One Night in Waszaw

Soooo we went out with Laura so that we could actually catch up and discuss everything that's been happening in the past year :)  We weren't really able to do that with all our relatives around ;) It was actually my first night out in a month since I'm having a "Sober Fest" with my mate all the way till end of April (we picked that day on random) with the exception of my Poland trip :) The next morning we agreed with Laura that going out had been pretty lame if it weren't for that other person... SO i'm actually excited in keeping up with my sober life. Feel so much better: not wasting any money (what money? everything's going to my savings account anyways :D) and being able to focus on school and working (and gym too, soon) and doing things that actually matter and are healthy to you. I had a same kind of pause when I came back from Australia (5 months without getting wasted). I'm actually shocked how people don't realize what they are doing to themselves and their lives. Though, it must take a lot to admit when one is drinking his/her life away... I know i'm not a saint myself, but jesus christ with the shit that alcohol causes and people just don't seem to realize that all their problems spur from that substance... And don't even get me started with how this idiotic Finnish drinking culture sickens me to my stomach (nowadays seems like no one wants to meet up unless it involves having to crawl on all fours and vomiting all over yourself). OK, enough of this rant :D ...And back to one night is Warszaw (that really just makes me seem like a hypocrite right now ;) )

PS: don't judge... I was bored and I started playing around with Photoshop... I hardly ever edit my photos - and there's a reason for it ;D
So we got a cab and drove to the street Iwo, my Polish mate I met wind surfing nearly 5 years ago in Sopot, had recommended us.


We had noticed this one club was packed with people but we decided to head to somewhere quiet first so that we could catch up :)

It was pretty funny though, some Polish people came to ask us where this club was and I instructed them there :D Local.. right. I was so stoked about my long island ice tea and so bummed that little miss Melanie wasn't there with us, so I decided to text her in Netherlands.


"How much tip do you reckon we should leave? Man, I'm a backpacker... I don't tip!" (we left tip, ofc :D) Then we went to check out the club (in our winter coats - don't wanna pay before you know you wanna go ;) ). We decided it was aiiiight and stayed.  ..And watched this male stripper.. Question: DOES ANY ONE YOU YOU FEMALES THINK (silver latex) THONGS ON MEN ARE SEXY? I would _really_ like to know if there is really anyone  that actually thinks so :D    At this point we had figured this club was horrid and wanted to go some place else


David Guetta Energy Drink, really? : D   
..Decided to have some before heading to the cold(World of Alcohol) All hail Poland, Germany and all you other countries for your free market policy in alcohol. Though, this would never work in Finland.

We went to this Siltanen-like place that was packed with all the Polish hipsters (oh lord). Spotted a "hipster" (the only hipster thing about him is his fugly mo) and wanted a picture with him. - and he tried to kiss me !! FUCK NO.   Coming back home at 4am.
We weren't really that drunk  - just bored!AHahahahaa :D After the next night (when dad took us out for some beers/cocktails) there had appeared a note on this door (this door is to the apartment houses) in Polish "please close door delicately" - yeah.. i guess we MIGHT'VE slammed it a couple of times during 4 am ...Why do Polish doors have so many damn locks?!  Laura's gonna kill me :)Laura made us some drunken munchiez - pierogi!

 Next morning.... ...I'm only kidding - I actually felt SUPER! "LOVE Polish hangovers - they're so tame!"Laura fell off the bed when we were tying to watch hangover-Jersey Shore :D  Derp.

Warszaw Old Town

I love love love old towns... and Warsaw's one isn't an exception. I've been here before but since I vaguely remember the visit, I asked my aunt whether they could take me and Laura there to see it. Although our toes were nearly blue, I still enjoyed walking though the town and listening to my cousin (who LOVES history) explain about the scenery. Too bad I forgot all the details by now, so I'm not going to write about that stuff anymore, although planed... But let the pictures do the talking:

PS. Beautiful buildings like these always make me wanna study architecture !

