FinnsAway blog – nomad life and travel adventures

FinnsAway Newsletter 23/12/2020
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Velez Rubio, Andalusia, Spain | FinnsAway Nomad Travelers

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Greetings from Velez-Rubio in Andalusia, Spain! We arrived in this small town in the mountains of Almeria just a few days ago, to housesit and to take care of Scobi, a lovely Catalan sheepdog, over the holiday season. We are staying in a remote area, surrounded with rocky summits and bunch of trails for dog walks and running. We don’t have any special plans for Christmas really, so I guess we’ll just relax, enjoy the warmth of the fireplace and eat well, read books and watch some movies.

Before driving down here, we spent several months in France. We made a long, three-and-a-half-months house sit in Dordogne in south-western France, taking care of Reggie-the-cat. The sit was actually supposed to be a lot shorter, but due to travel restrictions and lockdowns, the house owners were stuck in England. We didn’t mind staying longer, living in a big house in a tiny countryside village. The days were mostly the same, we just worked, wrote blog posts, went trail running, used the small gym room of the house and cuddled with the cat. Before the lockdown measures we were able to explore the surroundings and visit some charming old villages with handsome castles, but when the lockdown hit, we only left the house to go running and to buy groceries. Some serious social distancing really. Here in Andalusia restaurants and pubs are open (with limited opening times) and outside the nightly curfew, people can move around, at least inside their own city or province.

Regarding the coming weeks and months, we don’t really have any solid travel plans. As the Covid-19 situation still limits pretty much everything, we are going to stay here in southern Spain for the time being, avoiding unnecessary traveling. We keep our eyes open for new housesitting opportunities, and if there aren’t any available, we’ll rent an apartment. In March we are planning to go to our home country Finland for a few weeks to work and meet with family and friends, but let’s see if that will happen.

During the autumn months, we have continued publishing posts about our previous travels in FinnsAway blog. There are now more articles about Mexico, as well about destinations that we visited during our European road trip in 2019. Next up are posts about our travels during 2020, including posts about the amazing hike that we did in August, Tour du Mont Blanc!

In addition to writing FinnsAway blog, we have published two totally new blog sites; Craft Beer Nomads focuses on craft beer and microbreweries in Europe and beyond, and Nomad Housesitters is all about housesitting. Take a look and add also these blogs to your reading list!

Selection of recently published posts in FinnsAway blog;

Wishing you a very merry Christmas and happy New Year!

Best regards,
Anne & Toni
FinnsAway Nomad Travelers

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FinnsAway Newsletter 13/07/2020
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Vineyards and old villages in Alsace, France

Greetings from Alsace, France!

This has surely been an extraordinary year for everyone, and coronavirus doesn’t seem to be slowing down much on global level. Heavy travel restrictions are in place almost all over the world, and unnecessary traveling should be avoided. Hopefully you have been able to enjoy the summer nevertheless. We stayed for months in Finland, but when the borders between EU countries started to open, we decided to move back to our “normal” life on the road, traveling slowly in Europe overland. So we started FinnsAway Season 4 in early July, by traveling via Baltic countries to Poland, spending some time in the capitals Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius and Warsaw. To get to Colmar in Alsace we took a direct bus from Warsaw – it was a tiring 21-hour journey, but we made it here safely. Now we are staying in the lovely Gueberschwihr village in the house of our friends, and have our own car in use again.

Regarding coming travels, there is not much to tell, as this is really not a good time for making travel plans for longer horizon, but we do have some news to share still and we are actually really excited about this! In August we will head to the Alps, to hike Tour du Mont Blanc, a long distance trail that goes around the Mont Blanc massif! The trail runs in amazing mountain landscapes in three different countries; France, Italy and Switzerland, and is in total over 160 km long, with around 11 000 vertical meters to climb up and walk back down. We’ll do all this with camping gear, so staying the nights in our tent instead of mountain huts or guesthouses in the villages that are on the way. It will be an exhausting hike for sure, but undoubtedly also an amazing one! We have been working a lot lately, so this trip will be also be kind of a welcoming vacation for us, without laptops!

