Speaking of traveling…

… I can’t wait to get on the road again! Finnair is looking for the next Quality Hunter and YOU can help me be that person! On top of that, if I’m chosen, you’ll get to read about my adventures on a blog! Sweet as! So, I am humbly asking you, that if you believe that I have what it takes to be the next Quality Hunter for Finnair (and let’s face it, who do you know would do it better?), click on this link and click “Like”. I appreciate and wish you all a very merry weekend!

Shame on me!

…for never finishing what I started! Oh you poor readers who never got to know what exactly went down on my magnificent trip! It’s been 4 months since I’ve come back so I feel it’s about time to give this story the ending it deserves. A happy one, of course! Here’s my trip, in a fairly large nutshell.

The first 5 weeks I spent in Down Under getting used to the traveling vibe and dodging fornicating youngsters at shitty hostels. Australia. What can I say? It was way more touristy than I had ever expected, but the blame is of course on the route choice. I did the basic East coast (from Cairns to Melbourne) track and let’s just say that track is not off the beaten track… The nature was amazing! There was a time, when I was standing in a rain forest facing a plant that was over 2000 years old (!) when I seriously considered changing my career path 180 degrees and becoming a wild life expert… Can you think of anything more interesting than to study tigers and rain forest and hairy spiders and…? I came to my senses of course when I reached the point of hairy spiders; screw the eco system, those bitches deserve to become extinct!

We had terrible luck with weathers; whenever we visited places that were supposed to be THE ultimate paradise locations, the weather turned out to be awful. But hey, all the more reason to go back one day! My favorite beach location was Byron Bay. It had a cool small town surfer-vibe and although it practically lived for the backpacking culture, it still felt authentic. I heard the people in Byron Bay are fighting against big corporations like McD’s to preserve their “localness”. Sydney and I didn’t really fall in love with each other. It was a great city but for some reason I didn’t connect to it. Could be that I just didn’t spend enough time going through the different suburbs and funky places. But boy did I love Melbourne! It had that cool European artsy cafe-vibe with underground rock gigs.. And I had my first ever couchsurfing experience there! I was happy to be hosted by two amazing girls, Bridie and Josie, who let me sleep on their couch for two days. I seriously couldn’t have hoped for a better first time to lose my CS-virginity! The first thing the girls asked me after meeting me at the tram station was: “I hope you don’t mind, but we kind of used you for an excuse to throw a dinner party and invited some friends over!” (Do I mind?? Is a bean green? Do eagles fly?) Needless to say, I had a great time over some pasta, wine and awesome conversations. Girls, I hope you come to Finland one day so I can pay my dues to you. I will not promise homemade dinner, but all the more wine and even finer conversations <3 I will defnitely go back to OZ one day as I never got to experience the infamous outback… Isn’t that where Hugh Jackman lives anyway?

From Australia it was time to go to New Zealand. Aaah New Zealand… Where do I start?? With the obvious, I guess. If Australia was my holiday fling, New Zealand turned out to be the love of my life. EVERYTHING with me and Aotearoa clicked! Not immediately though. After arriving to Auckland it all seemed a bit of too citylike to me, I was expecting to magically transform into an aristocratic elf with long blonde hair and pointy ears surrounded by lush forests and misty mountains but what I saw was just another big city. But like with all great loves, appearance is not everything. When I came back to Auckland at the end of my 6,5-week trip in NZ I have to say I found places in Auckland that I really, really liked. Big thanks to Ponsonby-region for stealing my money with a) amazing vintage stores and b) cool tattoo shops (I mean, what tattoo?where??).. Which reminds me, New Zealand believe it or not, had just about the coolest vintage shops I’ve ever been to. That one comic-book coat is still haunting me.. Poor baby, didn’t get to come with me to Finland. But back then a 100 euros made all the difference! Another money hole I discovered with my lovely friend Sarah was old book stores. We seriously spent hours wondering around old book stores in Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland in the search of the next literature treasure. And did we read! I read, what I discovered to be THE book for backpackers, Shantaram and although didn’t love it, it created a desire to travel to India. One day, inshallah.

Man, what is there to say about New Zealand? My heart aches just thinking about the beauty of it all. I had the pleasure of making a lot of friends on my bus trip with Stray (which I recommend, by the way, and let me know if you’re interested in going coz I can hook you up with a great discount!)  and the experience was beyond anything I can describe. I discovered myself the other day writing on Stray’s FB page a reply to a girl who was asking where to go in NZ and the list just kept on going. Tongariro, Hahei, Raglan, Wellington, Abel Tasman, Franz Josef, Queenstown, Wanaka, Christchurch, Milford Sound,… And there is still a lot left for me to discover. One of my favorite things on my trip was the road trip me and Sarah did from Queenstown to Milford Sound. We spent the night in a car telling each other horror stories (there is one particular one that still makes the hair on my arms stand up..) and talking about religion and life and death. Needless to say, it was terrific. I was lucky to get such a dear friend from her. I’m still looking forward to that trip to India/South-America/Asia, guuurl!

If you consider visiting the ever-amazing Middle-Earth come to life, don’t hesitate to call me for tips! I got my Lonely Planet covered in scribblings that I’m more than happy to borrow. Be careful though, I might tag along.

