5. London, UK

What would be Easter without egg hunt? One of the biggest and most popular egg hunts happens every year in London. Download app and run around the city trying to find eggs with The Fabergé Big Egg Hunt. In addition to egg hunting London has also other activities that do it one of the best Easter travel destinations. There is fireworks, performances around the city and a lot of events for families.

4. Small villages of Malta

Malta has its own traditional ways of spending Easter that is why it is one of the most interesting Easter travel destinations in Europe. Good Friday is the start of everything when villagers dress-up as biblical characters and praise God. Religious statues, that have been carried out of churches, are important part of this ritual and mood is quite sorrow.

On Sunday locals celebrate risen Christ with festival like events. There is singing, dancing and partying. In the end they carry statues back to churches. However, don’t worry! Even if Easter in Malta seems very religious they also have delicious chocolate eggs for children (and for older chocolate lovers). Even if you are not religious person Malta is definitely THE Easter travel destination everyone should try once in their lives.

3. Any city in Finland

Of course I should mention my lovely home country… In Finland Easter Sunday is like Halloween. May sound funny but that’s the truth. In fact we don’t have that many ‘trick-or-treaters’ on Halloween but on Easter we have even more people doing something similar.

Finnish kids dress-up as different characters (traditionally as witches but nowadays I see more of superheroes and other famous characters) and they decorate branches with colorful feathers and ribbons. Then on Easter Sunday they go from door to door and change their branches to chocolates, Easter eggs and money. This changing process goes usually kids waving their branches while saying:

“Virvon varvon tuoreeks terveeks tulevaks vuodeks. Vitsa sulle palkka mulle.”

After that they get candy. So, if you visit Finland during Easter time you may see (almost) real witches going around the streets. Also don’t forget to taste our traditional Easter dessert Mämmi (yeah, yeah, I know it looks like poop but some of us Finns really like it!)

2. Colmar, France

Colmar is known as one of the best Easter destinations in Europe because it has two huge Easter markets. Citizens also celebrate spring at Easter time so there is colorful decorations and happy people everywhere. Usually Easter in Comar starts with families’ own egg hunts at home but after that everyone gets together around the town to different Easter events. There is everything from traditional exhibitions to ‘Eierpicke’ egg fight and from egg race to colorful markets.

1. Vatican and Rome, Italy

First place in my Easter travel destinations list goes to Vatican and Rome because of pope. There is several events around these cities during Easter that are lead by pope. And who wouldn’t like to pope at least once in their life time? Most of these events are free but also crowded. Maybe the most popular event is however pope’s mass on Palm Sunday in Saint Peter’s Square, Vatican. If you decide to do Easter traveling to Rome that is must thing to do.

Another important and impressive event is on Good Friday. Huge Via Crucis cross burns against the dark sky. Pope is also present in this event giving his blessing but so are big crowds of tourists and believers. Easter celebration end at Monday to beautiful fireworks and partying.

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Happy early Easter for all you travelers reading this! What kind of traditions does your country have for Easter? Or what are your favorite Easter travel destinations? Like always all comments are welcome and I would like to know what you think.

Also this is my first time writing about places where I have never been before. What do you think? Do you want more posts like this that I have written solely doing research? Well, I had fun writing this so whatever you think I will probably do more of these (subject recommendations are always welcome too…)

With love,

Viivi Severina

When I plan new posts from scratch I usually first look trough my photo albums to remember what I haven’t yet shared with you. This morning wasn’t exception. I have quite many photo diaries I have yet to show you but then I realized there is many photos I can’t add to any new photo diary but I think are worth of sharing. And this is how this “My Travel Year 2016” photo compilation was born. I hope you will enjoy these random photos that sum up my travel year 2016!

I got often asked to publish more photos of me, the blogger behind everything written on this site. So, here you go… Me (that lost white hoodie person) getting amazed by Diagon Alley in London on Warner Bros. Studio Tour. Have I ever mentioned how much I love Harry Potter?

Here is my dog doing what she always does: sleeping in place where I’m definitely going to crush her… I have camouflage dog!

I still haven’t published a few London post I meant to. I’m still working on Madame Tussauds photo diary and Harry Potter Warner Bros. Studio Tour review. Hopefully you get to read them some time soon but no promises.