In FinnsAway blog we have been publishing posts mostly about the destinations we visited last summer during our road trip, about a tour in Central America and some posts about Cyprus as well. Hopefully these travel stories can either take you to an armchair trip to interesting destinations, or help you to plan your oncoming holidays, whenever traveling will be easier again. Here some suggestions for reading, and you can find also other posts published during past few months in FinnsAway site.

Best regards,
Anne & Toni
FinnsAway Nomad Travelers

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FinnsAway Newsletter 23/04/2020
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Outdoorlife in Rokua Unesco Global Geopark | FinnsAway Travel Blog

Greetings from Finland, hope you are safe and well!

A lot has changed in the world during past few months, and life looks so very different for most of us. Uncertainty about the future, both in personal level and in general, combined with social distancing, quarantine measures or even strict curfews is hard, and we wish that all of you are feeling OK despite the tough times. Nothing lasts forever, so hopefully we’ll soon see some light in the end of the tunnel.

As basically all traveling is banned now, also we are staying put, and trying not to think about when it will be possible to travel again, or if traveling the world will be as easy in the future as it used to be. Quite luckily, we happen to be in our home country Finland during this crisis. We managed to travel here as planned, before all this madness fully began, so didn’t need to cancel or change any travel plans due to coronavirus. We came here in February, for our yearly visit, and are now stuck until further notice. We have been staying with friends and family members, since we don’t have a home here (or well, anywhere) anymore. We have stayed in Oulu and in Rokua area in northern Finland, and when not working, we have enjoyed the snowy nature. The cover picture of this newsletter is from Rokua Unesco Global Geopark, where we tried fat bikes and explored the forests with snow shoes, as well as made runs and walks in the nature.

Since the last newsletter we traveled in central and northern Mexico and did some house-sits  gigs there in January, before traveling to Finland slowly via Phoenix, New York and Amsterdam. Traveling around Mexico was very interesting, we found so many wonderful destinations, and realized how huge and diverse country it is! There would be so much more to see, so maybe we’ll go back there some day, and combine Mexico with a longer trip in Central and South America.

The blog is running behind us, but now when we can’t travel, we’ll try to catch up and publish all the pending posts from last year and early this year. The latest posts that we have published, are about destinations in Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico and in Central America, where we traveled late last year. We hope that with these posts you can make an armchair-trip to tropics, and maybe consider adding some of these destinations on your Latin America bucket lists.

Best regards,
Anne & Toni
FinnsAway Nomad Travelers

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FinnsAway Newsletter 24/12/2019
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Greetings from Mexico City, our home for the holiday season!

We are back in Mexico after traveling around Central America for a month. As planned, we visited Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, all new countries for us. It’s hard to name any favorite destinations, as we liked all the places we traveled in, but have to say that Antigua Guatemala is amazing place, just look at the picture below, the views are stunning! We also liked a lot the Rio Dulce area, that shows totally different side of Guatemala. Overall it was a great trip full of new destinations and adventures, of which we will write about soon, but now it feels good to slow down a bit.
Vulcano views in Antigua Guatemala | FinnsAway Travel Blog

Volcano views in Antigua Guatemala

Here in Mexico City we stay in Escandon area, house-sitting for a couple of weeks for a Canadian lady, taking care of her lovely (and always hungry) cat Finn. We try to balance our time here in a way that we work enough but not too much, do sports more than during the past couple of months, and also have time to get to know this huge city. We have actually been in CDMX once before, roughly ten years ago, but don’t really remember much of that short stay, and for sure the city has also changed a lot during that time.

After Mexico City we have another house-sit booked, in San Miguel de Allende in Guanajuato district. San Miguel is a small colonial town with a lot of expats living there, and a tourist-favorite also. We’ll be taking care of two cats for ten days, while their American owners are away. Between these two sits we probably will rent a car and explore around Mexico City. One must-see destination close to CDMX is Parque Nacional Iztaccíhuatl – Popocatépetl, with possibilities for hiking up in the snow-topped volcanoes! The nearby colonial town of Puebla would make a great base for exploring the national park.

