next day - had to come back in time for my first lectures the next day. All in all, this was an amazing trip made that way by the great company I spent those few days with and the wonderfulness of the city itself. I do recommend visiting ;)

Italy: Bergamo

Not even two weeks after my Italy trip, I was back once again. Well... sort of. A friend and I wandered around Bergamo for a day before our flight to Romania for a friends wedding. 

Bergamo is a lovely town the old part of which is on a hill you can take cable cars to get to. From up there a nice panorama opens up and there are multiple small attractions to visit. The first thing we did was get some ice-cream. We tried some blueberry sorbet and to our surprise, we had the option to get it dipped in chocolate, which we were very eager to try.

We spent the day walking around, trying som local cuisine (pizza and gnocchi) and since we went to a bakery right before closing, we got some baked goods thrown in for free with our purchase (yes! no food waste if we can help it).

After a long day of exploring, we made our way back to the airport where we had to spend the night to catch our early morning flight the next day (yay for budget travel....).

Italy: Bologna and Ravena

After being rained out of the mountains on our hiking trip to Italy we decided to go back to Milan, re-plan the journey and continue with the adventure despite not being able to wander around the mountains. After a day of much-needed rest, we set off to Bologna- a safe place to go in rainy weather due to the seemingly endless supply of covered walkways giving much-needed shelter.

We kicked off our first hour in Bologna by taking the bus in the wrong direction and being talked at by a lady in Italian for 5 minutes (she didn't give us a chance to tell her we couldn't understand and after the two minute mark it would have been too awkward so we stood there smiling, hoping she wouldn't ask us anything) after which our bus came and since she didn't get on we were in the clear. Having picked up the keys to our accommodation we set off on a quest to find some food and do some sightseeing. 

Our route took us through the university the atmosphere of which was pretty incredible. Political murals and graffiti covered the walls and students were actively advertising their groups and events to passers-by. Our lunch destination was within the university area and so we got a little taste (hihi) of what it was like to be a student there.

 

We continued to walk around the city hitting the historical buildings, churches and parks where we took a bit of a rest from tourist'ing to spin some poi. We ended the day off at a Couchsurfing meeting where we hoped to find a host. Instead had a couple cool conversations with travelers with some interesting stories.

The next morning we set off to Ravena with a mission to visit a Basilica with some special mosaics. A great part of this bit of the journey was time spent on the train. This was a time to reflect and rest from the constant rush from place to place. We did end up running to catch the train back (which after all that ended up being late...), but you can't have everything go smoothly now can you?

Back in Milan we wanted to do something nice for my sister to thank her for hosting us. We decided to cook Chinese food for dinner so spent some time walking around china town buying produce and even popped into a restaurant to try a Chinese take on a pasta dish (not sure I'll ever have such an experience again).

Despite having to completely change our original plans I had an amazing time on this trip. It was wonderful to travel with a dear friend, spend time with my sister and see more of Italy- by far my most visited country recently.

Italy: hiking around Lake Como

Right after giving my big talk at the Login conference I was off to Italy with a friend that came all the way from Hong Kong to visit and travel together. We flew to Milan where we spent a lovely evening hanging out wit my sister and her friends, playing guitar and my ukulele on their beautiful terrace. Even got to share some of my favorite Lithuanian songs.

The next day we got a ride to the mountains where we started what was to be a whole week of hiking. However, having checked the weather forecast which predicted rain for most of the week with thunderstorms at the end to top it off, we weren't so confident in being able to fulfill our initial plans. Nonetheless, we bought enough food to last us 3-4 days and began walking. It took us all of 10 minutes to get lost, confused by the way the trail markings (or lack of). Luckily an Italian family happened to pass us and pointed us in the right direction. 

The hike was incredible, the views breathtaking and so we made sure to take a number of stops to just be in the moment and take it all in. I realized how much I had missed being in the mountains and that I need more of this in my life. More of just getting away from my busy life and taking the time to just be with my thoughts with no distractions.

Going down we took a path nobody else seemed to walk along and we quickly learned why. The slope was quite steep with parts of the path being boulders where you had to hold on to metal chains to get down which were quite a challenge with our big packs. We managed to get down safe and sound in the end despite some slips on the way.

yup, this is what we went down...

Once we got down we needed to find some water as our supplies were low. We rang the bell at this huge house not really expecting anyone to come out and as we were about to leave the gates opened, the residents came out and when we asked for water they happily gave us some :) It was getting quite late at this point, started to rain and we weren't sure where we were heading so we set up camp in a field behind some trees. While cooking dinner I was getting a bit paranoid that someone was gonna tell us to pack up and leave, but luckily that didn't turn out to be the case. 

The next day we woke up to fog and rain. This meant we needed to rethink our plans as we weren't too excited about hiking for a week under these conditions. We decided to go visit the towns by the lake which you could reach easily by ferry, have a more relaxing day and head back to Milan to regroup and plan out the rest of the week.

Spending time by the lake and in the towns was a lot of fun even with some annoying circumstances getting in the way to fully enjoy it. One of us was even able to cross off some things from their bucket list ;))