Here is the necessary Finnish summer photo. This year my summer holiday was full of odd travels around my beloved home country. This photo is from Lapland when I travelled there to university entrance exams (plot twist: I didn’t get in that school so I am not living in Lapland right now).

This is another photo from my trip to Lapland: Science Centre Pilke in Rovaniemi. I have this museum card that gives me free entrance to many Finnish museums. Pilke was one of those museums so I decided to visit it. There was literally no one else than me and two employees. I liked the museum but it was more for kids than for people of my age… Well, at least that explains why the two workers were looking me so oddly when I bought ticket from them.

Ducks! This photo is taken from my family’s summer cottage. I spend too much time trying to take perfect photos of these birds while they just chilled on our yard.

This photo was taken by my mum when our dog had to go to surgery earlier this year. No worries, she is okay now. But look how poor little puppy she looks like! Even if she is already older lady.

More memories from my odd summer holiday… Camping in forest with “a few” other people is something I will never say no to!

2016 was year of cool museums for me. I went to see many different modern art exhibitions around Europe: London, Finland and Sweden. I still don’t get how some people hate museums… Look at he photo above, who wouldn’t think that art is kind of cool?!

I know that first photo of me wasn’t “real” photo so here is me standing like tourist I am next to Big Ben. I don’t understand why there is never good photos of me travelling… Maybe I’m too busy of experiencing everything to really pose for photos!

I’m happy I had time to go and enjoy sunrise and sunset couple of times this year. Even if that time I took this photo I realized the sun was rising from the wrong way so I could see it properly. But at least I was able to enjoy the beach and sea.

You may know that I started in new school this year. One thing that I have found kind of funny (but cool) are these inspiring quotes around the school’s toilet. But you know even if I find them funny it doesn’t mean they are not giving out good message. So today I want to give you one life advice (I learned in my school’s toilet…)

“Be so happy that when others look at you they become happy too!”

I hope you are having amazing start for this new year!
With love,

Viivi Severina

How are you? I hope you have had amazing adventures lately because I have only been exploring this new city I’m now living in. And I’m sorry if nothing in this post makes sense because I have currently fever and flu.

Today I’m going to share few photos from my new home town. So like usually there is photos and captions for them. In addition to those I will be talking about something else between the photos. (My blogs future… Almost serious stuff…) Now let’s begin!

I have been super busy lately and not only because of my new life as full time student. If you know the site Fiverr I just recently started to earn some extra money there. (Takes unexpectedly a lot of time!)  Like you may have realized there hasn’t been many post to this blog and I have been quite stressed to come up with some easy to write ideas.

Before I promised to publish new bucket list destination every Wanderlust Wednesday but now I have to eat my words and just promise to publish something interesting every Wanderlust Friday. (That doesn’t rhyme like with Wednesday… Maybe Fearless Travel Friday?)

So now you can expect new post every Friday. Next week I am going to finally publish that long waited Tallinn travel diary that has been waiting in my drafts folder for too long. I’m also planning a lot of weekend trips in the future so wait patiently for those travel diaries.

Another thing I wanted to talk about today is my YouTube channel. No, I don’t have one yet but if you have been following me long enough you may know that at one point I promised to start making videos when I get 1 000 readers.

Honestly I though it would take at least year to get so many readers but somehow it has only taken a few months. Thank you everyone who likes to read my blog! And especially the people commenting! It always makes my day when someone drops comment for my text.

Yeah, but now back to the YouTube subject. Is there any videos you would like to see? I have many ideas myself but I would love to get tips what you would like to watch me doing. Also I will probably make two channels.

One channel for travel videos I can then share here with my blog posts. And another one for random videos about literally anything. I will inform you more here in my blog when I get to the point where I have enough time to really make the channels. (Maybe next weekend?)

I think this was everything I had to say today. Thanks for reading and I hope you liked the photos!

And by the way you can also follow me in Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest. I try to be active there but I’m a lot better blogger than I am with social media.

With love,

Viivi Severina

Basically the idea of this cruise is to spend one night in the ship, be seven hours in Stockholm and then spend second night on the cruise on your way back. Very popular thing in Finland and always as fun to go. I hope you enjoy my travel stories!