[gallery]

LOVE LIFE

When I travel, I get to do all the things I love:



-meet & surround myself with amazing people
-write (my blog)
-see beautiful places
-surf
-photograph
-adventure
-get new experiences
-be free
-fall in love over and over again

My happiest moments are of me traveling

Skipped Sunday Church

That's what's up.

drunkdn update via tab

k, so me laura went out.we are alive. but very just so in the drunken-munchey-state-of–things... laura just told me she loves cookimng when she is drunk - i just told her i would be just happy enough if she wouldn`t forget the gass stove on...

Warszaw, Poland

Oh how it feels good to be back in Poland! :)



Poland is like a second home to me (due to my roots), however, I don't consider myself to be a Pole at all - its only because of my blood that I could say I am half Polish.

I love this photo of Babcia :D

...Nevertheless, I usually come to Poland once a year because  have family and friends here. The last time I was in Warszaw, however, was five (!) years ago. I flew here for a couple of days before heading to see Red Hot Chili Peppers in Chorzow. And after that when I've come to Poland, it's the coast I've been windsurfing, not forgetting about last years Heineken Open'er -festival in Gdynia :)



So Warszaw, nice to meet you again. I was shocked to see that they had built a whole new terminal ! It was pretty modern and I even bumped into Halina there, this girl I used to go to Polish classes with in elementary School with (we hated each other back then but it was so nice to see her now!!). It was my couz Laura, who landed from Paris to the old terminal, the ghetto-ish terminal that was painted with a red winey color. :D



Babcia and Dziadek (Granma and Granpa) came to pick us up and it was so nice to see them! And it was so weird how it DIDN'T feel weird at all to see Laura! It was like we would've never left Australia and one of us would've only popped out of the room for a second and come back instead of not seeing each other for a year!



Melanie wasn't able to come because she would've been flying on stand-by and she can't afford to miss her class on Monday. We were a bit sad but we figured that we'd meet her somewhere else, the THREE of us :)

 Our dads in Pakistan trying to impress a girl

Although the terminal had been renovated, nothing had changed in Babcia's & Dziadek's appartment. The only thing that jumped in my eyes was a Mac -computer :D Dziadek told me they don't have Internet and that the computer is only for photo viewing (Dziadek does photography). Keeping up to date aren't we!



As we were watching through the photo albums, Dziadek pored me, Laura and himself an apparative of some berry vodka/liquor my Aunt Małgocia had made. It was really really really sweet/strong but good anyways. It was interesting looking at the photos from Babcia's & Dziadek's youth, our parent's childhood (also from the time when they lived in Pakistan) and our dads meeting our beautiful moms. It was the first time I saw these pictures... Dziadek also had pictures of him in Jakarta, Indonesia sometime in the late 70's (?) and he told me that he had photos from BALI in Małgocia's place and that we could view them later. I'm pretty thrilled seeing HOW MUCH Bali has changed (for the worse...).



What I love about Poland among the people is the food. AAAA Babcia had made us some tomato soup <3 And some Indian Chicken Curry (just like dad!). At this time Kondrad, out one year older cousin had joined us and it was just so nice to eat together and talk about random stuff. We were wondering with Laura, that how long was it from the last time our WHOLE family from dad's side saw each other (=my fam, laura's fam, kondrad's fam and babcia & dziadek)? Apparently some 15 odd years ago during Christmas... We think with Laura that we should gather up the family together for Christmas. It would be amazing...Of course that would mean that also I should start hanging around at home during Christmas instead of where-ever-in-the-world. But we NEVER see each other because all our family is so scattered around the world... Finland, Poland, Canada (not even talking about mom's side of the family)..



Later on Małgocia and with Maciej (my aunt's husband, I don't even know in Finnish what Maciej is to me.. is there a word? :D) and my cousin Adriana (how the hell is she already turning 18 ?!) came to get us and we left our bags at they're super cozy home that hadn't changed one bit <3 We had been making a grocery list with Małgocia because we wanted her to teach us some Polish specialties! (Of which I'll upload videos later)



After grocery shopping and us watching/filming what Małgocia was making in the kitchen, we drank a bit more of tea, ate bread with biały ser (white cheese) and talked about the culture differences in Poland vs. Finland/Canada. For instance, the power distance that you see here is incredible... You have call everyone "Pan" (=Sir) or "Pani" (= 'Lady'/Mrs.). If you fail to use this with a police man, you'll get fined. (Like dad once did when he got a bit frustrated :D) Adriana and Małgocia also told us, how you are not aloud to smoke even if you are in high school ! If they catch you smoking, they'll drag you once to a psychologist to figure out the reason for your lung-tormenting. And guess who pays for this appointment? The government... "What a waste of tax money", like Laura said.



