Blog | Anywhereism

Meet the Carry-On Traveller

2016-04-11T03:45:35+00:00

When we started off as nomads over three years ago, the idea of travelling with a carry-on only seemed impossible. But fast-forward half a year, and we were already doing it!

Our packing style has developed over the years and we've learnt a lot, as detailed in our previous post: Packing tips from 3 years on the road. Some tips we've come up with ourselves, trying out different things and finding what works for us. Most we've learnt from other travellers, mainly by reading their blogs (of course!).

Erin (Mc Neaney) and her partner Simon had already been travelling for a few years when we started out, and their blog the Never Ending Voyage was one of the invaluable sources of information – on packing and other aspects of nomad life. Therefore I was thrilled to find out that Erin has now combined all her packing knowledge into a book: the Carry-On Traveller: The Ultimate Guide for Packing Light. I so wish this book existed when we started out!

The Carry-On Traveller: The Ultimate Guide for Packing Light

Erin definitely knows what she's talking about, having travelled for over 6 years with only a carry-on and her extensive experience is apparent when reading the book. Still, she doesn't claim to know it all, but rather gives different suggestions and options, while sharing her own experience and learning. She goes into the details, explains things and spices it up with personal anecdotes and comments from other travellers.

"Packing light is the secret to stress-free travel, and travelling with just a carry-on size bag – one you can take on planes – is best of all."

Getting Started

Erin starts the book by sharing the benefits of carry-on travel, the basic principles you can apply on any trip, the airline restrictions you need to know before you fly and tips for choosing your carry-on luggage. (Sidenote: She uses the same backpack model as I do, the Osprey Farpoint 40, and we both love it!)

Erin explains why she's such an advocate of carry-on travel: "Travelling light was the best decision I made when I started travelling. Ive saved myself money, time, stress, and backache. Most importantly, I've gained freedom – I can pack all my belongings in ten minutes and head off on the next adventure." And we couldn't agree more!

Erin's basic principles of carry-on travel are very similar to what we have learnt from our experience. You definitely don't need as much as you think – even now, after years of trimming, we're carrying things we hardly ever use. We went paperless already years ago and I love being able to carry a whole library with me where ever we go. With the rate I read, it's just not possible to buy and carry physical books. And with sharing with your partner, we significantly reduce our load. All the double toothpaste, soap, shampoo, sunscreen, chargers, etc. we can leave out does add up. –Erin lists 8 more principles, but for those you need to read the book!

What to Pack

The second part of the book is all about what to pack. The best travel fabrics, the brands that make practical yet stylish travel clothes, and how to select a colour scheme so you can mix and match all your clothes. Erin also covers electronics, toiletry, medical kit, and miscellaneous items. She gives you pros and cons for different options and shares detailed packing list suggestions for all these categories, including both women's and men's clothes.

I picked a few of my favorite tips and ideas from this section:

Pack comfortable. – "There's no need to completely change your wardrobe; it's more important to pack what you feel comfortable in."

Layers are the key! – "By packing layers, rather tan one heavy jacket, you can adapt to changing weather conditions, and your luggage will be lighter. You can also wash you base layers more often – it's easier to wash a t-shirt than a sweater."

Challenge your assumptions and try a simpler beauty regime. – "I've found there are many toiletries I can manage without. Since I began travelling, I stopped wearing makeup and haven't missed it. My beauty routine is minimal – soap (or just water) and sometimes moisturiser on my face; shampoo and sometimes a conditioner on my hair. My life is simpler, my bag is lighter, and I feel just as good." I'm not as minimal as Erin when it comes to toiletries, but I completely agree with this: "You don't need to go as minimal as me – there's no reason not to travel with makeup and facial cleanser if you want to – but do think carefully about what you pack, challenge your assumptions about what's a necessity, and give a simpler beauty regime a try."

Divide prescription medicine. – "If you are travelling as a couple, divide your prescription medicines between both of your bags, in case one gets stolen."

Carry the technology you'll need and don't worry too much. –"Some people don't want to travel with technology because they are worried about theft. I think if it serves a purpose and makes life easier, it's worth the risk."

Pack duct tape. Period. – "Duct tape is a strong, sticky cloth tape that can be torn without scissors. It can fix almost anything: tents, backpacks, shoes, clothes, cables, books, mosquite net holes. Some travellers even use it as blister protection, bandage, sink plug, clothesline, and lint remover."

Preparing for departure

The third part of the book concentrates on how to pack, because "When you're travelling with a carry-on, how you pack is just as important as what you pack." In this part Erin also shares answers to some common concerns, and guides you on safety and insurance questions.

The most important tip in this part is, in my opionion, this: "The best way to stay organised and save space is to use packing organisers – many carry-on travellers swear by them." We are one of those travellers, and praise packing cubes and other organisers every chance we get. They have made living out of a backpack so much easier for us.

Good preparation is also something we believe in and agree with Erin: "Before you start packing, write a list of everything you plan to take. It will help you stay organised, prevent fears that you've forgotten something, and stop you from panic-packing at the last minute."

Interviews with Carry-On Travellers

The fourth part of the book consists of interviews with a range of carry-on travellers - including fashion and makeup lovers, families, solo travellers, young and old couples, campers, photographers and many more. I loved this part of the book, because it showed how many different approaches they are for carry-on travel. Although many of them were different from ours, in everyone of them there was something I could relate to and some tips I can use in future.

Extras

The book contains so much information, but if after reading you still crave for more, there are the bonus resources at the end of the book. A complete packing list, links to useful packing resources, packing lists from a variety of carry-on travellers (including us!), and the (current as time of writing) carry-on size and weight restriction for many airlines. Something to entertain and educate you for several more hours!

Interview with Erin

We too have a bonus material for you! Erin was nice enough to answer some questions for us, and there might even be some bits not covered in the book. For example, would you like to know what she'd pack if there where no destrictions?

What's the number one item you couldn't live without?

My laptop as I need it to work on the road. I think the MacBook Air 11-inch is the perfect travel laptop. It's very light but powerful enough for my writing and photography.

If I weren't working, it would be my Kindle Paperwhite. I don't know how I travelled without it. It allows me to buy books from anywhere (I have the 3G version), and it fits thousands of books, yet is smaller than one paperback.

Do you miss travelling with more stuff?

Not at all. After six years I've become so used to carry-on travel that I don't know what I'd put in a big suitcase. Travelling light is so liberating that it would be difficult to go back to being burdened by more stuff.

How has your packing list changed after six years on the road?

I regularly reassess what's in my bag to make sure I'm using it—everything has to earn its place by being used regularly. As I'm travelling permanently, I'm happy to add new things as long as they fit in my backpack and I'll use them often.

I've added a few extra items of clothing and underwear so that I can go a week without doing laundry. I added a pair of Tieks ballet flats for smarter footwear (I began with just hiking shoes and sports sandals) and workout gear as I started running and yoga.

I upgraded my laptop from an old Eee PC to the MacBook Air. I switched from a digital SLR to a mirrorless camera (I have the Olympus OMD EM5), which saves me space and reduced my photography gear weight by a third, but the quality is just as good. I bought a Kindle and got rid of my stack of books.

I've also got rid of things I wasn't using often—rain jacket, backpack cover, towel, compact camera, thermal leggings, and long-sleeve top.

In part 4 of the book, you interviewed a range of carry-on travellers from families to fashionistas. Do you think carry-on travel is possible for anyone?

I think it's possible for everyone if they are willing to make compromises and be careful with their gear choices. For example, a photographer with four lenses could travel carry-on only, but they'd have to minimise the clothes and shoes they pack.

I didn't think it would be possible to camp with just a carry-on, but one of the interviewees in the book often does—as he travels by bike or on foot, he wants to keep his backpack light. He chooses an ultralight backpack, tent, and sleeping bag, and only takes a few changes of clothes.

What would you add to your luggage if you had unlimited space and no restrictions?

A good chef's knife because we often rent apartments that don't provide a decent one. If we're staying somewhere for a month or more, we buy one and then leave it behind.

What is an item you travel with that other people find surprising?

Many people don't know about packing cubes, which are my top tip for carry-on travel. They keep your gear organised and allow you to fit far more into your bag. I love the ultralight Eagle Creek Spectre compression cubes.

Interested in learning more? Check out the book: the Carry-On Traveller.

The Carry-On Traveller: The Ultimate Guide to Packing Light is now available for Amazon (US and UK) Kindle for US $4.99 (or local equivalent).

Packing tips from 3 years on the road

2016-04-03T08:14:03+00:00

Packing is an art in itself, especially when you are aiming for travelling light. We’ve been living a nomadic life for over three years now, and for the past two years we’ve mainly travelled with carry-on luggage. We're slowly getting better at this art and have learnt many tricks and tips on the way. Some of them we shared after first few months of travelling (What I Have Learnt about Packing), but during the years we have gathered a few pointers to add to the list. So here you go, our top packing tips for travelling light!

What to pack

Don't carry things just in case

If you start thinking about all the things you might need, the list is endless. Our advice is to just pack what you know you will need and leave the rest. Whatever it is you didn’t pack, you can probably buy it from where you are going.

Get solid toiletries

Shampoo, conditioner, body wash, face wash, deodorant, etc. You can get them all in a solid format. This means less weight and no need to worry about liquid limitations when flying. We're big fans of Lush for shampoo bars, while for body we've found the cheap market versions good enough, as long as they are meant for sensitive skin.

For clothes, think layers

Instead of one thick sweater, bring 3 thin shirts that you can wear on top of each other. Or instead of heavy weight winter trousers bring few pairs of leggings/thermals and your normal jeans. This makes it easier for you to adapt to changing weather conditions and gives you a more versatile wardrobe.

