Finland

Moi!

And welcome to today's post on Finland. This will actually be my last post, since the due date for the personal project is on Wednesday, and after this there is no point of me writing this blog anymore, unless anyone wants me to write more about other locations :)

December 19th, 2:47PM

This post I will write from a more personal point of view.

Finland has always been home for me. I was born there and spent most of my childhood there, and I consider myself very lucky to be able to have a place I can call home, because some kids who live abroad don't have that. All of my family lives in Finland and I have a permanent house there. I also know that in the future, no matter where in the world I end up, Finland will always be my safe place.

August 4th, 11:07PM

In this post I will tell you the things I love about my country, and hopefully this will encourage/inspire some of you to visit Finland. 

Finland is such a small, unheard of country in Northern-Europe. Usually when people ask me where I'm from and I say Finland, most people don't know where it is, until I tell them that it's the country next to Sweden. I feel like Finland has always been in the shadow of Sweden and doesn't really get all the credit it deserves. The thing about Finland is that we don't have any the fancy buildings, cool architecture or sick amusement parks. In Finland it's all about the simple things, like going on a walk in a forest on a Wednesday morning and seeing no one or spending the night by a lake with a bonfire, grilling sausages and corn. Something I have learned from living away from Finland is to appreciate these small, simple things. When you live in a city like Shanghai, where you can't go outside because of pollution, it makes you appreciate moments when you can do that.

July 2nd, 10:41AM

August 20th, 9:18PM 

Whenever I return to Finland after being in Shanghai, I feel so relaxed. Finland is one of those places where it seems like no one is busy and everyone seems calm and collected, even if that wasn't the case. When I went to Finland this Christmas break, after all the stress I had from school, it was the perfect escape for me. Waking up to a white, snow covered ground on Christmas Day is one of the best feelings in the world (in my opinion) and I will always very much cherish moments like that. What I'm trying to say is that if you're looking for a holiday destination where you just want to relax, Finland would definitely be a good option.

August 22nd, 11:48PM 

Enough nostalgia, and now onto the things you can actually do in my wonderful country.

Over the summer my best friend from the Czech Republic visited me in Finland. This got me thinking; what can you actually do here? I've always kind of been against her coming to Finland, because whenever I visit Prague, there is so much to see, whereas I felt like in Finland, there is nothing 'famous'. This relates back to what I said about appreciating the simple things. Just the fact that in the summer you can be outside until 1am with it still being light outside is pretty amazing.

August 22nd, 9:24PM 

If you're visiting Finland in the summer, I would definitely recommend renting a house by a lake. It honestly doesn't matter what lake or how good the house is, as long as you have a bed, grill, fridge and friends. A rowing boat is also a plus :) On long summer days the best thing in Finland is to first have a huge barbecue with friends, then go to the sauna and go swimming. After this, you go light the bonfire which you have to keep going until the sun goes down. Put your phones down, grill sausages and roast marshmallows! This is the perfect way to relax whilst also spending some quality time with friends. Stay up late to see the midnight sun, and if you're lucky you might even see northern lights. What I love most about summers in Finland is that it's light all day. Only in the early hours of the morning it gets a bit darker, but at 4AM everything will be back to normal again.

August 18th, 10:17PM

August 12th, 9:16PM

One of my absolute favourite pictures

If you're visiting in the winter, expect no sunlight whatsoever. Hahah, I'm kidding (sort of)! But I am warning you that most days the sun is out for about two hours, if even that. Many people in Finland (and all around the world I suppose) fall into a low-key depression during winter. It is dark all the time, the weather is bad and people think that there is not much to do. I agree, unless there is snow. If there is snow, there are so many things you can do! Ice-skating, cross-country skiing, sledding, nordic walking, skiing or even just having snowball fights. If you're visiting Finland in the winter I would strongly suggest going to the North. You are this way guaranteed more snow and you can even go see Santa Claus (who is from Finland) in Korvatunturi! For more information on that, click here. But if you decide to go there, please remember to pack your warmest clothes with you and when you think you have enough, take even more, because it gets extremely cold.

December 28th, 11:09AM

January 2nd, 12:02PM

This also bring me to my global context (fancy IB stuff) for this personal project, which is orientating in space and time, specifically the homes and journeys strand. I hope that with this blog, I have given you an idea of what my homes and journeys have been and hopefully this has inspired you to get on your own journeys. Orientating in space and time is such an interesting thing and something that should be cherished. We are lucky to live in a world where travelling is made so easy, cheap and accessible to almost anyone. 

