Once You Have Traveled, The Voyage Never Ends, But Is Played Out Over And Over Again In The Quietest

Porto randomness!  

Lisboa in one year - the best of:

After 12 months living in Lisboa I opened my Lonely Planet guide for Portugal and looked back what has been done and should be done before once I leave Lisbon. Yes, I have decided I’m gonna stick around for another year for professional and financial reasons but after that I’m gonna start looking for something else. Even thinking of returning to Montréal. But here are the wisdom of the first year living in the portuguese capital. I know I have learned some. 

MOMENTS / EXPERIENCES:

After a photo shoot gone wrong because the sun rose in a wrong way I realized that the old trams which I have been wanting to take since I came here were EMPTY! So ended up taking one, actually severals on this random winter, sunny morning and just enjoying the ride while people rush to work, kids to school, shops open and the city awakens. The beauty of everyday life and that evident only for me. 

Numerous Couchsurfing nights that went on forever untill the morning without plans and with random people you had never met before nor meet again. Good times and definitely fun times!

Tinder dates that last for 7h while learning new areas of the city, stories, tips etc! Nothing major romantic but time well spent definitely!

Sunrises seen almost as many as the pasteis de natas eaten thanks to my early schedule at work. No matter how cold or hot it is - and how badly which ever of those suits you I love how the amount of light changes according to the seasons. Even in here. 

My hair looks so much better here than in Finland! No idea if it’s the vitamin D + zinc pills, the sun, the new SYOSS hair products or the combination of all of this - it is working! 

My previous experiences abroad have been intense but none of them has lasted as long as my time in Lisbon. I don’t feel like this is my final destination but I’m feeling the time in here will play a significant role in my life however. 

Obviously, Portugal gave me Eurovision. Despite of mixed feelings of how I look back at those weeks - obrigada! 

1 museum, 3 palaces, 2 fortress + multiple churches visited and about 1000 left to visit more.

 LOCAL KNOWLEDGE:

Hundreds and hundreds of Pasteis de Nata eaten. I know the best spots! Dare to say that I’m probably more expert than some locals.

After the negative first impressions I opened my eyes to my neighborhood and how great it is to live right here. Just local people without the tourists but still nice cafes, restaurants and shops. Whatever I need I know I can find it here! Can’t imagine living in anywhere else than in Alvalade-Roma-Areeiro area!

Seeing the beauty, the charm and history of the city and this country and why people come here and more importantly why they stay. 

How unique is this city compared to anything else I’ve ever been and my experiences in the moment of time. Lisbon grows and changes rapidly and how I see it today will be already gone by tomorrow. Thanks to this it is innovative, international, personalized and different but also fragile, dying what it is old and local. I think of my touristic choices more from now on and their affect after I’ve done whatever I came to do and left the destination.  

Knowing Lisboa spirit and understanding it a bit better every day. Embracing the details and colors around me – everything that makes Lisboa wrong and right but what makes it real. This city is a book to be read slowly and pages that continue forever.  

 LIFESTYLE:

Used to do Yoga before I came to Portugal but it was more random and not regular. Here however I can do it in my room as often as I can – just put some yoga music on from Youtube and tadaa! Another new hobby is bouldering/climbing which I don’t know how to do but I am still enjoying it!

Wherever you are and which ever turn you take on the streets of Lisbon – there will be a coffee shop! And not one of those international chains but an actual local portuguese cafeteria.

Never leaving empty handed from the markets where the hand made products are being sold (jewellery, clothes, souvenirs, etc). Especially the ones that you bump into randomly and unexpectedly.

Thousands of photos taken. I think I took better photos while living in Finland but I do have more material to go on here.

Exploring the country outside of Lisbon but not too far away not to be able to do day trips to visit the coast, amazing beaches, forests and mountains.

I ain’t a big fan of Portuguese food since I don’t eat seafood but instead I’ve had my eye on on the pastries and sweets since the beginning.

