Lovely time with strangers

Last weekend was a really much needed one. It was so lovely to finally have some time for myself and to do something different than sitting in an office in front of a computer for what sometimes feels like an eternity.

On saturday i woke up at a ridiculous time, i think it was around 6am or something, and i just thought to myself oh wow my sleeping pattern is actually pretty on point but then i continued sleeping and ended up waking up sometime after nine. I had a nice breakfast and i enjoed my coffee without feeling too rushed or tired. Aaaand let me just tell you, it was so relaxing after a really busy and stressful week.

Not even after the first 24 hours of being in Berlin i got pretty desperate to find some new people to hang out with so i found this group on Facebook that has been made for the new people in Berlin to make friends and to find company. After i was accepted in the group by the lady who had invented the whole thing i decided i would write a little something on there and just see what happens. Suprisingly to me there was a lot of people getting back to me. One of them was this girl called Loubna who was born in Morrocco but currently lives in Belgium.

After talking with her for a bit, we decided we would meet during the weekend because of my lack of free time during the week. We finally met then on saturday around 2pm at Alexanderplatz and then we just went from there for a little stroll (read 7 hours:'D) around the city and we did some sightseeing, shopping and had dinner together. I was suprised how easy it was for me (i have my shy moments) to go and meet someone who i didn't know at all. But we got on really well and there were no awkward nor silent moments between us.

We actually got on so well that we decided to meet up again the next day. This time though we were joined by a british girl from the same hostel Loubna was staying at. Later on the day the three of us met up with a girl who's half french half welsh and with a boy who's halfly from the philiphines and halfly from Saudi Arabia. We had a pretty international posse thing going on there, but it was so nice and everyone was so friendly and interested in each of ours stories of how and why we ended up in this beautiful and diverse city of Berlin. It was also nice to hang out with people who are in the same exact situation, living in a unfamiliar city with not too many friends.

As it got later we all got pretty hungry and thirsty for the german beer (not that big of a fan myself) so we found this really cool place in Rosenthaler Platz called Transit in which we ended up spending a couple of hours just having chats about all of the possible things you could talk about. So yeah last weekend all in all was pretty awesome and i met a lot of lovely people. It's too bad that Loubna and the british girl had to leave today to go back home but we made a deal that if they were to come back during the time i'm still here, we would definately meet again (:

Here's a couple pics from last saturday and sunday (:

First week is almost behind

I have been here for six days now and it's has been quite challenging, weird, busy and nice at the same time. The challenges that i have come across whilst being here are the typical cultural diffences and the ways things work in everyday life. It's also going to take me a while to get used to the language. Eventhough i have studied german since i was 9 years old (10 years of studies all in all) it's still so damn hard to get it out of my mouth. I guess this is the typical finnish "gene thing" in me that won't allow me to speak  a language because you might make some mistakes when talking to a native speaker..  I understand pretty much everything i hear or at least so that i can easily "put the pieces together" and figure out what's going on and what people around me are talking about. For now i have been using english for almost all of the conversations i have had. I do use german for the little things and sayings, like when i'm greeting someone or saying thanks and what not. 

Livingwise then, i have realized that living alone can sometimes get a bit lonely, especially when you are used to a really social lifestyle. Back home i'm used to a life in which i'm always surrounded by people. In the mornings i would wake up at home and i would have my mom and our dog there, then i would go to school and spend the school day with my school mates. After that i would go to work and the rest of the day would be filled with different, both known and unknown, customers and before i would even realize i would be back at home with my mom and dog and then the hours left of that particular day would be spent by sleeping, and probably having a dream filled with different kind of people i had met during that day. So yeah, it's been kind of tuff to be alone sometimes but luckily i have a good wifi at the apartment so that i can easily call through any app that allows free calls, such as whatsapp, viber and skype. 

I haven't had a lot of time to do any type of sightseeing yet because my working days take so long. Eventhough i came here on friday, meaning that i kinda did have three days to go see some sights, i couldn't do that because i had to spent a lot of time at the apartment or doing other chores. For example when i arrived here around three o'clock last friday the first day was spent pretty much just cleaning up the house and going to the shops so that i could have at least something in the fridge. On saturday then i went to Alexanderplatz because i knew the shops and area through my previous stays in Berlin (and also because it's the closest one from when i live). I went there because i needed to buy some more "house stuff" and other essential things such as tooth brushes, tooth paste, shampoo, conditioner, tea towels for the dishes, towels, make up remover pads, some warm socks (bc the floor here is hella cold), plankets and also some slippers to use in the garden area. Also because on sundays the all of the shops are closed i had a bit of a dilemma on sunday and monday morning because i was running out of food (didn't manage to buy enough on friday) and i feel like i have never been so hungry as i was on the following day.