Anyhoo, i'm gonna go wake Laura up now. How lovely it was to wake up here <3 Had my typical Polish breakfast: tea, bread with pasztet ("pâté") and yogurt (:



PS. Laura can kiss her "I'm not gonna gain weight during my exchange semester" goodbye after all the krówki, pączki and other pastries we will be consuming here :D

@ the airport

WHY DOES THIS ALWAYS HAPPEN TO ME? :D

This is the third time in a year that, by accident I inform my ARRIVAL time instead of my departure time... I have a bad habbit of purchasing the ticket and looking at it once andthen assuming thayt i remember the time correctly.

 

luckily i live next tothe airport!

k, departure time!

ps. writing with this tab is hard az. word press and android dont seem to function well together... gotta dl an app... hints?

 

 

 

FUUUUCK YEAH

I FUCKING LOVE MY SCHOOL !!!

Check out what cool things our awesome teachers have been planning for us:

"Hi everyone,

First of all, I would like to thank all of you for the nice surprise that I found on my keyboard two days ago – happy belated valentine’s day to you all, too!

Second thing that you might have heard from Tero already… I am teaching Introduction to European Markets to EBA11 group and I have been planning Europe field trip for this May. This trip would be mainly for you and EBA11 (EM/EBA10 groups as well, if there are free seats left). Without further ado, this is what I have been planning:

April 20 (Friday) departure from Helsinki by evening ferry to Stockholm
April 21-22 (Saturday-Sunday) Traveling to Amsterdam
April 23 (Monday) Visit to INHOLLAND University of Applied Sciences
April 24 (Tuesday) Visit to Utrecht University of Applied Sciences – drive to Brussels
April 25 (Wednesday) Visit to European Parliament in Brussels plus several EU agencies
April 26 (Thursday) Drive to Berlin
April 27 (Friday) Visit to Berlin School of Economics and Law
April 28-29 (Saturday-Sunday) Back to Helsinki (either ferry from Germany to Finland or ferry&drive combo via Baltic states)

There will be free time to get to know Amsterdam, Brussels and Berlin as well. Better schedule will be sent to you as soon as the programme develops a bit further. 

Ütrecht last summer

What does this cost? I am trying to keep it in 100-120 euros per student, rest would be paid by us. It includes transportation and accommodation, but you would pay your own food. I know you have exams that week but those won’t be a problem. I will talk with the teachers and they will be organized either before or after the trip.

This is your chance to get to see Europe with very little investment – in great company, too! More info to come after the week 8 holiday.

Cheers!

Marko"

Berlin Baby!

FUUUUUUUUCK YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

This would is going to be so amazing!! (As long as we can reschedule all those marketing/economic/math -finals/presentations BEFORE the trip and not after... or Metropolia's GPA will experience a major dip... ;D)

I'm also excited that we would go on this trip with European Business Administration (EBA) students and not only us, European Management students :]

Picnic in Amsterdam feat. Marty !

And hey... I've been CRAAAVING to go back to Berlin, so I AM STOKED.

ah, love life!!!!!!!

But, now, time to go pack for Poland. Flight tomo! ;)

PS. For those of you who might ask, why are we visiting all these universities in Europe: I'm doing a double degree, and a compulsory exchange in one of the partner unis is integrated into our programme. Berlin and Ütrecht are two out of the five partner unis we have in our (EM) programme. The school in Amsterdam, on he other hand, is one of EBA's partners.

PPS. I am not looking forward to that cruise to Stockholm.......... I guess I am just getting too old!

PPPS. Finally Brussels we shall meet...<3 and not only from the window of a train!

