Tag: me

Travel Rant: Dear Mom & Dad…

Published on by LostViivi27 Comments

Warning! Very personal rant ahead…

 

Dear mom & dad,

(and all other family members, friends and curious strangers),

you can’t stop me so please let me do my own thing. Sorry.

I didn’t know how to tell this for you face to face so here I am writing my blog. You know me and that’s why this may not be so huge surprise. I have booked a trip. Or well several trips to be exact. Adventures around the world. I have done some planning and that’s never a good thing from your point of view.

This coming autumn I will do a few week trips around Europe. I will go to Iceland because it has been my dream to visit that cold country as long as I can remember. I will finally visit America for the first time in my life. And if I get a good last minute deal to anywhere, I will take it.

But don’t worry. My autumn won’t be just all fun and games. Or well it kind of will be but in the good way. You already know that I will start studying creative writing in remote open university. During this autumn I’m planning to write a lot. And when I say that I mean A LOT. The last week I have been planning my autumn’s time management. I want to give even more time for blogging. Because I need money to do all this I will take even more jobs from internet. I have everything planned out.

I know you hope that I would just “get a job” or “go to real school” but it’s not that simple.

Why do you think I have been changing my plans so much lately? Veterinary, translation, literature, business, media studies. The universities I have been applied to have been all over the place. And then for some reason I have never found the strength to study enough to get in. I am not stupid, I just don’t have any motivation to get in any of those schools.

After reading about this creative writing course I felt like everything just made so much more sense. Can you even understand how excited and happy I am right now? I don’t think I have been waiting anything this enthusiastically since the time I started in high school. And even then it didn’t feel as right choice as this one does.

I know that creative writing isn’t exactly the most paying job. And I know that using all my savings to travel sounds immature and just plainly stupid. This won’t be the easiest route and there would probably be a lot better choices I could have made. BUT I will regret the rest of my life if I don’t try living the way I want right now.

The point of this small post was to tell you that this next year and probably during the rest of my life I will be doing a lot of decisions that may seem idiotic to you. The way I spend money traveling may seem reckless. And the things I decide to study will probably sound as useless as possible. But I hope you remember that this is MY LIFE and that I have to do this because if I just accept the normal path everyone else is taking I will never know if taking the crazy path would have worked out just fine.

So please, just accept the things I do. Because even if you aren’t here for me during this crazy adventure, I will keep going towards the future I want.

With love,

Your oldest child
Viivi

Travel Rant: Victim Of Travel Fever

Published on by LostViivi14 Comments

“Is it time for your next trip?”
“It’s time to start packing!”
“Enjoy the sun, it’s time to travel?”

I am victim of advertising. How could I not book a trip when all these emails with crazier and crazier titles keep inspiring me to just leave? And in the end it’s not just these emails, it’s life as whole. When all you want to do is travel it’s easy to find ‘signs’ everywhere.

Someone speaks about New York with me right after I saw cheap flight deal there. I find abandoned travel brochure from bus stop. Somehow going to library, bookstore or shelf full of magazines means seeing travel themed magazines and books right away. I don’t even try but for some funny reason I always find myself standing in front of them. And then there is this blog. Every now and then I start to think that maybe, just maybe, I should stay at home this year and not travel anywhere. And then someone in comments tells me about new place or says a few inspiring words. I can’t stop.

Having soul full of wanderlust means you will see these signs everywhere. It’s like the world around you kept telling you to travel, travel and just travel. You may know about the phenomena of buying car and starting to see similar cars everywhere or getting a puppy and starting to see dogs everywhere you go. It’s same with travel.

Once you began traveling and you fall in love with it you start seeing indications to travel more everywhere you go. Even the smallest things come reasons to book your next trip and do something others would describe as crazy.

So, I am victim of travel fever. These adds in my email make me crazy. I am like alcoholic smelling the world’s finest wine. I keep staring these adds, these tempting title. Sometimes I even visit the travel websites and almost end up booking these trips. But I can’t. Not right now. Wait a week, maybe two, I keep telling myself. It’s like torture and I don’t know when I will break up. 

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Today’s post was just short thing I wrote after waking up too early. I am currently in the “how to be good enough for all these people reading my blog” phase because there is so many of you and writing is getting harder and harder. I will try my best (and try to finally write all those travel diaries I haven’t…) so please cope with me.

And like always I will now push this odd subject towards you. Have you ever felt like this? Have you ever been in situation where you can’t book a new trip even if you desperately need to? All comments are appreciated.

