The office part 1

Hi there! 

I am not going to comment on how long it's been since I last posted something because you have probably noticed that I am not very good at keeping things updated around here. At least I am quite good at updating my house so once again that is the reason why I am here with you today! 

Here are some before pictures of the room that we turned into an office/guest room(when needed):

Unfortunately, the room isn't 100% finished, but I will share a short video of how we made the desk (everything is from IKEA by the way). 
(Also, the video has no sound, so in case you start wondering 1. You are not deaf and 2. Your computer works just fine!) 

And the final result...

Stay tuned, because there is a lot more to this room!

Karoliina

A little update...

Aloha! 

I know it's been a while, but here is a little update on what has been happening in my life for the past five or six (?) months! 

Let's start from the summer (which went by really fast)! I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to work in Finland and earn some money (that we all know is well needed these days), plus I was studying for my entrance exam for University! 

In the end of August, I came back to Greece and soon after that I had my entrance exams in Thessaloniki (yuks!).  I have no idea how I managed to survive from those exams, but I guess I did pretty well since I am studying Architecture in the University of my hometown now( which was the University I wanted from the beginning, yey!)!

Long story short, now I live in a cozy apartment in one of my favorite cities and I am super excited about my new life here with my boyfriend!  

Stay tuned because I am going to share before and after pictures of my new home and yes, I am really excited about that too! :)

Karoliina

Happy times

Happy new year everybody! I know I'm a bit late, but better late than never. Since I am going to be stuck in Munich for the next five hours (hooray!) it is a good opportunity to update things around here. I must say that I had such an amazing time in Greece that going back to Holland is not making me very enthusiastic. At least I have new goals for 2015 to be excited about, so I will get used to my routine in Holland eventually. 

Going back home was surely an adventure. Instead of being in Athens at 14:00 my flight was late and I ended up being in Athens at 19:00. Not to mention that I lost my bus to Volos and I ended up being home at 2 o'clock in the morning instead of 20:00 (did I confuse you enough?). At least I got to see many airports as I had to fly from Amsterdam to Munich then to Berlin and from there to Athens...just my luck. Anyway the good thing is that I met two nice girls on the plane to Athens and then my sweet love Lazaros came to pick me up from the bus station. The 22 hour travelling in the end was worth it! Now that I think about it, it would have taken me less to get to America!

At least the rest of my stay went pretty smoothly. We had a great time doing the gift exchange, baking cookies and doing the Christmas decoration. Since we didn't have a star we decided to put Lazaros instead, haha. He seemed to like that idea!

Our dough turned out to be shitty, because the plan was to make them gluten free (since I can't eat it), but then the dough was just too soft and we had some technical difficulties. In the end we just made small balls and put them in the oven. They turned out pretty good even though they didn't turn out the way they should have, but who cares! 

 The new mayor went a bit crazy with the Christmas lights this year, but they were quite amazing!

One of the rare occasions I was wearing heels...had to document it somehow!

Also my family came a bit after Christmas and I gave them chocolate letters...I think they are still struggling finishing them. Too much is too much even when it comes to chocolate! 

 To my good luck again...one day before new years eve it started snowing. Most people in Greece were happy because the last time it snowed that much it was ten years ago. To be honest after spending three years in Finland and having to struggle with the cold and the snow for months in the winter, I got so sick of the snow that now I can't even stand looking at it. The funny fact is that the previous day it was 12 degrees and we were sitting outside in the sun having coffee. Welcome to Greece!

Now two weeks later here I am waiting for my flight to Amsterdam in Munich. 

Time flies, but I am grateful for all the things I got to do last year and for having Lazaros in my life. As when it comes to resolutions...this is my answer

Okay, maybe the lazy part not so much since I have some goals to achieve this year!

I wish you all the best for the new year!

Karoliina

Here and there

Ahoyyy! It's been a long time since the last time I posted anything on here and I have so many things to write about that I don't know where to start!

I guess I will start with the fact that my very good friend Fotinh surprised me by coming to Amsterdam to see me with her sister and her friend two weeks ago. A couple days before she came she just messaged me saying "Are you going to be in Amsterdam from Monday to Thursday?" and of course the next thing she told me was that she was booking a ticket to come see me. With Fotinh we have been doing a lot of traveling and every time we see each other it is in a different place. We met a year and a half ago in Florence, then we did a trip to Sevilla, after that we met in Athens and now in Amsterdam! Our next destination hopefully is going to be Morocco or who knows where!