 PEOPLE:

Knowing all the right people when your computer crashes, or you need a photographing buddy who knows all the best places or you need a new portuguese teacher etc. Lisbon is not that big and the international crowd with the locals is easy to navigate if only you make an effort!

Portuguese are a proud nation realizing its faults and are always happy to show you around and share their expertise.

 When you break the ice with your neighbors, staff at your local store with people from here in general cause they are shy and somewhat distant in the beginning. But in the end you’ll get help, a friendly advice or whatever it was what you needed. They will go great lenghts for you. 

LANGUAGE:

I’m still a far cry from a fluent Portuguese speaking but when you notice you understand quite a bit of what’s being said around you – in Portuguese.

Finding music in Portuguese which I love – and it’s not Fado.

Diogo Picarra - Paraiso (2018) 

OVERALL:

When looking back the list I made before I left Finland - I've accomlished more or less everything I wanted. Only the language learning is the thing I'm a bit behind. So I’m on the right path here :) 

3 X

While living in Lisboa I’ve been reading this blog called ”Visual Diary” written by Finnish woman living in Lisboa. She writes about design, finnish and international but most of all life in Lisboa. She has nice pics and good point of views, tips about the city. And since I’m lacking inspiration and activity here copied this 3 x idea from one of her posts.

3x HAPPINESS

1.       My job.

2.       New WORKING bank account

3.       New friend(s)

I’ve been rolling in this cicle of negativity lately so here come the positive topics! Nevermind how depressive and hit down I get at the end of the day I’m always happy that I do what I do. It ain’t perfect and it has its down sides but I like the things that I work with and people I work with. Besides I have a new bank account, it’s portuguese and it works! No more need to transfer my money to my finnish account to have access to my funds. I’m also slowly starting to feel like having friends here. People who know this takes time. Good friends. Nice friends.

3x FEARS

1.       My parents dying

2.       Failure

3.       Addiction

And we move on straight to the other end. These are top 3 fears. The number one is obviously inevitable and realistic one. They are my only family and reason why I’d even go home in these days. And they have been good for me, been there for me when I’ve needed. Number two has clearly happened multiple times but still it’s one of the things I keep avoiding and fearing the most. Awful every time. Aaaaand I’ve had my share of alcohol and nicotine used by other people in my life so I hope never to be in a situation controlled by substances.

3X ARTISTS

1.       Laura Pausini

2.       Melanie C

3.       Gianna Nannini / Céline Dion

Gianna Nannini - Fenomenale 2017. 

I love music! I don’t know how to play it or sing it or anything else but boy do I love to listen. These are my favourites, some I’ve mentioned before here in my blog. Discover them if you already haven’t and don’t let prejudices control your mind too much.

3X LISBOA LOVES

1.       Colours/details

2.       Coffee shops everywhere

3.       Glasses and fanny bags

It would take a lifetime to discover all the details that are all over in this city… in the walls of the buildings inside and out. The windows, door and balconies. Equally interesting are the people who live here. Everything is rich in colours and shapes. Never have I ever seen a city filled with so many coffee shops. Besides of actual cafeterias – almost every book store and even car repair shop have a coffee maker and table for you to enjoy your afternoon espresso!

3X EXPERIENCES

1.       Montréal

2.       Meeting LP

3.       Spain

When I was kid I used to go through the geography books at the local library and read every sentence they said about the French speaking Canada. Château Frontenac was a sanctuary and I was a pilgrim making my way to Québec. Even after three years after my MTL experience I think of it as my proudest moment, biggest achievement and happiest time of my life to have been living there. Meeting Laura Pausini, was not part of the plan. I used to listen to her songs, over and over again. But she was distant, it took me years to have courage enough join her official Fan Club and even longer to attend her concert. Now after 23 years of being a fan I’ve met three times, who knew! Spain was unexpected factor also where I ended by a sudden, impulsive, random chain of events. Twice. In the most distinctive areas of the country that gave me life long friends and experiences.

Montréal, the best place on earth. 

