Since summer 2009 I've been trying to travel to Russia. Every time there's been something standing in the way: vegetable gardens, falling in love, tooth infections, just about anything you can think of. But I knew that it just wasn't the right time yet. Postponing plans, with Russia starting to feel more and more like an imagination land rather than something that really exists.
But it does exist, very much, as I see now.
After over a year of planning and pondering, it was simply approriate to leave as I did. On one Friday evening, all of a sudden, I decided that the time has come, so I went to get some waterproof clothes just minutes before the shops closed, packed my bag, and two hours later I was already on my way towards the mysterious East.
You might say that there were some strange demons in the way of getting to Russia. But then my rescuing angel definately came in an even stranger form. Sergey was a tattooed chain smoker and an ex hammer thrower with 200 kilos of body weight and apparently no fear of death (this I concluded based on his way of driving). I filled in my immigration card in the middle of the woods at 4.am, hands shaking from the freezing wind, and right after the border we stopped to buy two bottles of vodka. Sergey's nostalgic sigh "Ah, Russia" made me realize that in a way I had travelled further away from home than ever before.
We arrived in St. Petersburg early in the morning, and the city was greeting me with dusty rays of the rising sun. It was love at first sight.
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
finland
I was living and working in southern France, near Perpignan, near the beautiful Pyrenees, on a little piece of land. Only nature surrounding me.
My days were spent doing yoga, digging in the garden, picking wild herbs, cycling around the countryside, writing, trying to learn a bit of french (i learned more norwegian than french, which is not a bad thing as such)
, and enjoying the Sun every day as it was greeting me in the mornings and setting upon my little shed in the evenings.
My hosts, Eva and Marco, were wonderful people and amazing artists, giving me lots of inspiration and sharing their stories. They have cycled in Africa and walked with a mule in Ecuador - of course with their instruments and scetchbooks. And I got a new friend of a very young age; Tamino the baby, with whom I got along extremely well and for the first time of my life thought that babies aren't that strange after all. I had loads of fun with this little person, discovering my inner child and getting amazed by little wonders of the world as to him everything was new and delightful.
My home was surrounded by apricot and almond trees, mountains and hills, and my only neighbors were animals. Snakes, wild boars, foxes and hawks were among the wildest encounters I made. Also wild rosemary, thyme and peppermint were growing all over.
After these weeks in the paradise I have returned to Finland, where everything else is gray apart from traffic signs. I know the sun will be here sooner or later, and luckily I have restored some of the southerm sun inside me. And that sun I'm taking with me where ever I go.
I arrived in Finland on a Thursday evening with a bag full of dried herbs, wet and dirty clothes, and a bird made out and old kettle and a bunch of scrap metal.
I'm thinking about Russia. It's a long journey and a part of me wants stability more than that. Something I haven't really had for years - a home, a time when no constant arranging of the future is needed. And at the same time I am running, away from something, towards something, does it really make a difference?
Inspiring days are back anyway, that's what matters the most right now. Re-discovering the creative side of myself, remembering how one can completely ignore the normality of space and time and flow freely through images, expressions, and the mind...
There is a great thunderstorm outside. Safe in my parents' living room I watch the lightnings cutting through the dark blue sky as my thoughts are flashing back to the field in Ähtäri after a long day of fence building. Legs brown and bruised all over, hair wet and hands dirty, we ran, inhaling the whole range of life in a single breath.
My days were spent doing yoga, digging in the garden, picking wild herbs, cycling around the countryside, writing, trying to learn a bit of french (i learned more norwegian than french, which is not a bad thing as such)
, and enjoying the Sun every day as it was greeting me in the mornings and setting upon my little shed in the evenings.
My hosts, Eva and Marco, were wonderful people and amazing artists, giving me lots of inspiration and sharing their stories. They have cycled in Africa and walked with a mule in Ecuador - of course with their instruments and scetchbooks. And I got a new friend of a very young age; Tamino the baby, with whom I got along extremely well and for the first time of my life thought that babies aren't that strange after all. I had loads of fun with this little person, discovering my inner child and getting amazed by little wonders of the world as to him everything was new and delightful.
My home was surrounded by apricot and almond trees, mountains and hills, and my only neighbors were animals. Snakes, wild boars, foxes and hawks were among the wildest encounters I made. Also wild rosemary, thyme and peppermint were growing all over.
After these weeks in the paradise I have returned to Finland, where everything else is gray apart from traffic signs. I know the sun will be here sooner or later, and luckily I have restored some of the southerm sun inside me. And that sun I'm taking with me where ever I go.
I arrived in Finland on a Thursday evening with a bag full of dried herbs, wet and dirty clothes, and a bird made out and old kettle and a bunch of scrap metal.
I'm thinking about Russia. It's a long journey and a part of me wants stability more than that. Something I haven't really had for years - a home, a time when no constant arranging of the future is needed. And at the same time I am running, away from something, towards something, does it really make a difference?