Of course I need to share now all the crazy extreme things that I did back in NZ, since it is the capital of extreme sports… Here we go!

5. Rafting down the biggest commercial waterfall in the world in Rotorua! Kia kaha, kia toa, kia manawanui!

4. Cayaking along the Cathedral Cove, THIS is what the Australian paradise locations were supposed to be like!Cayaking in Abel Tasman, the most beautiful national park in the world (that I’m aware of..).

3. Crossing Tongariro alps, nearly 20 km, baby! That’s right, me, trekking happily for 9 hours (occasional throwing up aside..). The track went up to almost 2000 metres, I’m so going to make it up Mt. Everest!!!

2. Skydiving! Jumping from an airplane with the glaciers, snowy mountains and NZ’s highest mountain Mt. Cook beneath you, it will take, your, breath, away. I remember that after my tandem partner opened the parachute I screamed on the top of my voice: “I want your job!!!!!”

1. Bungy jump in Queenstown. 134metres, Nevis Bungy. That’s the closest I’ve ever been to fainting. I can’t tell you how it felt cause I barely remember but next I’m aiming for the world’s highest bungy in Macau. 210 metres. Fuck, I am addicted to adrenaline.

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After running around New Zealand my flight took me to Hong Kong. I must say, the change of scenery from majestic mountains and green, lush forests to skyhigh buildings was not what I needed. I was pretty exhausted from traveling in the bus and constantly changing places, waking up early (I don’t wake up at 6 am when I’m working, why should I on a holiday?) and just general not-standing still. I felt it to be quite a culture shock. On top of it my “hotel” (it was more like a building with a room with a bed…) was somewhere waaaay off the center of the city and there was not a westerner in sight. Nobody spoke a word of English but I managed to get some food from 7/11. I spent 5 days in Hong Kong during which I met up with a school buddy, and my work collegues. I’ve been working for a company for 4 years that has a sister company in HK so it was very nice to get a face on all the e-mails I had been writing to. I did the Buddha-tour and other touristy stuff and in a different time Hong Kong could’ve become my favorite big city in the world. But timing is everything my friend and right now all I needed was to rest. The hectic lifestyle and massive crowds made me all the more exhausted. So I decided to get away from it all and go someplace familiar. Bangkok!

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On the plane from HK to Bangkok I realized that I really wasn’t in the mood for another big city, so I decided to continue straight from the airport to a serene beach location. I had already been to the west-side with Ao Nang and Phi phi’s and as appealing as it seemed to go to familiar surroundings I decided to try something new. I had a faint memory of people recommending me Koh Chang, and since it didn’t seem (I was proved wrong!! so very wrong) to be that far away from Bangkok, Koh Chang it was! I had huge difficulties in finding a bus that actually goes to Koh Chang, and it would be another looong story how I finally got myself there. But in the end, the bus trip with the locals took hours, I had to spend a night in a small town I can’t remember the name of, take a ferry, and another bus and a taxi to find myself in Lonely beach, which I’d heard to be the most remote and quietest place on the island.

Koh Chang proved to be exactly what I was craving for. It was in the  middle of the jungle with nothing but one proper hotel and mostly bungalows. I stayed there for 2 weeks and those 2 weeks are so far the most zen-like time of my life. I did absolutely nothing. I met amazing people, every night, and engaged myself in the most interesting conversations about global warming, heart ache, family problems, traveling. Some I knew for one night, others I still keep in touch with. If you ever go there, please visit a restaurant called Treehouse. They serve the yummiest food, the place is built on water and you can experience the sunset from the deck while sipping an ice-cold Chang (which I consumed litres of..). And there are a lot of alone-travelers. That’s what I call people who travel alone . So it’s easy to go up to someone and say, hey, you’re alone, I’m alone, do you mind if I eat with you? And you never know how the night ends! Mine ended with a robbery, staying up to see the sun rise with a miniature pig and a cute puppy and talking about indian ashrams and your favorite childhood movies and everything in between.

On Koh Chang I met lots of lovely people, and among them Casper, Peter and Jay-Jay. The result of one afternoon’s hammocking (this is a verb that Casper I think invented and boy, did we do a lot of hammocking in Koh Chang..)was that all of us had been thinking about doing a PLAN, where to go next, but had felt a little too lazy to act on it, so we put our wise sun-burnt heads together and decided to visit Cambodia!

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Aaah Cambodia. My memories are clouded with vomit and shit. Sorry. Mainly because that’s all I did. What’s wrong with sharing one’s intestinal problems on social media? Kay back to biz. So we did Angkor Wat and Siem Reap. Siem Reap, not sure what to say. “Please buy somthing miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiIIIIIIIIIIISSS!”  The temples of Angkor Wat were amazing of course. Poor Casper had to take 50 pictures of me kissing a Buddha’s face until I was happy with the angle of my leg and the curve on my back hahah.. Women, eh. Whether it was the evil spirit of Buddha having been violated by obnoxious me, something somewhere attacked my intestinal system with the most vicious disease I’ve ever had the pleasure to encounter. The result was, I was hurried to a hospital for an IV and never felt so sick in my life. A word of wisdom, if you can, stay far away from Cambodian hospitals. Not really the happiest place on Earth. I had a cute male nurse and our converations were translated by a mobile dictionary he had on his phone. He also offered to sleep in my room (for protection, I take it?) but I kindly refused. That was all of Cambodia I got to experience and after a week of feeling awful it was time to get away. Casper and I had a serious talk if we should part our ways since it seemed that we only brought each other bad luck. After all, I got robbed while partying with him, his foot got sliced into too while drinking with me, and we both got incredibly sick in Cambodia. So he went on to Vietnam and I decided to get to Bangkok where I would re-consider my options.