3X FINLAND LOVES

1.       Ice cream

2.       Lakes

3.       Sauna

Here are the things that I adore in my country and that I always miss when I’m abroad. The most important obviosly there at number one. Finland is so under estimated as an ice cream destination. We do consume it almost the most in the world, you know! And coffee! Finland is obviously a summer destination with lakes and sauna on the list even though they’re great in the winter time also. But nothing is better than swimming in a finnish lake. The best sauna is at my god parents summer place.

Lahti, my hometown and lake Vesijärvi. 

3X HOBBIES

1.       Music

2.       Photography

3.       Gym

Music subject has been covered up there so let’s move to the photography. I’m not an arty person but I’m fascinated by the world through the lense. You can capture the big scene or focus on the small part of it. Afterwards change colours or bring out the shades to process what I’ve seen and maybe help people to see the beauty in ordinary things around us. Physical exercise is often seen quite shallow thing to do but for me it’s almost the same thing as sitting at a therapist couch. You go through things. You challenge yourself. And most of the times you return lighter home. Emotionally lighter for sure. 

Laura Pausini.

Here’s the Visual Diary blog for any Finnish speaking people who’re interested: http://www.lily.fi/blogit/visual-diary

Random shots, many faces of Lisbon. 

Finland's mesmerising landscape revealed

Finish photographer Mikko Lagerstedt's enchanting photo series highlights some of Finland's most extraordinary landscapes, by concentrating on the horizon and what comes above and below it.

To do

I’ve been living in MTL for almost four months now. My internship will end within a month and after that I’m gonna face the reality. I need a job, a real one, which they’ll actually pay me doing for. If I don’t find one I’ve been thinking of moving to Toronto where my crappy French won’t be a problem. Going home would be a wise thing to do since I still have my thesis and some courses left to do. But I hate to have my visa which is valid until next summer to go waste. And besides there are still tons of things I want to see and do here.

Below of my development in my to do-list:

Go up the Mont-Royal, visit old town of MTL, main sights etc.

Number of museums of MTL visited: 2

Eat Poutine 

(Poutine -

French fries with with a light brown gravy-like sauce and cheese curds)

Eat Smoked Meat-sandwich

Discover the cool neighbourhood of Mile End and Plateau (never enough thou)

Visit Jean-Talon Market

Survive canadian winter

To make a phone call using the old fashioned pay phone - silly I know but I've never used one! 

Drink beer (québecoise)

Eat bagels

(The famous bagel store where I go - not so often thou anymore - and which is just around my corner)

Learn French and being able to understand Québecois accent (working on it)

Do some ice-skating/snow shoeing or whatever winter outdoor activity while I’m here (and nevermind that I could do this in Finland as well! I'm convinced that it's more fun in here than there..)

Write my first cheque (silly I know but we don't have them anymore)

Visit a National Park (any will do, as long as it has that classic “Canadian nature” scenery with the lakes and mountains)

(This is what I wanna see! Summer's not necessary)

Visit Québec City

Discover true Toronto

Watch an ice hockey match

See a real canadian mountie

Visit Niagara Falls

Visit Ottawa

Events:  Picnik Elektronik

                        Igloofest

                        Fête des Neiges

                        Festival de la lumière & Nuit Blanche

                        Laura Pausini concert

                        Pride Parade

                        Tam Tams (free music event at Mont Royal)

UMK25 Song Review: Sekaisin

Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK) is back and stronger than ever! We have seven new artists ready to compete for the trophy and the ticket to Basel in May! The third song keeps the quality strike even!

Costee - Sekaisin

Costee is man of 100 million streams and three studio albums under his belt. So a very familiar name in the Finnish music scene!

He started learning music at the age of 8 and he started his career in a band called Sima. His own record deal he signed in 2017 and it's been one hit after another since that. Now days he runs his own record company.

He is known to be an emotional man who is not afraid to be open. He tends to be into darker sounds and vision but lately there has been a more hopeful tune in his music. His UMK entry Sekaisin also fits into this description.

