Finland, a long and divided country

Finland is a long country (for demonstration, see the picture above). I was originally born in a western coastal town of Kokkola (green triangle) but moved to the Finnish capital of Lapland, Rovaniemi (yellow circle) already at the age of 8. Ever since it's been my home, apart from occasional ventures abroad (in 2008 I lived in Northern Italy for a while, and 2010-2011 I spent a year in Berlin). Now, as I have graduated and in search for a job, I've moved to Espoo (blue square), a city in the capital region, right next to Helsinki. One could say that Helsinki is the only actual city of Finland, all the rest are so small. The amount of people living in the capital region of Finland is bigger than the amount of people living in the vast area of Lapland, which is basically half of the whole country. Having grown up in the North, I've always rejected Helsinki for some reason: perhaps because everyone else seems to want to go there. The people born in the capital seem to view Lapland as an isolated periphery, where locals ride reindeer or husky sleighs to work and speak with a funny dialect. Just yesterday a young man selling something stopped me on the street in Helsinki and asked where am I from. As I answered "Rovaniemi", his reaction was both surprised and amused, and he asked me "How on earth did you end up here?" It is this behaviour that infuriates me in these ingnorant and silly city-people of Southern Finland.  The fact is, however, that smaller towns have no work to offer, and people are forced to move to find work. I am in that situation now - struggling.

For a person who adores Lapland (and I must say, that Rovaniemi is located so south that it hardly even counts as real Lapland to me), its quietness and nature, it's painful to even think about moving away. On the other hand, I feel like I could use a change of scenery, having lived most of my life in Rovaniemi. I feel like any new place would do, and thus have searched for work, well, everywhere: home and abroad. During the next month or so I should find a new place to call home, but I guess only time will show where will I end up.

To London and back (& the things you learn about yourself when traveling)

We had talked about making a trip together somewhere with few of my close friends for years already, but never managed to actually get anywhere due to all of our busy schedules. As two of us (myself being the other one) are graduating this spring, the discussion about a reward-trip came up. Again, the planning and contemplating took months, we changed our plans constantly and had trouble deciding where to travel: I wanted nature and good food, one of us wanted culture in the form of theatre, and the third one good shopping possibilities. All in all, our interests were quite versatile. We discussed about the sunny but touristic Gran Canaria, Spain, Croatia and United Kingdom. After long considerations (and, eventually price comparisons between destinations) we decided to book tickets to London and flew out on the 25th of March.

In March, it's still considerably chill in Finland, especially in Lapland. We had been following the weather forecast for London hoping to get some early summer warmth. Unfortunately, UK being an island and all, the weather changes quite quickly, and during our 4-day visit we got to experience the authentic, wet English weather. We had booked accommodation from Paddington, from a cheap hotel with moderate ratings, located close to the train station. Now, when it comes to booking holiday accommodation from a place as big as London, it's worth while reading the customer reviews and choosing a hotel with a good, if not very good or excellent rating. We ended up in "hotel" that looked clean enough outside, but was a horror-house from the inside. They were renovating the hotel, there were electric wires, sawdust and tools all over the hallway floors and stairs, which we had to climb up to the 4th floor as the elevator had been out of service for years already. The smell of fresh paint coming from the hallway was so strong in our room, that it was hard to breathe and our eyes were watering. The room was also very small and dirty: it probably had been cleaned, but it was simply so old and worn out (the plastic carpet in the toilet was so worn out that it had turned black and bumpy) that the overall image was untidy. 

There was a moment of desperation and panic as we sat there thinking what to do - we couldn't possibly stay there, as it was hard to breathe and all, but we had made a booking for our entire stay. After a few phone calls back home and a game plan of how to negotiate with the hotel staff, we marched downstairs to inform them about our discontentment with the room. As they had no other room to offer us, we agreed to pay for the first night and stay there, required that the staff will do something about the strong smell of paint (they opened some windows in the hallway, but denied there was any renovation being done whatsoever). We managed to book a room from another hotel (a very nice one, for the same price) down the street, and moved there the following morning.

After the accommodation crisis had been handled, we were all feeling exhausted, disappointed and just down. We met up with a friend who happened to be staying in London just then, and headed downtown with her. We headed straight to a pub for calming drinks, and after the first sip of my pint it all started to feel better again, after a rough beginning. We walked around downtown (Oxford Circus-Carnaby area) for a while before heading back to Paddington and our night of horror in the smelly hotel. The following day, after a hearty English breakfast and upgrading our accommodation we headed to the hip region of Camden. I personally loved it, its ruggedness reminded me of Berlin and the Stables Market was just lovely. I've been to London before, but on that visit we focused more on sightseeing and museums and never wandered very far from central London. The four days we spent in London can be summed up in four activities: sightseeing, shopping, riding the train/bus and walking. My personal favorites were a fantastic dinner in Carnaby on our second night, Camden markets, night time walk to see the Buckingham palace, Westminster Abbey and Big Ben, and a leisurely walk along Thames with take-away coffee and no rush (even the sun came out on that day).

However, although I enjoyed the trip, regardless of the long days and oh-so-many things to do & places to visit, I noticed something peculiar about myself. I became quick-tempered and moody whenever even sligthly tired, snapping at my travel companions. I have a tendency of wanting to control things in my life, and have learned through experience that I am not so easygoing or mellow as I want to believe. When traveling with close friends and an intense timetable, I became a complaining party pooper (a person who hasn't the interest or vitality to participate actively in a social party and whose mood, attitude, or personality lessens others' enjoyment; killjoy.). Unable to explain my ridiculous behavior, I simply tried my best to control it, and returned home filled with remorse - but some good memories too. Three shouldn't be a crowd yet, although from past experience I know that the different interests of even just two travel companions can sometimes cause drama. Thus, to accordingly apologize my silly behavior to my lovely travel companions, I quote Shakespeare:

I would not wish
Any companion in the world but you.
(The Tempest 3.1.60-1), Miranda to Ferdinand 

I count myself in nothing else so happy
As in a soul remembering my good friends.
(Richard II) 2.3.46-7, Bolingbroke to Percy