Lisbon!

I have now been in Lisbon for 2,5 weeks. I still live in a hotel which is really starting to annoy me, and I don't know when I will get an apartment. At work I have finished the two weeks training and next week I will sign my contract. The job itself is quite simple and easy, but of course I have to ask all the time about many things, as always when you start a new job. Our training group was really nice and we had a lot of fun, it was only us Finns, and Norwegians in the group. I got friends here to have fun with (and we do) and so far I have enjoyed my stay! As I've said many times before, I love the mountains but I need to live near water. And already one friend (from Finland) has booked his flight to come over in December for a few days! ☺

I already have portuguese phone number and bank account, and will get my NIF number (to pay taxes, happy happy joy joy) next week, and probably also the social security number. All I need is an address... but I will get that eventually. At least I go out a lot, just can't sit in this small and dark hotel room. Last Sunday I went to Sintra (visited the National Palace and the Pena Palace), yesterday went to a bus tour with a friend around Lisbon, and today I went to Cascais. I will write a separate post about Sintra and Cascais, otherwise this post would be way too long.

To keep this post short, here are some of my photos of Lisbon! Some photos were taken in the first days, and some yesterday from the bus. It was a double decker, we sat up of course, in the back seat drinking white wine (shocking isn't it) with straws, and giggled a lot 😂. 

I really enjoy the city, the atmosphere, the people, the sea food (oh yes, the sea food!!!), and of course THE OCEAN!!!!!!!! I don't think I have any problems staying here at least over the winter, maybe for a full year too! In few days (meaning in a month) I will write a post about Sintra and Cascais. Next weekend I am also having a weekend off, and planning on a weekend trip but I am not sure yet where. Maybe to the south (Algarve) or to north (Porto). Who knows where I will end up? 

Leaving Brasov - Varna - arriving to Lisbon

Since I had a few days before moving to Lisbon, of course I decided to travel and chose Varna as my destination. I wanted to see the Black Sea and I wanted to visit Bulgaria and Varna seemed a good place to do both! Last days in Brasov were a little sad… I will miss the city, the mountains, my lovely apartment and so many people! I was still at work on Friday, half a day, and after hugging a lot of people it was time to go. I know that many of those people I will never see again. Sniff. I left home at midnight, took airport shuttle to Otopeni, and from there another airport shuttle to Varna. It costs a bit more than a normal bus but it is much faster. I even slept a little bit on the bus, and that is very unusual for me. The border was very quick, no lines and  there was only three of us in the bus. Luckily I got the hotel room right away, even if it was just 9 am (it is not high season anymore), took a little nap and went out to see the city.

Varna looked like a very nice city! Lots of culture, museums and theatre. Unfortunately the museums are closed on Sundays and Mondays so didn’t get the chance to visit any. I went to seaside of course, lots of restaurants and cafes there, and everything looked nice and clean, and everybody seemed to speak good English. First I walked in the city centre but it was so boring that I started to walk the smaller streets which are always  much more interesting and “real”. But I recommend travelling there, very tourist friendly, they have realized how to get tourists who bring money. It is still very cheap, cheaper than in Romania. I thought this tourist area would be more expensive but no, very cheap! I don’t know how are the prizes in areas that are just for tourists, like Golden Sands and Sunny Beach.

I had three days in Varna, on Monday I was thinking about going out of town but I couldn’t find anything but going to Golden Sands and that didn’t interest me. I guess I was too late looking for places to visit, and the places I found are closed on Mondays. But Monday was the only sunny day so it was a nice day to spend on seaside, the first two days vere a bit cloudy and windy, and also cool. I had excellent food, the service in restaurants were great, and I really enjoyed everything in Varna. My hotel was hotel Divesta, located in the city center so I could walk anywhere, but still very quiet. I paid 113€ for three nights in a single room, including breakfast! Nice hotel!

I saw some street dogs also in Varna, but hell of a lot street cats! Especially near the sea, the cats were everywhere. People seemed to feed them and pet them, and cats are good at taking care of themselves. Of course I feel sad for them, but I feel a lot more sad for street dogs.

Photos of Varna

On Tuesday morning I took again airport shuttle back to Otopeni, I booked an airport hotel because on Wednesday I had early morning flight to Lisbon. It was nice to see the scenery this time, both in Bulgaria and also that part of Romania. It was sunny and warm day, of course when I am sitting in a bus! 😁 On Tuesday evening I had dinner with a former colleague who has just moved to Bucharest, it was nice to see him and say bye bye to him as well (he is my adopted nephew 😁). My hotel was RIN Airport hotel, a 4 star hotel but the service really was not 4 stars. The receptionist didn’t even know if I have to make a reservation to the shuttle for the morning! And the wi-fi was lousy, which is surprising because usually wi-fi in Romania everywhere is good.

