Random Summer Shots In #Helsinki!

ESC2018: The big 6

Time to talk about some Eurovision! I’m bursting to talk all my favorites! And there are so many since I’m in love with almost all the entries this year! Sayonara to the years when the paying countries sent their crappiest songs ever existing because this year many of the fans favorites come indeed from:

FRANCE

One of the earliest entries this year. Even when I was watching through the national selection Madame & Monsieur stood out for me. Was super happy that the French audience saved them and brought them to victory and Mercy has been non-stop play ever since. Some say it’s too political but for me it’s simply touching…the subject, the words, her singing. Just absolutely adore her voice. There’s so much emotion in this performance. I like their sound. It’s organic. The lightness and softness. It’s French but not too much. If you’re into this take a listen their debut album which came out in 2016. Their live performance though wasn’t as good as I had hoped for which I’m eager to see if they’ll do honour for the studio cut. So here’s the official video untill..

The magnificent Madame Monsieur with “Mercy” from France.

GERMANY

I was so sad last year for Germany. There was a happy girl singing last song of the final. And she sang her heart out. I wanted to like her but the song was just bad. I admired her positivity. This is not the case clearly in Lisbon. This is not the best song of the competition but it’s a big leap from previous German entries. It is definitely speaking to me. Like France it has a touching theme which also makes it to stand out from the rest of the ballads. Some say it’s cheesy, generetic but the emotion is raw, fragile and real. I see so much potential in this!

Michael Schulte with “You won’t let me walk alone” from Germany.

ITALY

For me Italy is a treasure chest what comes to the music. They have so much talent what comes to singing, performing, songwriting… And the world doesn’t know about them cause italian artists are quite happy staying in their own country. I was spectical when I hear their victory and did not like it at first listen. But this song has grown so much. Again a bit political theme, similar to France but I don’t care! It’s amazing! Their singing is brilliant and their voices sound so good together. There’s an organic sound which makes it to stand out from the rest pop songs in the contest. The intensity makes my world stop for 3:30 minutes.

Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro with “Non mi avete fatto niente” from Italy.

PORTUGAL

I wasn’t familiar with Portugal’s Festival de Cancao before this year. But since living here what the hell. Also I was interested by the fact that Diogo Picarra was one of the songwriters and performers. He’s the only portuguese artist singing in portuguese I actually like (language learning). His song was not the best of him I think but I was sad to hear the rumors that he had copied his song from something that was released 30 years ago. I do believe in his honesty and was even more saddened to hear him dropping out from the competition. Anyhow the one act that got selected to represent Portugal. I did like her song the best. It’s not the winner song of the competition but I like the mystical sound in it which portuguese language adds to it. Nice beat. Claudia is cute and fragile while Isaura got her back. Looking forward how it’s gonna look like on big stage in Lisbon!

Cláudia Pascoal from Portugal with “O Jardim”.

SPAIN

One of the earliest entries. I loved it from the first time I saw it. The song itself isn’t that special on its own but when you see them performing it together – it’s just magic. It somewhat stands out being one of the rare simple ballads without big arrangements. I’m so happy to be back loving the Spanish entry! 

I guess they’re gonna ditch the pianos but I just prefer this original live version from Spain..

UK

It has all the qualities that a good pop song needs. It has the pretty girl, great voice and charisma. There’s the beat and catchy tune. But no. Still not reaching high enough. I’ve really tried to like this one but no. However very classic pop song, British pop and eurovision pop also. I’m still hoping that this song will do the same as the last year’s UK entry did. They developed the song and the final version Ukraine hit me.

And because there’s a limit of only 5 videos in each post cannot add UK entry here but you can check it out here: 

Oriente train station and Vasco de Gama Brige in Lisbon. 

Mais Sintra..

Getting to know my new home city vol3

Less known Lisboa. Monsanto park and Marvila. Worth stepping out of your normal path. 

Coming back is feeling growth

Hey guys. Felt like rambling again.

Leaving Montréal and Québec behind me was as difficult as expected but it feels good to be home too. Autumn is on top of its beauty with the multicoloured trees, the air is briskly cool, leaves are falling down slowly. Rain or shine, this kind of autumn is my favourite time of the year. 

So I made it home allright. In one piece. With all my luggages this time.

At the Toronto airport, very cool lounge I must say. Luggages were full so I was forced to wear my winter stuff..

On my way home, on the flight from Reykjavik to Helsinki, there was this old man on board.An  80-year old, originally born and raised in Finland and on his way home for the first time for the 30 years which he had lived in the States.  As life-changing I’ve described my Montréal experience, it made me and my year feel quite small…and it is compared to that! His eyes were shining when he told how he hadn’t heard Finnish language been spoken so widely for decades and how he had missed Finnish food during the years he was gone. He had his grand-daughter and son-in-law with him to whom he wanted to show the country where the family's origins are from. It was touching to listen to his stories.