Sekaisin holds a strong contrast to the previous UMK25 entry Nelli's Hitaammin Hautaan. This one is dark with a good elektrobeat. The start is promising, building strongly.

1st chorus works but after that it goes downhill. It doesn't deliver the beginning's promises which is a damn shame.

A lot of people compare this to Benjamin from 2023 with his Hoida Mut but this doesn't reach the same hights and catch you in the same intensity.

Personally I'm not crazy about his voice and I think he pronounces lazily. But there is love for this one as it still holds top20 spot in Spotify Finnish charts so even if he's not winning the trophy he will be fine after UMK.

What do you think of the third UMK25 track and what are the chances of Costee to advance to ESC? Talk to me in the comments below!

Coming back is feeling growth

Hey guys. Felt like rambling again.

Leaving Montréal and Québec behind me was as difficult as expected but it feels good to be home too. Autumn is on top of its beauty with the multicoloured trees, the air is briskly cool, leaves are falling down slowly. Rain or shine, this kind of autumn is my favourite time of the year. 

So I made it home allright. In one piece. With all my luggages this time.

At the Toronto airport, very cool lounge I must say. Luggages were full so I was forced to wear my winter stuff..

On my way home, on the flight from Reykjavik to Helsinki, there was this old man on board.An  80-year old, originally born and raised in Finland and on his way home for the first time for the 30 years which he had lived in the States.  As life-changing I’ve described my Montréal experience, it made me and my year feel quite small…and it is compared to that! His eyes were shining when he told how he hadn’t heard Finnish language been spoken so widely for decades and how he had missed Finnish food during the years he was gone. He had his grand-daughter and son-in-law with him to whom he wanted to show the country where the family's origins are from. It was touching to listen to his stories.

And when I did arrive in Helsinki, there was a pleasant surprise since some of my friends were waiting for me at the airport. What a luck also for them that my changes of flights went smoothly and I arrived as scheduled.

My favourite: Sallad with goat cheese buried in DEVIL'S JAM!!! :)

Surprisingly didn’t experience any jetlag. I just went to bed on the first night and that was all the sleep I needed. Almost disappointed, I was so prepared for it.

And as for what am I doing now. I’m back at my studies, more or less back at my old job and I’m living with my mom for the simple reasons that I don’t have any money for a flat of my own or any idea of a city, a place which I’d like enough to live in at the moment.  Not exactly the place in my life where I’d like to be at 27 but… However there are possibilities, good options even in Finland but I just haven’t made up my mind yet. Somehow moving to a new Finnish city not knowing much people or having a job, scares me more than what moving to Montréal did. Weird eh?

Otherwise haven’t had much difficulty with settling in back to my old routines if you don’t take into account that I still keep adding tax to all the prices I see in the groceries, cafes, restaurants etc and that I find myself repeating ‘how are you?’ or ‘have a nice day’ to total strangers which is not the most common thing in here. I also have a strong desire to do so in French. Apparently I’ve picked up on some of the local ways of Montréal. Also some of the news that were just distant headlines in Québec are happening If not right here but pretty damn close anyways, across the eastern border. Scary eh?

Lahti

My québcoise journey had a bit of extension, if that is the right word for it, when a friend of mine from Montréal made a stop in Finland on her travel through Nordic Countries. Four days we did almost non-stop sightseeing in three Finnish cities and I gotta admit it was a quite eyes opening experience for me as well. After the year being abroad my perspective has definitely changed and I look at my country and culture differently. I appreciate the smallest things the most.

There is a change going on in my home town which seems to be noticeable only to my eyes. But still for my comfort the most important things are never changing like friends, family, the lake and ice cream section at the local groceries. People have been welcoming and it's been nice to see that I wasn't forgotten. 

So for four days I fed my friend with traditional Finnish delicacies like salty liquorice, different ice cream flavours, blueberry cider and more or less fascinating facts about the Finnish history and society. Good trip overall! Merci Annick and I’ll see you in UK!

