Tag: lifestyle

Travel Rant: Dear Mom & Dad…

Published on by LostViivi27 Comments

Warning! Very personal rant ahead…

 

Dear mom & dad,

(and all other family members, friends and curious strangers),

you can’t stop me so please let me do my own thing. Sorry.

I didn’t know how to tell this for you face to face so here I am writing my blog. You know me and that’s why this may not be so huge surprise. I have booked a trip. Or well several trips to be exact. Adventures around the world. I have done some planning and that’s never a good thing from your point of view.

This coming autumn I will do a few week trips around Europe. I will go to Iceland because it has been my dream to visit that cold country as long as I can remember. I will finally visit America for the first time in my life. And if I get a good last minute deal to anywhere, I will take it.

But don’t worry. My autumn won’t be just all fun and games. Or well it kind of will be but in the good way. You already know that I will start studying creative writing in remote open university. During this autumn I’m planning to write a lot. And when I say that I mean A LOT. The last week I have been planning my autumn’s time management. I want to give even more time for blogging. Because I need money to do all this I will take even more jobs from internet. I have everything planned out.

I know you hope that I would just “get a job” or “go to real school” but it’s not that simple.

Why do you think I have been changing my plans so much lately? Veterinary, translation, literature, business, media studies. The universities I have been applied to have been all over the place. And then for some reason I have never found the strength to study enough to get in. I am not stupid, I just don’t have any motivation to get in any of those schools.

After reading about this creative writing course I felt like everything just made so much more sense. Can you even understand how excited and happy I am right now? I don’t think I have been waiting anything this enthusiastically since the time I started in high school. And even then it didn’t feel as right choice as this one does.

I know that creative writing isn’t exactly the most paying job. And I know that using all my savings to travel sounds immature and just plainly stupid. This won’t be the easiest route and there would probably be a lot better choices I could have made. BUT I will regret the rest of my life if I don’t try living the way I want right now.

The point of this small post was to tell you that this next year and probably during the rest of my life I will be doing a lot of decisions that may seem idiotic to you. The way I spend money traveling may seem reckless. And the things I decide to study will probably sound as useless as possible. But I hope you remember that this is MY LIFE and that I have to do this because if I just accept the normal path everyone else is taking I will never know if taking the crazy path would have worked out just fine.

So please, just accept the things I do. Because even if you aren’t here for me during this crazy adventure, I will keep going towards the future I want.

With love,

Your oldest child
Viivi

Travel Rant: Victim Of Travel Fever

Published on by LostViivi14 Comments

“Is it time for your next trip?”
“It’s time to start packing!”
“Enjoy the sun, it’s time to travel?”

I am victim of advertising. How could I not book a trip when all these emails with crazier and crazier titles keep inspiring me to just leave? And in the end it’s not just these emails, it’s life as whole. When all you want to do is travel it’s easy to find ‘signs’ everywhere.

Someone speaks about New York with me right after I saw cheap flight deal there. I find abandoned travel brochure from bus stop. Somehow going to library, bookstore or shelf full of magazines means seeing travel themed magazines and books right away. I don’t even try but for some funny reason I always find myself standing in front of them. And then there is this blog. Every now and then I start to think that maybe, just maybe, I should stay at home this year and not travel anywhere. And then someone in comments tells me about new place or says a few inspiring words. I can’t stop.

Having soul full of wanderlust means you will see these signs everywhere. It’s like the world around you kept telling you to travel, travel and just travel. You may know about the phenomena of buying car and starting to see similar cars everywhere or getting a puppy and starting to see dogs everywhere you go. It’s same with travel.

Once you began traveling and you fall in love with it you start seeing indications to travel more everywhere you go. Even the smallest things come reasons to book your next trip and do something others would describe as crazy.

So, I am victim of travel fever. These adds in my email make me crazy. I am like alcoholic smelling the world’s finest wine. I keep staring these adds, these tempting title. Sometimes I even visit the travel websites and almost end up booking these trips. But I can’t. Not right now. Wait a week, maybe two, I keep telling myself. It’s like torture and I don’t know when I will break up. 

Facebook – Twitter – Instagram

Today’s post was just short thing I wrote after waking up too early. I am currently in the “how to be good enough for all these people reading my blog” phase because there is so many of you and writing is getting harder and harder. I will try my best (and try to finally write all those travel diaries I haven’t…) so please cope with me.