And when I did arrive in Helsinki, there was a pleasant surprise since some of my friends were waiting for me at the airport. What a luck also for them that my changes of flights went smoothly and I arrived as scheduled.

My favourite: Sallad with goat cheese buried in DEVIL'S JAM!!! :)

Surprisingly didn’t experience any jetlag. I just went to bed on the first night and that was all the sleep I needed. Almost disappointed, I was so prepared for it.

And as for what am I doing now. I’m back at my studies, more or less back at my old job and I’m living with my mom for the simple reasons that I don’t have any money for a flat of my own or any idea of a city, a place which I’d like enough to live in at the moment.  Not exactly the place in my life where I’d like to be at 27 but… However there are possibilities, good options even in Finland but I just haven’t made up my mind yet. Somehow moving to a new Finnish city not knowing much people or having a job, scares me more than what moving to Montréal did. Weird eh?

Otherwise haven’t had much difficulty with settling in back to my old routines if you don’t take into account that I still keep adding tax to all the prices I see in the groceries, cafes, restaurants etc and that I find myself repeating ‘how are you?’ or ‘have a nice day’ to total strangers which is not the most common thing in here. I also have a strong desire to do so in French. Apparently I’ve picked up on some of the local ways of Montréal. Also some of the news that were just distant headlines in Québec are happening If not right here but pretty damn close anyways, across the eastern border. Scary eh?

Lahti

My québcoise journey had a bit of extension, if that is the right word for it, when a friend of mine from Montréal made a stop in Finland on her travel through Nordic Countries. Four days we did almost non-stop sightseeing in three Finnish cities and I gotta admit it was a quite eyes opening experience for me as well. After the year being abroad my perspective has definitely changed and I look at my country and culture differently. I appreciate the smallest things the most.

There is a change going on in my home town which seems to be noticeable only to my eyes. But still for my comfort the most important things are never changing like friends, family, the lake and ice cream section at the local groceries. People have been welcoming and it's been nice to see that I wasn't forgotten. 

So for four days I fed my friend with traditional Finnish delicacies like salty liquorice, different ice cream flavours, blueberry cider and more or less fascinating facts about the Finnish history and society. Good trip overall! Merci Annick and I’ll see you in UK!

A medieval castle in Turku

Through my studies I also took part of the ArtSaturday which is a day version of La Nuit Blanche which I told you about last spring. Clearly way smaller over here and the reason why the night version was changed into this new day version is because people got too drunk. This is Finland for you! Anyways it was a blast this year, bigger and wider program of different activities than ever before in the city center.

Shame on you, Lahti folks who missed it for some crappy excuse! I was positively surprised by the entire project, the people organizing it and the experience itself. Good networking it was, met cool people. I wouldn’t have imagined that there are people in this town who care about this city enough to make such efforts for better Lahti happen.  I wanna do it again next year! If I’ll be here.

So this what I’ve been up to after my québecoise experience which seems like a dream that happened only in my mind at this point. I can’t believe it, a year ago I was just beginning my dream, searching for trainee job and building up my new life. I miss the city, endless amount of possibilities whether it was about a job, social life or any free time activity you were looking for. Couchsurfing community and the friends I made.

Even thou I’ve been totally broke and I don't know if I'm ever gonna see any of the people I met in Montréal… Some might say that it was total waste of time.. But I still don’t regret a thing about the year I spent there. However I have a feeling that I might not be returning to Montréal anytime soon. Unless something super-surprising happens to me. But so far it looks like I’m gonna stick with Europe. UK and Spain attract me the most. But now as it feels it might not be a bad idea to live in Finland either. Feels kind of nice actually for a change. 

Lisbon / Portugal blogs

Lisbon and Portugal isnpire hundreads of travel posts, bloggers and videos but there are a few that stand out for me which I check out regurarly. 

HERE TO GO TO

http://www.wheretwogoto.com/category/around-portugal/around-lisbon/

A travel blog for Portugal and outside of it. Good tips for day or weekend trips from Lisbon. Written by expat couple in English.

SALT OF PORTUGAL

https://saltofportugal.com/about/

Mainly about Lisbon and Portugal. Different themes you can search for posts produced by small group of posts. I like that concept how they create this thing together. Nice artwork. They also have their own voicemap tour of Lisbon! And scarfs inspired by Lisbon tiles.In English.

LISBON BY LIGHT

https://www.lisbonbylight.com/lisbon-stories/

This is lovely even though more like a design blog. I love the idea of ’stories of Lisbon’ as locals of the city, often artists. Great strories and inspirations.  Great way to discover portuguese brands and artists. Very ’arty’, very Lisboa.

