A Guide To Being The Kind Of World Explorer You Want To Be. 

I find her amazing... #giannamood 

I keep..

Allô!

March has been so full of #mtlmoments that I don’t even know where to start!

The much praised La Nuit Blanche which was already a month ago was indeed one of the greatest events of my Mtl year. Ten well spent hours by doing free activities in the greatest company. The highlight of the event was definitely vinyl scratching just around the corner from the place I live. Other stuff included penguin watching, so called tramway ride, ice sculptures and several other different art performances all over the city. Some activities didn’t exactly match the original description but were still somewhat enjoyable. And they were all free so can’t complain.

(LNB, 2014)

Also the long anticipated Laura Pausini concert which was even more back and beyond than what I imagined first. In total 9h of travelling in a bus from Montréal to this small town of Orillia, in Ontario. Even my first apartment was bigger than the local bus station. But the people there were the friendliest I’ve ever met. It came handy at that point when we were checking out from the hotel (we stayed in the same one with the band and crew btw!) and there was only 30min to our bus’ departure to Toronto and we seriously thought that you could have a taxi in that time but noup. Our travel plans would have changed dramatically unless the hotel’s manager hadn’t driven us herself to the bus station. What a service!! http://www.daysinn.com/hotels/ontario/orillia/days-inn-orillia/hotel-overview

(You'll never find me in this one! pic by Mario Torre)

We were lucky enough to see Laura doing a tv interview before the concert and where we were literally 1m away from her. She saw my flag and signed some autographs, again I was super lucky to get one! Otherwise there were no more chances to meet or talk to her. But I don’t wanna complain cause I’ve been so lucky with her in the past in London and Madrid. I did give her the post I wrote about her here in my blog ( http://lageografiademicamino.tumblr.com/post/68130494682/she-uguale-a-lei ) through a staff member of a casino. Not sure if she's read it or checked out my blog or anything.

The concert followed the same tracklist as the previous concerts in America and Europe. More or less. Some songs weren’t performed like Con la musica alla radio which I’ve been praising here in Tumblr too.. But I guess you can’t have it all. Laura seemed tired. But she’s now a mom of one-year-old and still touring around the world so who wouldn’t be tired in her place The problem with an artist like Laura is that she gives so much of her time to her fans and when she's acting normally and just doing her job it doesn't feel like enough.

But the concert was great overall. Her voice was in top condition as always. The majority of people were quite old, I felt super young among those canadian-italian grannies. That was one of the reasons why the concert seemed a bit slow compared to the concerts I attended in A'dam and London which were just full of energy. But I did love to see the show with my own eyes and hear the latest versions of the songs. Now all I’m looking forward to, is the live release. #pausini20th

The latest event which I’ve been to was St. Patrick's Day,  probably one of the rare Sunday afternoons in the winter time when it's totally okay to get wasted here. Totally new acquaintance as an event since we don't have it in Finland. Originally an Irish thing but celebrated widely in all over North America. Also in Mtl where almost half of its population has some sort of Irish background in the family (who knew?!).

It was fun, cold thou but fun. There was a parade of three hours long, more commercial apparently when compared to the real thing in Ireland. Or so I was told. But I did get to see some mounties, which I've been dying to see ever since I came here! Green was the theme colour of the day and the streets of centre-ville were packed of people wearing all sorts green clothes and accessories. Even the beer was green at the Irish pub where we later ended up with the bunch of couchsurfers.

(Moi, on St. Paddy's)

ALSO, I'm almost embarrased to tell you this but I did attend to a seminar of "Get the Guy" by Matthew Hussey. Apparently he's quite big in his field, wrote books and doing a world tour now with this seminar thingie. Definitely a #mtlmoment I never thought I'd do! It was just one post or two before where I was telling how I'm not looking for anyone or anything but.. yeah friend had a free ticket and I thought what the hell.

It was okay, he didn't tell anything that I wouldn't have known before but gotta admit that it was still pretty entertaining with his jokes and that gorgeous british accent. In the other hand, it did have a bit of a commercial taste cause it ended up lasting over five hours! When I left he was still talking.. not about pick up lines or how to get any guy but about himself and trying to sell his book, tour or whatever. Well now, I've been there and done that too! :)

Single ladies, interested or curious in the subject, this is for you :)  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnFUFy4GbdQ

But I have worked as well. Quite a lot actually recently. Just had my first days off for 11 days. I’m be working now only in the evening shifts since there’s not enough of physical space for all the employees to work during the day. And naturally the day shifts are more popular compared to the evening shifts which last until midnight. Like I said before, nothing against working in the evenings but I gotta admit non-stop working until midnight five times a week might get in the way of my social life. So in some point I’m thinking of cutting it down to four days a week kind of thing. But at least Babel is paying $12/evening shift more now!

Against what people might think about it, the job ain’t about the playing the game but to find all the things that might go wrong while playing the game. The employees are usually divided into different teams and we have different themes, areas etc, we need to work on. Still fun thou. People are still super friendly and there are worse jobs in the world. Haven’t done translating since there are now more finnish people but I enjoy the team I get to work with while doing the regular testing. 

It’s been pretty hectic at the flat as well. First one room mate from the flat downstairs got evicted after he started fighting about this rat issue at the building with our landlord. And now that room mate is suing our landlord. A bit more dramatic the disagreements here between landlords and tenants compared to Finland. Yeah but now he’s moved out. We also had a week of renovations being done in our kitchen and bathroom which was just pain for me cause it didn’t just fit into my daily routine at all. Cause I worked in the evenings when they were gone and then when I was at home so were they. But it’s over now and no more leaking taps etc. But now the toilet doesn’t work! I hope the landlord gets it fixed by my bday which is next weekend..when I’m just gonna do the traditional finnish thing: get drunk… with great friends of course to carry me home afterwards. #finnish #bday #justkidding

Weatherlike. It's been back and forth with spring and winter over here. There's been pretty gorgeous days with sun and warm temperatures over 0 but then there has been snowstorms too, the latest one today. But I'm still brave enough to say that I have indeed survived the famously cold canadian winter. #mtlmoments

Okay, now I stop! Thanks again for reading :)

LUX Light Festival in Helsinki

Some shots from earlier this year in Lisboa and about! Including Cabo da Roca, the most western point of Europe. Some photos from Almada, the other side of the river. 

A new hobby started! And yes filtered used but they are my first shots so give me a break! Wandered around in the streets and seacoast of Helsinki and this is what I got :)

Happy Independence day Finland! 

Photos from my visit to Coimbra, 4th biggest city in Portugal. It’s famous for its university which is one of the oldest in the world and especially the beautiful library Joanina (no photographing allowed!). Such a lively student city. Easy to reach from Lisbon and the city can be covered in one day easily. The city has more medieval feel than other portuguese cities I’ve been to. Here’s the first part of the photos I captured. 

Évora, located in the hot Alentejo is full of history and culture! Don’t hesitate to visit! 

So sad and shocked about what happened in Sweden....

🇸🇪💔🇸🇪