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There wasn’t a lot of time left and I had to plan where to go and what to do next quickly. After Cambodia I wasn’t in a happy place and was in a desperate need to be somewhere “safe”. So I decided to go to Bali, where some of my friends (back then they were people I knew, now they are more than  my friends! they are my GOOD friends!) were planning to have a few weeks of holiday In the Bali region of Indonesia.  Bali was.. different from Thailand to say the least. It had more people and small, small alleys making me get lost all the time. People were constantly trying to sell you stuff from “real RayBan’s, miss, I swear!” to any drug you could name. But there was some vibe that I loved. My surfing career came to a great start but grew to frustration and ended with desperation as I met people who had practised it for a year and still didn’t know how to turn the damn board. We visited an amazing small village called Ubud which was one of the highlights of visiting Bali. All in all at Bali it was time to be lazy again, eat well and enjoy the sun. The only thing was that the nature wasn’t quite as amazing as I’d hoped it to be, but then again I didn’t get a chance to visit the Gili islands, which I recon to be breath-taking. Another one for the list, eh! Now to make things more interesting dear karma had decided to bless me with yet another disease to take me to a hospital. I had to fight the doctor to let me go explaining that as much as I trust in my travel insurance, rearranging 4 flights to get me to London on time would not happen. (Another tip: do not spend 48 hours flying if you have a bug in you. Let’s leave it there.)

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Can’t believe my time was seriously running out and it was time to turn my gaze towards Europe and home. But before home there was one more place to go, London!!! My best friend’s husband had his 30th bday and I thought it’d be a perfect occasion to surprise her by flying via London. Everything worked out and she sure was surprised! I will never forget her look when she turned around as I tapped her shoulder. She thought I was a ghost! I gotta say, the hardest part of London was to change my hippie-clothes to smug dresses and heels again.. I got so used to my reggae-outfit! If I’m honest, my harem-pants times twenty with small bells hanging from the waistband are still safe and sound in my wardrobe closet. He he he.

Well, that’s all folks! Can’t believe over 4 months of life could be recapped in just 2705 words. Until next time…

Haere Mai Aotearoa

Okay, it’s been way too long since my last update.. Since at the time of writing I’m already in New Zealand, I’m going to update the rest of Oz sometime in the near future and just concentrate on New Zealand for now. So where to start? I flew to Auckland on the 20^th of jan. Back in Australia I had given very little thought on how and what I was going to do in NZ. I visited a few travel agencies and all of them seemed to recommend me hop on-hop off bus passes. At first I was against the idea, wanting to go off the beaten track and all that, but after asking around I found out that that’s actually the most common way to get around NZ. Unlike Australia, there is really nothing like Greyhound, there’s Naked bus and InterCity shuttles, which can take you to places, but they don’t cover all of the country.

So the bus passes. Basically there are three major competitiors, Kiwi Experience, Stray and Magic. I knew a few people who’d done Kiwi Experience and liked it, but somehow at every agency I entered they seemed to think I was too old for it and recommended Stray. Basically Kiwi is profiled for people between 18-23 and Stray for the older, more chilled audience, and Magic somewhere in between. At the time being I’ve spent  3 weeks with Stray and couldn’t be happier with my decision really. All the Kiwi Ex people we’ve met said that it’s basically a partybus and everyone’s really young  and keen on drinking and mating (mind you, it’s sometimes called the FuckTruck..). So Stray it was. Got a pretty good deal, 250 AUD off the price. Again, they seem to have an offer going on all the time, so don’t believe you’re actually getting a discount J

I got to Auckland and stayed a few nights at the most amazing little hostel called Freeman’s lodge. It’s more like a B&B really rather than a  regular hostel. Each room has separate beds, as in beds and not bunk beds. How cool was that!! I recommend it to anyone going to Auckland, it’s run by an Indian woman who is the sweetest person ever, helps you with everything and makes sure everything is okay. And, the hostel has free wifi! Okay enough of the free advertising.. (I should actually get a free night now, right?) Just check hostelworld.com, the reviews spek for themselves.

I pretty much hated Auckland, it was nothing but another big city to me. I did visit a beautiful volcanic island just off the coast from Aucland called Rangitoto island. There are other islands I may visit when I get back to Auckland.  But the city itself didn’t impress me at all. So it was time to get the hell away from the smoke! With my Stray booking I got a free pass to travel to the very north of the northern island, to Paihia, bay of Islands. I hopped off there for two nights. I felt that Paihia was a basic beach town, not a lot to do and made for sunbathing, although the beach wasn’t all that pretty… I think the idea is to visit some of the islands nearby, but due to the lack of time and money I just visited Russell, a very nice small town off the coast from Paihia with amazing cafes! I wish I had stayed there instead of Paihia, actually. But apparently for Kiwis to own a house in Bay of Islands is THE dream. Stayed at Cap’s’n’Bob’s (pretty sure that’s not the correct way of spelling it), a small hostel , again,closer to being a B&B rather than a hostel. I met lovely people there so all in all had a good time! From Paihia I got back to Auckland for one night before starting my actual bus trip with Stray. Plan was to do North island first and then the South island. By the way, at some point I completely ditched my plans to go to Tonga, NZ seemed to have so much to offer that i thought jsut as well spend more time here. Also, I had heard from pretty much everyone that the South Island is more impressive and that I should spend more time there.