Since on Wednesday I had a wake up at 4 a.m. (imagine my joy), I wanted to sleep early. Ha ha, yeah right! I slept about two hours, took bus at 5 to the airport, dropped my bag (18 kg), through the security control and passport control. Didn’t have time for much else, just bought a water bottle and waited for boarding. I even took a little nap during that 4,5 hours. I really have to give credit to the airline, TAP Portugal. I got a warm breakfast, special diets are also possible (very rare nowadays for flights in Europe), screen on every seat (I watched Gravity), they also give you a blanket and a pillow, and can you believe this: no screaming babies!!!! Even the seat next to me was empty so it was quite comfortable flight! I wrote some of this text during the flight ☺.

The company has Welcome and Support team, they contacted me a few days beforehand and told me where to meet them at the airport and they would take me to the apartment. I found the person who was picking me up, or she found me, although at first she didn’t believe it can be me because my luggage was too small for a woman who is moving to another country. 😁.

But, no apartments free at the moment so I will stay in a hotel until something is available.

So, I had almost five days to get to know the city. I bought a metro ticket and have used it a lot too for going around. I have been walking for hours, in the old town and enjoying the sunny warm weather and the OCEAN!!!! Well, actually the river. Lisbon is a beautiful city and I can see myself spending at least the winter here!

Here’s a few pics of Lisbon, I will try to make a new post in couple of weeks just about Lisbon, and will put more pictures there.

Tomorrow the training will start (two weeks), today I walked there to make sure that I find the place in the morning ☺. So here we go again, yet another country, yet another city, yet another job and yet another people. Deja vu! And in 1 year 9 months I have lived in 4 countries!

Thessaloniki - Skopje - Pristina

Yes I know, it has been three and a half weeks and I am posting just now… sorry! 😑

So, I thought I will travel to Bulgaria, Ukraine and Belarus… So of course I end up in Greece, Macedonia and Kosovo! ☺ I found a good deal on flights, I booked just 4 days before the flight and return ticket was about 153€ including a checked in baggage, the airline was Ellinair (good service on flight by the way). And they didn't even loose my baggage! With my track record that is excellent. Flight from Bucharest to Thessaloniki took only about an hour, but that is also a very long time when you have to listen to a screaming brat. Yikes! I took a bus to city center, that cost 2€, and then about 15 mins walk to the hotel. Which is also a very long walk when you have a backpack on and it is 32 degrees! But it felt so great to have backpack on again!

I was at the hotel quite late and it was already a bit dark outside so I just stayed in and ordered room service (yes, really, like a true backpacker). Hotel Olympia was really great with very good service and nice breakfast, just 10-15 mins walk to the center or to the seaside. The only not so good thing was that you couldn’t adjust the temperature. I could have the ac in low or high or have it on or off but 23 degrees was the only possibility. That was too cold and I would’ve been sick in couple of hours f I hadn't turned that off. The next day after breakfast I went walking around, mostly I walked at seaside of course. I saw a lot of motorcycles but not a lot of helmets! Yes, it was hot  and I am sure it feels great to ride and feel the air but still… Wear a helmet you idiot! Thessaloniki is a beautiful city with long pavement by the sea, nice cafes and restaurants. It was really hot day, about 37 degrees and I was sweating like a pig all day. I don't even want to know what the temperature was in the sun! Maybe 4 hours walking in that infernal heat wasn’t my brightest idea… I sent two postcards, one for my mum and one for a friend who collects postcards from different countries. I try to remember to send him cards whenever I travel but sometimes I forget (sorry). He is restoring some of my stuff in Finland for free for indefinite time, so this is the least I can do! It was so hot outside that I had to go to hotel for a few hours, I <3 air conditioning! In the evening I went out again to get some food and a glass of wine (duh…). The next day I checked out from the hotel, left my backpack to a locker at the station and went to the sea again. I can’t even describe how much I love the sea! My bus to Skopje left at 17.30 and it cost 20 €, the bus company was Simeonidis tours, and you can book by email!

Photos of Thessaloniki should be here. But they are not. I downloaded my photos and it showed download completed, but in reality only a few photos had downloaded. I lost a lot of great memories and beautiful scenery! 😥

The bus was supposed to arrive to Skopje at 20.30, we arrived at 22.50 because we spent two hours at the border, they were checking some people on the bus. It seemed to be the non-europeans they checked. Gotta love Schengen and my EU passport… next to me sat a Mexican guy, he was one of the persons that got checked, although they didn’t ask him a lot, just a couple of questions and that was it. Some others they questioned a lot more. But I had some nice talks with the guy, he was also a couchsurfer! ☺

