Thursday 27 April 2017

But if it is raining in my end destination?

Today is a rainy day here in Milan and I though that it could be a good idea to talk about the opportunities that travellers may have when they land in the end destination and the weather forecast do not promise anything good.

Some time ago I ended up to Istanbul and it was ice cold, rainy and nearly snowing.
All my plans to visit the town kind of got frozen, me included.
Istanbul actually offers a lot to a visitor even in a rainy period. I enjoyed hammam daily. It took those 3 hours to warm me up, and visit a nice tea room afterwords.
In those few hours of not raining I visited Santa Sophia, and crossed over the river to visit Turkish Asian part.


www.luxos.com



Rainy days actually are to take as an opportunity to slow down. Many cities offer thermal or beauty spas that are usually located in fancy hotels. I think it's money spent wisely. If you are travelling with your lifetime companion then it can turn out as romantic experiment. Imagine, you two in a beauty centre with several special treatments. If nothing else, you shall remember how enjoyable it was. And then to visit the city itself just book another trip.


https://www.123rf.com



I know, it is not affordable to everyone to visit Paris many times, if it rains each time you go there. Perhaps it is also a sign: you were not to spend stressful time visiting places and attractions together that someone you are travelling with.
If you are going to spend more than three days and it keeps raining, the options of indoor fun start to diminish. But then again, take a visit to a local hairdresser. It takes one hour out of rain. Visit the local malls. Again an hour or two hour out of the rain and you don't have to buy anything at all. Museums are good hiding places from a rainy wether. And if you are a fanatic football fun, many cities offers bars or pubs where to watch local football games if not international ones.


http://www.bratislava.cdfoto.net

Although it rained 3 days during my visit to Lisbon, it didn't matter a lot. We took the bus tour anyway and spent a lots of time eating local food in restaurants. Lisbon has a culture for fado singing and one evening we went to see the local artist in a restaurant. 
When heavy rainfall took place we found ourselves in a mall.

http://www.inchiostrofresco.it

What would you do in a rainy day? 
Feel free to comment below







Monday 24 April 2017

Planning your vacation to Finland with these 5 ideas

I am from Finland

And although I live nearly 35 years abroad I still feel like Finnish. I guess it never ends.
Living abroad has it good points. One of them is to understand how differently we behave, and yet we are pretty much the same. 

If you have thought to go to Finland there are few ideas you might like to follow.
1. Finland offers huge amount of nature.
2. Beer and wine are expensive
3. Finnish seem extremely shy
4. Summer can be hot and short
5. There are lots of mosquitoes. 

As Finland is called a country of thousands of lakes we must like to eat fish, right?
In some occasions yes. 
Finnish people are mainly meat eaters, but in the summer when fishing is possible and woods offer plenty of berries and mushrooms, we change our diet. Fried lake fish called "muikku" is to get nearly at everywhere, even in the main market at Helsinki. They are fried in butter and we eat the whole fish, head included. If you thought we eat salmon day in day out, it is not true. Finnish prefer sausage in the summer, among other grilled meat.
Many Finnish like to grow their own vegetable and fruit in the garden, like plums, apples, peers, cherries and strawberries among other berries known as superfood. We believe that our northern strawberries have better taste than those grown in the southern Europe or in glass serre, because the berries collect the right amount of water and sunshine that is a lot; nearly 24 hours.  
So if you are planning a vacation in Finland one of the few things you might like to do is to go to woods with a 10 litre emmer, watertight boots, and a repeller to mosquitoes. And start picking blueberries in July  lingon berries in august and mushrooms in august and September. 
If you have booked a rented house or a flat, it is easy to dry mushrooms in the oven, and make jam out of the berries and bring these delicate souvenirs back home. Most woods are free to go to pick berries and mushrooms. 
Finland is so rich of nature that you must love silence and the eco of it if you travel to Finland
photo from Pinterest

The economical standard and the monopoly of the Finnish state has made alcohol expensive. If you come from a country where a beer costs 1€ in the supermarket, In Finland add 2 more. Red and white wines in your country would costs 5€ but at Finnish Alko they sell the same brand with 100% profit if not more. Alko orders wine in a barrels mostly and then handles the bottling so that it looks unrecognisable to most wine tenders. To save few euros we even buy wine in 5 lt. box, that for the visitors out of wine countries looks awful. I know. We drink usually only during the weekends and then we don't spit in the glass. If you are invited to a party on Sunday  it is possible that there is no wine at all, because Monday is a working day and no one wants a hangover to start the week. 
If we go to a restaurant, we usually drink ice water, that is free of charge or perhaps a beer. Ordering a wine bottle is like adding one meal if not more. As I live in Italy and I usually order a bottle that is overcharged by 200% in Finland I have to calculate the Alko profit that is 100% and the restaurant profit. A €5 wine turns out at Alko €10 and in the restaurant I might turn out paying nearly €50. It makes a lots of difference to my budget  so instead of drinking in a restaurant we have this "drink after diner" instead. Cider made out of peer or apple is pretty common among women, while men prefers beer. It is again a question of money: if one beer or cider costs €6 but has double amount comparing to wine, that in the other hand makes drunk faster, you have your choice. 
Meals are normally around €20 since we have just one main plate that includes proteins, carbohydrates, such as potatoes/rise/pasta and vegetables. Add an other €8 to a dessert. 
It is not a common use to have sandwich for lunch, but it is common to have a huge breakfast and an early dinner. In Finland children have free meal at school and in the summer time local parks might offer a meal for a mid day, but only to children that need to bring their own plate, drinks and fork&knife/spoon. When I was a child, just in my back yard we had this huge park with kids swimming pool and we got each weekday a warm soup for free. 
You might like to experiment with Finnish Pizza: We add ananas to ham and our most well known pizza has reindeer  If you turn out to find a Pizza Bolognese, it wont mean that it has this mortadella sausage in it. It is a pasta meat sauce in a pizza topping. 
If you are invited to a grill party, you don't need to bring a bottle of wine, but it is appreciated to show off with six packs to adults and ice cream to kids. But if you go to a visit with a nice bottle of wine and it is not opened do not get upset. It is considered as a personal gift and drank in some other occasion. 