Just to specify, Stray isn’t a guided trip or anything, it’s a bus pass that takes you to places all around the country according to the pass you’ve bought (more places you buy, the more you pay etc). But, in the bus pass there are many free activities included like stopping at scenic places for photos etc. And the bus drivers are (almost always…) extremely nice and keep on telling you what you can do and where to find everything, help you with your skydive bookings and whatnot. Another good thing with Stray is that they guarantee you a dorm bed wherever you go for at least one night.

Day 1 – Auckland to Hahei

On the first day the bus took me to Hahei, a beeeeautiful beach place. Everyone in the bus seemed to get along very well, liked the group very much. At Hahei we did some kayaking around the Cathedral Cove. The opening scene of Narnia:Prince Caspian (haven’t seen that piece of shit but may just have to do that now)has been filmed there along with some other films (not LOTR though). Turquoise water, white beaches, amazing rock formations and caves; paradise! We had a lot of laughs kayaking around although Bas(a dutch guy who was mistaken for my husband apparently because we look alike? married couples are not supposed to look alike…!) and me seemed to be better and faster than everyone else (haa haa haa!). In Hahei we stayed at a pretty basic camping ground (shock number one, Alina) but nothing that a few bottles of wine wouldn’t cure. Our driver cooked us some barbeque and the group headed to the beach to experience the hot water pools; you dig a hole to the sand in the evening and it fills up with almost boiling water. I burnt my toes pretty badly! I think Hahei would’ve been a nice spot to hop off but since the group on the bus was so cool I didn’t want to risk the next bus group being boring.

Bas and I were the ultimate kayaking team!

Cathedral Cove

Day 2 – Hahei – Raglan

We arrived to Raglan quite early in the morning and as some of us were suffering from mild sleeping deprivation due to last night, it was a cool day for a little afternoon nap on the beach. Raglan is a laid-back surfer town (not really a town, more like.. a village). Unfortunately the waves weren’t too good and I was just too tired to try surfing in Kiwi waters. The hostel we stayed at was awesome, up on a steap hill, but had hammocks. The kind of place you just want to light a…plain cigarette and read hours in the hammock. Another place well worth hopping off at. There are many thing you can do in Raglan, like explore glow worm caves. By the way, here I ate the best fish and chips (or fush and chups as it’s said in kiwi English) ever. The fish was fresh from the sea and just so yummy you wouldn’t believe it. And cost 5 bucks which is 2,5 euros!! Sweet as!

Raglan surf beach

Day 3 – Raglan to Maketu

Day 3 was the day for the maori cultural experience. Short history lessons: Maoris are the indigenous people of New Zealand with rich culture. They mostly live on the north island, and the biggest Maori town being  Rotorua. So we arrived at Uncle Joe’s place, he was a big jolly Maori man and we were invited to his Hangi. We ate some yummy Maori food followed by a Maori show (which to be quite honest, I was a little disappointed with). The young guys were amazing in doing their scary dance but it just felt a little commercial to me… We were also forced to perform; girls would do a pom-pom (??) dance and they guys had to do some sort of warrior dance. So yeah, way to break the ice getting everyone completely embarrassed. Nevertheless had a great time there and we decided to take the night to the beach and build a bonfire. Since there was no wood found on the beach Gareth and Bas decided to take some wood from some guy’s farm’s fence. hahaha! Priceless.

Day 4 – Maketu to Rotorua to Taupo

It was time to head towards Rotorua, a Maori town that smelled like shit. Literally. Due to thermal volcanic activity there’s a constant smell of rotten eggs (mmmmm!). Some of us went  white water rafting which was great fun! We got to raft down the biggest commercial waterfall in the world! Supposedly 50 % of the time the raft flips, but we had good luck although at times some of the people were just half on the boat. From there we headed toward Taupo, which is by Lake Taupo, which is the size of Singapore. Pretty incredible. Taupo is the cheapest place in NZ to skydive but I had seen pictures from a girl who had done it in Franz Josef over the alps and the glaciers so I decided that it would be better to skip skydiving here. Interesting fact, Lake Taupo is actually a volcanic crater and last year scientists detected that the water was bubbling again due to some volcanic activity. Now it’s said that if the bubbles get mixed with volcanic gas (geologists can freely correct me), it means that lake Taupo will explode within 8 minutes and the explosion will be so strong that everyone in New Zealand will die. Quite a frightening idea… Last time it exploded the smoke reached Rome. I wouldn’t necessarily build my house next to that lake.

Airlie Beach and the Whitsundays islands

Could we be more excited? 14 hours on a bus ahead...