Pack matching clothes

At first I packed my favorite clothes without thinking how well they fit together. I ended up with clothes that only looked good with a certain other piece. I often had to wear outfits that looked weird because that one matching piece was dirty. From then on I've paid more attention to making sure all my clothes look ok with each other. This also means packing mostly solid colors and simple cuts, adding just a few accent pieces to spice it up.

Get climate specific clothes at your destination

If you don’t have clothes for hot tropical weather, there’s no point in hunting them in Europe at midwinter. Just pack a thing or two and buy the rest when you get there. Same for warm winter clothes, if you don’t own enough, buy more at your destination. And it might be a good idea visit the local second hand stores for scoring deals.

Pay attention to the fabrics

Select clothes that are made of durable and easy to wash materials that don’t crinkle easily. Our favorite material is merino wool, which is cool in hot weather and warm in cool, doesn’t crinkle much and doesn’t need to be washed every day.

Handwash clothes if needed

You can wash your clothes with shampoo or a normal soap bar. Trust us, we have tried both with success. Sometimes it takes a long time for your clothes to dry, but there’s a trick to speed the process: after wringing your clothes, wrap them tightly in a towel and squeeze all the remaining water out.

Pack a canvas tote bag

Many times you need an extra bag, and canvas bags take hardly any space in your luggage. We use them for grocery shopping, taking laundry out, going to the beach, and so on.

Don't make it complicated

Think what you normally like to wear, instead of going for a shopping spree of “travel specific” clothing. If you’re going for a long hike somewhere in the middle of the nowhere, sure, pack appropriate outdoor clothes. Otherwise, just take into account the climate and culture, and use what you have. Also, it’s hard to know beforehand what you will need on a long trip, or as a nomad. You’ll figure it out when living it.

How to pack

Roll your clothes

There’s lot of debate about how you should pack your clothes, but we have found rolling them tightly to work best for us. If we're “living out of a suitcase”, I roll each piece separately and stuff them in a packing cube. This way I can see them all at once and it's easy to pick the piece I need. If I’m just moving once before settling down for a while, I roll my clothes in bigger patches. It’s faster and there’s even less wrinkles.

Use packing cubes

With packing cubes you can fit much more into your bag, because you can compress the clothes a bit. We prefer smaller cubes over big ones. They are easier to arrange to fit the luggage, and it's faster to find what we're looking for.

Have a separate bag for valuables

...even if you carry it inside your main bag. We are a bit paranoid about our laptops and camera, so we don’t feel comfortable storing them in the overhead locker in the plane. On long flights there are also many other things I want a quick access to, like napkins, chewing gum and Kindle, so I prefer placing them in a smaller bag under the seat in front of me. There's also been a few times when the overhead lockers have been full and some bags have been transferred to the plane’s hold. Same can happen in buses with limited storage, sometimes they don’t allow you to take anything bigger than a purse with you to your seat.

Get sturdy bottles for liquids

Remember those small shampoo bottles you can get from hotels? They seem very handy, until they fall apart and mess up your whole bag. We prefer buying durable, refillable bottles designed for travel. You can fill them with your favorite brands and there’s no need to worry about breaking.

Everything should have its own place

Ever had to unpack your whole bag to find the thing you were searching for? If every single thing in your bag has its own place, you know where to find it fast. Use packing cubes and other containers to separate things. This also makes it easier to check you have everything with you, because you know what should be where.

Bonus tip

Empty your bags once in a while

When we first started out, Antti was carrying a big book with him for a few weeks before noticing it. That hasn’t happen anymore, but you’ll be surprised of how much small stuff accumulates in the deep corners of your bag.

Carry on travelling!

Don’t get intimidated by the term “carry-on only”, because you can fit surprisingly much in the carry-on allowance. The problem is not usually the space (~40 liters bag is most often well inside the limits), but the weight. The airlines seem to become stricter and stricter with their allowances, 7 or 8 kilos being a common limit nowadays. I’ve even seen some airlines with a 5 kg limit! Luckily most of them still don’t count the “personal item” (purse, laptop bag or a small backpack) into the weight limit, so if needed, you can place all your heavy stuff (looking at you, laptop!) in it.

We hope these ideas will help you with your packing struggles. We are also always looking for new ideas on making our travels easier and lighter, so please do share you best tips!

If you want to know all the things we are currently carrying with us, check out our packing list.

1000 digital nomad days

2015-10-01T08:43:49+00:00

In January 2013, Rome was our first destination. A short two-day stop over before heading to Asia. I still remember the feeling, somehow unreal; confused but curious, scared but determined. Relieved. Wandering through the ancient ruins, wondering what next.

Forum Romanum, Italy.

Angkor, Cambodia. There's going to be company.

Uxmal, Mexico

When getting excited about yet another temple starts to feel like work, it's time to turn the attention back to the everyday life again. For those who mostly stay put, travel often means vacation. That leads to the conclusion that digital nomads are always on one. In contrary, many of the nomads we've met seem to be the hardest working people.

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The daily commute — not our thing.

You can learn tons about new places and cultures in 15 minutes: the first fifteen after entering a new place, that refine your preconceptions with a handful of experience. After gaining some surface level understanding, getting deeper into the local culture turned out to be quite challenging. One reason, or excuse, for that is the fact that we spent most of our days online, in a different world than the people around us.

The local language would be one key to the culture, but often too much for us, as we would need to learn more than a few of them. I've picked up some Spanish, improved my German, learned and forgotten a few words in many other languages. For me the most fun part is learning new alphabets. Next up is Arabic. This time I won't stop before I know at least one hundred words.

Guanajuato, Mexico

At first we stayed in hotels — in Asia that was quite affordable — but switched to rental appartments and Airbnb, in Europe almost exclusively. Those felt much more cozy and interesting in the long term, while also providing us a peek inside local people's homes. We've continued moving every few weeks. It's much more fun when you can fit all your belongings into a backpack.

Tallinn, Estonia. No need to visit Ikea this time either.

Housesits have been a nice way to stay, with a cat or a dog or two. In addition to daily excercise, they have brought structure and routine to our sometimes a bit irregular lifestyle. We get a glimpse of what it would be like to settle down somewhere…

New Orleans, US

In the beginning I imagined working in cafes, coworking spaces, and by the beach. In practice we mostly work from home, where ever that might be at the moment. Some places have been great, some not that much, but usually always good enough.

We've kept office in tiny windowless rooms, in lakeside cabins, in a tent on a camping ground in a thunderstorm, in shady motel rooms somewhere in Louisiana, on a cruise ship in the middle of the Atlantic, in cold albuergues along the pilgrimage route of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, in all-inclusive hotel during the Coworking Camp in Turkey. Yes, we've worked by the beach too, but that accounts only for a tiny little fraction of the time.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Hostel room and a wifi.

Cottage by a lake

Allure of the Seas. Yes, there was a wifi available in the middle of the Atlantic.

Camino de Santiago, Spain. After a long day's walk, pilgrims need food, warmth and — wifi.

Coworking Camp, Turkey

Otres Beach, Cambodia. Even if the power went down every once in a while, the wifi worked with backup batteries. Priorities in order.

Working anywhere — as Christine from Almost Fearless put it — easily turns into working everywhere. For us to really unplug it requires leaving our laptops behind and going to a place with no internet access. That's becoming harder every day. If you find some remote corner of the world with no connection, take some time to appreciate it. Next year there might be a McDonalds and free wifi.

Anak Krakatau, Indonesia

Havana, Cuba

We love to travel far, but we enjoy returning as well. The whole Europe, even with its regional differences, feels like home when arriving from overseas.

Lisbon, Portugal

Kastellorizo, Greece

Every now and then we visit Finland, our home country. It's always nice to visit friends and family, especially around midsummer and Christmas. We seem to spend quite a lot of time here too, like at the time of writing this.

Sastamala, Finland

Kokemäki, Finland

Around the time when we had 50 days of nomadic life behind, Simon of Never Ending Voyage wrote about their 1000 days.

I read it again now, and found myself nodding all the way through it — it's still a good read, and I pretty much agree on the points he makes there. Back then I didn't really believe we would continue that long.

Now it feels like we've just started.

Highway 1, California

Still alive!

2015-07-17T08:42:48+00:00

In case you've been wondering, we are still alive and well! We had a very busy spring and decided to take a break from this blog, hence no updates for months. We aren't likely to get much better with this in the near future, so you better follow us on social media if you want to keep up to date with our adventures!

Instagram (instagram/anywhereism) and Twitter (@anywhereism) are your best bets. Facebook (facebook/anywhereism) gets updated every few weeks at least. If you know Finnish (or enjoy photos accompanied with uncomprehensible scribblings) there's also my Finnish travel blog Kotonakaikkialla and Snapchat (snapchat/kotonakaikkial).

For the last months we've been in our home country Finland. Relaxing in the beautiful nature and getting tons of work done. In August we are off again, heading to explore Central Europe. Meanwhile, here are some of the reasons that keep us coming back to Finland for the summers:

Our January and February 2015

2015-04-12T11:50:11+00:00

We started the year in our home country Finland. Friends, family, and weird weather changing from artic freeze to rain in a day. From Finland we flew to San Francisco and road tripped down the beautiful coast, all the way to San Diego. From there we continued inland to marvel on two very different kinds of sights: Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. Our February ended in the chilled beach town Sayulita, a surfer heaven on the Pacific Coast of Mexico.

If you're not into stats, just skip to the end of the post where you'll find the pics. So many of them this time, and some of them are really good even in my own opinion!

Statistics

Countries visited: 3 (total 29 countries*)
Finland, USA (California, Arizona, Nevada) and Mexico

Cities/towns visited: 18 (total 117 cities/towns)
Hämeenlinna, Kokemäki, Turku and Helsinki in Finland. San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Seaside (Monterey), San Simeon, Morro Bay, Solvang, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Clemente and La Quinta in California, Williams and Kingman in Arizona, and Las Vegas in Nevada. And finally, Sayulita in Mexico!