I hope you are having an amazing day!
With love,

Viivi Severina

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Travel Rant: The Moments After Travel

Published on by LostViivi13 Comments

Returning home is always as terrible and as exciting. After being away for a week or two your own country seems so different than before leaving. Safe and sound. You know all the streets and understand what people are saying. You know how to act, how to fit in. It is easy and for the first few days that makes going back home so amazing. After surviving somewhere else being back at home is like relaxation that holiday should have given for you.

However after those few days coming home excitement disappears. You are back at home. Nothing has changed. Everything is exactly same as before you left. So many things have changed inside of you but no one seems to realize. Your family keeps doing normal stuff, friends keep asking photos from your trip and neighbors probably didn’t even know that you were away. In the end you are left standing there feeling odd. It is like this city, this country, these same old circles aren’t enough anymore. You need something different.

You need new streets, new cities, new places to explore. You want to taste foods you have never seen before and that will probably make you regret later even looking towards them. You grave for new interesting people who can teach you so much about cultures and countries you have only read from school textbooks. You need adventure. In your heart is traveler who just wants to see as much as possible because our time in this planet is limited.

Watching all the photos you have taken and going back to all the new memories you have collected, just makes everything worse. “I would still be there…” If you just hadn’t taken the flight back. If you just had decided to escape your life. If miracle had happened and you would do whatever you want with your life. But then again, if you didn’t return back to home every now and then would this traveling thing feel as good? Would every new experience be as exciting as right now if you knew that you could have them endlessly whenever you want? Who knows…

Right now all we can do is to try to survive this after travel blues. Enjoy the few days back at home and then start planning new trip for another adventure. Because we are travelers and that’s what we do. Endless cycle of planning trips, traveling to new places and coming back.

 

Travel Rants are my series of random travel related thoughts and opinions. It is non-edited thoughts straight from my brain and heart. I just returned from my Bremen London trip so it was good timing to bring this post series back. Like always all comments are welcome! Have you ever felt like this? Or how do you cope with after travel blues?

I hope you are having amazing day!
With love,

Viivi Severina

How I book my flights?

Published on by LostViivi27 Comments

One late night (or was it early morning) about a week ago I couldn’t sleep. Someone was having party in the apartment above mine and I could hear them too clearly. I was too stressed out and having too many thoughts in my mind. It was one of those nights when you go trough all your life decisions and regret half of them. It was one of those moments when you can’t decide what you want to do with your life and you can’t understand how doing decisions like this seems so easy for other people.

I was sipping tea, staring my maps and listening motivational videos. That’s something I have done lately a lot when I have no idea where my own life is going. And then between changing videos I somehow ended up doing another thing I have done lately. I opened skyscanner and searched cheap flights to anywhere.

I don’t know what was different this time. Maybe it was those screaming neighbors I could hear laughing too loudly and living too recklessly. Or maybe it was the inspirational voice speaking in my headphones and telling me to just do it. It may have also had something to do with all the international and exchange student talks my school has lately kept. And then again it may all be because of this blog.

I don’t know what was different this time but I bought the cheapest ticket to anywhere. To Gdanks, Poland and Stockholm, Sweden to be exact. Right now week later I am sitting in cruise ship writing this while a few older ladies sip coffee around me. Apparently Sweden trips aren’t that popular during winter and ice. Next week will be full of amazing solo adventures around Europe.

I do this literally every time. I end up booking my tickets without any proper planning. This same thing happened with my three months Japan trip and even with my recent London holiday. I just can’t keep myself from leaving and when I try it ends up like this. Flight tickets to foreigner country and surprised friends and family. 
And that’s my way of buying flight tickets and planning new adventures… With one small thought that grows to something bigger.

What about you? Do you ever do crazy stunts like this or do you prefer planning your trips properly beforehand?

 

With love,

Viivi Severina

Photo Diary: Lost in Finnish Forest

Published on by LostViivi18 Comments

So, when you are short of time (because I may have got invited suddenly to summer job interview) and you live in Finland there is one subject you can always write without any problems. Our beautiful forests. Where ever you go in Finland you can find forests. It is our tourists magnet and beloved part of our lives.

I could not imagine my life without small trips to isolated quiet forests. I have done something like this before but I don’t think there can ever be enough photos of Finnish beauty. I hope you can enjoy these winter photos from Finnish forest.

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Have you ever visited Finnish forest? Or has your home country/city a lot of nature? Like always all comments are welcome. (And you would make me the happiest person on this planet if you followed my new Facebook page.Thanks!)

Best regards,

Viivi Severina