So far work has been quite okay i guess. I mean, there hasn't been that many things to do which makes me sometimes feel kind of useless. I have a lot of things that i would like to get sorted at the house so that i could feel a bit more homey in this city but because of the journey from home to work takes almost an hour it makes my 8 hour long working day almost two hours longer.. I usually wake up at 6:50 or something and then i leave around 8 so that i would arrive at work on time. Work starts then at 9 and ends at 5. During that time i only have a 30 min lunch break, which has been more like 10 to 15 minutes on the previous days because i have had to go to the Lidl near by the office to get something to eat.

Well this turned out to be a really long post, i wasn't expecting that at all. I'm looking forward to the weekend so that i could be a bit more productive around the house and maybe even go to the Mitte area to see different places when we still have daylight (:


Tschüssi,
- Krista x

Two weeks to go

Hey there,

Today is friday the 6th of january, which means there are only two weeks until my Berlin adventure starts. Crazy!!

I can't believe the time has gone so fast and that i will be in Berlin soon.. It feels like it was only yesterday when i contacted the place where i now will be completing my internship, even though that happened in like last october or something. I guess a busy lifestyle might make the days disapear even quicker.

I have been up to all sorts of things during the past few weeks. Our christmas holidays from school started two weeks ago and since then i have been quite busy and i actually think today has been the first day in a while when i feel like i haven't got too many tasks to complete.

Christmas this year went by pretty quickly or that's at least how i feel about it. I celebrated it together with my mom as we do every year. Some might find it strange how just the two of us celebrate x-mas together without any family members but for me it has been that way for so many years, i think since i was like 13 or something, so the idea of that doesn't feel as weird or lonely anymore.

Well then after christmas came the new year celebrations, and let me just tell you how happy i'm about the fact that the horrendous year of 2016 is over. At some point i had a chat about the past year with a friend of mine and we talked about how the year was, not just for me but to other people we know as well, a year of loss and sadness. I mean, i honestly can't think of a year in my life in which i had experienced myself or seen others lose so many loved family members as in 2016.

But enough with the heavy stuff. Let's get a bit more cheery, shall we?

The year of 2017 in my opinion has started pretty well and i feel like i have been pretty productive. I have been working a lot to earn more money for Berlin. The sad part about it is that i will have my last shift on sunday next week. Quitting my job there feels kind of strange since i have been working there for almost two years now and this job has been my first ever long term job. In addition to this, i also happen to have the best co-workers so leaving them behind makes me almost have teary eyes.

Then also, i have already started to do a bit of packing and making notes and lists of things i need to take care of or to take with me. And yep the struggle is real! The idea of trying to fit my whole life into a suitcase makes me hella stressed out, and in this case being an over-packer doesn't really help. Other than that, i even got around buying myself a new laptop, which i really needed, because my old one is like maybe 5 to 6 years old and the amounth of noise it makes.. Gosh i don't even have any words to describe it, it just pretty much drives you nuts.

Anyways, let's just hope 2017 will bring us more joy, feelings of success and happy moments. I don't know about you but at i didn't commit to any new years resulutions, so that i could in one way avoid being a failure this year :P

I will end this post to the pictures i took when i was in Berlin in 2011 and 2014.

Have a happy weekend you all!

- Krista x

First post!

Hello everyone,

It feels weird writing a blog post since it has been so many years since i last did this, but it is good to be back anyways!

The reason for me starting this blog is because i will be moving to Berlin in less than a months time (yikes) and i will be spending almost a half of 2017 in there. And nope, i’m not going there just to have fun and have an extremely long holiday and waste all of my money, but instead however, i will be completing my internship in a german travel agency due to my studies at Perho Culinary, Tourism & Business College

On here then, i would like to update you and let you guys know about what's going on with my life while i’m staying in Berlin. I will try to challenge myself and try to blog at least once a week but we will see how that goes.. See, i seem to have the tendency to leave stuff left undone until the last minute and sometimes even later than that.

But even to my own suprise I have already been thinking a bit about the content i would like to share on here as well. I have been thinking about giving tips about the essential things such as things you should keep in mind when moving to another country or getting an apartment and the different ways you can do it. And then also about the “not so important stuff” such as my plans for the weekends etc. So no OOTD’s or what i ate wednessdays on here then, at least for now.

But just heads up on the fact that i’m not too experienced when it comes to this whole  blogging world so the lacks might be there, you will just have to endure🙂


Bye for now
–  Krista x