My first and my last time in a coffee shop and I can't say I enjoyed it that much. I don't smoke and in a way I don't understand why people would spend money on things like that, but oh well! I guess it's one thing you "have" to see in Amsterdam.

Going to Utrecht! Once we got there we randomly saw a Spanish guy Elias we had met the previous night in the bar of the picture above. He was there doing some paperwork so we took him with us and we explored Utrecht together :) such a small world!

Elias and the girls

 Walking around beautiful Utrecht! I must say I liked it more than Amsterdam because it wasn't so touristic and it felt more cozy in a way. The weather wasn't the best but still I think I will visit Utrecht again to have a better look of the city.

 Me and Fotinh

 Posing the Asian way

 You can see also a Finnish design shop in the back. Iittala is getting quite famous here!

After hours of walking in the rain it was time to stop for a coffee! The wet look is something that I need to get used to here in Holland. That's why I never really put too much effort on doing my hair because it's going to look like shit once I get out of the house.

Still posing! After a rainy, but wonderful day in Utrecht it was time to say goodbye to my Greek chicas and the Spanish chico.

Before I left though Fotinh and Elias kept making scenes like this in the street of Mexican telenovelas and we had a good laugh! (if you can't see the video please leave a comment...I'm trying to fix it)

Last week I had the week off so I decided to go to Greece to have some rest and see my boyfriend of course ! Unlike Utrecht the weather in Greece was so nice and warm the whole time I was there...I deeply regret that I didn't go swimming. As for the food...I am not even going to mention how much food I ate again.

The happy face of a guy who has to go back to the army after having four days off.

It's always hard leaving home and of course the people you love, but now I am back to my old routine and keeping myself busy helps from not thinking too much of other things.

Now I need to get back to my Dutch homework!

Tot snel

Karoliina

Finlandia

The travelling never ends in my case. Yesterday night after 17 hours of travelling I landed to the country of Angry Birds, Sauna and Santa Claus (for those who didn't get the hint I meant Finland).

I am sure I have confused most people of where I have been going and what I have been doing. Don't worry though, I am more confused of my life right now than anybody else. Despite all the crazyness I feel more determined for my future. This year is going to be different as I have decided to settle down in one place for a while. Surprising, huh? I didn't think I would say this, but it's about time to stop the moving around.

I must admit that the biggest change though has been my mysterious man! He was a bit offended as I didn't write anything about him on my blog, but the truth is I hate people who post stuff about their relationships on facebook all the time. I don't like showing off and I guess that's the reason why I tried to avoid writing things about him on here. To be honest though, he is the best thing that has happened to me and I am so happy to have him in my life.

The only bad thing about him is that he looks way too young for his age which makes me look old :P

 On my last days in Greece my father took us one day to the mountain. Here they are laughing about something funny I suppose.

 I even got to go the the beach at least once before leaving!

 I was trying to take a picture of the sea, but couldn't see anything as the sun was too bright. Sexy knees it is then!

 mysterious man

Leaving Greece without having Greek food would have been a crime. On my last night we went out with my English teacher Denise.

 Gladly Akis and Marianna travelled with me to Finland as they got a job offer from there so I didn't need to travel alone. We got a super cheap flight with ryanair for 20 euros to Oslo and from there we changed the airport and got our flight to Finland. I have a love/hate relationship with ryanair as everything is so cheap but paying 30 euros for the bag was a shame. Gladly I didn't have any issues with my bag as it was exactly 20 kilos. I have become an expert after all these years ;)

 Akis and Marianna

 Finland!

 This is what it feels like being in Finland. Either I am too short or other people here are just too tall.

 On my first day back in Finland we went to see the Tove Jansson exhibition which would have been nice if I hadn't had the need to pee all the time. It kind of ruined the experience, meh!

 After the exhibition we came back and my sister taught me how to make filo pastry

 Spinach pies for dinner! Wohooo

Let's see how I will get any sleep tonight with this light!

It's strange to be back, but I will get used to it sooner or later!

 

Karoliina