So new adventures in Mexico are awaiting, but first, let’s relax and enjoy the Christmas time. Since the last newsletter we have published some new blog posts about Cuba, and some short stories focusing on how to travel in western parts of the country using local transportation. Coming up next is still some more posts about our travel destinations in Cuba, but also about Mexico and Central America, as well as about traveling and nomad life in Europe.

Latest posts in FinnsAway blog

Streets of Havana Centro | Pictures from Havana | FinnsAway Travel Blog

Colorful streets of Havana, Cuba

Are you interested in house-sitting around the world? In our opinion it’s a great way of getting to know new destinations and new people around the world. When house-sitting, you are responsible of taking care of your hosts house and pets, and in exchange get to stay in the house for free. There are several platforms from where you can find open house-sits, but we recommend Trusted Housesitters. Check it out and create an account to begin your career as a house-sitter! With a code RAF243427 you’ll get 25 % discount of the membership fee!

Best regards,
Anne & Toni
FinnsAway Nomad Travelers

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FinnsAway Newsletter 28/10/2019

Barrio Chino | Pictures from Havana | FinnsAway Travel Blog

From autumn in Europe to the heat of the Caribbean

Greetings from Playa del Carmen, Mexico! Our winter adventure in Latin America has begun, and in this newsletter some throwbacks to Cuba, where we spent a bit over two weeks, and insights to the coming travels in Mexico and Central America.

Cuba was a totally new travel destination for us, and our first time in the Caribbean Islands. Cuba is kind of a world of its own, so very unique, and kind of a time jump several decades back. We loved the colors of Cuba, the busy streets of Havana and the quietness of the rural countryside. Internet is not widely available in Cuba, so we decided to not to use it at all. Don’t get me wrong, internet exists nowadays, and there are data packages, wifi cards and even some free wifi networks available, so it’s possible to use it, though maybe not really for working. We wanted to have a total break of being online, and have to tell that it was awesome, and made us realize how much time we usually spend online. We traveled the old-fashioned way, with no bookings or exact schedules. We also used local public transportation, not the air-conditioned tourist buses. It was cheap and fun, but sometimes very time-consuming.

The original plan was to travel around the whole island, but we quickly realized that two weeks is not enough for that. So we focused on the western side of the island, and hopefully will have a change to go back some day and explore the eastern part as well. As our flight from Europe landed in Varadero, we stayed the first days there, in a village of Santa Marta, just short walk away from Varadero Beach. From Varadero we headed to the capital Havana, which we, after getting familiar with the local way of living, found to be a wonderful city. From Havana we traveled to Viñales, a town surrounded with lush nature, amazingly beautiful limestone mountains and valleys. Viñales has grown to a popular tourist destination, but somehow still manages to be relaxed and not overly tourism-oriented. We also spent a few days in Puerto Esperanza, a small fishing village by the north coast. I think we were the only tourists in the village, and got to follow Cuban village life from close range.

From Cuba we flew to Cancun in Mexico, to begin our Central America tour by exploring the Yucatan Peninsula. We only spent a couple of days in Cancun, and didn’t even visit the beaches. Cancun is a famous beach holiday destination, with lines of resort hotels in the so-called Hotel Zone. The Cancun City itself is not very charming, and is situated a few kilometers away from the coast. Our focus in Cancun was getting back on track with work, so we don’t really have anything to tell about the destination. I’m sure the beaches in the hotel zone are charming, and for those after an easy all-inclusive holiday it probably is a nice choice.