After the jolly 12 h bus ride we finally arrived to Airlie Beach. The name is misleading because again we were to discover that there is no actual beach and the place to be was another man-made lagoon. But that was okay because unlike Cairns, it seemed that Airlie Beach was a party town. The hostel we stayed at was Magnum’s, which turned  out to be a real hostel/bar/restaurant/night club-combination filled with HEAPS of people. I immediately liked Airlie beach where everything seemed to be packed and happening on the small beach street.

Airlie lagoon

Some of our Finnish crew were staying at Long Island, one of the Whitsundays islands (and yeah apparently the house specialty was indeed long island ice tea)so a day trip had to be organized. It seems that everywhere we go we bring rain with us and Long Island was no exception. It wasn’t a particularly sunny day and in a resort there isn’t much to do so we girls decided to do some exercise and hike into the rainforests again. We did a 2-3 hour trek around the island and yes, sweating reached a whole new level.. Here’s some picture material from the trek. Poor girls had to hear me sing to myself as I was afraid to see hairy spiders.. (didn’t, but encountered other yucky creatures).

First trek behind us.. we got lost and ended up taking the shortest one he he he

At the end of the bushwalk there were some pretty nice views and some actual air to breathe, but don't ask what's happened to my clothes!!!

Ugly creature number 1

Never seen rain come down this hard. My camera didn't properly caption the amount and the size of the raindrops. Amazing! 5 minutes and it was over.

Just like Cairns, Airlie beach was also mainly a gateway to the reef and the Whitsundays islands. We decided to book a sailing trip that was to take us around the Whitsundays. Btw, one of the Whitsundays islands, Hamilton’s, is the island where the guy with “the world’s best job” lives. He got stung by a jellyfish the other day! Therefore I was pretty scared to enter the water as there was so much talk on the deadly jellyfish (we did of course wear a stinger suit but it doesn’t cover your face, neck or palms. Apparently the most severe situation is if you get stung near your heart, but in anycase it was quite scary.. for meJ There’s two types of deadly jellyfish, the Irukandi (or as we called them, Ichiban!) and the box jellyfish. The box jellyfish can have tentacles up to 4 meters! And it has the world’s fastest working venom in its tentacles. Yaiks! The Ichiban on the other hand is so small that you can’t really see it. And yes I’ve become overly obsessed with Australia’s deadly creatures… Fascinating! I didn’t enjoy snorkeling at  the reef as much as I did in Thailand, mostly because of the fear of jellyfish. There were many non-poisonous ones and  they kept stinging me in my face and neck and all I could  think was, the Ichiban is lurking just around the corner…

Box jellyfish

Irukandji jellyfish

Stinger suits are so sexy.

So we circled around the Whitsundays, got off at Whitehaven beach, which was the ultimate paradise beach, but as you can see from the pics, what we experienced was a little different from what they print in the brochures. Bad luck I guess, again the shitty weather followed us. Second snorkeling spot was also rubbish, there were so  powerful currents that the water was completely blurry and even if you tried to swim you just kept moving backwards. Still the islands are quite impressive, very similar to Thailand’s islands, but quite honestly the experience wasn’t as good as it could’ve been due to the weather. (I did manage to sunburn myself though, even though it was cloudy and rainy. Go figure.)

Whitehaven beach through my lense...

...and as it's presented in the brochures.

Our Camira boat where we had an "all inclusive" buffet, aka 3 % beer and cheap wine. Yummy! The boat was extremely cool though, had two trampolines in the front where you could sunbathe (or rain bathe)

NYE was a blast, we decided to hang back at Magnum’s and that was a good call. There was an awesome live band (or two?or three? can’t remember) playing rock classics, reggae, even Lambada! And even if our fireworks didn’t match up to the ones in Sydney, they were still pretty amazing. A very fun night indeed, too bad we had to go to bed pretty early as we had the above Whitsundays cruise departing at 7.15 am the next day.

Snakebite jug 12 dollars! Awesome stuff, half beer, half sider and on top some red liquor. Extremely tasty.

Some people took NYE to a whole other level. I felt underdressed compared to these genious'

Magnum's

After Airlie beach the roadtrip began and we rented a car heading south to Noosa, Rainbow Beach, Fraser’s and Byron Bay. More about that next time.

Cairns

So after arriving to Cairns and been told that luggage wasn’t going to arrive for the whole day, it was time for some serious shopping. The weather was unbelievably humid and so hot! I swear I was going to melt in my pants (and not in a good way you dirty sods). The only place that actually sells clothing here was Cairns Central-mall, which at 1^st sight looked like an American mall. My dreams of AA and Victoria’s secret vanished pretty soon… All the stores seemed to sell awful, awful cheap-looking grandma clothes. Who wears these??!  There were two stores selling basic surf brands like Billabong and Quiksilver so decided to stack up there.. Here’s the result.. I had to “slightly” modify my beloved Blair Waldorf-look J.

Is this how all ozzie sheilas dress up??

The hostel I’m staying at is NJoy! Travellers’ resort. For princess Alina, who has barely ever stayed at hostels, it was quite a shock to see the room. But, I’m getting used to it. There’s a nice lounge area and an outside garden to hang out. Staff is nice and there are basic services available (aka internet, can’t live without it ). First we were given a room where the temperature was closer to 40 but later that day Hanna and Make arrived and were smart enough to demand to change the room so we got a room with a proper air conditioning.