For those not having the patience to read check out my photo diary from this trip.

Day 1: Family Gambling Time!

The plan was leave at one pm so of course I hadn’t packed my things the night before. Bad idea? Probably. At least when I realized afterwards that I had taken three bras (for two nights trip) but no jacket or hoodie to go with my t-shirts. Don’t be like me and always pack your bags with time.

So after some panicking around the home my mom, little brother and sister were ready to leave. Don’t however think that getting to the cruise would be that easy! First my grandpa drove us 20 minutes to the train station from where we took the two hours journey to Helsinki. From Helsinki railway station we got tram to the harbor. Over four hours from home to the ship but totally worth it.

The funny thing in these cruises is the amount of Asian people growing every year. I mean when I was younger there was only Swedes and Finns but nowadays almost half of the people are Asian. But good for them if they have discovered the beauty of Baltic Sea. Until now it has been our well kept secret.

To return back to my long story after boarding the ship it was time to find our cabins. My mom went to luxury when she bought our trip and we slept in two different cabins. Let me say no one would have survived if we had been in four person room. I love my family but spending two nights with them in small room would have made me crazy…

So if you are now wondering what the heck would we do on the cruise here is some of the activities…

• Drinking. Embarrassing to admit but a whole lot of Finns go to the cruises (and lets not even mention the ones never leaving the ship in Sweden because of hangover…) I don’t drink but my mom like any great parent did buy me a breezer that my sister ended up drinking.

• Eating. We didn’t drink a lot but ate behalf of that. There is lunch and breakfast buffets in the ship. At the first day we went to the lunch buffet and I was ready to die for the full stomach afterwards. Sushi, ice cream, cakes, fries and just so much food I don’t even remember them all.
• Gambling. The main activity we had on our first night was playing games to win money. Yep, gambling with family. The first night didn’t look that good in the playing for me and I went 5 euros to the minus (thanks mom for the money). However the idea isn’t get rich but rather have fun.
• Tax free shopping. Perfumes, make-up, candies and alcohol.

Our mission at first evening was to buy Oreo Milka chocolate. Lats time we were on cruise it was my mom’s bright idea to buy it at the second night. That time the chocolate was all gone and we didn’t get it. This is something you can’t buy from Finland and its taste is from heaven.

Day 2: Museums, shopping and dead legs…

Between Finland and Sweden we have one hour time difference. So when my sisters clock wake us up and we started to wonder why my alarm didn’t went off we soon realized that we had woken up hour too early. Well I always receive the extra sleep with joy.

Like I mentioned about the first day one of the most important part of cruise is eating. Breakfast isn’t exception. The tables are full of food for you to take and sometimes even too much options. (PS. Pancakes look good but after seeing the small children taking them by hand I decided to stay in the adult section.)

So we ate and then was the time everyone has waited… We arrived to Stockholm and our seven hours long adventure began. That is quite short time to experience city so we had one destination in our minds. Mordena Museet. (For those who don’t understand Swedish or can’t reason the meaning: Modern art museum.) It was short bus trip and walking away from the bay so definitely recommend for everyone.

In the museum we first went to see Yayoi Kusama exhibition. Totally loved it. Colorful, photogenic and full of feminist/equality references. Those huge red balloons were just a start. After that came infinity rooms, bright colors and unusual pieces of art. Infinity rooms were my favorites (mirrors on walls, ceiling and floor. Makes it look like the room continues to the infinity.)

Funny story about problems taking the yellow photo and my shy personality. So we walked with my brother and sister to this small yellow room full of huge dots. In the middle of room there was a big box with small peeking hole in it. My sister looked in. My brother looked in. They were amazed. As good big sister I waited until they were ready, walked towards the hole and then group of small people were all around the box.

I lose my turn to group of kindergartens laughing and looking trough the hole. Great. I just left the room quietly while the kindergarten teacher ignored me and tried to make the kids calm down. Later I came back  to see what was inside the box and took that photo in awe.