TripAdvisor.com


Finnish people different from other Scandinavians in many ways. First of all, we look totally different. Most Finnish people have tatar ancestors and we have our eyes a bit like amandels pointing upwards from rear end. Our nose is called a "potato nose", since it has a large top just above the narice. And if you are in Finland you may notice most people do not wear high heels and elderly people walk a bit like pinquins or ducks. It is generally transmitted habit I guess. 
We also appear shy. It is not that we leek confidence, but we leak trust towards unknown. We don't dear to ask, we make our own suggestions and ideas believing them to be true. Only after one or two beers/glass of wine we start to socialise  Most people would like to learn to know all of you, and even if we don't make many questions we pay attention to every move of yours. 
But there is one place where we are not shy at all, and that is in Sauna. You must go to Sauna with real Finnish people. In most public swimming pools we have separate Sauna to males and to females and it is not allowed to wear a swimsuit. Just a towel under out butt. There is nothing to be ashamed in a naked human body we believe and we need to clean it properly. If you are invited to go to someones summer house, it is possible that after a Sauna you are expected to go for a skinny dive. 
And about Sauna we don't mean a hot room where we sit and chat. It is hot like in hell there and you run to a lake to cool down. After witch one ice cold beer or cider (typically peer or apple) taste like heaven. 
The other place where we are not shy is traffic. Not that we yell like latin drivers, but we just don't think anyone should pass without any good reason and that could be a police or fire department. To mistake a line, because you are a tourist or I am living abroad and we don't know the new traffic rules, might turn out a long queue with frustrated drivers behind us. 
The main rule in Finland to apply is that around each person there is a bubble large as where the hands end and it is not allowed to enter without permission. Forget the kiss and handshake unless it's official. Just a high rising your hand to hello from a distance would do. And do not get upset if we don't remember or pronounce correctly your name. English Jack could be associated to Finnish name Jari, or Jennifer to Jenni. 
Comparing to Latinos we Finnish like solitude, and silence. We hide in to our summer cottages for a month to cut wood or grow vegetable  And we might stay there one full month with not talking to anyone. Our spouses need to read minds to figure out when it is time to warm sauna, put on the bbq and have supper. 
It is not common in Finland to take a seat next to someone unknown in a bus, or sit in the next table in the restaurant. In a public beach we look the most distanced edge to put our towel to sit on it. 

http://inktank.fi


It is possible that regarding your vacation period the temperatures aren't as you expected. Officially finnish summer starts at Midsummer, but I have experienced snow fall even near Helsinki, like in the summer of 2014. We had +3°C and it was snowing. The lake water temperature was only +14°C and yet I took out my "winter fur" as we use to call our first swim. But in the very next week the temperature rises above +28°C and it lasted nearly 6 weeks. In the summer 2002 the warm summer lasted until october. But it is more unique than rare. Usually we have a short warm period in the spring, in may, but it turns back cold and sometimes rainy too. You might ask at this point how we grow our fruits and vegetables? We put the seeds in a pot and keep them inside until the temperature allow us to plant them in the garden. 
We don't have deep waters, not in the sea nor in the lakes and that helps water rise or lower temperature easily. Just one warm week and it is possible to swim in a lake/sea. But in the winter we have 30 cm thick ice and it is possible to drive with a car over it. 
You may also notice that our boats are build differently. It is because of the wave length. We do not have long waves so that the head of the boat is shorter than you would see in the boats at the Mediterranean. 
Most lakes have mud bottom and it might feel uncomfortable to your toes. It's only mud and good for the skin. Use it; it's free. 


http://www.vastavalo.net




In that short warm period we experience the first mosquitoes. But it is in July when they turn out billions and they are all hungry. Just put lotion and wear long leaves in the nigh. It is nearly impossible to survive Finnish summer with no mosquito bites. 
If you are up to north to see the endless sunshine, and perhaps pick up some cloudberries, the northern delicatessen to add to your ice cream, you need special suit that is a mosquito hat and thick clothes not to let mosquitos to bite you. These small mosquito bites are really itchy. An other bite that is annoying is the elk fly. That is a long skinny fly and it enters everywhere if it finds a naked skin area. The only way to get rid of those flies is a hot sauna and a help of a good Finnish friend who can detach them. 
And as in Mediterranean countries we also have meat fly; in Finland it bites also humans. 
The best outfit to Finnish summers and in the woods is the one in the below, but in a normal day life also t-shirts and shorts with sandals do just fine. And in Finland; wear white tennis socks with sandals not to be recognised as a tourist.

http://ostajanonni.verkkokauppaan.fi

You seem to be ready to your Finnish vacation. All you need now is to book the trip. 