The town itself is honestly quite boring. There’s really not much to do and there’s no beach, either. There is “a lagoon” which turned out to be a 90 cm deep pool in the middle of a lawn. Also, I was expecting a beach walk with lots of bars but there seems to be just a few restaurants. Maybe the scene changes during night time. But as I was told by numerous locals, Cairns mostly acts as a gateway to the rainforest and the Great barrier Reef and the town itself is not an actual sight. So luckily plans were made to go see a jungle town of Kuranda  and go snorkeling to the Great Barrier Reef for one day. I don’t scuba-dive so will have to settle for snorkeling.

So it’s Christmas Eve today! They are organizing a barbeque party at the hostel so I guess it’s going to be a slightly different Xmas meal J Merry Xmas from the heat!

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On Boxing Day it was time for The Great Barrier Reef! We took a big boat from the marina that drove for about 2 hours off the coast to the 1^st snorkeling spot. On the way we saw some cute dolphins! Some of our crew did scuba-diving as well but I decided to settle with snorkeling. We also got to go with a glass-bottom boat where you could see the corals beautifully. The 2^nd spot we were taken to was awesome! There was Nemo, Nemo’s friend from the ocean (the yellow-black fish in the aquarium) and lots of lots of other fish! And the high point was…. (Jaws theme plays..tantan tantan tantaaaaa) I saw a shark!!!! It was awesome! It was about 1,5 m long and apparently a reef shark. So Mom, nothing to worry about, they don’t eat human (often). I started shouting “shark! Shark!” which scared some people (he he he, go figure..) but as I was told in the beginning, if you see something cool, don’t keep it to yourself! And I sure didn’t. A while later when I had already left the water someone said there was another shark swimming near the boat, so brave me, grabbed a snorkeling mask and jumped right into the water! This one was bigger and flatter, maybe a tiger-shark? Not quite sure. Anyway, was a very successful trip all in all, because I can tell my grandchildren one day that Mommy has seen a shark!

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On the last day before heading south from Cairns, decided to visit the rainforest village of Kuranda. One can visit it either by taking a Scenic Railway-trip or taking a Skyrail up to the village. The village itself is situated over 300m above from sea level. We decided to take the railway journey. The trip took about 2 h one-way and the panoramic views were just breathtaking! The higher we rose the better the view was. There was also some waterfalls along the way but due to the draught they weren’t that impressive. Unfortunately on the way up there was a lot of mist and clouds but luckily on the way back the weather had changed and got some amazing shots from high above.

Up in Kuranda there were lot of tourist attractions, Koala parks, butterfly gardens,  Venom parks, etc, as well as hippie-markets that sold everything from jewelry and beach gear to crocodile skin belts and kangaroo furs. It seemed actually that all authenticity of the village was long gone and the locals were running solely on tourism. However there were other cost-free activities to do, and we decided to do a jungle trek through the rainforest. The jungle trek turned out to be a little less wild than I had hoped for; they had an asphalt road paved through the jungle! Good exercise though, if nothing more. Here are some pics along the way up and down as well as from the jungle itself. After Kuranda it was time to say bye to Cairns and head down south to Airlie Beach and the Whitsundays islands. 12 h bus ride ahead with Greyhound, oh goody.

You can't really see it in this pic but the fall was huge...

The views were amazing on the way up to the rainforest village

It’s not about the destination..it’s about the journey. Eeehhh??!

Writing this at Sydney airport at 2am in the morning feeling slightly unreal after spending the last 48 hours traveling non stop..  I can’t feel my ass anymore! Phweeeh what a journey to finally get here! All flights from Helsinki were delayed due to the snow storms (you’d think that in our sweet home country where winter goes on for 6 months a little snow wouldn’t stop the traffic but…) and along with them was my flight to Amsterdam. My route was going to be Helsinki-Amsterdam, Amsterdam-Hong Kong, HK-Sydney and then a day later Sydney-Cairns. Originally we were supposed to have a nice 4 hour-change in Dam but our flight was delayed over 3 h. Finally got to Dam, blood pressure nicely rising, and got the worst service ever trying to locate the right terminal and gate for the flight to hong kong. What made it even trickier was that Finnair didn’t give us our boarding passes for the other flights so you can imagine my panic when there was 20 minutes to get to a ticket desk, get boarding passes and get to the plane. Luckily found the right terminal and right gate after running for 15 minutes like it was the Helsinki City run, sweating like a pig (a sexy pig, that is!) and made it. Unfortunately stress didn’t end there as we had only an hour to change the plane in Hong Kong and the snow was bothering flight traffic in Dam, too, so our plane was waiting to get cleaned etc… Fortunately had some tail wind so our flight arrived in HK earlier than expected and thanks to Cathay Pacific and their amazing staff there were people waiting for all people with connecting flights who took us through fast lanes. Gotta say, I’m not surprised Cathay was voted the best airline in 2008, they really had great service on board and the plane ride was as comfortable as an 11 h flight can be. Each passenger had their own entertainement screen-tv where you could choose from numerous tv-shows and movies (including classics like Pulp Fiction!immediate respect!). I ended up watching 500 days of summer (okay) and Time traveler’s wife which I’m actually currently reading the book about (Eric Bana shirtless, girls, need I say more?). At some point running to the HKI-Sydney plane made me feel like straight from an Amazing race-episode…