I got a negative experience from Skopje before even going there. I made a booking for an apartment, and received confirmation. I emailed the time of my arrival, and asked for directions how to get there from bus station. She replied and asked how many persons (like the directions are different depending on how many persons arrive..?), and when I said one she said there was an error in the system and it should not have shown it is available since it is not available. But she told me she knows another place, and I had to ask many times are the services and the price the same. She finally said yes they are and I confirmed I will take it. Oh no no no no no… next that is not available either and that owner had let her down (who was first she and then he) and I have two choices: stay in another (third) apartment which has the same services and price but it is further away and not walking distance, or I could stay at her house and she has an extra bedroom. Seriously? Would you pay 100€ in Skopje to get one bedroom in somebody’s house??? Luckily she said she has a dog so I couldn’t stay there in any case due to my allergy. What a scam. I told her no and that I will leave a feedback where I will tell the true story. Her last message was calling me rude and she doesn’t want people like me near her, and that she’s had it taking all this shit from me and that she is very stressed now. Apparently it is shit when a guest is asking to get what she has booked. Yep yep… I of course made a new booking to another place. The first booking was for Christie apartments, just so you know to avoid it.

But the other place didn’t go so smoothly either. I was wondering why it was so difficult to find accommodation and everything was already booked. Yeah, exactly then there was Uefa Super Cup Manchester United vs Real Madrid! No wonder. I knew that what I booked was overpriced and it will be a crappy place. And it sure was. The location was pretty good though, I could walk to the center! Checking in was a bit tricky because the guy spoke hardly any English, he had to call a colleague who came to work for that, and she complained to me about it. Really not my problem.

Since I arrived very late, I just went to sleep… next day I walked to the center, got lost a few times (maybe I should write the times I DON’T get lost). Because of the game, there were a lot of people and tents etc, LOUD techno playing at 11 am in the old town. Quite a contrast. I am sure I really didn’t see the “real” Skopje but that was not the place I enjoyed much. I chose the wrong dates to visit! I noticed that they sure like statues and monuments, the place is just full of them! Officially I think the country is called FYROM, the Former Yugoslavian Republic Of Macedonia. Greece also has area called Macedonia (where Thessaloniki is), and Greece opposed so much that there would be a country called Macedonia, that it is FYROM. Well boohoo, get over it Greeks!

Photos of Skopje are not here...

After two nights in Skopje I took a bus to Pristina, it costs only about 5€. It was supposed to take two hours but it took three hours, again they checked some people at the border more closely. I took a tax to the hotel, hotel Adria was a very nice hotel! I had a great view from my window. I rested a little bit and went walking around, it was just about 10 mins walk from the center so also the location was pretty good. Next day I also walked around the city, five hours in the heat and I was exhausted… the infernal heat continued the whole trip, during the day it was 36-42 degrees so you really can't walk around all day like I usually do when I am travelling. I was actually so tired that I had dinner at the hotel and went to bed really early.

This is one of the few photos that has been saved, the monument of a new country.

Friday was travel day! First back to Skopje. I was prepared for a couple of hours of delay, but the bus was just 30 mins late so I had a couple of hours in Skopje, and time to have something to eat. Then a bus to Thessaloniki which was “just” about thirty minutes late. The bus had only about 25% seats taken, and there were no waits at the borders, but still thirty minutes late. I would like to know if those busses have EVER been on time?! The scenery in Macedonia, which I didn’t see on my way there because it was too dark, was absolutely gorgeous! Too bad people there throw their rubbish to the nature so that was not a pretty sights. Just rubbish everywhere! Why are people so stupid?? In Thessaloniki I stayed the one night in Rent Rooms, really lovely place, and they had a hostel cat! It had a real backpacker atmosphere☺.

Photo of the hostel cat, so lucky that this one was saved!

We are all the same!

For some reason I had thought that not everybody in that area speak English. In all those places, in every cafe, restaurant and shop I went to, they spoke at least some English, so did the taxi drivers. I don’t know why I thought English is not that widely spoken! Stupid things in my head obviously. I definitely saw the consequences of the economic crisis in Greece. I wasn’t expecting to see that many homeless people and beggers and street dogs as I did. It is quite sad how that many people don’t have a roof over their heads and enough food to eat, and we are talking about western countries! It is a hard life when you don’t have a place to go, and I realize how privileged I am and have been all my life! My problems are nothing compared to that. In Macedonia and Kosovo I expectd to see a bit more of that, and I also did.

Saturday it was time to go back home… 😣

I started to feel a little bit blue already on Friday evening. It’s always a bummer when you have to stop travelling and go home and back to work and be a “normal” adult again. I HATE THAT!!! But I have six more weeks to go, and then I will be moving to Lisbon, my flight is on the 4th of October and I will start in my new job at the 9th. So I will have some days to explore the city and relax! But I don’t know when my next holiday will be and when can I travel again. I will try to visit some more romanian cities before I leave but they will be just day or weekend trips since I have used all my holidays now. My next post will probably be about visiting those cities, don’t know when will that be…

Last Saturday I went out with friends, and in one bar we found a perfect wine for me!