Yesterday we moved south to Playa del Carmen, a holiday destination right by the Caribbean Sea. Playa is filled with hotels, restaurants and bars, and the party scene goes crazy especially during the spring break. Now in off-season is more laid-back, which suits us better. We have a small apartment outside the main fuzz, and this is a very nice place to focus on work during the day, maybe heading to the beach in the afternoon, and possibly eating out in one of the restaurants. From here it would be also easy to head to some Mayan ruins, of which there are plenty around this area. In fact this coastal district is often referred by the name Riviera Maya. Another tourism magnets are of course the turquoise coastal waters and coral reefs, and tourism has flourished in this part of Mexico for decades.

As independent travelers and not that big fans of busy tourist destinations, we won’t spend a lot of time here in Riviera Maya, but are planning to find some more authentic destinations. We don’t have exact plans at this point, but are thinking about heading to the city of Merida and renting an apartment for a couple of weeks, to really be able to focus on work. In November it’s then time for traveling and exploring, and we will most probably spend around one month traveling around Belize, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. It will be an adventure for sure!

Since the last news letter we have published some new blog posts from along our summer road trip in France, Monaco, Andorra and Spain. Links to the posts are below, hope you enjoy reading them! The next travel articles will focus on Cuba, though we still have a lot of stories to tell about the European destinations as well.

Anne&Toni

LATEST POSTS AND ARTICLES
Travel guide on how to visit the Montserrat Mountain and Monastery in Catalonia.
Hiking in the Montserrat Nature Park, admiring the impressive rock formations and the valley between the peaks.
Short introduction post about Andorra, a small country up in the Pyrenees Mountains between France and Spain.
Hike on top of three mountain peaks in the beautiful Sorteny Valley National Park in Andorra.

FinnsAway Newsletter 25/8/2019

Day hike around Chamechaude, the highest peak of Chartreuse massif in eastern France, close to the city of Grenoble. What to expect and how to plan your hike. | FinnsAway travel blog

Throwbacks to road trip in Europe and plans for the winter

Hello there! We are back from our summer road trip in South Europe (the cover picture is from French Alps), and again house sitting for our friends in Alsace, East France. After weeks on the road, it’s time to get some work done, and we are busy with customer projects as well as updating the blog. There are so many stories to be told and destinations to be introduced, that it will take some time to turn them all into blog posts and picture galleries. We are also planning to give a face lift to our web page, and to rethink the core content, focusing more on nomadic life.

To shortly sum up the last weeks: our road trip lasted altogether 54 days, and took us through southeastern France and Monaco to Catalonia area in Spain, then to Andorra and west from there following the Pyrenees. The original plan was to drive all the way to North Portugal, but we soon realized, that it made no sense, as it would have meant long days just driving, and missing out exploring so many places in North Spain. So, we only drove as far west as to the Basque Country by the Atlantic Ocean, and then turned north, back to France. This road trip was a combination of exploring nature parks, hiking in mountains, short visits to cities, sightseeing while running, and a lot of camping and outdoor life. The weather was great and warm, even hot, during the whole trip, and we only had a few rainy days.

What’s up now then? Well, the following couple of weeks we are still staying here, house sitting and working. In addition to sitting inside, we run in the neighboring mountains, and play with local wood wind orchestras. We have also participated to gigs with them, in lovely village festivals that are organized around Alsace. In mid-September, after the house owners are back from Finland, it’s time to hop in the car again. We will make a short road trip to South Germany, and do a one-week long house and pet-sit in Baden-Württemberg area.

For the winter, the plan is to leave our car here in France again, and head towards new adventures. After two pretty chilly winters in South Europe, it’s time to feel some tropical heat for a change! We will fly to Cuba, a new country for us, in early October, and continue from there to Mexico in late October. We are so excited about this, and also eager to enhance our Spanish skills, to be able to dive into the local life. When in Mexico, the initial plan is to do some house- and pet-sits around the country, and make a “holiday trip” also to neighboring Central America countries where we haven’t traveled before; Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Belize. Sounds like an adventure, doesn’t it?!

Since the last news letter early this summer, we have published some new blog posts from along the road trip through southeastern France, and one about Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria that we visited in spring. Links to some of the posts are below, hope you enjoy reading them! Wishing you warm and nice late summer days!