So after all the hassle it was no wonder that luggage was completely lost and didn’t make it to Sydney. What makes it even better is that since the plan was  to fly to Cairns 6.30 in the morning, it won’t get to me on time anyhow, and will be shipped to me in Cairns sometime in the evening tomorrow J More sweaty days ahead! I swear I could peel off dirt from my face with a cheese cutter. But, being the amazingly smart person that I am, I had extra pairs of underwear and socks packed to my hand luggage to make traveling more comfortable to my fellow travelers as well. Now is a good time to point out the convenience of having bought the ridiculously expensive super travel insurance, because I get to shop for 500 euros now! “Just purchase the ultimate necessities…”  Of course. But what if American Apparel and Victoria’s secret are the only places open?? He he he…

Since there was no point booking a hotel room for just a few hours before having to come to the check-in at 5 am again, decided to sleep at the airport like a proper budget traveler. And here I am, very much not asleep A doublecheeseburger at McD’s, Vitamin Water and a wifi connection should get me through the night though. Got to witness some hardcore action as well; just a while ago a bunch of police men came to arrest a hobo who apparently had been stealing from people around the sleeping area. Nosy me, had to get closer and heard the guy threaten to take the airport staff to the English supreme court. Ah ahahah! In the end he was hand-cuffed and taken away and my belongins are safely intact. There. My first blog entry actually concerning traveling.

Sleeping at Sydney airport..

Will update once in Cairns. Apparently it’s +30 and sunny. AAAHHHH! Merry Xmas to meeeeee!

PS. Representatives of American Apparel, Victoria’s secret and Glaceau Vitamin Water can contact yours truly directly for sponsorship deals. Great media exposure guaranteed.

R&A Helsinki International Film Festival

This Thursday it starts! I will post reviews of each film I go to see. On the menu I have mainly French and some English/American ones, a few Russian films (which I have very high expectations for!), a couple of Spanish and Latin American ones and some miscellaneous for dessert. Frenchies and Russians are high on my list this year! To be continued..

Things that I am really grateful for

1. Spotify. Free music, yeheei. Now if I only had an iPhone to go with it..

2. Not to be hooked on Big Brother. What kind of imbeciles go on to that show??? And have sex there??? Apparently people who think the Australian flag is either American or English (“isn’t it supposed to have more stars…?”) and that Brazil is the capital of Argentina. Way to go. How about making an academic season next year? Yes? No?

3. Global warming. Say what you want, eco-freaks, but I’m grateful for milder winters and warmer autumns! Wider range of clothes to wear, too, duh.

4. Scented cat litter. My guests appreciate it, too.

5. Unicafes. Cheap and healthy lunch as long as I have a student card.

6. Barney Stinson. He’s just awesome.

7. Digital cameras. Think of all the decision-making back in the days. Should I take a pic now or wait.. Dammit, only 23 more frames to go!

8. My boobs. They are of good size, not too big not too small (what??!! I am really!!!!!).

9. Morning coffee. You can’t suffer from constipation if you’re a coffee drinker. It’s just a matter of how many cups to drink.

10. Cotton sticks. Even Mozart was mistaken for a deaf f0r having too much wax in his ears. Yes yes they tell you not to stick it in your ear but everyone does it anyway.

Alina’s TV Guide for Fall 2009

Yaaaaaaaaaaah so since the trip is still 4 months and 1 week away (sigh) I realized I needed heavy action to keep my  subscribers hooked (actually, there are none.. YET. One can always hope!).

And as I tend to find fictional reality more fascinating than the world we live in, I’m taking you through the TV jungle of fall 2009. Based on my TV guide you no longer need to surf through all the channels, instead you’ll know exactly what to watch! Sweet, eh?

RETURNING SERIES – TUNE IN!

1. Grey’s Anatomy -returning September 24th

I chose this to be my number one on the returning series because last season’s finale had the most gripping cliffhanger. Who dies, Izzie or George??? Or do they both leave the show? Please don’t let it be Izzie…

2. Desperate Housewives – returning September 27th

As much as I’ve lost my interest on this show, the ending of last season got me guessing, did Mike marry Susan or Katherine? God I hate it if it’s Katherine…

3. How I met your mother – returning September 21st

It’s awesome! This show is the best sitcom by far. Fuck Friends and fuck Seinfeld! Do I need to say more? And for the record we don’t really care who the mother is anyway, just let us enjoy Swarley, Lilypad and Marshmellows (the cutest couple ever!), Ted Mosby the Sex-architect as well as Robin Sparkels. Oh and yes, we love Barney and Robin together! The BRO love!

4. Californication - returning September 27th

David Duchovny. He fucks around and he fucks up. And he makes it look oh so cool! Season 3 begins with Karen leaving to New York, Hank is a single-dad with a new job as a college teacher. Sweeeeeeeeet!

5. Entourage - ongoing

Good to have you back, boys!