Beds slept in: 19 (total 135 beds)

Back in Finland we stayed with family and friends. For a blogging trip, I was organised a complementary night at the Park Hotel in Turku. What a charming place! Definitely not ultra-modern or simplistic, but rather like staying with a (bit upper-class) grandma. (check it at Booking.com)

On our US road trip we stayed in three Airbnb rooms. The one in San Diego was probably the best we've ever had. Unfortunately, it was only available for a short while when one of the flatmates was out of town. We were the first guests, and I'm so happy we took the chance and booked it!

The second room was in the surfer town of San Clementine. Friendly and relaxed owners, walking distance to beach, felt right at home the moment we arrived. Recommended!

Our third Airbnb room was in La Quinta, and while the place itself was very nice, we had to listen to the owner couple fighting on our last night. Hence I'm not promoting the place.

We still do love Airbnb, and if you want to try it too, you'll get 22€ bonus by signing-up with our Airbnb-link. (And we'll get 22€ also, isn't that a good deal?!)

For the rest of our US roadtrip, we stayed in reasonably cheap motels or hotels. We wanted something with good enough reviews (7+/10), with the lowest price possible. These are the ones we really liked:

San Remo Hotel in San Francisco - Excellent location at North Beach, affordable, basic but had amenities like coffee & tea. (check it at Booking.com)

Sea Breeze Inn in San Simeon - Beautiful location next to the shore! Big rooms, weak wifi. (check it at Booking.com)

Hamlet Inn in Solvang - Free bikes and 2-1 wine tasting passes, need I say more? (check it at Booking.com)

All of the other ones were also good choices, but there was nothing special in them: the Islander Inn in Santa Cruz, Sand Castle Inn in Seaside (near Monterey), the Sandpiper Inn in Morro Bay, Lynwood Century Freeway Travelodge in Lynwood (Los Angeles) - bit restless area, the Highlander Motel in Williams, the Quality Inn in Kingman, and the Downtown Grand in Las Vegas.

In Sayulita we stayed at a dorm at the Lush Hostel while looking for a rental apartment. Good facilities, loud parties. Good for couple of nights and for meeting people. Rest of February we've stayed in a 2-bedroom rental we found by asking around.

(For the hotels we recommend, I added an affiliate link to Booking.com. If you book through it, we'll get a small reward - it doesn't affect the price you pay).

Average daily spend on accommodation: Finland 0€, USA 52€, Mexico 16€ (22€**)
The cheapest place we stayed in US was an Airbnb-room for 33€ and the most expensive the Hamlet Inn (94€). Usually we paid 50-55€ for a night. In Mexico we paid 30€/night for the few hostel nights and our rental apartment turned out around 13€ per night.

Average daily spend on food: Finland 32€, USA 43€, Mexico 23.5€ (32€)
In Finland we stayed in Helsinki and went out with friends a few times. With Finnish prices it adds up, even if we mostly cooked at home. In USA our spending was more than we hoped, and even with this money we mainly ate fast food or at cheap restaurants. In Mexico the food was very much affordable and there are so many restaurants to try in Sayulita that we ate out basically all the time.

* All totals Anno Digital Nomad (ADN) = after January 4th, 2013.
** Average spent ADN, for two people

In the blog

Week 1: Helsinki: We're still enjoying the darkest time of the year in Finland, catching up with people, taking it relatively easy.

Weeks 2-3 2015: Finland and California: From the peaceful countryside of Kokemäki to the old city of Turku, and from the hectic Matka Travel Fair to the welcoming city of San Francisco. California roadtrip time! That's our last two weeks in a nutshell, more below.

Week 4: California road trip: California roadtrip week! From the surfer heaven Santa Cruz to Monterey sea life, through the wilderness of Big Sur to San Simeon and the lavish Hearst castle, down to Morro Bay.

Week 5: California road trip: California road trip continues! From the sceneries of the Sideways movie to the busy Los Angeles and then all the way down to the sunny San Diego.

Week 6: West USA road trip: And our West USA road trip continues! From the lovable San Diego to the surf town of San Clemente, through the hills and mountains to the desert oasis town of La Quinta and the mesmerizing Joshua Tree National Park, and a long drive through varying landscapes to Williams, Arizona.

Week 7: Arizona, Las Vegas and Sayulita: Last days of our US road trip, visiting the incredible Grand Canyon, the impressive Hoover Dam and the bling-bling of Las Vegas. Finishing the week at the small beach town of Sayulita in Mexico, enjoying the sun and the food.

Week 8: Sayulita: How nice it is to stay put in one place! And it doesn't harm that the place is the charming beach town of Sayulita, Mexico. The sun shines, food is great, margaritas cheap and the surf good (I've been told). Nights are noisy and there's been a firework show or few, but I'm getting to used to it.

California road trip in Instagram: Time for another Instagram Travel Thursday! This time I want to take you with us down the California Coast, all the way from the foggy San Francisco to the sunny San Diego near the Mexican border. Welcome to the ride!

Our November and December 2014: We spent most of our November-December at the same place, the Coworking Camp in Turkey, so here's a combined recap for the months. We also had a few days in Athens, travelled to Kas and Istanbul, stopped at Prague and headed home to Finland for Christmas.

In pictures

Helsinki, Finland

Kokemäki - Turku trip, Finland

San Francisco, California, USA

California road trip: San Francisco to Monterey

California road trip: Monterey to San Simeon

California road trip: San Simeon to Los Angeles

Los Angeles, California, USA

California road trip: Los Angeles to San Diego

Joshua Tree NP, California, USA

Grand Canyon & around, Arizona, USA

Las Vegas & around, Nevada, USA

Sayulita, Mexico

And... that's how we spent the first two months of 2015. Not bad.

Weeks 10-11 2015: Sayulita

2015-03-21T15:09:20+00:00

Our last two weeks in the chilled out Sayulita. Mainly spent working and eating, with an occasional visit to the beach or a night of live music. And we did see some whales!

Welcome to our weekly recap! This one's for March 6th - 19th, which for us are the weeks 10-11, 2015.

Food love: There are so many great places to eat in Sayulita! Few of our favorites were: Mary's for the best quesadillas and chile's rellenos (huge!), Los Corazones for melts-in-mouth filet mignon and good wine, Pancho's Tacos for a relaxed dinner of what else than tacos (el pastor!) and 2-for-1 margaritas, Mamma Mia for tasty pasta, and Yah-Yah Cafe for breakfast and bagels (+wifi).

Tip of the week: If you're looking for a fun tourist activity in Sayulita, try Chica Loccas tour to Islas Marietas. Big catamaran with plenty of comfy pillows to lounge on takes you to whale watching and snorkeling at Marietas. There's also SUP-boards, kayaks and even water slides for enjoying the Pacific. It's a bit of a party boat but not overly so, and the crew is helpful and happy. It was way over our daily budget with 1.100 pesos per person, but it did include food and open bar on top of all the activities.

Memorable moment: We finally saw some big whales! We've gone to two whale watching trips before this one, but had no luck. At Tenerife we did see whales, but they were about the size of dolphins. In New Jersey the whales didn't really surface and we just saw small parts of them. But now we saw some huge humpback whales rising up from the ocean. What a magnificent sight!

Random thought: Sayulita is another dog town. They are everywhere, all sizes, all colors, all breeds. And most of them do have a collar, so they probably belong to someone. The dogs are often given a free range here, but that wasn't a problem since they are a well-behaved lot. Didn't run into any trouble with them.

What I've learned: Spiders are good, because the eat mosquitoes and other bugs. Little bit like gekkos as such. I was still not happy to find a big, hairy one in our bedroom wall. After some raised voices I called our Mexican neighbor to help. That's when she told us that this one was not dangerous and actually good to have (for the bugs, you see). Still, I was happy when she coached it out of our room. Thanks Isabelle!

Surprise of the week: We stayed up "late" twice, both time because of live music. First it was Steve Goldberg and friends playing some great jazz at Zen Garden. It's amazing how much emotion they can fit in a few simple tunes... The second night was at Bar Don Pato's where a local band played some catchy rock covers and lured me to the dance floor for several hours.

Workwise: We've been busy finishing up things before heading for a no-internet vacation to Cuba.

And that's it for our week. Next up: Mexico City and Cuba!

This week's photos can also be found in our photo albums in Flickr.

Week 9-2015: Sayulita

2015-03-09T15:59:29+00:00

Another week in Sayulita. Working, studying, reading. Eating street tacos, having long, relaxed weekend breakfasts in cafes, enjoying some beers at the beach at sunset time. Trying out Michelada (beer with tomato juices, spices, different sauces), not my new favorite. Taking a bus to supermarket in a nearby town, visiting the Friday market, doing yoga (=me) and surfing (=Antti), and listening some excellent live jazz.

Welcome to our weekly recap! This one's for February 27th - March 5th, which for us is the week 9, 2015.

Food love: Street tacos! If you're not accustomed to buying your food from street stalls, it might seem suspicious, but you just gotta try them. The best thing (and one of the cheapest) in Mexico to eat! Just pick one that has plenty of other customers (preferably locals) around and looks decently clean.

Tip of the week: The ATM's in Sayulita take a hefty service fee so withdraw cash (pesos) before you arrive! You can get some from the ATM's at airport, or from the banks in nearby bigger towns. We withdraw money from an ATM inside a bank at Mega supermarket at Bucerias (service fee 35 pesos and no problems withdrawing 7.000 pesos vs. in Sayulita limit 3.000 pesos and fee 90 pesos). Small amount per se (savings ~9e), but these things do add up when travelling long term!

