What's up? I still have more than half an hour to my flight to Porto (my third and last one, after Helsinki - Oslo - Madrid) and I have already both went through security and ate seven onion rings, so I still have a lot of time to write this post until heading to the gate. I can finish watching Straight Outta Compton for the second time during the flight or in the four hours I still have to take in a train from Porto to Abrantes. I want my bed already.
So, about Finland, I have to talk about the language first and I think this sums it up perfectly: Suomi (both the language and the country, like Portugali) is so fucked up that if you read it backwards, it still resembles Finnish. I got to know some words already, like moi (bye), kiitos (thank you), juusto (cheese, important one), io (yes), ei (no), yhksi, kaksi, colme, nelia, viisi (one, two, three, four five); I didn't check up the spelling because regardless of its fucked-upness, Finnish is read as it is written so I should have nailed it.
I loved Helsinki. Like, the city center is small and of course it doesn't have as much to see as Copenhagen or Stockholm, for example, but the ensemble of green spaces, sea islands and urban areas (with the vanguardist architecture that is present throughout the whole Scand... Nordic countries) is absolutely marvellous. And the weather was great until today (uff), in opposition to when I was in Denmark and Sweden. I really recommend everybody to go to Helsinki in the summer, and I hope to comeback both there and also in the winter to go to Lapland meet Santa.
We've also went to Merikarvia, to Hanna's parents summer house, and to Tallin. The first one is quite like Barragem do Castelo do Bode, where my grandparents have a house and so I know it since I was a kid. We went by boat to this island (Hanna wanted one with noboby else there because it's Finland, people go all naked to sauna but can't socialise with each other when being dress) to cook some pancakes, reading and chilling out. It was nice. Close to Helsinki I've also been in two islands, Suomenlinna and Seurasaari, which I both recommend as well: going by ferry to the first one, it is bigger and has a church, a castle and resembles a bit the Shire from Lord of the Rings, while for the latter needs no more than crossing a bridge close to the Botanical Garden. Seurasaari has this open air museum with historical houses and buildings taken from its native sites and moved/reconstructed in the island. Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to see it properly.
About Tallinn, it was nice but could have been better if we hadn't miss the 7:30 ferry (only 10€ and 2h each trip via Tallink). We had to take the 13h30 as the 10h30 was already fully booked and therefore we stayed no longer than 7h there. It was pretty cool anyway though, the Old City has a lot of interesting places for sightseeing and learning about this young country's long history. We had dinner in this Irish place called St. Patrick's and it wasn't too expensive (yeah, Tallin ain't that cheap for a Eastern country to be honest).
I don't have as much to say in this post as in the previous ones because this time I was with Hanna and so I've talked with her about my doubts and thoughts about the places where we've been. I usually write more about my experiences by myself, as I have no one to share them with in the moment. Hanna's parents were super nice to me, and the good thing about human relations in the North is that if people seem to like you, they really do and that's very important for me. Hanna's friends as well but considering their average age of 28, we would go drinking somewhere and then at around 21h, 22h they'd be like "oh, I am almost 30, I gotta go back home to sleep early and go to work".
Things with Hanna moved a bit forward, I guess. We assumed a relationship, which basically doesn't change anything among us but it makes things way easier to explain to the others. Anyway, she's still in Hamburg and me in Lisbon and so I don't want to assume a compromise like this; she lives alone since she's 18, got engaged in 2012 and is already 28 but I'm still 22 and financially dependent for at least one more year. And while I acknowledge her situation, she acknowledges mine too. It would be nice if she'd come here to work this year and I've established some contacts already so let's see how it works out. Anyway, if I do go to Copenhagen to attend that PhD in Science Communication we'd be way closer. I've emailed Prof. Pedersen once again but he's on vacation till the 27th so I'll do it again on that day. We get along really well even though we have some distinct tastes in pointless stuff, but we also do in crucial ones sometimes. She may be the one but only time will tell.
That's all, folks. 45min to close the gate to I think I'll just head there. I already feel at home in Spain so I can already say it's good to be back; even though I am really determined to make a living in the Nordics, they are not perfect (and neither is no one) and I will always be a proud Southern.
Um bem-haja,
Pedro Mendes
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