After leaving the museum and walking towards the shopping areas we get a lot of complaining from my brother. Despite that we continued following my sister who is the fashionista of us. She had decided the shops we visited including Victoria’s Secret and Urban Outfitters. by first look Urban Outfitters looked like over priced teen shop but I fell in love. Guess what I bought! Lonely Planet’s Ultimately Travel List book.  It has 500 destinations long bucketlist of the most amazing travel destinations in world.

After the shopping it was time to return to the ship. At this point my feet were hurting so much I was barely able to walk. I am still a little bit sick so walking so much wasn’t good idea. Fortunately my family (or at least my mom) was patient and walked slowly with me.

So we were back to our ship, half dead and half anticipating the coming evening. How did we start our return trip? Of course eating! If on the first night we had amazing buffet dinner now we had even more spectacular a la carte dinner in this Italian restaurant on board.

I don’t know what they use in that sauce but it was heaven. Usually the not so generous dishes get critic from me but this time it was blessing. I had enough space for the dessert. White chocolate cheese cake with berries. Once again HEAVEN.

So the eating went well and after some shopping the gaming machines called for us. If last night I lost today we had good forces on our side. I left the cruise with 28 euros richer.

One boy looked with jealously when I played with my sister. We had decided that from this game we would share the money with family. The boy told us he had lost 30 euros after we won 20. It was only 5 euros for everyone but even small money is money.

Now I am going to add one more thing to the list of things to do in cruise:

• Enjoy the show. There is stage and dance floor next to the gambling are. Changing performances from Moomins disco to dance performances and drag shows are  presented here. Check out before your cruise who will perform when it’s your trips time.

The last thing we did this night was see the dance performance. To get places to sit we had to go there early. That meant looking intoxicated Finns jamming on dance floor and Asian tourists laughing for them. There was band playing and they were semi good.

Changing people danced to the music. No club dancing but rather tango etc. because whatever the music is people from Finland can do that. The show ended to the singer announcing we had birthday girl in the crowd and we should all sing for her. The older lady looked pissed of for her husband arranging this.

Once again the Japanese guys in front of us had fun laughing for the scene and shyly singing Finns. After that started the real dance show. Eurovision themed powerful and fun performance started of course with Lordi. If you don’t know what Lordi is, they are the only band that has made Finland to win Eurovision song contest.

After that it was time to do some backing and end our last night on the cruise.

Day 3: The last morning and crying sky

Another great breakfast and trip towards home. Once again I tried to walk towards the pancakes but then one pair of messy hands was trying to find the best pancake and I decided to just drink tea. Why I always end up drinking too many cups of tea when I travel?

Leaving the ship is always crazy. Two nights is enough time to put all your things around the cabin, lost pair of socks to small room and panic around the ship to get out. After that fiasco and trying to not crash with the other people running away from the ship we survived to the train station.

Everything was still seeming sunny at this point but it quickly changed the closer we got our home town. Fortunately we didn’t get wet (a lot) but the weather has totally changed when compared to the perfect two days we had. Even the sky cried for our holiday’s end. (Or maybe not?)

So this was my travel diary. I hope you enjoyed it. And for those who have read my blog with sharp eyes and are interested if I did get in the university… No, I didn’t. Or I still have change if someone decides to not take their studying place. This means I will probably leave to explore the world at any moment (don’t tell my mom. She doesn’t know yet.)

Safe travel for everyone! With love,

Neidotta

Even if the stereotype is kind of true Finnish music is a lot more. Not everyone likes metal, rock or even music at all. Currently rap has taken over Finland and a sad music is always fitting to listen in our dark country. We have many kind of music here and today I am going to introduce some genres for you with sample songs!

Let’s sing melancholichally and cry together girls

This used to be one of Finland’s biggest music genres but rap has taken over. Don’t get me wrong we still have many beautiful sad songs singed by desperate women but now we have at least as many rapping strong females.

The example is older song from well-known Finnish artist Jenni Vartiainen. The song literally tells about her ex putting their sex tapes to the internet. Sometimes Finnish hit songs have quite special lyrics but it doesn’t mean it can’t be a sad and melancholic. Vartiainen is perfect example for this music genre.

The strong independent girls

Don’t let the tender female voices lead you on because in Finland we have some power ladies. And I say some I mean a whole lot of amazing powerful singers/rappers. The video I recommend you to watch is from Sini Sabotage and presents perfectly the powerful women of Finland.