Memorable moment: Sitting cross-legged, my eyes closed. I can hear the roosters, the cars, the sound of the wind. I can sense the other people around me at the palapa. I feel present and relaxed. My body is tired from the exercise but at the same time I feel energised. My life is good.

I've been taking some yoga classes in the morning. I like walking to the place through the half empty streets, taking the time to relax and concentrate on the moment, and most importantly giving my sooo-out-of-shape body some much needed exercise.

Random thought: The view from our outdoor kitchen/living room is somewhat limited, but we can still catch beautiful skies at sunset time.

What I've learned: We have a few ideas on simple Android apps, and instead of getting someone else to do them for us I decided to freshen up my Java skills and learn how to make them. This way, even if we later employ someone to do them, we at least understand the concept. And it has been surprisingly captivating. I've been taking Coursera and Udacity courses, reading some books and trying out things in practise (I tapped my phone 7 times and I'm now a developer!). I wake up in the morning, and can't wait to to learn more.

Surprise of the week: Going from no set plans for next couple of months to having flights, cruise and accommodations booked in just a few days was kind of a surprise. The plan is as follows: leaving Sayulita on March 20th (after a month here), stopping to visit friends in Mexico City for the weekend and then continuing to Cuba(!). We have a week there and we are planning to have a real vacation! No laptops and no internet (not that there would be many options). From there we fly to Cartagena, Colombia, where we'll have an Airbnb room for a week in the old town. I'm really looking forward to getting back to Cartagena, a city I still remember warmly from our visit in 2010.

On April 7-16th we'll participate at the Coworkation, a "Collaboration Work Education Vacation for entrepreneurs, nomads, creatives, yogis and all of humanity in between. 10 days, 15 people, 1 unbelievable location and an unforgettable experience.. It just can't be nothing short of amazing. From Colombia, we fly to Fort Lauderdale and have a short 2-night pitstop in Florida. We have a car rented and our plan is to visit the Everglades National Park. Then it's time for another Transatlantic crossing, this time with Royal Caribbean Allure of the Seas, one of the biggest cruise ships in the world (and made in Finland!). This will take us to Barcelona, and that's where our plans end at the moment.

Workwise: Vacation, what's that for? In couple of weeks we will have a vacation in Cuba and I have problems picturing it. What are we going to do with all the free time we have? I remember when I was still working 9-5, how much I looked forward to a vacation, how just a mere thought of it carried me through work days. But now I really like what I do, and honestly, I don't feel the need of having a vacation. Taking one day off once in a while seems enough.

And that's it for our week. Next up: more of Sayulita, Mexico

This week's photos can also be found in our photo albums in Flickr.

Week 8-2015: Sayulita

2015-03-01T18:52:10+00:00

How nice it is to stay put in one place! And it doesn't harm that the place is the charming beach town of Sayulita, Mexico. The sun shines, food is great, margaritas cheap and the surf good (I've been told). Nights are noisy and there's been a firework show or few, but I'm getting to used to it.

Welcome to our weekly recap! This one's for February 20th - 26th, which for us is the week 8, 2015.

Tip of the week: Finding an affordable rental in Sayulita online, before you arrive, is close to impossible. That's what we were told, and that's what I experienced. I asked around and kept getting the same advice: just arrive and talk with people here (and avoid the high season around Christmas and January).

I was hesitant to come here without accommodation, especially since everyting I'd seen online was over our budget. Even the two beds in a hostel dorm we had for the first nights were on the upper reaches of the budget The realtors in the town didn't have anything, and they mostly handle the expensive vacation rentals aimed for the wealthy tourists anyway. Then we started asking everybody. Somebody at the hostel knew somebody who knew somebody and this way we found a place in about 24 hours!

Now we have 2 bedrooms and an open-air kitchen / living room, with both locals and foreigners at neighbors. It's very central (=easy but loud), costs about 330e for the whole month and includes weekly cleaning.

Food love: We have a blender at our apartment and a fruit/vegetable store just around the corner. This means fresh smoothies at least once a day. Wuhuu! My favorite recipe so far has mango, banana, strawberries, chia seeds, yogurt and pineapple juice.

Surprise of the week: Our place is very central, which means it's never really quiet. Either there are the kids screaming and dogs barking during the day, or a party going on during the night. What I wasn't prepared for were the nightly fireworks near the Sayulita day (Feb 24th). I literally jumped up from the bed when I heard the first bang. There was no way to get sleep before it was over and our plans of getting to bed early and waking up with the sun had to change.

What I've learned: I'm not sure what I've learnt, but Antti's been learning to surf. He's not up there with the big boys yet, but at least he can stay atop of his board. Waiting to see what happens, do I end up with a Surfer who travels to chase the waves...

Memorable moment: One from Antti: Waking up early one morning and walking to the beach to catch the sunrise. There were only few people around and the colors were magnificent. Such a peaceful moment.

Random thought: I never realised how big of a deal the Oscars are. Probably because the showtime is during the night in Finland, so people don't get together to watch it live. (But we do get our gossip magazines full of the dresses afterwards.) We had agreed to meet fellow nomads Kim & Brian (So Many Places / Wandering Sasquatch) for dinner, and were surprised to hardly fit into the restaurant. It turned out they were showing the Oscars on a big screen and people had gathered to watch. It's apparently quite a common tradition at some places. - The dinner itself was good btw, Kim & Brian were great company!

Workwise: A national newspaper in Finland, Helsingin Sanomat, published a story about our lifestyle. If you know Finnish, you can read it here: Työpaikkana koko maailma. Otherwise you can just check the pretty pictures. Many people got in touch with us. The comments at the online version of the article were an interesting read. I was surprised by the amount of positive feedback even there, although there was a fair share of the opposite too.

Some of my favorites were: "Information society has created a misconception that IT, programming and blogging are necessities. Fun maybe, but not necessities." Hmm... would be interesting to see what happens to the modern world, if we just stop using all IT....

"I'm sure they have great retirement when that time comes, those lazying in hammocks, reading books on the beach and getting samples at a whiskey factory." Right, because there's no place for free time in the life of a responsible person.

And then there was the classic: "If all the Finns just took off travelling, that would be the end of Finland." Can't argue with that.

And that's it for our week. Next up: more of Sayulita, Mexico

This week's photos can also be found in our photo albums in Flickr.

Our November and December 2014

2015-02-25T19:25:03+00:00

We spent most of our November-December at the same place, the Coworking Camp in Turkey, so here's a combined recap for the months. We also had a few days in Athens, travelled to Kas and Istanbul, stopped at Prague and headed home to Finland for Christmas.

Statistics

Countries visited: 4 (total 29 countries*)
Greece, Turkey, Czech Republic and Finland

Cities/towns visited: 8 (total 103 cities/towns)
Athens, Kemer (Göynuk), Istanbul, Kas, Prague, Hämeenlinna, Kokemäki and Helsinki.

Beds slept in: 9 (total 119 beds)
Adordable Airbnb apartment in Athens (If you want to try Airbnb, you, and us, will get 22€ bonus by signing-up with our Airbnb-link).

In Kemer we stayed at the all-inclusive Majesty Mirage Park Resort. We were there for the Coworking Camp, but it could be an affordable getaway even without it, the off-season all-inclusive(!) rates starting around 45€ for two.

On our weekend trips we stayed in the Grand Sagcanlar Hotel in Istanbul (ok, nothing special, next to a metro station) and the Cinar Butik Hotel in Kas (now ok, probably good in high season).

On our way to Prague we spent a night at the Istanbul Sabiha Gökcen Airport at the ISG Airport Hotel (check it at booking.com), which was very comfortable and the breakfast was great (and we got upgraded to a suite!).

In Prague we stayed at the Desighotel Elephant (check it at booking.com), which was a great deal, with excellent breakfast and walking distance from center. There was a bit too much emphasis on "design" though, on cost of comfortability.

Back in Finland we stayed with family and friends.

(For the hotels we recommend, I added an affiliate link to Booking.com. If you book through it, we'll get a small reward - it doesn't affect the price you pay).

Average daily spend on accommodation: Greece 36.5€, Turkey 31€, Prague 51€, Finland 0€ (22€**)
In Turkey we did two weekend trips where the price of accommodation was higher than at the all-inclusive. The all-inclusive deal was 54€ per night, which after dividing it evenly between accommodation and food, was 27€ per night for accommodation. In Finland, our friends and relatives are luckily not charging us for visiting them.

Average daily spend on food: Greece 44€, Turkey 33€, Prague 48€, Finland 7€ (30€)
In Greece we ate out several times during our last days, since there were so many things we still wanted to try. In Turkey, we only ate outside the all-inclusive few times, because having the buffet there was just so convenient. On the other hand, in Prague we spent a lot of time eating at different restaurants. So good! In Finland we spent very little, I think most of the costs were food drinks and food for the New Year's party.

* All totals Anno Digital Nomad (ADN) = after January 4th, 2013.
** Average spent ADN, for two people

In the blog

Week 44: Eating (too much), working (too much) and sightseeing (not enough) in Athens. Then flying to Antalya, to spend our next weeks at the Coworking Camp Turkey!

Week 45: "Getting the work done in the winter sun" at the Coworking Camp Turkey. Definitely rings true, we've been very productive. Having sunshine, sea views from our office and good all-inclusive catering doesn't hurt either.

Week 46: We started the week with a 3-day vacation (no laptops!) in Istanbul, hitting the tourist trail and just enjoying the city with our coworker friends. Istanbul was magnificent, but we were also happy to be back in the warm and sunny Kemer and the Coworking Camp Turkey.

Week 47: We were still at the Coworking Camp Turkey. Having fun and working hard! Plus getting lost, exploring ruins and getting worried about losing our inner Finns.