On Sunday I went hiking to Poiana Brasov, took the cable car up and walked down. The next couple of days I could barely walk 😂. I even had to roll out of bed, that would’ve been one funny home video! But Poiana saa amazing… sigh. I will miss the mountains. I am excited about moving to Lisbon and can’t wait to get to the ocean, but I am starting to feel a bit blue at the same time. I will miss Brasov, the mountains, the old town, and especially the lovely people here. I have felt here better than in years. But new country and new city are waiting! And new people, new travels and so on. But Brasov will always have a very special place in my heart 💓.

Still a few photos of Poiana

I still have some places I want to visit nearby, at least Codlea and Sibiu. And I am also thinking about leaving Brasov already on weekend and go to Bulgarian cost for a few days before going to Bucharest and flight to Lisbon. We'll see... You have probably already figured out my plans seem to change sometimes a little bit 😁. But my next post will be about these last weeks here, and then I will start writing about living in Lisbon!

Peles castle - Poiana Brasov - new plans

As I wrote in my previous post, my sister and her husband visited me, and I also took those days off. They arrived early Wednesday morning (5 am) and after a few hours of sleep we started to explore the city. The weather was gorgeous all the time they were here, about 30 degrees and lots of sunshine! We visited the Black Church and went up to Mount Tampa. My sister is terrified of hights but after a couple of drinks we got her to the cable car 😁. Dinner we had in Sergiana.

On Thursday we took the train to Sinaia in the morning and went to Peles castle. I hadn’t been there myself before! Omg that place is gorgeous!! I totally recommend everybody to visit, the garden is so beautiful too. The entrance fee was 30 lei, it includes a guided tour. If you want larger tour to the private rooms, it is 60 lei, and if you want to take pictures inside it is 35 lei. We took just the basic tour. Luckily we were there early so we didn’t have to wait long, but after our tour the queu was VERY long. So go early, or not in high season. We were back in Brasov in the evening, and had dinner in Stradivari.

Here’s some pictures from there

On Friday it was the hottest day so we wanted to escape that a little, and went to Poiana Brasov for a day. It was hot there too but of course the air is more fresh in the mountains. We took the bus at noon so it was already quite warm… we just walked around and me and my brother-in-law took the cable car up. There is not enough alcohol on this planet to get my sister there so she stayed on the terrace ☺. The view up there is just amazing! I just walked around and took dozens of pictures because it was so gprgeous! I think the price for up and down was 30 lei. You can also go only one way and I was thinking some day go just up and hike down, they have good trails for hiking there. After going down we decided to stay in Poiana until evening, we found a nice terrace and the cider was cold 🍻. Dinner place in Brasov was Pocol (they have excellent risotto) and that restaurant has the weirdest toilets ever. Every wall in the toilet is a mirror. So no matter where you look, you just see your own ass 😂. Very confusing. I wonder if the designer was high?

Pictures from Poiana

Saturday was shopping day and that is always fun! We also had excellent sushi for lunch! For dinner we went to Jamaica Club or something like that. On Sunday they left. So I thought. But there was a storm between Brasov and Bucharest and on the mountain roads there were fallen trees for 2 km so they had to turn back. I booked them new flights for Tuesday and on Monday they went to Bucharest to see the city a little bit. And they made it back home! It was great having them here, we had very nice dinners with very nice wine, but I also have to say that for a very introverted person like me it was also exhausting. Glad they visited and glad they left.

This sign for toilets in hotel Aro Palace in Brasov

I noticed I haven’t shown you my tattoo, so here it is. The text NOMAD I took in November 2015 in Finland and the rest of it I took here over a month ago. I am also going to get a cover tattoo on my old one, it is a black and white rose and it is getting very blurry now. I can recommend Eli Tattoo here! 

And then my new plans… I told about the contact from Lisbon in my previous post. Well, they offered me the job and I have accepted it. The training will start October 9 and my flight is on the 4th, so I will have a few days to get to know the city a little bit. I love Brasov and I am going to miss so many people here (but some of them have promised to visit me in Lisbon) but I miss water so much and now I have a chance to live at the ocean! OCEAN!!! If I hate the job, I will look for something new again. At first I will live in company’s apartment, shared with others so we’ll see how that goes… but I am excited to go and can’t wait for the two months to go by!

I still have five days vacation so in a week I will have a week off. Still not sure where I will travel then because I have too many choices in my head. So many nearby places I want to visit and if I don’t visit now they will disappear and I will never see them. PANIC! So my next post will be about that holiday, stay tuned to find out where I ended up… ☺