Just as extra mention this is the song I listen when feeling home sick. When I am trying to sleep on the other side of the world this definitely makes me feel better. This is from far the songs you would except from Finland put this was a huge when it was released. Rhythmic and strong.

Rapping about money, girls and odd hairstyles (???)

Rap has always been on Finland but recently rap artists are grown one of our biggest celebrities. When I was young one of the popular artists was rapper Pikku G (nowadays disappeared, probably somewhere not so luxurious…) and teen were totally in love with him. There is list of current rappers: JVG, Nikke Ankara, Prinssi Jusuf and Elastinen.

The one I am going to put as example is Cheek. He is the most popular rapper (and maybe person) in Finland. Our first artist to have Olympia stadium concert and loved by everyone. This video (even if Cheek’s) has other important and famous Finnish artists.

The old Idols stars

Our music scene is quite small so same artistes come and go. We had idols contests in years 2003-2013 and many singers have gotten known by it. The music video is from Antti Tuisku, who came to third in our first ever Idols, was forgotten for a long time. Last year he made huge comeback with different style and has charmed out whole gray land with the happy go go songs.

The “I don’t even know what our children listen” genre

This first band above is called Hevisaurus (means something like heavy metal dinosaur) and has been quite popular for sometime. Yes our children listen heavy too. Do you have problems with it?

The second children’s song is from Titinalle. This bear has been known for forever. I can sing sll the older songs (I know because I just singed along while trying to find the video to show you). The video looks old because it is old (like it was once VHS old…) This used to be my favorite song so don’t even think of dissing it! (Who can guess about what this song is?)

The third children’s artists I want to mention are called Ella and Aleksi (in Finnish Ella ja Aleksi). This duo has song called Kakkaa Lumella (meaning poo on the snow) and the song tells just about the thing its name is about…Ella and Aleksi is older music and is something I listened when I was child.

.    .    .

There would be a lot more music genres to explain and introduce but I’m fearing all these videos will slow my blog down. Tell me if you want to get more Finnish music recommendations! If someone wants I will come up way of linking the videos without slowing my blog. (Google please help me…)

I hope you learned something new today about Finnish music and maybe even enjoyed some of the songs (???). I’m sorry you can’t understand the lyrics but to tell you the truth many of our songs have the most absurd lyrics.

For those who have followed me after my last Surviving Finland post. Firstly thank you for reading my blog! I would have never guessed so many people decide to read what I have to say and where I am traveling. Secondly this post is part of my series telling about my home country Finland. Don’t take anything too seriously!

More Surviving Finland posts you can find from HERE.

With pride for her home,

Viivi Severina

Twelve months of cold weather in year makes Finns experts at surviving extreme weather conditions. For foreigner coming to here in the cold months (read when ever you decide to come…) may be challenging. The next advice will prepare anyone to come and travel around Finland even if the temperature would turn out to be nightmare.

(In this post when we talk about cold it means under zero Celsius. The “cold” that is over zero Celsius is subject on its own.)

Check the Temperature

I can not emphasize this part enough. Before coming to Finland check the temperature and what kind of weather it usually is at that time of year! If you don’t, there will be trouble coming to your way. Taking right clothes is important and knowing how much snow you had to encounter when going outside.

What to do when going out to cold?

1. Don’t go outside if not necessary. Only exemptions are skiing, skating and sled hill.
2. Prepare yourself mentally. Whatever you do it’s going to be freezing.
3. Check the temperature. Knowing it will not help you but at least you can complain about the weather like locals.
4. It’s time to dress the under layers. Some long pats or tights, socks and long sleeved shirt. Even better if you have special wear for cold weather. It’s made of material that keeps the warm in.
5. Then put on more clothes. Another shirt, more socks and as much clothes as the weather requires.
6. Wool socks. Don’t forget this important accessory.
7. Then the last clothes you will need. Outdoor clothes. Some warm water proof winter pants, jacket and boots. Your boots should have spikes on bottom to survive the ice on road.
8. Then scarf, hat, gloves and mittens. If you have done them by yourself, don’t forget to mention it to everyone you see. Knitting is like Finnish national pride. We even learn it in school. (And still only a few can do it…)
9. It’s time to leave. If you are using car don’t forget to leave at least half hour before normally. Your car is going to be buried under snow. If using public transport, leave at least half hour after your bus is meant to come. The drivers never learn and will be late because of the snow and slippery roads.