Perkeleen miestutka

"Ei vitsi meri, toi sun teoria lomaromanssimiesten sisäisestä tutkasta, joka rupee hälyttää, jos kyseinen tyttö ei oo ajatellu tätä miestä vähään aikaan ON TOTTA! Oon nyt fb-lakos niin en oo onneks voinu kyylää erään ihanan lomaromanssi (LR) miehen kuvii… Ja hyvä niin, koska en oo sit ajatellu sitä enää niin paljon enkä HAIKAILLU sen perään…tänään tietty rakas kaverini tulee suurinpiirtein kiljuen kysymään että “arvaa mitä sun seinäl tapahtuu???” No tietty täl LR:llä oli ruvennu tutka vilkkumaan ja se oli likennu mun jotain BIKINIkuvaa… Voi tsiisus… Ja turha varmaan sanoo ett haikailen nyt täs sitä pörröpäätä ja oon tyylii ostamas lentoi saksaan……… perkeleen miestutka."

(Tänään kommentoitua Merin blogiin)

-photo by Milka-

GATORADE ME, BITCH!

What made me happy today?

Texting my mates "Happy Valentine's Day" (note, in Finland Valentine's Day is "Friend's Day") including Milka, the lovely girl from Oulu, Finland I met&traveled with in Bali.

I was wondering whether I would be able to reach her, as I had no idea whether she still was in Bali (since she was supposed to fly to Malaysia around mid Feb) nor whether her Indo-prepaid would still work....But Milka replied in 5 seconds !!! I was sooo happy to hear from her :) Apparently I had been on her mind just a minute before as she had just been eating my "favourite local food" (=padang food), aww! 8) Love her and love her blog, please do check it out: http://milkaemilia.blogspot.com/

Ihana Milka <3

Also, do you guys wanna hear how I managed to "make" 140€?

Hang around with a bunch of male friends  of which one decides to get all silly and put your almost brand new (women's) winter coat on, making the zipper brake (not really his fault, just a faulty zipper) ! Decide you'll make a reclamation the next day, but notice when you get to school, that the suede, on those winter boots you purchased only 3 weeks earlier, has torn. Swear a bit and text mom in frustration. Later that day, go to the mall, return the broken items and hunt for new ones... Realize at the end of the day, that you now are an owner of much more comfier shoes and an amazingly warm winter jacket and... that you actually managed to save 140€ from the money you got back from the returned products! SCORE.

Today I also made randomly something randomly awesome for a very special person, my little bro:

GUESS FROM WHICH SHOW THIS LINE IS FROM?

PS.So thanks Lauri for breaking my jacket, I was happy to return it as I didn't like it anyways! And thanks karma, I HATED walking with those shoes! I mean, heals during winter? Who am I kidding..

My favourite and least favourite thing about traveling

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTUvX_pYNBM&feature=fvwrel

VIDEO: Balangan Beach - Mansis Beach Shack

I figured, now that I am back home and I'm using our super-speedy appropriatedly named WiFi ("Gringos"), I should upload some of the videos I managed to film. ...before finding out my camera had broken after one crazy Kuta night... You should see the last video I had filmed with it at 1:30am (or not...).


Sorry guys for this is in Finnish...but I think you'll still get the feel of it! (:

This one is from Balangan Beach - an introduction to our humble little home - Mansis beach shack I so fell in love with. I came back to Balangan twice and stayed there each time :) By far the best accommodation of my whole "backpacking carreer" !


I love the simplicity of life and how ascetic everything was in the beach shack. And although no luxuries were present* - except for one electric socket and lamp in each room - they were not slightly missed. All I wanted was to eat Mansis Mie Goreng Special (which was the best of Bali), sleep in the most comfortable bed in the world and walked barefoot. The best thing about the beach shack was falling asleep and waking up to the sound of the waves every morning and night.

I can't even describe the sensation of the sound. It's gotta be one of the best things in the world. You just feel so relaxed. Every morning I would wake up around 5 am (to the sound of the waves), tip toe across the wooden floor to our sea view and just sit quietly and stare at the motion. And be totally mesmerized and hypnozed over the sound.

It's probably one of the things I miss the most in Bali (along the crazy traffic - yeah I know, weird!).

*=excluding our own items e.g. iPods, laptops etc.