Any further questions to your next Finnish vacation, please feel free to comment.
Group reservations at www.kairos-travel.eu











Thursday 13 April 2017

queuing experience

I love shopping

But I don't consider myself as a shopaholic. Nor I am a fashion victim. 
Just to buy something useful when I am visiting one place or another. 
And I am not talking about souvenirs. 

At one of my visits to Amsterdam, I desperately needed linen trousers and I found them in one of those huge concerns that have stores in every country. First thing that I noticed was a leak of personal. Second one that although there were several fitting rooms, they were not available for the use of customers. So I needed to queue among many other disappointed customers. And finally at the cash desk; huge queues and only one serving person. I spent more time queueing than choosing, fitting and paying the item. 


https://www.123rf.com



These shop owners are not poor, and they would make more money if they would make selling items more efficient  I understand that in some cases the local laws and taxes prohibit the opportunity to hire more personal in order to make selling more efficient, but I don't understand those governments that makes laws so complicate people queue while others stay unemployed at home. 

Let's just make a good example out of few airline companies. No lines to drop of luggage. No lines to get in to the aircraft due to the organisation of letters in the ticket: A goes first and Z are last. This does not apply to Latin Countries where no one reads further than the first word. 

After shopping I get thirsty and hungry. 
In many countries food availability is limited. 

http://albial.com


If I am hungry at 4pm in some of the cases the only solution is to eat fast-food in a food chain that I can easily get at home too, making me miss all the local experiences. 
Right. I should stay at home if I can't accept the local customs. 
I might virtually visit Cappella Sistine from Youtube and let these restaurant keepers lose customers and tourists heading to countries where all this is possible. 
This might have to do again with local laws ant taxes that are made difficult to be flexible. 
But honestly: If I go to a concert at 8pm there is no time to dine before it and after the concert restaurants are closed again. Not to mention the queue I need to get concert tickets or to get in to the Concert Hall or it's cloakroom. 
Just to give you an idea. Rome has introduced non-stop food in nearly every restaurant at the down town area. No matter what time I'm hungry I get real food. And I mean real. Like a steak. 
Perhaps not at 3 am. But most of the time. That makes me possible to visit the town itself, participate on tours and enjoy my opera with no fear of left alone with cold old sandwich. 

I loved visiting Greece, where even at midnight the restaurant keeper is happy to see me and cook for me. No one makes me feel like I'm trouble and they let me enjoy my supper with no hurrying up. 

http://www.comune.cesena.fc.it


Museums are a mystery to me. Why keep them open at the same time when people work? If a museum is open between 10 and 18 how locals ever see any exhibitions? They are working. And hardly no one wants to queue with tourists during the weekend. Keep them open at least until 10 pm. Give job to students and those that are unemployed. 
Make things efficient. 

https://it.dreamstime.com


I see daily huge queues at the Duomo of Milan and I wonder why there is a ticket office to be queued and then another queue to enter to the church. Why not queue once and thats it. Like at Colosseum in Rome. Once I have my tickets I'm let to go in. Sure: There is a queue to the security control, but it's really fast. 

We are queuing to every where and to every thing while we shouldn't. 
We need to queue to get a bus ticket and then we queue to get in and find a seat. 
We queue for a place in elevator and once out of office we queue to get out from Parking garage.  Every traffic light on our way back home is made to queue people. And if we need some groceries on our way back home, we need to make several queues at the supermarket unless we let robots to do human work. We queue for those robots too. 
It's time waisting and annoying. According Quoara an average american spend 2 years out of his entire life time only staying on line. That is more than taking maternity leave, or sick leave. 
http://www.jchendrick.ie/




If I think of me travelling to Paris and then I need to queue for several hours in different lines to visit one place, I have a tour with Youtube. At home. And it's a pity. I had such a situation visiting Paris and Tour Eiffel: 3 hours of queue because one of the elevators didn't function. That was my visiting Paris. No food, no other place of interest. Just a long queue. 

Let's not mention car hire or banks. Why in the heavens name I need to book my car on-line if then I need to line up for an hour while one person in the whole airport handles queueing customers. 
The bank opening hours are in some countries way out of hands. In many countries there is no possibilities to exchange currency after 4 pm nor in the weekend. Bank should make money. Not hide from it. 

We need to queue for so many things during the day, so why complicate life to make more queues while on vacation. Hire personal and earn more money/time. 
It works, believe me. 

So hire me and skip the queues at your next trip to Milan. 
Group reservations at www.kairos-travel.eu