Week 48: We were still at the Coworking Camp Turkey having a great time. We also ventured out for an overnight trip to see some ruins, a sunken city, and to have a quick stop-over at Greece.

Week 49: This week at the Coworking Camp Turkey has been a bit grey and rainy, but very productive for work and good conversations. And some of the storms have been quite spectacular!

Week 50: Hiking to the Termessos ruins and saying goodbye to the amazing Coworking Camp Turkey. Then a long journey took us to the rainy city of Prague to explore the Christmas markets and the food scene.

Weeks 51-52: This is our double Christmas edition, taking you from Prague to the dark and snowy Finland. There was some good luck, getting together with family, enjoying Christmas treats and the white landscapes, plus catching up with dear friends.

Our October 2014: We lived amongst the unbelievable monuments of Skopje, hiked in the beautiful Matka Canyon, had a short vacation at the history-filled city of Thessaloniki, and explored Athens and its surroundings with fellow travel bloggers.

In pictures

Athens, Greece

Kemer and surroundings, Turkey

Istanbul, Turkey

Coast trip to Kas, Turkey

Kastellorizo, Greece

Prague, Czech Republic

Finland

And... that's how we spent November and December.

Week 7-2015: Arizona, Las Vegas and Sayulita

2015-02-21T20:05:46+00:00

Last days of our US road trip, visiting the incredible Grand Canyon, the impressive Hoover Dam and the bling-bling of Las Vegas. Finishing the week at the small beach town of Sayulita in Mexico, enjoying the sun and the food.

Welcome to our weekly recap! This one's for February 13th - 19th, which for us is the week 7, 2015.

Surprise of the week: We wanted to see the sunrise at Grand Canyon, so we got up at 5 in the morning, gulped a large cup of coffee and hopped into our car. After few miles of driving the lightness of the day started creeping into my mind... How come it is so light already, when the sunrise should be in 1,5 hours? At that point we realised that we had changed a timezone the day before, and the time was one hour more than we thought. So helplessly late for the sunset, we did a u-turn and returned to the motel for a few hours of work before heading to the the Grand Canyon again.

What I've learned: Winter is not the time for best sunsets at Grand Canyon. At the visitor center I asked where's the best place to watch the sunset, and the answer was "Summer". Right. Well, with the mightiness of Grand Canyon in front of us, it was still magnificent. I don't think it would be possible to have a bland experience at Grand Canyon.

Random thought: We visited the Hoover Dam, an engineering marvel with interesting building stories behind it. Hordes of unemployed gathered to the construction site during the Great Depression, where the pay was good but hard and dangerous work went on 24 hours a day. What caught our eyes were the paintings and some monuments at the dam, which reminded us of the socialist realism art seen in the former Soviet Union. Interesting.

Memorable moment: Las Vegas was flashy, over-the-top, exuberant and at the same time a bit gritty. The fountain show of Bellagio captivated me, and I stayed to watch three of them. Powerful voice singing opera, water jets reaching high and the colorful lights doesn't sound like something so special, but I was swept off my feet with it. Another memorable moment was walking along the Grand Canal inside the Venetian hotel. For me it somehow captured the unreal feeling of Vegas.

Tip of the week: Make sure you check the national holidays when planning! Since Las Vegas is notoriously cheap during weekdays (really, the hotel prices can be 1/3 of the price compared to weekends) I had timed our Vegas visit for Sunday to Tuesday. Except that the Monday in between was the President's day. So no cheap hotel deals for that day, no cheap gourmet buffets (damn!), lots of people around.

Workwise: This last road trip week was busy with attractions and less time for work. But now we are in the small town of Sayulita in Mexico, got an apartment for a month and are determined to slow down and concentrate on work. - In addition to working, Antti promised to try out surfing (it feels everyone here is a surfer). I'll stay on the shore and do my best to get some pics for you to see.

Food love: We are in Mexico, so what else than Mexican food! It's so fresh, so tasty and so cheap! Sayulita, where we are based for a month, is an excellent place for foodies. It's quite a touristy town, which has it downsides, but it translates to many, many restaurants to try and enjoy.

And that's it for our week. Next up: more of Sayulita, Mexico

This week's photos can also be found in our photo albums in Flickr.

Week 6-2015: West USA road trip

2015-02-15T15:32:06+00:00

And our West USA road trip continues! From the lovable San Diego to the surf town of San Clemente, through the hills and mountains to the desert oasis town of La Quinta and the mesmerizing Joshua Tree National Park, and a long drive through varying landscapes to Williams, Arizona.

Welcome to our weekly recap! This one's for February 6th - 12th, which is the week 6, 2015.

Memorable moment: I visited the San Diego Zoo and stopped for a long time to watch the hippos - the enormous ones, not the pygmy ones zoos usually have. I did love the hippos, but since they just stood still, there wasn't much happening. The reason I stayed for so long were the people (sometimes one of the best things to do in a zoo is to people watch...). One after another they tried to figure out how many hippos there where, two or three? - There were two, but the surface of the water bent the images, making it hard to tell. For the same reason I have no good pics of them, but the panda was adorable too, so here's that.

What I've learned: We visited the Mission of San Juan Capistrano, a beautiful, tranquil place first founded more than 200 years ago and now acting as a museum. An audio guide was included in the admission. I listened to it while strolling through the peaceful place and learnt about Californian history. Not all so peaceful, plenty of conflicts there too, with Native Americans, with pirates, and between different countries claiming ownership. The California region, especially the southern part was ruled by Spain and later by Mexico, which also explains why so many places have Spanish names.

Food love: Nothing spectacular this week, and nothing really bad either. Had some good Mexican food, some great sandwiches, and tasty pho soup.

Random thought: I haven't mentioned sunsets yet in this post, although there has been plenty of them. I just thought I had raved about them enough in previous posts. But I just couldn't help myself, this picture from San Clemente needs to be in here!

Workwise: Antti has started to track his time usage in more detail, getting to know how much time is actually used on productive work and how much on random things (surprisingly lot). Next step, concentrating on what's important and loosing less time on what doesn't really matter. Knowingly tracking time already helps with this.

Surprise of the week: I was surprised how much life, variety and colors there are in a desert. The hues are subtle yes, but there are so many of them. Many times I felt like I was in a picture with Instagram filters on. We drove around and did short walks at the Joshua Tree National park, and then drove hours through changing desert landscapes from La Quinta to Williams.

Tip of the week: The National Park system is one of the great things about the US. There are many of them, they are spectacular, well taken care of, and provide both easy experiences and wilderness escapes. Entrance tickets (which are per car) are valid for a week, so you can divide your visit over several days, or stay overnight. If you are visiting several National Parks, get the annual pass (currently $80), valid for a year in all the parks.

And that's it for our week. A good week. Next up: Grand Canyon, Las Vegas and Mexico. Stay tuned!

This week's photos can also be found in our photo albums in Flickr.

Week 5-2015: California road trip

2015-02-08T17:35:12+00:00

California road trip continues! From the sceneries of the Sideways movie to the busy Los Angeles and then all the way down to the sunny San Diego.

Welcome to our weekly recap! This one's for January 30th - February 5th, which is the week 5, 2015.

What I've learned: When most people think about California and wine, the first places on their mind are the Napa and Sonoma Valleys. But there are so many other places! The Santa Ynez Valley (part of Santa Barbara's Wine Country), where the wine infused adventures of the Sideways movie happen, is where we stopped at. We stayed in the Danish fairy tale village of Solvang, got free bikes from our hotel (Hamlet Inn) and toured around some of the vineyards. There are several of them within an easy biking distance. And if you're not into biking, the towns in the area have tasting rooms right in their centers.

Memorable moment: Arriving to Santa Monica beach on late afternoon, when there's still time for sunset but the light is already getting smoother. We strolled down the boardwalk, skirting the bikers and skaters, the vast ocean glistening on our side.

Tip of the week: Griffith Observatorium is an excellent place to catch a sunset over LA. If you want to catch a parking spot nearby, go early! Otherwise, you can take the hike uphill from your car as an exercise.

Random thought: I get the surfers (they have wetsuits), but what about the other people getting into the water at the California's Coast? I know, I know, I'm from Finland and should be used to cold water, but 16C is just not enough for me. How do they do it??

Food love: More burgers (In-n-Out!) and Mexican food this week. Not getting bored yet. This pic is from the Cafe 50s, where the burgers were ok, but the shakes excellent. Probably 1000 calories in one, but so tasty! - As a side note, you'll be seeing much of this shirt in our pictures. I got two new merino wool t-shirts for Christmas, and they are basically the only shirts I've been wearing for the past three weeks. Love them.

Workwise: The best working place this week was definitely our Airbnb-place in San Diego. Look at this deck, doesn't it look like the perfect outdoor office? It was also nice to, for a change, be in a place where others are working too - two of the hosts were also working from home, so there was a good productive vibe.

Surprise of the week: Walking around the Balboa park on a sunny afternoon, watching the kids running around and families having a good time, I caught myself thinking about having kids. Like my own kids. Whoa.

And that's it for our week. A good week.

This week's photos can also be found in our photo albums in Flickr.

California coast road trip on Instagram

2015-02-05T10:39:55+00:00

Time for another Instagram Travel Thursday! This time I want to take you with us down the California Coast, all the way from the foggy San Francisco to the sunny San Diego near the Mexican border. Welcome to the ride!

We started our trip about two weeks ago in San Francisco. We wandered around the town on the foggy mornings, almost all by ourselves, and enjoyed some sunny days on the Bay.

We got our rental car and drove down to the Surf City of Santa Cruz. We met some adorable sea lions and witnessed a spectacular sunset. The beach cliffs were a perfect spot for an afternoon stroll and some surfer watching.

Leaving Santa Cruz we stopped by at another beach for soaking in the view and getting some great pictures.