THE LITTLE UPSIDE DOWN CAKE

http://www.littleupsidedowncake.com/category/lisbon-stories/

Like the name tells you already this about eating in Lisbon and elsewhere in the world. Another not a travel blog. You can look for recipes according to the time of the year, which is a fun idea. Love the posts of different cafés of Lisbon. Also stories behind the counter. Amazing photos!

LISBOA COOL / LISBON SECRETA / TIME OUT

Available in Portuguese as in English. These are all quite similar, commercial websites about Lisbon. Tips for visiting and learning more of it but also events, restaurants, cafes… Time Out comes out as a magazine once a week if you prefer.

VISUAL DIARY

https://www.lily.fi/blogit/visual-diary

In Finnish. Written by a graphic designer living in Lisbon for over 3 years. She writes about life, in general but especially in Lisbon. Great lists. Also about design. I love her photos. She also has a great instagram account worth following if you speak Finnish.

instagram

LISBON ME PLEASE / LISBOA LIVE / LISBOA COME

https://www.instagram.com/lisbon_me_please/

https://www.instagram.com/lisboalive/

https://www.instagram.com/lisboa.come/

Do you follow blogs about your home city /country? 

Where only I remain

I’m afraid I haven’t got anything special to tell you, just some very ordinary things of my life.

But let’s start with some new stuff:  I’ve started to study French here! It’s rather expensive since it’s almost like having  private lessons. There’s me and this another lady from Toronto. My teacher is an young québecoise, super nice girl. The primary focus is on the ability of having a conversation and understanding but there’s some grammar stuff as well. Two hours a week, every Wednesday night until the beginning of January.

(Canadian squirrel - Tim Horton's is somewhat a canadian version of Starbucks)

At work, all good. So far there’s been all kinds of events, from big corporate events of Microsoft and Red Cross for example to private concerts, weddings as well as art exhibition openings. The work is somewhat physically demanding since the decoration or furnishings have to be differently placed for every event. Small details count. At the events there’s isn’t much anything else to do than just make sure that everything goes as planned, smoothly and nicely. Adaptation to the changes is important. Often I’m helping out the catering staff with the dishes or serving food/drinks or whatever I can do.

I feel so empty at the moment cause this entire fall, I’ve been waiting for several releases to come out. First it was the new album “Terra” of this brilliant Finnish singer Jenni Vartiainen, followed by “Bridget Jones: Mad about the boy” book, new Céline Dion album and last but not definitely the least the compilation album of my favourite (in case no one has noticed) artist Laura Pausini. What now?!?

(Terra album by Jenni Vartiainen: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjfVme5npco)

Cannot be without saying a few words about Bridget Jones thou.. I finished  the third BJ a.k.a “the bible of a single gal” book by Helen Fielding. Brilliantly written. I recommend it to all “Jonesy” fans out there. I was very skeptic about it first cause I knew that it won’t be the same now with Mark “I like you just as you are” Darcy being dead. But the old Bridget is still very much there. Her old struggles with being a single and how to get a boyfriend (and keep him) as well as her new problems like coping with the everyday life of being a widowed single mom and how to use twitter made me laugh as much as they made me cry too.     

At the flat we’ve been having this teeny tiny plumbing problem during these few days. Started on Saturday, apparently some pipes started leaking and yeah, having water all over,  that was sort of a problem. But my landlord had the plumber to come and fix it on the very next day. Even though it was Sunday.

The quick action of my landlord made me think how I really got lucky with this room and flat. From what I’ve heard and seen, I so appreaciate that I have a washing machines that work, front doors that you can get locked and that I have a proper wall all the way to the ceiling. Lucky me. Even though all that stuff that has gone wrong in the past, may have not been so funny then but they sure are now!

Also, haven’t got pictures yet to prove this one to you but the whole city of Mtl is covered with Christmas decorations. And they’re seriously big, colourful and all sorts of things, especially in centre-ville. My neighbour has had Christmas lights ever since October I think.. Even the wall of our back yard is decorated.  And exactly year ago in November I felt so bad for having a Christmas tree (or actually two) and my flat decorated for the season. Cause it was “too early”.  Yeah right.   

About the famous Canadian winter, I’ve been so warned about. So far I’ve seen snow in Mtl only once. It was on last Saturday. And it’s all gone by now. But it’s getting colder so I’m hopeful that we’ll get some proper snow soon. I’m into it just for the looks, the trees are naked and it’s so dark without it. The temperatures ain't that bad but the wind (and this city is always windy) makes it feel so much colder. Hrrr.. Looking forward to those days of -20C. But I hope that the Canadian winter is nothing that the Finnish version hasn’t trained me for over the years.

(This is I hope it will look like) :)

Random moments 1) beach at Cascais 2) Seeing the show of Under the Stars at Carmo convent in Lisbon that goes through all phases founded at the end 14th century damaged badly in 18th century and being a touristic spot of today. 

Just can't stop praising this event! #igloofest #mtlmoments