And like always I will now push this odd subject towards you. Have you ever felt like this? Have you ever been in situation where you can’t book a new trip even if you desperately need to? All comments are appreciated.

I hope you are having an amazing day!
With love,

Viivi Severina

My 5 Favorite Travel Experiences

Published on by LostViivi22 Comments

Traveling changes us. That’s a fact. Going to new places, seeing all these interesting countries and meeting these people who have been raised so differently when compared to your childhood. Traveling is full of amazing experiences and if I had time I would love to share all my own with you and hear all of yours.

Recently my travel blogger buddy from DreamsVoyager wrote post about his best travel experiences. In the end he asked everyone to share the first 5 travel experiences that come to their mind. So, here I am copying him and answering this question. What are my 5 favorite travel experiences?

5. Rainy Gdansk with princess umbrella

I never found inspiration to write about my Gdansk trip so you haven’t even heard about my unfortunately meeting with ‘umbrella man’. Maybe I will share that funny story with you sometime soon? Well however, it was raining in Gdansk during my trip. And when I say raining I mean RAINING. There was water everywhere and I was almost considering not going outside at all one day. In the end I went and it’s one of my favorite travel experiences so far.

I took tram from the city center to close-by beach. I had my white lace-heart-rose-ribbon decorated umbrella with me (all blame for buying that cute thing goes for the umbrella man…) and my sneakers had huge holes in them. Not so good outfit for rainy beach. It was almost the last tram stop and I was only left in the carriage. When I exited the tram I saw no one. It was raining, there was mist in the air and not even single person anywhere. I walked through small place looking like a ghost town before seeing the sea. Have I ever mentioned how much I love sea?

After that I walked along the empty beach, sat down every now and then to the towel I had smuggled out of the hostel and just enjoyed life in the rainy weather. It just felt magical. I continued walking until I came to long wooden pier. It was my first time seeing one in person and I fell in love. Old wooden piers are just thing to live for. So pretty, magical and like from storybook. After a while I was freezing and all my clothes were wet.

I decided to find the tram again and leave but then small cozy looking restaurant by the sea took my attention. Of course I went inside. It was empty expect the workers. Handsome looking waiter took my order and came soon back with warm ginger chai tea and cheesecake. I ate while watching the sea and started writing this story that had been in my mind for a while. It was so simple and still so perfect.

I have so many moments like this and if I could I would list all of them as my favorite travel experiences.

4. All the people I meet and things I learn from them

I am totally introverted but I also love meeting new people and talking for people that come from different culture or just different place than I. Mostly I have met these people in hostels or through funny travel situations. In the other hand lately I have been talking for super cool people because of my blog and even been brave enough to meet someone face to face. I never thought that I would be able to connect with so many people just because I am writing to internet. (I am always happy to talk with other travelers so feel free to start conversation for example in Facebook, Twitter or in Instagram‘s private messages. Just be warned that I am and will always be super shy and awkward!)

However, just meeting these people isn’t my favorite thing. Learning something new and unexpected from these people made meeting all of them one of my favorite travel experiences. So what have I learned? EVERYTHING… I once listened three hours when German guy taught me and two Korean dudes how they learn hiragana and katakana (Japanese alphabets) in Germany. May sound dull but I had amazing night.

On the other hand, I have learned a lot about different cultures and things to do and not do in countries I didn’t even know existed. A few times other hostel guests have tried to teach me how to cook. That never works out but at least I get to taste tasty food. Sometimes you meet people who know something really special. Once I got some tips from this professional travel magazine photographer and another time older lady with her 5 years old grandchild taught me how to make origami.

3. Concerts, gigs and music in general

If you have been reading my blog for some time you may know (or if you are new: hello welcome, now you will learn something new about me!) that I love music and especially listening to live music. When I say music I really mean all kind of music from classical symphonies to hardcore rock. This is why music has made its way to my top 5 travel experiences list.

The photo above is from my Japan trip. I saw that group playing drums million times while they were having street performances around Harajuku. I had to stop and listen every time. My first trip to foreigner country without my family was to see Super Junior’s concert in London. I had amazing adventure with my friend and the concert was totally worth all that money and traveling.

