Tag Archives: travel
Kraków & Katowice, Poland
Last week I visited Kraków and Katowice in Poland on a business trip (photos here). I had a little bit of time to walk through the old city of John Paul II’s hometown and was very impressed. Kraków was the old capital of Poland, and as such has plenty of ancient architecture, majestic churces and even a castle, making it a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Given that another place I seriously want to visit is also nearby, it warrants another visit for leisure.
I was not that impressed with Katowice on first sight, but noticed that buildings that look drab on the outside may have completely renovated and rather pleasant interiors. On a few ocassions I remembered and missed some of my Polish friends and wondered what they’re up to.
Parikkala
We have been visiting this small corner of Finnish Karelia a few time sin the past year because a good friend lives there. While it is far too small for me to even remotely think about establishing myself there, I was really glad to meet good friends and have Carelian pies (Carelian stew was not available this time, but it’s awesome over there).
London, again
I was there for work this time. At least it was in SoHo, which is an area of the city I absolutely love. The rest of the pictures available in Flickr, as usual.
Nuuksio national park
Found in the outskirts of Helsinki, it is one of my favourite places to walk around between April and October. The scenery, composed of hills, lakes and woods and its almost absolute quiet and peace are of course a plus.
London
The last bits of our summer holiday were spent in London. Even though I had been in the city many times before, it is only the second time I’m there for leisure (if you count a 6 hour stint 9 years ago) and was the first for my wife.
The main reason to go was to attend a concert by Café Tacuba, but we also walked a lot around the city and caught up with some good friends. The photos, as usual, are in Flickr.
“I’m young and want to move abroad, but don’t know how”
During the past few years recent college graduates have been asking me what to do if they want to move abroad. This is not a comprehensive guide, but can give you good ideas if you have that kind of wanderlust.
- Understand it’s not going to be easy. Many others are planning to do the same thing, and there’s no more difficult people than those who work for any country’s immigration authority.
- Decide what you want to do: study or work?
- Check were you want to go, what is the study/labour market like and what are the requirements.
- Contact the embassies of such places to get more information.
- Check what are your options and your budget (if for studies, scholarships are always a good option, if for work or a traineeship, associations like AIESEC can also help)
- Map your strenghts and weaknesses vs. what is required of you.
- Try to understand what are the cultural & language challenges.
- Keep an open mind and an optimistic spirit. Will take you places.
Improving Mexico City public transport
Mexico City has a great subway network, with 175 stations connected over 11 lines. Even if it has 3.8 million of users every day, it has been completely surpassed by the growth of the city, as you can see in this picture from Periférico, the main ring road.
The problem is compounded by two factors: sprawl and quality. The subway only covers the Federal District (and not completely), while the metropolitan area includes also municipalities in the states of Mexico and Hidalgo. Furthermore, most people who can afford a car try to avoid public transport, as it is perceived to be unreliable, dirty and unsafe (as anybody who has used a microbús can attest).
I would like the European model of reliable public transportation for the masses to be available in Mexico, rather than the American automobile-intensive way, but it needs more political will than there currently is.
And the swine flu was gone
After the huge media coverage surrounding the A H1N1 situation in Mexico in April, it was a relief to see how calm everything on that front was when we were there in June & July.
The only signs I saw during our trip that anything like that had happened were info posters like the one above in some stores and the availability of hand disinfectant in many public places. The only people wearing handmasks I saw in my whole trip were Asian tourists arriving to Mexico City airport. Needless to say, neither I nor anybody I know was affected.
Since it’s summer, the situation in Mexico has calmed down, unlike what is happening in the South American winter season. I find it funny that hasn’t made the news as much.
One of my friends was working at the National Institute for Respiratory Diseases in Mexico City in the middle of the crisis. Funnily enough, he says he was not busiest during the outbreak but afterwards, to return the hospital back to normal.
Forest accommodation
My Finnish mates made fun of me because I went to a hotel in the woods next to a lake 100 km west of Mexico City when the Finnish summer cottage cultural institution offers something similar closer to home.
The hotel is called Rodavento and is located in Valle de Bravo, Estado de México, and is part of a chain of adventure hotels. We did mountain biking and zip-lines, besides being surrounded by the lush nature.
It was both exciting and relaxing. A great getaway, I’m definitely planning to return later.