Xmas At Home Was So White, Quiet And Cold But In A Good Way. 

Tomorrow Lisboa! 

Praça do Comércio

by:  fbosch

Sétubal colours! I kind of miss the summer, not the hot temperatures but the rainless days...

Canadian Photographer Captures Wanderlust In Magnificent Landscapes

Elizabeth Gadd is a self-taught 21-year-old photographer from Vancouver, Canada. Her signature style is to photograph wanderers and adventurers in magnificent landscapes. Having been raised in scenic surroundings with mountains, forests and fields, she loves to wander and explore.

It's not good-bye..

So I left Finland a week ago. (sorry about the delay btw.) And to be honest I thought that the leaving part would all be a routine thing by now since this is my third time I’m leaving for abroad to do more than just a holiday trip. I thought wrong. Yeah everybody cried and I cried – mainly because you lot did! But not for a moment I did regret of going.

I’ve never seen my parents so sad and worried though. And I did feel especially sad about leaving them behind.

In the middle of all the packing and leaving I was extremely grateful for the friends and family I have, who support me with this emotionally and financially.. after all. They may not understand why but they’re still standing by my side when I decide to do these grazy things of mine.

(Iceland)

About the trip itself. I guess everyone’s heard a bit of a bump on the road I had in Boston.

First of all I missed my connection flight to Toronto cause it took me forever to get through the customs (not with the actual authority thing but the standing in the lines thing) and I had only two hours for changing the terminal and the flight. And then I lost my other suitcase which I’m really sad about cause it had all my normal, everyday clothes. You cannot believe how difficult it is to force yourself to shopping!

And my Finnish flag was there! My Laura Pausini t-shirts were there! So much stuff I would have needed now. And also the bag itself! It was so good, ”Eastpak” it was and it was so practical, lighter and everything. And besides the the wheels in my pink luggage stopped working and…I do have to admit that at one point, I did think that I must be a madwoman for doing this Canada project of mine. But oh well, shit happens.. next time I definetely know better!!  This is all part of the fun eh?

(My grey and lost luggage and with that also my carrot body cream, my canadian guides and my last supper at work - french fries and goat cheese with devil's jam) 

Everything else went just fine no problems whatsoever, all the security thingies, dealing with the immigration office in Canada. And financially I didn’t loose a penny with all of this mess, the airline(s) paid the accommodation at the Hilton Hotel in Boston (I only slept there three hours but gotta brag right) and the new flight to Toronto. And everybody in Boston and in Toronto were really helpful and friendly all the time so can’t complain about that.  At least I’m safe and sound in Canada :) 

(The first time I saw Canada!) 

Lisbon! 

Praia da Ursa Bear’s beach is famous for its distinguish rocks. Next to Capo da Roca (most western point of EU) you can hike there within 45min-1h. The route is often described as easy but if you’re not used to make an exception from the paths going down might be difficult. 

It’s surprisingly popular and the traffic on the path is heavy. There are entire families with food, tents etc with them. 

Please note that this beach is also known as a nudist beach and as it is located right on the Atlantic coast, the waves are big and cold. I recommend going here when the summer heat wave reaches its peak. 

My favorites which probably won’t qualify in ESC2018

This is a tough competition especially this year. First semifinal will kill many good performances and the second one the rest. And unfortunately not all will agree with me anyway on the songs I like. So here are some I love and keep loving but which I believe there’s a high risk of them not going through to the Final. 

AZERBAIJAN - AISEL - x my heart (1st semifinal)

DENMARK - RASMUSSEN - Higher ground (2nd semifinal)

F.Y.R. MACEDONIA - EYE CUE - Lost and found (1st semifinal)

IRELAND -RYAN O’SHAUGHNESSY - Together (1st semifinal)

LITHUANIA - IEVA ZASIMAUSKAITÉ - When we’re old (1st semifinal)

POLAND -GROMEE -feat. LUKAS MEIJER - Light me up (2nd semifinal)

ROMANIA - THE HUMANS - Goodbye (2nd semifinal)

SLOVENIA - LEA SIRK - Hvala ne (2nd semifinal)

The things I didn't expect

First impressions can be deceiving I guess. I quit my job at the Hostel last Wednesday. It just wasn’t working out. The work itself was fine and I liked the guests and everything. But I was supposed to learn the job faster than I was capable of. I guess they didn’t have really the time to train me so I felt more like being a problem to them. After having a talk with the manager I decided that maybe it’s better that I won’t continue working there anymore.