Ways to survive while outside

If you are feeling brave and have decided to threaten the mother nature by going out, here is some tips to keeping warm. Follow the points above before leaving outside and you have at least small possibility to live through your Finnish experience.

Other than dressing warmly there is six major ways to keep warm:

1. Share body heat. Finns have a big personal base but when it’s about being warm we can get close to people we already know. Hug your friends and share some heat. Don’t however surprise unaware Finns because they may not appreciate you coming on them.
2. Rub your hands together. This is one of the best ways of warming your frozen hands. Friction makes heat.
3. Move your toes and fingers. I don’t know if there is any scientific evidence for this but moving your toes up and down should keep you warm.
4. Blow hot air to your fingers.
5. Don’t stay still! Moving in cold weather is important.
6. Drink something hot. Go to have cup of tea, coffee or hot chocolate.

The first aid after returning inside

Finns have many ways to get warm after coming back to home (no I don’t mean intimacy even if that may work…) Next we have list of the best ways to melt the ice freezing you from inside.

• Water: Widely known secret to save your hands after cold is put them under hot water.
• Sauna: I already did write about surviving sauna HERE. But this hot room plays important part of surviving Finland and the icy temperatures. After you have froze yourself to the dead going to sauna will melt you.
• Hot Chocolate: (or coffee, tea) Your motto should be “Warm yourself inside to get warm outside” (I know I’m not good at making mottoes…) But the idea is more important than motto! When you drink something hot, it will warm you starting from inside and spreading to outside.

Finns and Cold

You shouldn’t ask Finn if she/he is cold because there is big probability after that she/he has to play brave and pretend it’s not freezing at all. This also occurs between native Finns. It’s not unusual to see someone walking in t-shirt when temperatures are closing zero Celsius. (Usually those crazy people are teen boys showing off…)

Finns love complaining about the cold but get exited every year when it starts snowing. So best advice how to talk for Finns about cold is complain a lot (but never claim that other countries have more cold problems than Finland), don’t play you know anything about cold weather -because you don’t- and never insult our snow!

When to visit Finland? (AKA when it is not cold?)

Our summer is in June, July or August (or like this year right now in May). You can’t predict the cold and usually the Mother Nature can be quite evil. Last two summers have been like hell or well better said opposite of the hell, sweater weather. No using tops and shorts for Finns…

Basically this question doesn’t have answer. Couple of weeks ago it was snowing and cold but after one week it turned out to be first summer heat (over 20 Celsius). This is just one example of the hard ships we have with the changing conditions. Should or should I not buy new summer clothes for this year? This is the hard question we have to try predict every year…

So come Finland when ever you want! We have always cold and if you are lucky you may even see snow. (Well luck hasn’t anything to do with that… We have more snow than warm months.) Just remember to take warm clothes with you and -I will not promise but- I hope you will be okay.

There was everything I can teach you about the cold and just as reminder: don’t take too seriously anything I say (expect the cold! It’s very real concern here…). Don’t forget to comment below about what subject I should do my next Surviving Finland post. And thanks for Joyce Belfort because she gave me the idea for today’s topic.

Read more Surviving Finland posts from here.

See you next time and welcome to Finland!

Viivi Severina

Due to my sickness I have spent too much time daydreaming and especially planning my future adventures. Today I would like to share my favorite ones with you… Enjoy!

Working on Cruise Ship

I know this is not glamorous job. It’s hard work and many people are complaining about the pay, working conditions and hours. My aim wouldn’t be to fund my future travels but rather have experience beyond compare.

I want to wake up every morning in different place and spend hours after hours looking to the endless sea. Living without internet and phone. Getting to know interesting people around the world, hear their stories and share some of mine.