In Monterey the sea creatures of the Monterey Bay Aquarium mesmerized us for hours.

Driving down the Pacific Coast Highway (Highway 1) through the wild Big Sur area, we found some fascinating State Parks with sea lions and empty beaches, and a magical sight of mist creeping in from the sea.

Our motel in San Simeon was aptly named the Seabreeze Inn. This is the view from our window! There was also a little path following the cliffs and a great spot for catching sunsets.

The Hearst Castle was an example of abundance, but weirdly homey at the same time.

Near the castle we found hundreds of sea elephants just hanging around.

We spent two nights in Morro Bay, famous for the Morro Rock, seen here on the background. A quaint, peaceful town.

In the fairytale town of Solvang we got bicycles from our hotel and visited some nearby vineyards for some wine tasting. Perfect activity for a sunny afternoon!

Solvang really seemed unreal. I was assured, that there are real people living their everyday lifes here.

Next stop, Los Angeles! Santa Monica beach welcomed us with the pastel colors of just before sunset.

At the Griffith Observatorium we watched the day turned first yellow and then red, and slowly into darkness with the city lights sparkling around.

Finally, our coast road trip took us to San Diego. From what I've seen so far, I want to come back here and spent a month or two!

This is where I'm writing this post. At the balcony of the house we are renting an Airbnb room from. Life is good.

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This post is part of Instagram Travel Thursday and all the pics are from our Instagram account. Instagram Travel Thursday is a monthly gathering of Instagram related blog posts. You can find a list of other participating posts, or add your own post, at House of Anais, Hines Sight or at many other hosts' sites.

Week 4-2015: California roadtrip

2015-02-01T08:14:08+00:00

California roadtrip week! From the surfer heaven Santa Cruz to Monterey sea life, through the wilderness of Big Sur to San Simeon and the lavish Hearst castle, down to Morro Bay.

Welcome to our weekly recap! This one's for January 23rd - 29th, which is the week 4, 2015.

What I've learned: There's no end to beautiful sunsets on the West Coast. Every evening we've been by the coast, we've been delivered a great spectacle of nature. For someone coming from the North where sunset can take hours, it's a learning that the nearer you get to the equator, the faster the sunset passes. There's no time to linger, you need to be there sharp.

Workwise: We are trying out a new daily schedule. Helped by our jetlag, we've been waking up around 4:30 in the morning. That's means we are right at work by 5, or 6 at the latest, and have gotten a whole day of work done by early afternoon. This leaves us plenty of daylight hours for exploring! Seems to be working well so far.

Random thought: Why are most of the motel owners here Indian (or Pakistanese or similar) origin? From the 4 motels we stayed in this week, 3 were run by them. They all been really nice and helpful, and I do like the delicious smell of Indian cooking lingering in the lobby. - I didn't have any great pics from our motels, so here's a random one. Not sure if any of these are owned by Indians, though.

Surprise of the week: We visited two tourists attractions this week, and I really liked them both! In the Monterey Bay Aquarium I got mesmerized by the glowing jellyfishes, watched the small fishes going round and round endlessly, touched a stingray (felt hairy!), and learnt much new from the presentations. And at the Hearst Castle I was just amazed by the grandeur of it all. I liked his way of thinking: it doesn't matter who made it. Famous or not, if it looks good and fits in, I'll take it! That's my decor style, although my budget is slightly smaller.

Tip of the week: When driving down the spectacular Highway 1 through the Big Sur area, do visit the State parks / beaches on the way! You only need to pay once for the parking, and can use the same ticket in all the parks. We stopped by at the Point Lobos State Reserve, which has easy trails along the coast with plenty of animal life to spot. We loved the sea lions playing in the waves, and a group next to us even spotted a whale. We tried to look to the direction they were pointing at, but no success.

At the Andrew Molera State Park we hiked a mile to a beach. The path started with wading in an ice cold river and then walking through meadows. Pretty! And the beach at then end, it was just amazing. So wild, so beautiful. I just sat there, watching the ocean for a long time.

Food love: Burgers and Mexican food. That's what we've been eating for the past week. Plus one dinner at a Chinese place. We are on budget, since California is clearly more expensive than the places we normally visit. The horrible (for us) dollar - euro exchange rate doesn't help either. So we've been mainly visiting fast food places and cheap hole-in-the-wall restaurants. Have to say that all has been edible, most of it actually delicious!

Memorable moment: We were driving down the Highway 1, and somewhere before San Simeon the mist started to crawl in from the ocean. It transformed the already breathtaking scenery into something magical. Wow. Just wow.

And that's it for our week. How was yours?

This week's photos can also be found in our photo albums in Flickr.

Weeks 2-3 2015: Finland and California

2015-01-25T10:26:58+00:00

From the peaceful countryside of Kokemäki to the old city of Turku, and from the hectic Matka Travel Fair to the welcoming city of San Francisco. California roadtrip time! That's our last two weeks in a nutshell, more below.

Welcome to our weekly recap! This one's for January 9th - 22nd, which are the weeks 2 and 3, 2015.

What I've learned: Before Matka travel fair, I took a blogger friend of mine, Corinne (Vie Nomade) on a small trip to Finnish country side (aka. my home town Kokemäki). We enjoyed an outdoor hot tub, grilled sausages in a "kota" (traditional hut of the Sami people, bit like a teepee), walked to the frozen river, and visited the suspension bridge I used on my way to elementary school.

When trying to tell Corinne about the history and every day life I learnt much myself. Like the story of the building of the Chapel of St. Henry in the 1850s: the bricks were brought in from Turku by horse-drawn sleighs. The first time they didn't bring quite enough and they had to wait all the way to the next winter to have enough snow to get the few missing ones to finish the building. We learnt this and many other stories from an older man, who first towed our car from a slippery ditch and then proceeded to give us a private tour of some of the main sights of Kokemäki.

Workwise: My last week in Finland was all about blogging (and friends, no to forget our dear friends!). First I did my small Finland trip to Kokemäki and Turku with Corinne. In Turku we co-operated with Visit Turku and got two TurkuCards which gave us access to many museums and sights. The Turku Castle was magical just before closing time, we were the only ones wandering down the medieval corridors. Our other cooperation was with the Park Hotel, a charming art noveau hotel filled with detail and no room the same. We loved it. The owners have a talking parrot, so how could we not?

Then it was time for Nordic Bloggers' Experience and Matka Travel Fair. Three days (for me) filled with interesting workshops and talks, good meetings (especially Rauma and Pori on the Western Coast of Finland -- there will be some cool stories coming up next summer), raising my travel fever at the country stands, and most of all, hanging out with fellow bloggers! Great times.

Random thought: There was some confusion at the (Stockholm) airport whether my flight ticket to Mexico counts as leaving the US. Because Mexico is "kind of US territory". Interesting. I think the Mexicans might disagree..

Surprise of the week: On our first day in San Francisco we woke up early (hello jetlag!) and wandered towards the Fisherman's Wharf (our lovely hotel, San Remo, was nearby). There was hardly anyone around and the whole city was shrouded in fog. So calm, definitely not what I expected.

Tip of the week: If you are interested in learning more about the history of San Francisco from locals, check out the SF City Guides tours. There are dozens of them, all run by volunteers (you can tip at the end, the money doesn't go to the guides but for running the small organisation behind the tours). We took part in a 1-hour tour of the Ferry Building (did you know there use to be a 2-store highway right in front of it for decades?) and a "tasting tour" of North Beach. On our North Beach tour the guide took us up to a parking garage roof, and what a view there was! We surely wouldn't have found this lovely spot by ourselves.

Food love: The Ferry Building seems to be quite a hot spot nowadays. Not only it is beautifully restored, but it houses a plethora of charming small stores, cafés and restaurants. Local, natural, and tasty, so a perfect place for lunch.

Memorable moment: On Thursday we picked up our car and started our 4-week roadtrip and headed down the coast. We have no strict plans yet, we'll just see what interesting things comes along. On the first day we drove to Stanford University for a quick tour, then crossed the hills (big trees, windy roads, expensive looking ranches) to the Pacific Coast and Higway 1. What views! This is going to be good!

And that's it for our week. How was yours?

This week's photos can also be found in our photo albums in Flickr.

Week 1-2015: Helsinki

2015-01-10T11:52:49+00:00

We're still enjoying the darkest time of the year in Finland, catching up with people, taking it relatively easy.

Welcome to our weekly recap! This one's for January 2nd - 8th, which is the week 1, 2015.

What I've learned: For the most of the time I take photos without thinking too much about it. A few times a year I put more effort into it and try to take my skills to the next level. This was one of those weeks. I've learned quite bit, playing with my new wide angle lens and the camera stand. I think the new lens will be great for travel photos: sceneries, interiors and architecture. Now I can actully fit a whole building in the image.

Tip of the week: I'm ashamed to admit, but even though I've taken quite a few photos lately I had never used a camera stand in my life before. A 10€ tripod can expand your photographic world as much as a 1000€ lens.

Surprise of the week: The weather's been crazy around here the whole time, going from -15C to +5C and back, not making its mind.

Food love: We had a nice late pre-christmas party dinner at Sandro in Kallio. The Mediterranean inspired food was just great.

Random thought: I visited the Helsinki University main library to take some photos. And to remind myself how much more I enjoy browsing physical books in bookshelves than e-books in online stores.

Workwise: Visiting Helsinki is always a good chance for live business meetings that we don't otherwise have so often.

Memorable moment: We visited Helsinki concert hall to see and listen to the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra play. The acoustics were pleasing to the ear and the architecture to the eye.

And that's it for our week. How was yours?

This week's photos can also be found in our photo albums in Flickr.

Our 2014 in Instagram

2015-01-09T16:08:33+00:00

Our second year as digital nomads is now behind us and it's time for recapping the 2014. I'll start with leading you through our year with some of the our best Instagram pictures. This year it's going to be easier than in 2013 since now we have actually been instagramming the whole year...