6. Dexter - returning September 27th

America’s favorite serial killer is now a husband and a dad. Season 3 left me disappointed but the sarcasm in this show is just superb. BTW, where can I get one of those cute “My Dad’s a killer”-baby-tees? Would make a great gift!

7. Gossip Girl - returning September 14th

OMG!! Yes yes yes the annoying teen drama is on my list! But at least the show is honest, the 16-year-olds (I guess they’ve just turned 17?) drink, have sex and lie. This season The Queen Bee and others are off to different colleges. And Chuck and Blair are togetheeeeeeeeeeeer! Finally! Might not last long though, hints the teaser. Georgina is back, too and she’s getting it on with Humphrey! WTF??!!

NEW SERIES

1. Melrose Place - series premieres September 8th

Michael Mancini and Sydney are back! Didn’t she die like 10 years ago??? She was driven over by a car at her own wedding or…? Apparently it’s not a remake but the same kind of a follow-up as the hideous 90210. I’m switching the channel…

2. The Vampire Diaries - on CW

“Following the death of their parents, Elena and Jeremy Gilbert are trying to put the pieces of their broken lives back together. As a new school year begins, Elena’s life is completely turned upside down by a handsome and mysterious new student named Stefan Salvatore.” Hmm, where have I heard this before? Ian Somerhalder aka Boone from Lost is doing a vampire show. Was it not enough with Twilight and True Blood??? Not interested, sorry.

3. The Beautiful Life: TBL - on CW

Ashton Kutcher produces a show on becoming super models in New York, starring Mischa Barton. It will never be as good as GG so NEEEEEEEEXT!

4. Accidentally on Purpose - series premieres September 21st

Jenna Elfman plays a woman who accidentally gets knocked up by a younger guy, decides to have the baby and move in with the one-night-stand-dude. Boring!

5. Hank – series premieres September 30th

Kelsey Grammar plays a former businessman who is a forced to move his family back to his hometown to more modest surroundings after being used to being rich (being used to being rich? hahaha). Could be funny. Doubt it, though.

6. Cougar Town – premieres September 23rd

Courtney Cox plays a single-mom of a teenager who dates younger men. Sorry Court, didn’t work with Dirt either. You’ll always be Monica to me.

7. Harper’s Island – starts in Finland in September

It’s Ten Little Indians (did you know it was originally called Ten Little Niggers but they changed the title?) combined with Lost. A couple is getting married on an island where a bunch of peeps were murdered 10 years ago and one by one the guests are being killed off by a mysterious murderer. 13 episodes so only one season. Worth to watch! Kinda liked this show.

That’s all folks! I will also be waiting for 2010 with new seasons from 24 and Lost! Geek-alert!

Why I hate Twilight

Here’s the thing. I don’t understand this Twilight-mania that’s been going on for a while now (even some of my friends have been known to suffer from this awful plague!). A year ago I ordered the first Twilight saga-book from www.play.com (awesome site, cheap dvd’s, books, no delivery charge!) since I was lacking a good summer-read and it was on the Top 10 books-list. I eventually came to realize it was the worst 5-or-so Euros ever spent.

Before I begin, I gotta say that I’m not one of those people who claim that they are “too good” for a certain kind of a book or a film, you know the type, “I despise Dan Brown-literature”, “How could you not have read Dante’s Divine Comedy?” and “Hollywood films are so ordinary, I feel like I’m dumbed down by these mainstream films, you just lose two hours of your life by watching something as meaningless as Hot Rod or Pineapple Express” (both, funny as hell!). I do use a lot of media for relaxation only and yes I am a huge fan of fantasy slash scifi-type of films and literature such as Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and even Harry Potter (the books! not the films) but c’mon, there’s no comparing these classics with Twilight.

Those of you who have been spared not to know what Twilight is about, it’s a book by Stephenie Meyers about a teenager girl Bella, who falls in love with a vampire dude, Edward (I know, right…). Then it’s all will-they, or won’t-they, oh the drama and gossip at the high school, blah blah blah… And they recently made a film out of it which appears to be a major hit.

So, I read the first book. I’ll give you this: yes, it is kiiiiinda hooking as you want to know what happens between Bella and Edward, if they get together eventually (I’m a hopeless romantic and get highly addicted to almost everything so that’s my excuse). But here’s why one should never waste time reading this piece of shit-book:

1. Throughout the book, in every fucking scene where Bella sees Edward, it is described how “his hazel/topaz/golden-shimmering glitzening eyes gazed upon me, and I couldn’t do anything but admire his divine beauty which always took my breath away”. We get it, he’s good-looking, now move on.

2. After all the build-up, you wait for some delicious, insanely hot, Johnny Deppish/Brad Pittish/David Duchovnyish, rip-my-clothes-off-right-now-kinda-looking guy to play his part in the movie and what happens??? He’s played by a fucking insanely pale, thin, heroin addict-type of dude. Not good.

3. Adjectives. Do not fucking overuse them, mrs. Meyer! Let the reader do some thinking of her own! Even Stephen King (yes, a great writer I may argue!) once said that what reveals an amateur writer is the over-usage of adjectives and adverbs. “Never write: ‘he slammed the door furiously’. ‘He slammed the door’ will do just fine, the reader will get it”.

If you still insist on reading Twilight, feel free to come over and collect my copy of it. I will give it to you free of charge.