I’m back at looking for a job again. I still have the gallery where things are going great. I like it and I feel appreciated there. Participated at three events so far, two weddings and one fund raising. It’s been fun, educating and each time different. But there’s not work enough so I still need another job.

(Wedding at the Gallery)

I think I’m gonna abandon the accommodation industry for a while and concentrate on the event scene in MTL. We’ll see how it goes. I’ll figure something out. I'm also thinking of taking a French class just to speed up things with my French learning. I also might get a totally different job which I'd get even paid and that wouldn't have nothing to with my internship.. on va voir. 

At the moment it also looks like that I will be spending my Christmas here in Montréal. Which is okay. My first one away from home. Just worried about my parents cause I know it will difficult for them, especially for my mom.

Over a week ago I had my very first Thanksgiving which they celebrate earlier here in Canada than in the States for example. I was fortunate to be invited over to a friends' house where I enjoyed a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with an italian twist :)

Got my eyes checked to get some contact lenses cause  there’s something wrong with the ones I brought back home. The examination was a bit different. The doctor used a spoon to cover my eye and this stick with parrot on it and I also had to read a bit of this text in French. It felt weird but thorough.

Here below some of my exploring in the nightlife of MTL. The most memorable night probably being the one where I ended up climbing to the Mont Royal Mountain in the middle of the night with the exchange students of Concordia University. It was cool, pitch-black and so unreal with the remarks made about the dark woods around us and the full moon lightning our way. #mtlmoments

Melendi - Tocado y hundido (Videoclip oficial)

Just discovered him #Melendi #UnAltimoMas :)

UMK25 Song review: Nightmares

Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK) is back and stronger than ever! We have seven new artists ready to compete for the trophy and the ticket to Basel in May! The first song kicked off the UMK season with a banger!

Neea River - Nightmares

Neea River is a singer-songwriter who was discovered on Instagram (she sang Céline Dion's All By Myself) during her holidays in L.A. The singing sensation has since written songs for other artists (Bess, Laura Voutilainen, Blanka, K-Pop artists etc). So she has a full day job as a music professional and she's made a name for herself as one.

As a solo artist she's been pushed by her label to switch to Finnish but she's always found English as a more natural choice. Now days, she has own label. She loves dance pop genre, loud bangers and Eurovision. Her musical influencers are Britney Spears, Weekend and Rihanna.

Her UMK song Nightmares was inspired by traumatic experience and reminds the people that there's always an exit of the difficult experiences. She wrote it together with Ilkka Wirtanen and Petri Alanko. With Nightmares she wants to bring pure pop banger to Eurovision from Finland.

Nightmares is her first own song to be released as a solo artist. And so far it has been compared to Loreen (Sweden, 2023), Keiino (Norway 2019) and Saara Aalto (Finland, 2018). This defintely has a nordic sound!

The beginning starts with a dark, mysterious tone - some might be fooled to think we have a ballad in our hands. The song builds up strong to the first drop which reveals the EMD/ disco beat which is the core of the song. This could be easily taken from early 2000's house music scene.

The woman can sing even though many have been worried the layered edits on her voice during the track. Personally, I'm not one of those people. There's a debate going on whether the dancing she does in the music video is part how you do it in this type of music or if she's actually just not the best at it.

It's true that often EMD tracks it's difficult to get a real climax, a drop happening later in the song because the beat is so strong and in here the song tends to continue kind of predictably without further surprises. This bothers me a bit tbh.

A lot of people speak about "the eurovision sound" and how much this song has it. Yeah would be an easy fit to the contest and a big pleaser for a lot of people. But I don't see this pulling a lot points

However, this is an impressive defeat for someone producing her own music as independantly as Neea does and running her own label on top of it - I do hope all the best for Neea but I have a feeling this ain't our UMK25 winner.

What do you think of the first UMK25 track and what are the chances of Neea to advance to ESC? Talk to me in the comments below!