A medieval castle in Turku

Through my studies I also took part of the ArtSaturday which is a day version of La Nuit Blanche which I told you about last spring. Clearly way smaller over here and the reason why the night version was changed into this new day version is because people got too drunk. This is Finland for you! Anyways it was a blast this year, bigger and wider program of different activities than ever before in the city center.

Shame on you, Lahti folks who missed it for some crappy excuse! I was positively surprised by the entire project, the people organizing it and the experience itself. Good networking it was, met cool people. I wouldn’t have imagined that there are people in this town who care about this city enough to make such efforts for better Lahti happen.  I wanna do it again next year! If I’ll be here.

So this what I’ve been up to after my québecoise experience which seems like a dream that happened only in my mind at this point. I can’t believe it, a year ago I was just beginning my dream, searching for trainee job and building up my new life. I miss the city, endless amount of possibilities whether it was about a job, social life or any free time activity you were looking for. Couchsurfing community and the friends I made.

Even thou I’ve been totally broke and I don't know if I'm ever gonna see any of the people I met in Montréal… Some might say that it was total waste of time.. But I still don’t regret a thing about the year I spent there. However I have a feeling that I might not be returning to Montréal anytime soon. Unless something super-surprising happens to me. But so far it looks like I’m gonna stick with Europe. UK and Spain attract me the most. But now as it feels it might not be a bad idea to live in Finland either. Feels kind of nice actually for a change. 

UMK 2024 Song Review - Cyan Kicks

Again the hype is very real around Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK), the Finnish national selection for Eurovision and the race to Malmö has officially started!

Cyan Kicks - Dancing With Demons

Cyan Kicks is a Finnish alternative rock/electric pop band established back in 2016. They had their big break in UMK 2022 when they came second with Hurricane losing to The Rasmus. I do remember for rooting for Hurricane two years ago!

Since then, they've been busy with making music and touring around Europe. This shows. They've also mentioned themselves the growth of confidence and experience, and especially the vocalist Susanna. This time around they're bolder and loader but still not losing their familiar energy and sound. But it's inevitable to compare their 2024 entry to Hurricane of UMK22 and perhaps their biggest contestant might actually be themselves from two years ago.

For many the 22 entry was instantly memorable and still is and the question is can DWD do the same?

Dancing With The Demons is the first of seven UMK24 entries to be released. And what a start it is!

The song is kicked off with a promising electronic beat and it builds up nicely towards the first chorus which I have to admit I'm slightly disappointed that it's not grabbing enough. Personally I'm liking the second verse and Susanna's interpretation of the lyrics here. I even saw somewhere a Lady Gaga comparison.

Instrumentally this is very rich and there's a lot to take in. Lots of volume which makes me worry if Susanna's vocals which are rather light in here, are strong enough to carry it through? Even though I know she can sing live obviously. As seconds turn into minutes there's more volume, more instruments and more noise coming up!

A lot of people have criticized the bridge but my musical (rock) taste is generic enough to love it actually. I'm loving the "follow me's" here. In three minutes it's tricky to get an instrumental part squeezed in but DWD manages to do just that. The whole band is clearly involved in this with 150% and musically this can be quite overwhelming. The ending is as load as the beginning. Lyrically not the best of songs but this wasn't the band's strong suit in 2022 either.

This is well and heavily produced track that can be blamed of sounding a slightly bit too mainstream and plastic lacking originality and organic sound. However, this is a question of personal taste. Live performance we don't need to worry with this entry because as we remember from UMK 22 - they'll nail it.

Visually this is impressive. Susanna and the band rocking under the rain (she was actually with fever when shooting the video!) and everything we see supports what we hear. Sexy, load, wet, explosive. It's actually difficult to listen the song without its video because that's how astonishing it is! And the pair clearly belongs together. UMK music videos have come a long way!

What do you think of the first UMK24 track and would you vote for Cyan Kicks to go all the way to Malmö? UMK final takes place on February 10th!

They say that Olaias is the most beautiful metro station in Lisbon and even one of the most outstanding ones in the world!