We started the year in the city of jazz and great food: New Orleans. We were house-sitting a lovely gang of 2 dogs and 2 cats, enjoying the sub-urban life simulation. We had a nice house, the pets to keep company and park full of adventures on our backyard, so we didn't venture out much. We did take advantage of a few sunny days and walked around the charming French Quarter, filled with beautiful old buildings and live music at streets corners. We also did a daytrip to the Nature Reserve Jean Lafitte, great place for walking through some impressive swamp and marsh.

From New Orleans we flew to Cancun, Mexico. The weather got warmer, but the rain didn't stop. After just two nights we hopped on a bus and continued to Merida. What a lovely city! We spent a month there, staying in 4 different places and falling for the city. The colorful buildings, friendly locals, numerous parks, museums, bicycle taxes and the food, the food! For one of the weeks we ventured out to Chicxulub, a tiny beach town with a nearly impossible to pronounce name.

We had a friend visiting us, and together we explored some amazing Maya sites: the impressive Uxmal and the hidden gem Dzibilchaltun, where you can also swim in a cenote.

After the month in Merida we took few vacation days to relax at Isla Mujeres. After getting over the initial shock of how touristy the island was, we had great time diving / snorkeling in the clear water and feasting at the great restaurants.

Our another long stop this year was Playa del Carmen, where we rented an apartment for a month. We weren't so impressed about the town, after Merida it just felt too touristy, expensive and filled with chain stores. What we did love though, was all the other nomads we met while there. And the live bands playing at restaurants in the evening. The beach wasn't that bad either, although the one in Tulum was definitely prettier. And did I mention the Mexican food already? So good.

We did a few daytrips, one of them to Tulum. There we visited the Gran Cenote, which was so beautiful regardles of the crowds. And anyways, the tourists learning to snorkel are fun to watch, even if one of them did manage to kick my head in the process. The beach in Tulum is absolutely stunning, white sand and turquoise water. The famous Mayan ruins are quite small, but the location makes them a very photographic sight.

After over two months on the Yucatan peninsula, it was about time to see some other parts of Mexico. Several people recommended the city of Guanajuato and I'm so glad we chose to visit! The boldly colored houses, the narrow streets and the warm atmosphere grabbed me head over heels.

Our last stop in Mexico was the massive Mexico City. We had two vacation days to marvel the sights (the Museum of Anthropology is a real gem!), eat plenty of international food and catch up with a friend. We liked the city so much more than we expected to, and are already planning a return.

After almost 3 months in Mexico (we liked it so much we didn't want to leave), we finally made it to a new country: Guatemala. Antigua, less than an hour from the capital, is one of the main draws in the country and that's where we headed too. Charming city, with old colonial houses and countless inviting cáfes and restaurants, nice weather, walkable center and plenty of local flavor.

We first spent a week there with friends, mostly on a much needed vacation and returned a bit later to witness the calm madness of the Easter processions.

Our other stop in Guatemala was the traveller town of San Pedro on lake Atitlan. It does have a "real" town also, a bit up the hillside, but this time we stuck to the coast. The place was incredibly relaxed and filled with good places to eat, drink or just get a cup of coffee. We tried to get some work done, but it really is challenging when everybody else is on vacation mood.

From Guatemala we flew to Florida to catch our Transatlantic Cruise. We had just two days in between, but we took a full advantage of them and visited two places that have been very high on our wish lists. First we drove to the Kennedy Space Center, where we witnessed a real life spacecraft launch! The whole Center was full of interesting stuff and even if we were there from the morning, it was closing time before we had time to go through it all.

Another must-do stop (more for me than Antti though) was the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Being a big Potter fan I was living a dream for a day! It's magnificent what they have managed to build there. The details are so well thought out that you really feel transported into a magical world. (They have now opened a second part of the Wizarding World, the Diagon Alley. Guess what's on my wish list for this year?)

We liked our first Transatlantic Cruise so much, that we booked the return to Europe the same way. This time we had a few more stops (Nassau - Bahamas, San Juan - Puerto Rico, Philipsburg - St. Maarten and Ponta Delgada - Azores). I've lived in Puerto Rico so it was fun to show Antti some of my favorite places and meet up with friends. From the other stops, Azores was our definite favorite. It charmed us so that we added it to our "Places to live for a while" list.

The cruise itself was again good. We ate well (and a lot), exercised every day, met interesting people (this time also some who were under 60), enjoyed the shows and got tons of work done. We didn't experience much waves, but there was impressive fog on some days!

Our cruise ended in Southampton, but we only stayed in England long enough to make it to the airport and to our flight to Malaga, Spain. Next up was a week with my family in Benalmadena on Costa del Sol. They had come to an all-inclusive water park resort for vacation and we joined them. Only that when they were relaxing by the pool we were working behind our laptops. It was an apartment hotel, so we had our roomy 1-bedroom apartment with amazing views to use as an office. It was fun to spend some time with my family and we also got to do some explorations around the area. Such pretty small villages and the incredible town of Ronda, built on two sides of a steep canyon. The city of Malaga was also a pleasant surprise. We stayed there few days just to get over a flu and ended up really liking it.

Then it was time for one of the biggest adventures of our year (or life?), walking on the Camino de Santiago. We started in Logroño and ended up in Ambasmestas 22 days later, never making it to Santiago (so we have a reason to go back). We did quite a light version (we normally only walked about 15km a day), but I still wasn't sure if I'm in shape to do it. Felt quite good to find out I was!

We walked 240 kilometers through wine yards, mountains and endless planes. We managed to get surprisingly lot of work done at the same time, and we ate way too many baquettes and menus of the day (always comes with a bottle of wine...). We met many interesting people, and we walked in silence, having time to think or just admiring the nature around us.

After the Walk, we spent two days in Madrid. Many portions of tapas, historical stories, touristic sights and shopping were involved. I'm not yet totally sold to the city, but I do want to go back.

We returned to Finland in June, because summer is the time to be in Finland. Especially this summer, which started cold (there was hail storm at Mid Summer - and I was camping at a music festival...) but then evolved to the driest and warmest summer in decades.

We spent good time with our families, relaxed in the nature, adventured around Helsinki and met tons of friends. There were countless picnics with laughter and wine, good music gigs outdoors, barbeques over living fire, and beautiful sunsets.

After the perfect summer months in Finland the autumn started creeping in and we hopped on a plane to Bremen, Germany. We were in town for friends' wedding, a fun-filled and warm-hearted day of celebrations at a pretty countryside cottage. We also had few days to see Bremen, the charming old houses and the beer gardens along the river.

After spending a day on German trains we reached the city of Munich, were we stayed for a few days with friends. Munich quickly became one of our city crushes. It has history, nature, great restaurants, relaxed vibe, good beer, and it's very bike-friendly. One more place we need to get back to!

In Slovenia we participated in a week long Learning Village in the beautiful old Statenberg Manor, nested between countryside hills. It was a week filled with deep discussions, laughter and tears. An inspiring, tiring, lifting, confusing, overwhelming, and gratifying experience.

From the Village we continued to Ljubljana. One more city to our favorites lists! Compact, pretty, full of history and new life. A bit too perfect perhaps. We also did a weekend trip to the Lakes Bled and Bohinj, incredibly beautiful places! My solo hike on the shore of Lake Bohinj was one of the most memorable moments of this year. The nature around was simply breathtaking!

Next up was Zagreb in Croatia. The weather wasn't on our side, but luckily we had a big and comfy Airbnb apartment with fast wi-fi. We liked the old town and especially the Museum of Broken Hearts. Food was also good and at this point we weren't yet bored with the very meat heavy cuisine of the Balkans.

The most memorable experience of our stay in Croatia was a visit to the Plitvice Lakes National Park. The heavy rains during the whole summer had transferred the park into a real water wonderland. We might not have seen the colored lakes sparkling on sunshine as in pictures, but we had a very special experience walking over, through and in the water, which seemed to be everywhere.

Serbia is one of my favorite countries, and Belgrade one of my favorite cities, even more after the two weeks we spent there this autumn. It's hard to describe it, it's just a feeling I get when there. At the same time I feel like I belong and like anything could happen.

We did a day trip to Novi Sad, a city where I did an internship during my studies. It was great to see familiar places as well as how the city had developed. The walking streets of the center were even prettier than I remembered, and my favorites, the popcorn and ice cream stalls were still around.

Skopje in Macedonia surprised us with it's friendly people and out-of-this-world, bordering-kitschy center, filled with brand new (but looking old) monuments, statues, buildings.

We visited the Matka Lake and Canyon, a beautiful nature escape just half an hour from Skopje. You can take a boat or hike along the canyon, we opted for the latter and loved it.

In Athens I participated in the TBEX travel blogger conference, where I met some very cool people and took part in some nice trips. The sailing trip to the nearby Aegina island was one of the highlights, regardles of the early wake-up. With sunrise like this, it must be good.

I liked Athens much more than I expected. It has so much history, visible everywhere, but what I liked even more was the heartbeat of the modern city. It really was alive. Often not pretty, but definitely alive.

From Athens we continued to what we both think was maybe the best part of our year. The Coworking Camp in Kemer, Southern Turkey. 6 weeks in a resort by the beach (sounds a bit bad right? but it was off season, so very relaxed), sharing a coworking space with some amazing fellow nomads and entrepreneurs. We worked hard, played games, did excursions, learnt from each other. So good!

On one of the weekends we did a trip to Istanbul, visiting a local coworking place but mostly just playing tourist to our hearts' content. Museums, mosques, bazaars, kebabs, we did it all, even a Bosphorus cruise. It's truly a city of wonders and we keep going back there.