Only negative side is how I can get shy about speaking in English so I probably would only be able to work as cleaner. However I liked to clean in hostel so I don’t think the job is a lot different in cruise ship…

Seoul, South Korea

First time I heard about South Korea was ten years ago when I had my first encounter with kpop (Korean pop music). It took quite many years before I got interested about the land and not just their music. After visiting Japan last year and hearing there too many times how I should go to Korea I have been dreaming about visiting there soon.

I just happen to love Korean food so this trip may end in bad way (aka me not fitting in the airplane…) but I am ready to risk it. Of course after spending some time there I may stay forever like almost happened with Japan so fitting in airplane will not be my biggest problem.

Ideally I would like to visit Seoul, Busan and Jeju. Seoul is the capital city forming from many smaller cities. Busan is the second largest city and known for its beaches, nature and harbor. Jeju island is full of tourism and there is wide variety thing to do (for me I want to see the nature and go hiking!)

Working Holiday Australia

Work and holiday together. I think it’s perfect way for me to spend one year! Australia has been on my bucket list since forever. In school we got to know its amazing nature and animals. From TV-series (Dance Academy and some other teen series) I fell in love with the settings, cities and culture.

It’s very expensive to go in Australia and I’m scared of the getting job part but it would be adventure. I’m craving for the excitement and danger right now! I need challenges to live peacefully and this would be right one for me.

It takes a lot of work and planning but I may go next year. Or if not then definitely sometime in future.

Hiking E10

European long distance hiking paths (shortened as E-paths) have interested me for long time. How cool would it be to hike through Europe? I decided E10 trail as the one I would do first because it goes thru whole Finland (my home country). Its lengths is about  2,880 km so this would be a long task to do.

The path starts near Finland’s and European Union’s northernmost place. Then it goes through Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Italy, France and Spain. It would be difficult adventure because parts of the trail (mostly in Finland) aren’t officially known. For example in Finland some info is only found in old literature so I should do detective work before the trip.

I have always loved nature and solitude so this one is on the top of my bucket list.

Family Holiday to Paradise

I don’t have specific destination for this one. Somewhere warm with all-inclusive luxury hotel. Adventure trips for me and my sister, being on poolside for my brother and amazing food for all of us to enjoy together.

We had one this kind of trip to Egypt when I was younger. Everyone had fun time and we experienced many new things like seeing dolphins and eating too much free ice cream. I wouldn’t mind doing that again.

I’m still living with my family but moving away soon. This would be perfect thing to do before that.

Maybe I will share more of my dreams some time (trust me I have millions of them!). So what are your dream travel destinations? Or do you have some good tips for me? I would be happy to hear your opinions.

So see you next time!

Viivi Severina

So What Is Sauna?

Small warm room where people torture themselves in the heat. Usually over 100 Celsius (about 212 F for my USA followers). People sit on wood stairs that fill the whole small room and throw water to heated metal box full of rocks. The water transforms to steam.

Anatomy of Sauna

Like I already said there is wood stairs for sitting (called laude in Finnish). When you are first timer in sauna I recommend sitting on the lowest stair where it is not so hot.

The most important part of sauna is the heater (called kiuas in Finnish). It’s usually made of metal and has rocks in it. Kiuas either works with electricity or by burning wood.

Then there is metal bucket full of water and scoop in it. (Scoop is called löylykauha and bucket kiulu.) You use these to throw the water to the kiuas and that will cause steam (called löyly).

Pefletti is sheet of paper, fabric or other material and you sit on it in sauna.

How to use Sauna?

1. You probably get asked to come someone’s sauna or you will visit public sauna so you don’t need to wonder how to start it. Let’s just skip this part.
2. Take towel, swimming suit, pefletti, clean clothes and soap/shampoo with you. If you are visiting someone’s sauna they probably have pefletti and soap/shampoo for you (sometimes even towel, you should ask what to take with you). In public sauna they may have pefletti for you but if they don’t you can use your towel.
3. When arriving at sauna first thing to do is get naked. Usually it’s men’s and women’s saunas in different time or place but sometimes it will be mixed sauna. If you feel uncomfortable feel free to use swimsuit.
4. After getting naked you can use the shower. Some people don’t shower before sauna and some do so feel free to decide.
5. Go inside of the sauna. Sit where ever you want but be sure to not be in anyone’s way. (Finns are shy and may not be able to ask you move when they want to leave.) If the sauna is full of Finns I recommend sitting on the bottom seat. It’s going to get hot.
6. Someone will throw water to the kiuas(heater). If you are alone, throw water from the bucket to the metal box full of rocks. There will be steam and it’s going to be hot. You can leave anytime you want. Don’t feel embarrassed.
7. At winter time you can go out and swim in frozen lake or play in the snow (after that come back to sauna to get warm). At summer you can beat yourself gently with branches or swim in lake (the water is still cold so run quickly back to sauna).
8. After exiting sauna go to shower, dress up and feel freshened.