Anne&Toni

LATEST POSTS AND ARTICLES

Short guide to visiting the impressive medieval citadel of Carcassonne in South France.

Hiking the Imbut and Vidal trails in breathtakingly beautiful Verdon Gorge in Provence, France.

Day hike with wonderful mountain views around Chamechaude Mountain in French Alps near Grenoble.

Sightseeing in Sofia, that is at the same time full of history but modern, and very affordable.

FinnsAway Newsletter 5/6/2019

The historical center of Strasbourg is beautiful; half-timbered houses, canals and medieval bridges in Petite France, and the outstanding Cathedral of Our Lady. | FinnsAway Travel Blog

House sitting and preparing for a road trip

Greetings from sunny Alsace, France! We are currently in Gueberschwihr village, house sitting and gardening for our friends, getting some work done and planning for the two-month road trip that will begin soon! Our car, oldish but reliable Nissan Tiida, has spent the winter here, and is, like us, ready for new adventures! Next couple of months will be all about road tripping in southern France, northern Spain and northern Portugal. We will also visit microstates of Monaco and Andorra. As we have all our camping gear with us now, we’ll spend most of the nights in camping sites during the road trip.

Route for the whole trip is not fixed yet, but we’ll start by heading towards the French Alps. We are planning to stay near Grenoble, and will make a long day hike up to the mountain peaks from there. Then we’ll continue further south to Provence, where we’ll meet some friends from Finland in Cannes, and explore the famous French Riviera before driving towards Andorra and the Pyrenees Mountains. We have never before visited these parts of Europe, so we are really excited, and it’s hard to choose between all the interesting destinations! We will try to include a little bit of everything in our itinerary; historical cities, small cute villages, castles, mountains, lakes, gorges and seashore.

The latest news letter was sent before we started the FinnsAway season 3, so let’s have a quick look what we have been up to since then. We started from Bulgaria, shortly visiting Burgas and staying for a couple of days in the capital Sofia. We found Sofia a surprisingly charming city, blog post about it is coming soon! From Sofia we also made a day trip to nearby Vitosha mountains, before flying once again to Cyprus. We have stayed on the island for months during the winter time, but now we finally got to see how it is during spring and early summer. This winter was very rainy, which meant that the whole island turned super green, and flowers began to bloom. It was very beautiful everywhere, and the weather in spring is perfect, sunny and warm but not too hot yet. We stayed 6 weeks in Cyprus, part of it house and pet sitting, and part exploring the western parts of the island. Last week it was time to leave Cyprus behind (we are so going to miss our furry friends and their families!), and travel to Alsace via Vienna and Strasbourg.

We have published a bunch of blog posts since the previous news letter, mostly about United Arab Emirates and Cyprus. Links to some of the posts are below, hope you enjoy reading them! Happy early summer for you, and joyful travels if you have some holidays to come!

Anne&Toni

LATEST POSTS AND ARTICLES

FinnsAway season three will be about road trips in Europe in summer, but for the winter we have something else in mind!

Karpaz Peninsula in North Cyprus is the most remote part of the island, and very beautiful!

Travel guide on destinations to see around the famous summer holiday resort town Ayia Napa.

Exploring the lesser-known neighbors of Dubai, the emirates of Sharjah and Ajman.

FinnsAway Newsletter 9/4/2019

Early spring in Oulu, Finland

From snowy Finland towards FinnsAway season3

Greetings from Finland! We have been in our former home country already for six weeks, meeting with friends, relatives and business companions, and working for a bit over two weeks in Oulu Music Festival in our former home town. Being part of the festival organization was once again a great experience; most of the days were long and rough, but we got to enjoy amazing performances and to meet with super-talented musicians on the side. The blog has been more quiet than usual during our stay here, but now it’s time to focus more on it again!