Another weekend trip took us along the coast to the pretty town of Kas. From there we took a ferry to hop on the Greek side (20 mins away), to the pictoresque island of Kastellorizo. Turquoise harbour, bordered by a row of houses, painted in white or bright colors. The cats lingering around, the locals sipping their never-ending coffee cups on small tables next to the water. And the food, oh the food!

On Kastellorizo I also captured our most liked Instagram picture of the year. A local man was gutting some fishes, and sharing the scraps with cats... and a huge turtle!

After Turkey, we stopped for a few days of Christmas spirit in Prague. The weather was (once again) not on our side, but we bravely walked around the sights and the Christmas markets. Although I must confess that we spent a lot of time inside and eating. We really like Prague and Antti is determined to get back there in 2015.

And then it was time to go back home to Finland for Christmas. We got what we missed last year: a white Christmas spent together with family. We ate way too much, met up with friends, were amazed by the darkness (we are just not used to it anymore!) and when ever we got some sunshine, admired the beautiful nature.

Whoa! That's it! Our 2014 in Instagram. Seems like so much has happened, and I guess it has. It feels much slower in real time... All in all, I think we can conclude that this was a great year :)

More recaps of 2014 coming soon! I'll also try to get Antti to write one from his perspective.

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Week 51-52: Prague and Finland

2015-01-03T11:00:55+00:00

This is our double Christmas edition, taking you from Prague to the dark and snowy Finland. There was some good luck, getting together with family, enjoying Christmas treats and the white landscapes, plus catching up with dear friends.

Welcome to our weekly recap! This one's for December 20th - January 1st, which are the weeks 51 and 52, 2014.

Tip of the week: Our last day in Prague was busy with working, having a very tasty goulash soup for lunch, taking part on a free (read: tip-based) walking tour of the center and browsing through the Christmas markets. Luckily the rain picked up in the evening (yes, luckily, you'll get the why soon) and we headed to the airport early. When we got there, I couldn't find our flight on the screen. I did find one that was scheduled for an hour before our flight. Oh, wait! That's our flight! Luckily (there, you see!) we were early enough to make it. The lesson: when writing your flight into a Google calendar, add the departure time to the title. Just in case somethings gets screwed up with the time zones...

Surprise of the week: We were afraid of not getting a white Christmas, since the ground was mostly black when we got to Finland. But it only took a couple of days and the snow started to fall! And fall and fall, and on the Christmas eve there was so much of it already that my dad had to get his tractor out to clean the road. (Oh yes, I'm very much from the countryside!)

What I've learned: It really is dark in Finland at the end of the year! Of course I knew this, having lived here for most of my life. But normally you're eased into it gradually, days getting shorter day by day. Now we were brought in to the darkest time of the year, just around the winter solstice. Add there some very cloudy days and we hardly saw sun for a week. When driving from Hämeenlinna to Kokemäki, we were witnessing a nice sunset, and then realised it was around one in the afternoon... This pic (of a sunrise) was taken around 9 o'clock in the morning.

Food love: Finnish Christmas food of course! Last year we spent the Christmas housesitting in New Orleans and although I did prepare some dishes, it's not the same. This year we got the whole deal: house full of family and tables full of treats. Cheeses, ham, casseroles, salads, home made bread, etc. Yam!

Random thought: Antti was trying to take pictures, but most of them turned out out-of-focus due to the lack of light (that's Finland in mid-winter for you!). So he bought a tripod to get better pictures with a long exposure. And a bit later on he bought a gorillapod and a wide angle lens. So look forward for some cool winter pics!

Workwise: We spent the Christmas time without laptops, whole three days without getting them out of their packs! And right after Christmas we both got a flu and spent the next three days in a bed recovering. All this lead us to not getting much done workwise. Well, there was nothing too urgent and it was good to get some rest and relaxation.

Memorable moment: Bringing in the New Year with a bunch of dear friends, plenty of food and sparkling wine, fireworks, laughter, hugs, bad jokes and singing out loud.

And that's it for our week. How was yours?

This week's photos can also be found in our photo albums in Flickr.

Week 50: Kemer and Prague

2014-12-21T15:57:49+00:00

Hiking to the Termessos ruins and saying goodbye to the amazing Coworking Camp Turkey. Then a long journey took us to the rainy city of Prague to explore the Christmas markets and the food scene.

Welcome to our weekly recap! This one's for December 13th - 19h, which is week 50, 2014.

Surprise of the week: We got another stormy night this week, not so much thunder though, but the waves were impressive! We went to the beach to take some pics, and got some really good ones. I also got surprised by a wave, getting my trousers wet and giving my phone a quick bath (still works! phew!).

Tip of the week: Termessos is a great area for a day hike, with some impressive ruins and even more impressive views. Although close to Antalya, the ruins are at the mountains. Be prepared (= take enough clothes!) for it to be several degrees colder, especially when the sun starts going down.

Random thought: The ruins at Termessos are about 20 mins hike uphill from the parking lot, and when there, a lot of walking up and down and over rocks and ruins is involved. We had come for a hike, dressed up for it. And then we came across this old grandma, footing it in her Sunday gear, walking stick in her hand, apparently having no problems climbing over the rocks. It's all about the attitude!

Workwise: Before starting the Coworking Camp, we were bit unsure if 6 weeks is going to be too long. What if we don't get along with the people? What if the food is horrible or the wi-fi bad? What if there is nothing to do around? No need for those worries, everything was even better than we hoped! Definitely one of the best things we've done during our time as digital nomads. We met so many cool people, had fun and learnt from them, visited so many interesting places and got a lot of work done. I really recommend this to all you (wannabe or current) digital nomads out there! I can't wait to attend another one.

Food love: The weather was rainy and gray on our visit to Prague, so we concentrated on eating. After 6 weeks of the same buffet in Turkey, we were ready for a change. I scouted Foursquare for good options and we feasted on Vietnamese Pho soup, spicy Indian dishes, incredibly tasty Czech gulash, Korean lunch, and Mexican tacos al pastor (with ah-so-good tamarindo-chile-margarita). The breakfast at our hotel was also excellent (Hello bacon! Missed you!).

Memorable moment: Stepping on the Charles bridge, the gray sky over me, wind blowing and the black birds circling above. A rain started drizzling down, sending the street sellers to cover their merchandise and the people to quicken their steps. I stood mesmerized, taking in the scene and admiring the dark beauty of it.

What I've learned: The Old Town Square in Prague has hosted markets since the 12th century (probably even much earlier). Nowadays the big things are the Christmas and Easter markets, both luring in hordes of locals and tourists. We gladly joined them and found not only some souvenirs, but also my new favorite drink: Medovina or hot mead. Sweet and steaming, made with honey and herbs, warming you up inside. Another treat were the sugary hollow rolls called Trdelni. They were sold at so many stands that we just had to try them. Verdict: delicious. Crispy outside, soft and chewy inside.

And that's it for our week. How was yours?

This week's photos can also be found in our photo albums in Flickr.

Week 49: Kemer

2014-12-13T14:22:34+00:00

This week at the Coworking Camp Turkey has been a bit grey and rainy, but very productive for work and good conversations. And some of the storms have been quite spectacular!

Welcome to our weekly recap! This one's for December 5th - 12th, which is week 49, 2014.

Surprise of the week: I enjoy crocheting, it's my non-computer-related go-to activity while listening to podcasts or on long transport. The other one is doing puzzles. And yes, I do travel with both a small jigsaw puzzle and a ball of yarn & a crochet hook. Anyway, my problem is what to do with the end products of my crocheting, so now when we agreed on doing the Secret Santa, I knew what my present would be. For Santa's visit, everyone had come up with a nice present and we had good time stealing them from each other. As a part of a game of course.

Food love: For this week, it's more about what things I still like. We've been eating at the buffet of our all-inclusive hotel for over five weeks now, and I'm getting fed up with most of the selection. I still devour the yogurt with honey, the fresh pomegranates, the white cheeses and the basic salad though. I'm so looking forward to Prague next week! And not to even talk about all the Christmas treats I'm going to be savoring in Finland soon...

Memorable moment: One night we had a big thunderstorm. It started around 11 in the evening and kept going until the morning. Whole sky was alight, brightening up our room despite the curtains and the roar of the thunder kept waking me up. At some point I started reading a book, since I couldn't sleep anyway. I also sat down on the carpet next to the window and just admired the nature's show. The storm caused the sea go crazy, and there were still impressive waves at the beach in the morning.

Random thought: World is so small. One night, at the dinner, we ran into two friends from Finland. They were here for a week-long vacation, touring the coast with a group. What a coincidence!

What I've learned: There's something comforting about the beach on colder, cloudy days. I like sitting there with a book (or podcast), deep in my thoughts with the waves providing the background music. Tropical beaches and hot climate are nice for a moment, mainly because I love swimming and snorkeling. But at the end, the 15-20C weather is the perfection for me. Where could we find that year round? Preferably not too rainy, and being on a seaside would be a big bonus.

Tip of the week: I've been doing research for our California road trip, and found out it can be quite cold there in wintertime. For some reason I had the picture of eternal sunshine in my mind, but apparently January/February might mean fog, rain and 10C on the coast. My plan was to buy some cheap camping gear and utilise the numerous pretty campgrounds, but I'm not so sure about this plan anymore. So what's my tip here? Do your research, don't just assume.

Workwise: I redid my Finnish travel blog! I did quite a lot of work twisting the theme, justifying it to myself as a way to learn and try out new things in WordPress. I still have some work to do, cleaning up older posts to fit the theme etc., but you can already check out the new look at kotonakaikkialla.fi. Any feedback? And I do know that most of you don't understand Finnish, but how does it look in general?

And that's it for our week. How was yours?

This week's photos can also be found in our photo albums in Flickr.