I have a lot of music related travel memories. If possible I always try to go to local gig or concert while in new country. In Brighton I didn’t even have to find the music because it came for me. I was staying in hostel and that hostel had also local lively bar. That nice small bar also had live performances every freaking evening. If you have ever been in hostel, you know that those buildings are never soundproof. So, when I was hanging out in my hostel room at 7pm or trying to sleep at 2am, I had to listen these local bands and DJs. Funny thing was that I was able to hear it as loudly as if I had been standing in the bar…

2. Leaving for my first solo trip

There is no feeling like standing alone in the airport with your too big suitcase before sunrise. More rational people would have first gone for shorter sole trip but I decided to start from the extreme. Three months alone in Japan living in hostels. I didn’t speak the language. I had never even lived alone. I was just lost 20 years old girl who had no idea what to do with her life.

It was crazy to sit alone in the plane and know that after 24 hours and a few layovers I would be alone in Japan. This 24 hours of flying goes to my best travel experiences list. I have never felt so alive and I will probably never feel like that again. Being first time alone, just surviving by yourself, is amazing scary experience that changed me as person. 

1. Getting lost in abandoned amusement park

And then number one in my travel experiences list. Accidentally visiting abandoned amusement park and getting in trouble! This is memory that will forever stay in my mind. If you haven’t yet read the whole story, check our my three too long and boring posts about this mishap. Seeing abandoned place is always special. Place that is left by humans and taken over by the nature.

This travel experience was even more special because of the people I met. All those polices and driving crazily small streets in their police car while they asked me all kind of funny questions and gave touristy travel tips. People who went inside the amusement park before me. And of course talking with fellow travelers in hostel afterwards and laughing for my adventure. It may have been against law and I may have gotten in trouble but I would probably do it million times again to just experience all this.

.          .         .

These are my favorite travel experiences but like Anub did in his post I will now throw the ball for you. What are your favorite travel experiences? Don’t think too much. First five things that come to your mind. What amazing things have you experienced? 

I hope you are having an amazing day!
With love,

Viivi Severina

Photo Diary: First Time In Bremen

Published on by LostViivi21 Comments

Hello all fellow travelers (and random friends and family)! I am again back with Photo Diary series because I am just too lazy to start writing that real travel diary of my trip. No worries, I will get there eventually. Because I don’t have anything else ready, here is collection of photos from my recent trip to Bremen with random thoughts. And yes, this Bremen diary is named my first time there because I will definitely return to this pretty city.

Bremen was interesting destination for me because maybe for the first time in my life I had decided to travel to destination that didn’t seem very interesting for me after doing some research on the internet. Bremen seemed colorless city with a few pricey attractions. Oh how wrong was I… It took me only one walk through the city from city center to my hostel to realize that in fact Bremen is one of the most colorful cities I have seen in my life.

I was lucky because during my stay in Bremen it was sunny and hot. Good change after Finland’s long and unusually cold spring. I literally left Finland after it had been snowing and wasn’t ready for this heatwave. But I can’t complain. It was green and fresh everywhere. Colorful flowers and a lot of birds. The park and its idyllic river circling around Bremen become quickly my favorite thing in this modern city. Perfect place to relax after long touristy day around Bremen.

One thing I love about traveling is meeting amazing new people. Bremen didn’t disappoint me here. I got new friends in hostel. Someone even accidentally made me breakfast even if I hadn’t paid for it. So, I basically ate secretly under the table while talking with them. A little bit of action for my holiday and well free breakfast.

This cafe was like straight from my dreams. Pastel colors, pretty cupcakes and clerk that didn’t fit in at all. He was dressed in black and seemed too rock for the girlish dream cafe. What would be more perfect combination? So, if you happen to be visiting Bremen i recommend Coockies Cupcakes.

This photo is again from the park I mentioned earlier. It gave me a little bit of the Netherlands vibe even if i have never visited that country. Interesting things was that for some reason I didn’t see this windmill in any Bremen guide I read before leaving for my trip. Why is that?

And then I want to speak about the amazing cool area I fell in love with that later one revealed to be the famous area for drugs and prostitution. Well, at day time it was cool to visit (??). East side of the older city centre and artistic Schnoor is situated this area full of small alleys, unknown galleries and colorful street art. Basically everything I love.

Like you can see from the photo above this area was almost empty at day time. I was wondering why I didn’t see any tourists like in everywhere else but all travel destinations have these ‘secret’ places where you never meet other travelers. Then on my last evening/night in Bremen we went to eat with group from my hostel. We returned quite late trough this area and one of us told that this area was famous from its nightlife. And more specifically nightlife full of drugs and prostitution. So, not place to for nice evening walk alone but definitely place to check out during day.

