lioncitypolargirl-blog - Tumblr blog

[lioncitypolargirl-blog]

Home is where your futon is #home #kumpula #helsinki Entinen Larun kunkku ja Fredan kinkku, nyk Kumpulan keisari, on palannut buduaariinsa. Ekaa kertaa yli vuoteen ei oo lentolippuja minnekään takataskussa, enkä tiiä pitäiskö asian johdosta vetää täyspaniikki päälle vaiko chillata menemään (at Kumpula)

[lioncitypolargirl-blog]

Muistoissani eräs postikortti kotiin: "Ilma on lämmin ja banjot soi. Täällä on kaunista ja siellä on rumaa" #southoffrance #frenchriviera #passionpassport #welltravelled #exploreeurope #oldtown Cannes not lah. (ExtrEMELY funny Singlish pun) Bye France for now. 👋 Going back home to eat real bread. (at Cannes, French Riviera, France)

[lioncitypolargirl-blog]

Tässä kuvassa Saija x2 #streetart #bonjour #asseenonme #france🇫🇷 #marseille #southoffrance different kind of Sunday vibe in Marseille (at Marseille, France)

[lioncitypolargirl-blog]

Rue de Républiquella tänään Tour de France -etappi, maailmanpyörä ja me niin nälkiintyneenä että päässä pyöri, päivän teema selvä 🚵 (ei tosiaan siis keuliminen) #marseille #hello_france #instatravel #citylife #vscoeurope #traveldiaries #france🇫🇷 ps this still looks like Helsinki to me (at Marseille, France)

[lioncitypolargirl-blog]

Bonjour pikku ystävät! Täällähän tuntee itsensä aivan oman elämänsä Hercule Poirotiksi #hello_france #vscoeurope #welltraveled #passionpassport #mornings eli pieneksi ja pyöreäksi (at Montpellier, France)

[lioncitypolargirl-blog]

Take a sip every time you see an IG description saying "see the world through my eyes", drink the whole bottle when you see this pic 🕶🌍 #welltraveled #italia #ig_liguria #portofino #travelgram #goexplore #wanderlust #kulkukiima päivä, jolloin päässä soi Sian The Greatest koko päivän. Se vauhditti myös tätä omahyväistä leukakuvaa (at Portofino)

[lioncitypolargirl-blog]

Swirly curly wurly twister shake 🍤🍥🎡🚧🎯 #ig_liguria #visititalia #cinqueterre #travels #passionpassport en tiiä mitä tossa kieltokyltissä tolla kivellä lukee mutta eiköhän siinä lue että älä kiipeä kivelle (at Monterosso al Mare)

[lioncitypolargirl-blog]

Kylä, jonka nimeä en pysty painamaan mieleeni, vaan kutsun joko Malariaksi tai Melanoomaksi #5terre #cinqueterre #ig_liguria #igitaly #doyoutravel #wanderlust #vscotravel #harhailuhimo #matkustusmania stack of 🏘 (at Manarola, Cinque Terre)

[lioncitypolargirl-blog]

When life gives you 🍋🍋🍋 #visititaly #italy #doyoutravel #ig_liguria #vacationmode #beachy täs miun kaveri miettii et onk vesi kylmää ja mä et toivottavasti ei nyt aallot vie sitä koska ikävä olis olla et sin män sekin ilo elämässä (at Palmaria)

[lioncitypolargirl-blog]

The Metaphorical Travelling Cow and the Post-Exchange Blues

It’s all over now, baby blue, 2017 edition. Or well, at least my semester abroad is. So, what the year 2017, my time at the National University of Singapore, and the following 8 weeks brought me:

11 countries: Finland, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Norway, Spain.

It's been A BIT fast-paced (our time in SE Asia was limited, after all). This kind of McTravel makes you realize how good and fast you are at adapting, but makes you somewhat feel like a teflon pan where nothing sticks. I am the cow and the experiences are the grass, and I need time to GRAZE. I need the time to fully understand what’s happening, and think about how I feel about it, and what it all means. And I don’t think a good blog post can be made without realizing those (this, too, is the Year of Realizing Things), so here we go. Why this post is so frickin late.