How to survive Sauna with Finns?

1. If you feel uncomfortable, just say it out loud. Sometimes Finns don’t remember everyone haven’t got used to being in sauna.
2. Don’t be scared of being naked. It’s traditional thing and everyone does it. However it’s okay to use swimming suit or towel if you feel shy (expect in some swimming halls’ saunas swimsuits are banned.)
3. If you want to make Finn open up for you, sauna is good place to make friends.
4. Do Finns have sex in the sauna? Well I can’t answer that… It’s national secret.
5. Don’t forget to use pefletti. (It’s sheet of paper, fabric or other material and you sit on it.) Never sit on the sauna’s food stairs without pefletti.
6. If you don’t know what to talk about, speaking about weather is good bet. Usually saunas’ have window so you can even check if it’s snowing or raining.
7. My last advice is what happens in sauna also stays in sauna

Sauna Traditions

When visiting Finnish sauna at summer time you may get shocked. When Finn starts to beat you up with birch boughs (usually called vihta or vasta) he/she isn’t angry at you neither does he/she want to murder you or hurt you. It’s traditions that we do in sauna. Gently beat yourself or the others with it. However almost every time Finns will explain this to you and not try to scare you away beating you up out of nowhere.

Winter isn’t any calmer time for Finns being at sauna. It’s totally normal to go out and roll in snow or swim in hole made to frozen lake (the hole in lake is called avanto). Don’t however expect all Finns to swim in frozen lakes. There is many people (like me) who have never tried it. You however can find public sauna with avanto almost anywhere in Finland.

Mixed Sauna (aka let’s be naked together)

Every time I end up talking with someone about Finnish culture and sauna they get shocked when I tell them that yes I have been in sauna with twenty people all naked. I get afraid that they will faint that I continue quietly that there were men and women.

For someone abroad it may be hard to distinguish when it’s appropriate for men and women go to sauna together. It’s even hard for me to explain that. You should just ask from someone if you should be naked or dressed they will not judge you (probably).

Mixed saunas may be naked or not naked happenings. Usually young adults, university students, friends, families etc. may go to sauna naked. Even then there may be some Finns in swimsuits. My advice is go with the flow and spy what the locals are doing.

You shouldn’t tress too much. Sauna is meant to be relaxing place and whatever you do Finns will probably forgive you. So enjoy and welcome to Finland!

This is my new blog post series of my home country Finland and how to survive visiting here. Feel free to ask anything and tell me about what I should write my Surviving Finland posts. Follow me for more info of Finland and my travel stories! (And don’t take too seriously anything I write.)

Next time the subject is surviving cold weather and I have a lot of things to tell you about that. You can find more Surviving Finland (guide by Finn) HERE

With love and Finnish spirit,

Viivi Severina

PS. Fun fact, the image of sauna is from small flat. We have saunas everywhere (even in student dormitories).

We Finns may seem shy, lonely and cold but believe me we are able to be the craziest people on earth. And that’s why I thought it would be useful to write guide for those being scared to death of visiting Finland. (Or for those who are coming here without knowing the terrifying truth…)

Surviving Finland will be about places to visit, traditions, nature, the Finns, sauna and answering your questions. So if you want to know something about Finland or know what this one particular Finn thinks, don’t be afraid to ask anytime anything!

Oh and I almost forget to mention that you shouldn’t take anything I write too seriously. We Finns may seem scary and gloomy natured but what ever you do we will probably forgive you. And when visiting Finland don’t be scared to ask help!

Go and check out all my future Surviving Finland posts HERE