August 4th, 9:37PM

As we have come to the end of this post, and also the end of this blog, I would like to remind all of you world-travellers of another thing I have learned over the years (this sounds like I am really old). When travelling, please remember to respect the place you're in. Respect the culture, respect the environment, respect the people. Especially when you are visiting a place that is not as developed or advanced, always remember to try and preserve the culture. When tourism comes into places, such as Palawan in the Philippines, people start thinking more about the money than about preserving the nature. If these people that only think about the money have the power, we soon won't have any of these amazing places to visit; instead, everything will be ruined and these places won't exist anymore. Something to keep in mind when travelling...

August 2nd, 9:01PM

Another favourite of mine, a thunderstorm 

Thank you for all of you who have read my blog and done my survey, this has helped me a lot with my personal project. If anyone still reading has any questions or would like me to write more, please leave comments in the comment section below and I'll be happy to answer your questions. 

Also a lot of people at my personal project exhibition asked me about the pictures in this blog. I have taken all the pictures myself, either using my iPhone 6 or my Nikon D3100 with a Sigma 18-200mm lense. On this post, all the pictures were taken on my phone.

I'm sorry this last post was a bit personal and deep, but I hope that's ok with all of you :) 

If you'd like to keep up with my life and what I'm up to, you can follow me on Instagram @karoliinakuisma :)

Thank you so much for reading, 

Karoliina 

Singapore

Hello,

And welcome to today's post on Singapore! As I did with my post on Palawan, I will write about what I personally did in Singapore, instead of just writing about random places there.

I love Singapore. It is definitely one of the cleanest cities I have ever been to and the overall atmosphere of Singapore is very lovely. Singapore is also one of the most international cities I have ever been to, causing almost everyone to speak English. Even though people sometimes think that Singapore is quite a small city, it definitely has a lot of things to do, especially things that would be interesting for children of all ages. 

The famous Marina Bay Sands hotel in downtown Singapore at night

I went to Singapore in the spring of 2015 with my dad, because he had a business trip there. I flew to Singapore alone and even just the airport was amazing. The service was very good and all the people were very helpful. One thing to remember when going to Singapore is spitting out your gum before exiting the airport, because chewing gum is actually illegal in Singapore! :) 

On the first day my dad and I went to Universal Studios in Singapore. The amusement park is actually on an island called Sentosa, which is also the home to an Underwater World, a huge beach and two golf-courses. The Universal Studios was pretty small compared to the Florida one, but it was still very nice. There wasn't that many people when we went, which was good because the lines are usually really long at the park. Even though the Universal Studios was pretty small, it still had a lot of good rides, also a few more 'scary' rollercoasters for older visitors. 

A thing to also keep in mind in Singapore is that the weather can be very unpredictable. One minute it is very sunny with 32 degrees, and the other minute it is pouring rain. The rain in Singapore is insane. When we were leaving Universal Studios, it started raining and it was something I had never seen before. The amount of water that was coming from the sky was huge. But the good thing is that even though there was a lot of water coming from the sky, once it stopped raining, the water was gone due to the good piping around the area. This shows that they are very prepared for the unpredictable weather. Also the rain didn't last for very long, (15-20 mins), so it didn't ruin our day at all :) 

A picture from the Sentosa Island Beach

After Universal Studios, my dad and I spent the rest of the day in the Marina Bay. The Marina Bay is famous for its garden (Garden by the Bay) that has the cool looking tree flower things, which are actually just designed to provide shade during the day and to look cool at night with all the lights. The place looked absolutely amazing during both, night and day. The garden also had a section inside where they had amazing flowers and other plants inside a huge greenroom. My dad and I didn't have time to visit the indoor garden, my mum and brother went there when they went to Singapore in March 2015, and they said it was very nice and definitely worth going.

From the Gardens by the bay you can see the Marina Bay Sand hotel and the rest of the Singapore skyline. This is a perfect place to take pictures! 

On the next day, my dad and I went to a park called the Fort Canning park, which was very nice as well. The park had a lot of different paths/routes you can walk, and a few cool buildings as well. The park was on a hill, so you could also see the Marina Bay Sand hotel from there. My phone actually died on that day, so I wasn't able to take any pictures, but if you look it up, you will definitely find pictures from there. After going to the park, we actually walked back to the Marina Bay (which was actually pretty far, so if you aren't wearing proper shoes, I don't suggest doing this) and spent the rest of the day there.