So, let’s have 1 picture per each country in this post. (EDIT: EXCEPT FOR INDONESIA......which I forgot..... But I posted about Indonesia before so whatever) This will be a brief summary, after all, the one where I try to comprehend all the things I’ve seen and what it all meant – and fail spectacularly at it, of course.

Singapore (on my very last day).

All the ways I got there and back again, like the little hobbit I am:

22 flights*

7 bus rides (everywhere, but the craziest were Myanmar’s 9-hour overnight buses)

2 train rides (including a 13-hour overnight train in Vietnam)

3 boat rides (from Hong Kong to Macau, after 2 hours of sleep because of a crazy night in Lan Kwai Fong)

2 rental cars for two days (with friends: Langkawi, Malaysia; by myself: Tromsø, Norway)

1 rental e-bike for half a day (Bagan, Myanmar)

1 motorbike ride (Hoi An, Vietnam, 2 people on the back of a scooter)

countless tuk-tuks (Thailand)

1 jetski romp (Langkawi, Malaysia)

Hong Kong.

And to be honest, all grazing done and done, I still don’t know what to say. People ask me how it all was, and I don’t know where to begin. It was really something else. And, in Finnish: oli kivaa (”it was nice”, in a very laconic way). Nice, yee. 

Macau. After realizing that you really shouldn’t take photos at a casino.

What is there to tell? Do you start with the basics — what we did and what we saw, and general outlines, or the best: the stories to fill the outlines? The quirky things? 

Bangkok, Thailand.

And no one really gets it, and all your stories feel unfinished. **) What the hell is there to say? Your friends from home weren’t there, and you don’t want to talk about it too much with them. It’s insensitive and rude: look at all the things I did and fun I had without you!. (But this never mitigated your missing them. These things coexisted.)

Yangon, Myanmar.

And you find it hard to talk about with your ex-exchange buddies, because all the various (I am talking DOZENS) group chats you shared start dying out, and you realize that they, too, lead their own lives back home, and you don’t know anything about it, and worst of all: don’t belong.

 Hoi An, Vietnam.

After coming home and crying on the plane, not because I was particularly sad or regretful or happy, but merely because everything was a bit too MUCH, everyone told me to stay still for a while. To let things sink in. I stayed home for a week and then went to Norway for 7 days. First, to see a friend and experience the Constitution Day celebrations in Oslo, and then all by myself to Tromsø.

Langkawi, Malaysia.

It was kind of stupid, people!! On 9 May, I was in Singapore, one degree above the Equator. On 19 May, I was about 3 degrees above the Arctic Circle. I don’t even know what my body thought of it. My mind loved it. I can’t believe these places exist on the same planet, it screamed. How lucky are you to see them all, you ass!!

Tromsø, Norway.

Wait, I do know what my body thought of it. It got messed up as hell. I GOT FAT...with memories. But also actually fat. So. Being home has felt good. For now. (But then I also managed to spend a week before midsummer in Barcelona, Spain. Oops.)

Sitges, Spain.

So, after all that, I came home.

Kumpula, Helsinki, Finland, May 2017.

Here I am, indeed.

*) This number is absolutely DISGUSTING. I feel like I have single-handedly fucked up the climate; never mind Trump getting out of the Paris agreement, THIS IS IT, THE SINGLE WORST THING YOU CAN DO.

**) At this point, you should notice that this post is going nowhere

Finnish translation: Olen vaipunut tavanomaiseen vetelyyteen. Yritän jäsentää järjestään jäsennystä uhmaavia tunteita ja kokemuksia, joita vaihto-nelikuukautinen toi tullessaan. Hankalalta vaikuttaa. Kaikki tiivistyy kliseisiin: parasta, mitä saatoin tehdä. Tulin, näin, voitin. Kaikenlaista kummaa tapahtuu comfort zonen ulkopuolella, mutta on myös ihan ok palata sinne nysv��ämään. Paitsi että taskussa on jo liput Pohjois-Italiaan ja Ranskan Rivieralle...