Inspiring days are back anyway, that's what matters the most right now. Re-discovering the creative side of myself, remembering how one can completely ignore the normality of space and time and flow freely through images, expressions, and the mind...
There is a great thunderstorm outside. Safe in my parents' living room I watch the lightnings cutting through the dark blue sky as my thoughts are flashing back to the field in Ähtäri after a long day of fence building. Legs brown and bruised all over, hair wet and hands dirty, we ran, inhaling the whole range of life in a single breath.
barcelona
Thumbs out, stop the first driver while the midday heat is starting to tickle your skin
The man is from Morocco and his car has no windows
I have to keep my eyes closed, the wind is too strong on the highway,
and before I even realize, we are in Barcelona
Walking on the beach, the night restless and wild
Breathe the Sea
See the others further away drinking cheap wine from a plastic bottle
Nobody here but you can hear the buzz and hassle and dancing and excited screams from the previous summer and years before that
Run, the security and discomfort of shoes becoming just a distant memory
Footprints on the sand,
knowing that in seconds the sea will swallow them
But your handprints in the world, you hope they would last till tomorrow
The man is from Morocco and his car has no windows
I have to keep my eyes closed, the wind is too strong on the highway,
and before I even realize, we are in Barcelona
Walking on the beach, the night restless and wild
Breathe the Sea
See the others further away drinking cheap wine from a plastic bottle
Nobody here but you can hear the buzz and hassle and dancing and excited screams from the previous summer and years before that
Run, the security and discomfort of shoes becoming just a distant memory
Footprints on the sand,
knowing that in seconds the sea will swallow them
But your handprints in the world, you hope they would last till tomorrow
freedom vs. responsibility?
This was originally posted on CouchSurfing but I thought I'd share it here as well:
Many of us have given up or minimized several things (eating meat, consuming, wasting electricity/water, driving, etc) to abandon the unethical, non-environmental way of living that seems to be considered as normal in the modern western society.
But we are still all travellers. I still dream of travels to the other side of the world, especially going to South America to volunteer on organic farms there. But I see the contradiction in that; polluting the planet and supporting airline companies just so I could volunteer for protecting environment?
How, and why, do you travel?
In what kind of cases do you justify flying (or any other kind of polluting transport)?
Are we, in spite of living in an "alternative" way, still seeing Easy&Cheap&Accessible travelling as something that we really need and deserve? Of course it's impossible to give up absolutely everything, but where do you set your limits?
The only morally acceptable ways of transport I can think of are walking, cycling, sailing and hitchhiking. I've met so so many people who agree with this but still end up flying (for example) because "there just wasn't any other way". What if the other way is staying at home, or travelling only where you can get by your own feet?
I also agree with everyone that there certainly is a need to travel in order to gain better understanding of life, the humankind, the world, or of yourself... This need as such isn't in question, but how about the way of fulfilling it? For most of us - depending on where you live of course - there are so many places (actually, more than you could see in one lifetime) reachable by overland travelling. Would these places be enough to fulfill this need? Or do we need the whole world to be available for us?
Seems like many people are still travelling to get more and more names into their list of visited countries... sure you gain experience in this way as well, but at what cost?
And which experience would be more enriching; travelling on a train / by hitchhiking to China through Russia, understanding the real distance of the journey and seeing all the places in between, or flying to Beijing for two weeks and then straight back home? By no question most would choose the first one - but then there are some problems like time. What if you only made a couple of such journeys in your life instead of making the two-week long every year? Would this be a less enriching and satisfying way, do you think you would gain less understanding or less adventures like this? Just wondering...
Many of us have given up or minimized several things (eating meat, consuming, wasting electricity/water, driving, etc) to abandon the unethical, non-environmental way of living that seems to be considered as normal in the modern western society.
But we are still all travellers. I still dream of travels to the other side of the world, especially going to South America to volunteer on organic farms there. But I see the contradiction in that; polluting the planet and supporting airline companies just so I could volunteer for protecting environment?
How, and why, do you travel?
In what kind of cases do you justify flying (or any other kind of polluting transport)?
Are we, in spite of living in an "alternative" way, still seeing Easy&Cheap&Accessible travelling as something that we really need and deserve? Of course it's impossible to give up absolutely everything, but where do you set your limits?
The only morally acceptable ways of transport I can think of are walking, cycling, sailing and hitchhiking. I've met so so many people who agree with this but still end up flying (for example) because "there just wasn't any other way". What if the other way is staying at home, or travelling only where you can get by your own feet?
I also agree with everyone that there certainly is a need to travel in order to gain better understanding of life, the humankind, the world, or of yourself... This need as such isn't in question, but how about the way of fulfilling it? For most of us - depending on where you live of course - there are so many places (actually, more than you could see in one lifetime) reachable by overland travelling. Would these places be enough to fulfill this need? Or do we need the whole world to be available for us?
Seems like many people are still travelling to get more and more names into their list of visited countries... sure you gain experience in this way as well, but at what cost?