From the Fort Canning Park, you can see the Marina Bay Sand hotel in the back 

Later that night my dad and I went to the Night Zoo. It was such a cool experience and i think this is something you are only able to do in Singapore. Basically in the night zoo, you go through the Singapore Zoo at night in a car. The animals tend to move more during the night because it is not as hot and it was very interesting to see the animals in kind of their 'natural habitat'. Also the fact that it was dark and you were in a golf-cart type vehicle, and you couldn't see the fences of the exhibits, made it seem like you were actually in the wild. 

As I said before, my phone died so I wasn't able to take any pictures, but it would've been really hard to take pictures because it was dark. But the zoo is definitely something i would recommend doing in Singapore, and it wasn't that expensive. For more information on the night zoo, you can click here to access their website. 

On the last day of being in Singapore my dad had to go to work, so I was just shopping around on the Orchid Street. If you are looking for a good shopping place, this is definitely one of them. This street had all the must-have stores; F21, H&M, Topshop, Bath & Bodyworks, Zara and many more. Our hotel was actually on this street, so it was easy for me to go there alone. Again, I'm very sorry for not having any pictures from there, I still had my old phone with a really bad camera when I went to Singapore, so I was not able to take good pictures.

I hope this post gave you an idea on what you can do in Singapore. And I also hope you guys like the way I wrote this post, kind of as a story instead of as a travel guide :) 

One more post left, try and guess the location in the comments below!

Thank you for reading,

Karoliina 

Austria

Guten Tag!

And welcome to today's post on Austria. Austria is a beautiful country filled with things to do and places to see. If you read my previous post on Germany, you will know that I went there quite a lot in 2010-2012, when I lived in the Czech Republic. The same thing applies to Austria. I went to Austria several times with my family, mostly to ski, because Austria has some amazing places to ski in. We also went to Salzburg and Vienna, and really liked both of those cities. The drive from Prague to Vienna was only around 4h and to Salzburg around 5h. This blog post will hopefully give you an idea on what you can do in each of these places. Like I said in my previous post on Germany, travelling in Austria would be a lot easier if you rented a car. 

Obviously when you're in Austria, you have to go skiing. Skiing in the Alps in Austria is absolutely amazing and the views are gorgeous. The slopes are usually good from around November to March and the lift-ticket prices and renting prices aren't that high either. Austria is personally one of my favourite places to ski. Also the accommodation in Austria is not that pricey, especially when you compare it to places like Italy, France and Switzerland.  I will let the pictures talk for themselves on this one, but as always, it is even more gorgeous when you see the views in person. I have gone skiing in Austria three times and enjoyed every time. I also love that it is not that cold (-5 ish), where as if you go skiing in a place like Finland, it is extremely cold (-30 ish).

My family and I went skiing in a place called Kitzbuhel located near Salzburg. The views were absolutely gorgeous and the had skiing slopes suitable for both beginners and more advanced skiers/snowboarders. Kitzbuhel also had a lot of other winter sports/activities, like tobogganing, hiking, cross-country skiing, ice-skating and curling. For example, my mum doesn't ski, but she still really enjoyed the trip there, because of all the different alternative activities that you could choose from.

Another place I would definitely recommend going to in Austria is Salzburg. Salzburg is such a gorgeous city with a lot of old architecture and delicious food. Salzburg might not be the most exciting town to visit for small children, but if your kids are older (13 or above) they might appreciate the historical building etc more. A particular place in Salzburg I would recommend going, is Mozart's birth-house. The ticket to go in costs 17e but the museum is very interesting and you learn a lot about Mozart's roots. If you are a music enthusiast, you will definitely like this place, since Mozart was such a big influence to music. 

Front of Mozart's house 

Another thing to try in Salzburg is Sacher cake. This definitely overpriced cake can be bought in the Hotel Sacher located in downtown Salzburg. The cake is actually originally from Vienna, and was created by a man called Franz Sacher in 1832. 

Sacher cake 

That is all I have for you today on Austria, hopefully this post helped some of you to figure out things to do. 

As always, leave your comments in the comment section below!

Thank you for reading,

Karoliina