Rock Werchter Line Up

 Picture

I have decided to make Rock Werchter happen. This festival, that gathers all the best rock / electronic music acts together is situated in the small village of Werchter, Belgium and is only a train ride away from the student town Gent. The best festival I have ever been to (musically) is Rock Werchter 2009, without a doubt. It came with no surprise when in that year they also won the "Best line-up of 2009" -award of European festivals, among other credits.

Flow Festival 2009

I actually attended this festival almost completely sober (not counting the couple beers I had one day)  - but yet had the time of my life. It's all in the music and it's the thing that gets you high. I also met someone pretty cool that got me into traveling and made me get off my ass and start doing something with my life (aka traveling) ! Thanks Tom for being such and inspiration :)



I actually made a decision after 2009 that I wouldn't attend the festival anymore, because I didn't want to ruin all the sweet memories I had from that festival... But, what can you do when all your favorite artists and bands are going to Werchter!

Rock Werchter 2009 had the sickest line up (The Prodigy, Coldplay, White Lies, Fleet Foxes, Röyksopp, Lily Allen etc etc etc etc) and I saw 23 of my top bands/artists. This year will be no different by the looks of the first names they've announced. So far, the acts that I wanna see (and note that there are three categories and the first one, "The Acts I am DYING to See!!!" is the one that has influenced the deciding factor of going to this festival!) are...:

The Acts I am DYING to See !!! :

DEADMAU5

Picture

I saw this mastermind last summer in Poland and it was MIND BLOWINGLY GOOD. . Actually so good that me and Edwina might've danced around and sat on random guys shoulders in our bras....

JUSTICE

Picture

Justice among with Deadmau5 are in the top of my Best Gigs -i've seen (and trust me, i've seen many !). I saw this French duo back in the day on 2008 in good ol' Provinssi Rock. Although I was pretty beer-happy, I remember being in shock of how INCREDIBLE Justice was live and dancing hand-in-hand with this reporter from New York! A total must-see again act!!!

KASABIAN

Picture

My ONLY _FAVOURITE_ band I still haven't seen! Oh the tragedy of last summer of not being able to go to T in the Park in Scotland.. I f*ing love love love this band to death and I can only imagine the amount of shivers this band will set down my spine! I better pack a winter coat with me ! ;)

The Acts I would also like to see:

WOLFMOTHER

Picture

I was actually a bit bummed that I didn't see this Stoner Rock band from Sydney in Australia, but oh well, I guess it I am meant to see them this year ;) Everyone from this amazing band split up after the first record - only the singer stayed and assembled a new group of musicians under the same band name. The second album came out but still sounded as good as with the old assembly ;) When ever I listen to their songs I just thing about the days when my n my bro among friends would use to skateboard in the empty pool of this park/kindergarden. Good ol' days.

FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE

Picture

Just play "Hurricane Drunk" and it takes me back to the crazy summer of 2010... Those were the days.. Haven't really gotten into her new album yet - maybe I should!

KATY B

Picture

I really like the sound of this English lady but although I find some of her tunes brilliantly catchy, other are a bit meh. Oh well, maybe she'll put on some kind of show in Pyramid Marque -tent ;)

Other Acts I also see (but that i'm not that overly stoked about)

SNOW PATROL

Picture

Have you guys noticed how all their songs are about "you" ? I'm intrigued how these guys will perform at A FESTIVAL as their songs moods aren't that uplifting... At least in their older albums - don't know about the newest one.

RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS

Picture

I saw these guys in Poland in 2007. The gig was held at this huuuuge stadium in Chorzow, near Kraków. The guys had two warm-up acts (The Jet and Mickey Avalon) and after that they put on a 2,5 hours show. It was pretty good although I was a bit disappointed that the only lines Anthony spoke were "Hello Poland. I don't think we've met." Anyway, after since I've lost interest in the band and couldn't name any songs from their new album.

  n Crystal Snow n me  @ Flow 2009

...Anyways guys, i'm STOKED and keeping my fingers crossed everything goes as planned money-wise... (Or you'll be reading 50 000 blog entries about whining) I can't wait to see what other jewels will be joining the ever-so amazing line-up!

PS. it's 5:06 am right now as I've finished editing this (yep, this is a times entry)... Shouldn't have drank that energy drink half past ten in the evening! oh well, at least i'm doing something useful...