And which experience would be more enriching; travelling on a train / by hitchhiking to China through Russia, understanding the real distance of the journey and seeing all the places in between, or flying to Beijing for two weeks and then straight back home? By no question most would choose the first one - but then there are some problems like time. What if you only made a couple of such journeys in your life instead of making the two-week long every year? Would this be a less enriching and satisfying way, do you think you would gain less understanding or less adventures like this? Just wondering...
und jetzt... berlin
Here I am, sitting in Berlin, unable to explain what has happened or how I feel about it.
December has already taken over me, I'm starting to feel the need to hibernate over the winter or escape back to south.
I am here, observing the movements of strangers, thinking about time and distances and how relative everything is, how far your mind can travel within the smallest physical space available.
Yesterday was very warm, I was walking in Tiergarten, drawing trees, watching dogs and people running by.
One day I will tell you all the stories, one day.
starting and stuff
I left from Helsinki on Saturday morning with a small chaos around, as usual. I managed to make it to the ferry terminal just on time, after going through some moments of thrill that included some confusion with tram lines (I still don't get the 3b/3T route, call me stupid if you like) and a drunken man nearly being sick on my lap.
The ferry ride was pretty much like how I had expected - lots of Finnish people reading a magazine that tells you where the get the cheapest vodka in Tallin. Did you know that there's
even some kind of an alcohol megastore right at the terminal? Well, I didn't and to be honest, would have been happier without ever getting this piece of information about the lovely travel
culture of my country.
Tallin was much more beautiful than I expected. Not that I had expected it to be ugly, but I was still surprised by the amount of inspiration it gave me. I want to go back one day, with a proper camera. What inspired me the most were the old soviet style apartment blocks at the edge of the city with lots of old people walking around them and sitting on the balconies smoking cigarettes.
The bus from Tallin to Riga was a luxury one - showing music videos from the early 90's and
serving free coffee. There was even a clean toilet, which they prodly presented at the beginning of the journey after all the general information about the trip. I had to write some of that introduction down, here are some of the highlights:
"And we have a toilet of course, which is the perfect place to refresh yourself in privacy"
"There is a special vip lounge at the end of the bus and for our special vip guests we offer a free bottle of water" (now that's what I call customer service!)
"If you like, you can move your seat further away from the person sitting next to you" (I found this one funny until I saw the man who was going to be my travel companion for the next six hours, he must have drank all the vodka in Estonia - should I feel sorry for the Finns who travelled to the beautiful capital to get pissed but were probably left without anything after this guy had been there?)
Finally, I got to Warsaw (through Riga, which I will just skip because nothing happend there. Well, I draw a lot of circles at the bus station.) It was sunday morning so I had been travelling for almost 24 hours. I managed to walk all the way to Graham's place who was going to be my host for the next couple of days. (This is worth mentioning, because I never manage to walk anywhere without getting lost, not even in Helsinki).
I enjoyed Warsaw - it was big, hectic and ugly but all of those things in a good way. In the first night we went to a big cemetery which was full of colourful candles for the All saint's night. It's a big thing in catholic countries and I felt very special being able to take part in the tradition. It felt like the whole city was there. Outside the graveyard there were lots of little stalls selling candles,
flowers, traditional snacks - and even balloons (I highly doubt that has anything to do with the
saints though).
On early Tuesday we started hitchhiking towards Slovakia. It didn't work. After about for hours of waiting in the cold and dark, stuck in Krakow, we ended up in a small local pub full of old Polish men drinking beer and gambling. A young lad got lucky and won almost two pintfulls of coins. He
seemed happy, the owner didn't.
The next day we managed to hitchhike to southern Poland and finally across the Slovak border - in a tractor! The little mountain villages were absolutely breathtaking.
Bratislava didn't feel good so I jumped in a train to Budapest - which did not take 12 hours, like the woman at the ticket office was claiming, so I ended up arriving in Budapest in the middle of the night without a place to stay. Luckily Ville was being an angel and texted me an addres to a small hostel near the train station. Completely exhausted and slightly scared by the empty streets and a walk through a dark tunnel, I was ringing the bell praying "please be open, please be open" - and a male voice answered, telling me to go to the highest floor, where an old man called Joseph was waiting for me with a big smile and a cup of tea. "Come here, I show you your room".
I got a comfortable bed in a small dorm for a bit over 4 euros. And shortly after me, a French guy arrived who turned out to be a photographer as well. We were looking at each other's websites in the middle of the night, totally forgetting the exhaustion and just getting exited about the fascinating world of visual arts, and he took my contact details and promised to spread them around. So maybe that was my reason to go to Budapest instead of Bratislava, who knows. Anyway, it's good to get connections.
Yesterday I arrived in Zagreb, hungry and tired, but some chestnuts and a couch safed me from all that. It's been raining but luckily the technical museum and the Croatian Talent show have been quite entertaining.
Tomorrow we are hitchhiking to an eco village somewhere in the Bosnian mountains. Wish me luck.
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