In contrast to that area full of graffiti Bremen has its well-known old town. Fountains, statues and shops full of souvenirs of Bremen Town Musicians.

This photo is from the huge market from old town. It may not be very clear but in the right bottom corner you can see man doing huge bubbles. He was there every day with his dogs and bowl of soap. Cool job, am I right?

Germany and Finland have one thing in common and it is beer. Unfortunately I have never liked alcoholic drinks so I couldn’t test any of these terrace restaurants serving huge selection of different beers.

This photo is from Schnoor. One of the interesting areas in Bremen. Small alleys, galleries, cafes and shops full of handicrafts. Surprisingly I didn’t like it that much. It was highly recommended everywhere on internet but it just didn’t have charming enough feeling for me. A little bit boring place.

Somehow my travels are always full of odd meetings with too friendly birds. Even in Bremen I got almost attacked by badass ducks who were just too interested about my snacks.

And this was my Bremen photo diary. I think my photo editing skills are radically decreasing but at least I am trying. So, have you ever visited Bremen? Or some other place in Germany? Like always all comments are more than welcome.

Oh right, I would also remind you to follow my FACEBOOK page to get notification of my new posts and some extra photos and stories! I would be forever thankful. Or if you want to see more photos follow my depressingly inactive INSTAGRAM.

With love,

Lost Viivi 

Travel Plan: Bremen, London, Brighton & Rome

Published on by LostViivi14 Comments

I may have made new travel plan that will make some people roll their eyes (sorry, mom and dad…). It is not bad plan but it includes a lot of traveling around and picking up the cheapest option. Also I would have had university entrance exams just now if I hadn’t decided to skip them.

Because this is travel blog but I have never really written anything about my trips before going I decided to start new blogging series: Travel Plans. Nothing extraordinary… Just me telling you about my plan beforehand and maybe asking some tips if anyone has visited the destinations I am going to.

Where did this plan start?

I knew that I want to travel either in May or June but about a week ago I hadn’t done any plans yet. Then I got promotional email from Ryanair saying that flight from Tampere (near the place where I live currently) to Bremen would be only 30€. How could I not buy that flight ticket? After that I had a small problem aka flights back to Finland were too expensive.

I was thinking and thinking until I found out that flights to London from Bremen were only 10€. Of course I had to go there then! But I just visited London and even if I love that city, I really wanted to experience something new. Buying train ticket to Brighton felt almost like a natural thing to do. I have wanted to visit that city for the longest time. I am not even sure why but it just seems like a place I would love.

After booking hostels to my destinations and travel tickets, I still had one big problem… No plan how could I come back to Finland. I am not going to lie. Never coming back may have crossed in my mind. However, I have university entrance exam at the end of May and my sister’s graduation party at June. There is no way I would skip those so I had to come up with non-expensive way of travel from UK to Finland. That’s not easy.

I had to do some planning, desperate searching and counting my budget for too many times before I finally found flight from London to Riga and from there to Helsinki. Not the most easiest one but cheap and the timing was perfect.

This plan was now ready but it doesn’t mean that I didn’t plan more travels during the current week. We have had been speaking about trip to Rome with my mom. After traveling a lot during the last two years I have finally collected enough Finnair points to get free lights to anywhere in Europe. Surprisingly there was also deal to get free lights using lesser points than usually. So, Rome here we come in August!

What to do in Bremen & Brighton?

I really don’t have idea what to do in Bremen but I have some ideas for Brighton. But I would like some tips if anyone knows something about these cities. If I have understood correctly Bremen is quite artsy city with not so many things to do except walking around the city. And then there is of course a few museums I want to visit. After watching some photos it looks similar to Poland’s Gdansk I visited earlier this year.

Then there is Brighton, one of my dream destinations. I have wanted to visit here for the longest time. Mostly because of the huge pier they have. But also because Brighton just seems like a city I would fit in and totally fall in love. It seems like city full of cute shops, cafes, street art and atmosphere. Oh, there is also the world’s oldest aquarium! 

I have also been searching some cool walking tours and events in both cities. For Brighton I have found maybe too many options (oh, my poor wallet…) but for Bremen no luck yet. Any recommendations?

 

Sorry for the odd post but today is Eurovision day so I didn’t have a lot of time to write! Like always all comments are welcome. Does anyone have any recommendations for Brighton, Bremen, London or maybe Rome? (Also thoughts about Eurovision are more than welcome. Anyone as big Eurovision freak as me?)

With love,

Viivi Severina