Our stay here in Finland is about to come to an end soon, which means that FinnsAway season 3 is about to begin. New travel plans will be published in the blog and social media soon, but here as a preliminary info for you; we will first fly to Bulgaria next week, and shortly explore the capital Sofia. We have been there 9 years ago, but don’t remember too well how the city looked like, so it’s great to go back there. After the short city holiday we will go back to Cyprus for a few weeks still. We have been on the island during two winters, so now it’s time to see how it looks like in spring and early summer. We will also go back pet- and house-sitting, which means that we get to see our furry friends as well as their owners in Agios Tychonas and Kolossi again!

In Cyprus we also plan to do a lot of sports. Here in Finland we have been both busy and a bit lazy, and thus haven’t gone out running nearly as often as usual. We have been cross-country skiing a few times though, and played volleyball, but we want to get back to our routine of trail-running, and should head to gym also. We are still considering participating in a trail running event in Cyprus in the end of May, but let’s see. After Cyprus we are planning to go to France and pick up our car that is waiting for us in Alsace. Then we will do some road tripping in southern France and northern Spain, visiting also Monaco and Andorra, two of the three European countries we haven’t been in yet.

After the previous newsletter we haven’t published too many posts, but there are some still. We finished the cost summary post from our autumn in Caucasus and another introducing the craft beer scene in Caucasian countries. There are also two new short stories; one of them about Mtirala National Park in Georgia, and another about Kantara Castle in Northern Cyprus. Links to the posts are below, we hope that you enjoy them, and wish all the best to your spring!

Anne&Toni

POSTS AND ARTICLES since previous newsletter
Sum up post of all the costs of our autumn in Caucasian countries Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Craft beer boom hasn’t quite reached Caucasus yet, but there already are some very promising micro-breweries!
Lush and green Mtirala National Park is a refreshing day trip and hiking destination near Batumi in Georgia.

Short story about one of the impressive mountain-top castles in Northern Cyprus; Kantara Castle.

FinnsAway Newsletter 08/02/2019

Kourion archaeological site is a great day trip from Limassol. Ancient Hellenic, Roman and early Christian period ruins, mosaics and awesome seaviews. | FinnsAway Travel Blog

Winter in Cyprus – housesitting, friends, sunshine and rain

It’s been a while since the last newsletter, sorry about that! We have spent the past few weeks in Cyprus, exploring new destinations but also staying a bit longer periods settled down in one place and trying to get work done. In the end of the year we joined in a portal called Trusted Housesitters, a platform that connects people who need someone to take care of their house and pets while they are away, and people who are willing to do that. Housesitters often are long term travelers like us, that are happy to look after pets and house, in exchange for accommodation. It’s a real win-win, and in January we did two sits in the small village of Kolossi, near Limassol. We took care of four adorable rescue dogs and five cats, and managed also to make short day trips to nearby villages, sights and to the mountains.

Kolossi itself is famous for the medieval Kolossi Castle, and in the nearby Episkopi village is one of the most significant archaeological sites of Cyprus, Ancient Kourion. This site with well-preserved ruins is situated on a hill top with amazing views towards the sea and over the hills. Warm recommendation to visit, for example by making a day trip from Limassol. More about the site in the blog. The nearly 2 000 meters high Mt. Olympus, the highest peak of Cyprus, is situated just 1 hour drive away from Limassol. We drove up to the village of Troodos, and even if the weather in the coast was sunny and warm, there was a lot of snow up there! January was very wet in Cyprus this year, which means that in higher altitudes bunch of snow came down, and a skiing center near Olympus has been in operation for weeks, wow.

In the middle of January we got visitors from Finland, and had a great time with our friends, staying in Larnaka and Paralimni in the eastern part of the island. We rented a car and explored the nearby sights and made day trips for example to Nicosia and to Famagusta in the northern side. We also drove through Agia Napa, the most famous beach and party holiday destination in the island, and found it super-quiet. During the off season the busy holiday resort town is all about empty hotels and closed restaurants. There is a gorgeous old monastery though, and a huge sculpture park that we shortly visited.