[lioncitypolargirl-blog]

[David Attenborough:] Come springtime, the Arctic Fox still blends in with its natural habitat. Even its eyes change colour to match the rugged scenery #doyoutravel #arctic #visittromso #norway #tromsø kirjatkaa muistelmiini, että päätös lähteä yksin päiväntasaajalta pohjoiselle napapiirille oli mainio ✏ (at Storsteinen)

[lioncitypolargirl-blog]

A Swede, a Dane and a Finn walk into a lecture hall, part 3

(One of my professors is from Sweden. In that class, I tend to sit with a Danish girl, and this certainly has caught his attention. Part 1. Part 2.) Prof: This semester has been a nightmare. First, I had those technical difficulties, all those endless discussions I’ve had with IVLE and ExamSoft people – I practically have not slept in 2 months, (gestures to us) there's a Dane in the lecture hall, a Finn!!, it has been just crazy around here

[lioncitypolargirl-blog]

5 months of travelling has been good for the soul, bad for the body and hard on the heart. I think it's time to go back home #doyoutravel #vscotravel #visittromso #norway #arctic #sommarøy #vsconature #utpåtur hei! Arktisen vuoriretriittini lopputulos: mie oon nii romuna. Nyt kipin kapin, häntä koipien välissä himaan. Tai piipahdan vielä Oslossa välilaskun aikana. Mutta sit! Lupaan! (at Hillesøy Toppen)

[lioncitypolargirl-blog]

There's a heatwave in Helsinki, and I'm all alone above the Arctic Circle. Classic Saija. I love it, tbh. After 4 months in southeast Asia, a girl's gotta eat some reindeer meat, put some woollen socks on & frickin FEEL THE NORTH #visittromso #tromsø #igtravel #vsconature #norway heh vielä on tänä talvena aikaa jumahtaa hankeen ja palelluttaa pylly (at Tromsø, Norway)

[lioncitypolargirl-blog]

In this photo, we walk into the proverbial AND literal sunset. The vom squad, BFFs, friends & lovers. My flight to Helsinki leaves in an hour. Bye Singapore and SE Asia for now. It was the best of times, it was the best of times. #exploreasia #igtravel #doyoutravel #wanderlust #nuslife vaik uskot leuhkat lännen, tai vie idän ihme: sua Pohjan Polaris ain kutsuu kotiis / olet harras tai hurja, uhri tai kurja / se on ja se pysyy, se ei jätä vaan se kysyy, tuo Pohjan Polaris: milloin tuutsä kotiis? Ain Pohjan Polaris sua kutsuu kotiis // no täältä tullaan (at Bali, Indonesia)

[lioncitypolargirl-blog]

2,200 temples, +38° degrees, 3 e-bikes that go max 40 km/h, 2 back-to-back overnight buses, and 61 hours without showering later, 3 weary travellers with their phones hanging on 1% battery return to Yangon. Our home street here is "almost Parisian", said I, "only shittier", said Mark. Now it's NAPTIME (@11.54AM) #bagan #myanmar #burmesedays #doyoutravel #exploreasia #vscotravel #goexplore #worlderlust luulin jo loppuni koittaneen, mutta eihän tässä maailmassa oo mitään mitä 5h näpsyt eivät korjaisi. Mukavaa torstaita koko lukijakunnalleni (at Bagan)

[lioncitypolargirl-blog]

Yoo 2 flights (Chiang Mai✈Bangkok✈Yangon) and 13 hours of travelling behind us, 6 more to go!! Overnight 8hr bus ride in Myanmar? No worries. Got some dried mangoes and seaweed. Living with my bitches hashtag live #vscotravel #cloudporn #burmesedays #myanmar #passionpassport #doyoutravel #exploreasia pysähdyttiin myös paikalliselle ABC:lle. Ruokaani lensi tarmokkaasti koppakuoriainen. Oon ihan sairaan innoissani Burmasta, ny mennään beibit!! (at Naypyitaw - Yangon Highway)