back home with a new mobile

my trip to Finland was quite nice this year. of course its enjoyable every time... but Helsinki felt better this time around, fresher, with more events, perhaps the weather was better than usual. friends were the same as always, just the way i like them...:)  i dont have a lot of relatives, and none that i am in frequent contact with, so my friends are more like my family. it becomes obvious when people always ask "so, you going to Helsinki, to see your family??". thats the assumption. and naturally for most people that is the focus, the moms and dads and siblings...  and then i go like "umm, well, just to see my friends and hang out". as if seeing friends was anything less. for me it definitely isnt. i also talked to a few people recently who have lived through the "expat problem", which is that whenever u go to your home country, you're extremely busy seeing people. but for a lot of them, that does mean relatives and spending time with them, and perhaps a couple of friends. for me friends are everything. not trying to take anything away from my grand mom and aunt, whom i also love seeing.

Helsinki by night

 

restaurant day offering. several op up restaurants around helsinki. just the weather was not awesome but i guess u cant have everything...

someone opened a restaurant right under their window.

i was also hoping the trip would provide me some perspective to my current fluctuating emotions. and it did. i think i feel more stable and trusting about my future now. basically its not so serious, whatever me and doctor do or wherever we decide to go, itll be fine, somehow. thats what i think now.

in helsinki i ate sushi buffet lunches almost daily. omg it was soooo good. i also enjoyed nachos and garlic snails and finnish rye bread with edam cheese...and Arttu's wife's cookings when staying with them. and obviously quite a few ciders and sparkling wines. i was gonna write "a few too many", but fuck it, it was all good. but i think now i dont need a drink for a while.

my good friend Antti's graduation party on saturday. it was pretty a massive and festive event :) 

 
doctor picked me up from the airport last night. which was sweet, its far on the other side of the city. a few hours later, he himself flew to Ankara. to go to the Portuguese embassy to get another schengen visa - he had a year but its expiring now and we are going to Lisbon, so. he will be back tonight though so we can finally properly catch up on things.

new shoes, kinda 60's influenced.

a view from my friends flat in merihaka. the area is not very inviting looking (big sovient style concrete buildings), but the flat, balcony and view make up for it.

 bar/resurant Loosister.

new phone!! iphone 6 (next to my old iphone 5). i just need to go register it within a next couple weeks before turkey blocks it...  all foreign phones must be registered! and thats not free either. but at least its still possible to import a phone... who knows when theyll ban that.

not much to add to the phone issue, iphone 6 was a natural step up, its lighter and has a bigger screen...  but other than that its just the same. im satisfied.

my skin got so dry...  as always. i remember a few days in my nose was dry too and i woke up with dried blood on the side of my nose... eww. i think itll take a few days days for things to normalize. not just skin wise, but overall, i need some rest and alone time. although Arttu is arriving tomorrow and will stay for the week. but he is such a regular here, and will work as well, he doesnt take too much energy. we will just go our and eat and stuff, it should be relaxing. 

yeah i should write more about finland later. but as days go by, i move on to other things, and usually it doesnt happen.