The walled city of Famagusta is one of the greatest old towns that we have ever visited, packed with medieval buildings and ruins. The history of the city is long and tragic, and when Cyprus was divided in the 70’s, Famagusta stayed in the north side. Next to the old Famagusta, there is a huge fenced area, that used to be home to mostly Greek Cypriots, as well as a popular beach holiday destination. For decades the abandoned houses, hotels and other buildings have just stood there, behind a fence, guarded and quiet. Luckily the historic, walled old town stayed open, and today it is a fantastic destination for a day trip, or a bit longer stay.

Next to Famagusta is one of the significant archaeological sites of Cyprus, the Ruins of Salamis. Salamis used to be a royal city and a city-state, before it was partly destroyed in earthquakes and suffered from Arab raids. Later the abandoned ruins of the city were buried under layers of sand, and only a small part of Salamis has been excavated so far. More about Famagusta and Salamis in the blog.

As the new year is here, it was time to sum up the travels and costs of last year in the blog. We also published a summary post of the costs of our trip to UAE. There is still a lot of posts coming about UAE, we are trying to find some time to focus on them soon! Below you can find links to some recently published blog post, hope you enjoy them!

Best wishes,
Anne&Toni

POSTS AND ARTICLES since previous newsletter

Cost summary: 11 days in UAE

Sup up post of all the costs of our trip to United Arab Emirates, showing that also UAE can be done on a budget!

Year 2018: Exploring Europe and beyond

Summary post of the nomad year 2018, that was mostly about road trips in Europe, autumn in Caucasus.

Summary of the travels and travel costs of our year as digital nomads. Highlights of our journey through several European countries and in Caucasus. | FinnsAway Nomad Travels

Baku, the weathy capital of Azerbaijan

Travel guide to Baku, the oil-rich capital of Azerbaijan and the biggest city of Caucasus.

Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan is a glorious mix of old and new in the crossroads of Asia and Europe. Travel guide on what to expect, see and do in Baku. | FinnsAway Travel Blog

Sights in Cyprus: Ancient Kourion

Short story about the Kourion archaeological site near Limassol.

The walled city of Famagusta

Travel guide post to amazing Famagusta in North Cyprus, with a summary of the unique history of the city.

Sights in Cyprus: Ancient Salamis

Short story about the Ruins of Salamis, an ancient city next to Famagusta in North Cyprus

Renting a car in Cyprus

Guide post on renting a car and driving in Cyprus, with tips about crossing the border with a rental car.

FinnsAway Newsletter 26/12/2018

Banner-Farewell-caucasus-FinnsAway-2018.jpg

Getting to know UAE and arriving in Cyprus

It’s almost Christmas already, oh how the time flies! After saying good by to Caucasus, for now, we had a very busy 12 days “vacation” in United Arab Emirates, focusing on exploring different emirates and sightseeing, not that much on working or blogging. A week ago we flew with airBaltic first 6,5 hours to Riga and then 3,5 hours back south to Larnaca in Cyprus. Luckily we had a chance to fly in business class, which meant great meals and free drinks, as well as more space and comfort. We even got to take peak in the cockpit and discuss shortly with the copilot of the plane.

At the moment we are staying in a small village, called Agios Tychon, just few kilometers out of the city of Limassol. Our airbnb in an old, traditional stone house owned by a very friendly couple about our age, is pretty amazing. We have a huge room with a fireplace, and we get to play with two dogs and five cats. The village is peaceful and surrounded by hills, but it’s just under 2 km to the beachfront. We have enjoyed runs along the Limassol beach promenade and up on the hills, worked with blog posts (to-do list is pretty long still…) and just relaxed after all the traveling.

UAE was a very interesting experience. We were a bit suspicious before flying there, thinking that it’ll be a very expensive stay, and that it would be hard to move around, and that everything is about skyscrapers and fancy cars. But it turned out to a great trip, visiting five of the seven emirates and getting to understand the society of this unique country a bit. The most photographed areas of UEA are in downtown Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and yes they are glorious, but moving away from the most central parts, you’ll find “normal” areas with dusty streets, run-down apartment buildings, old cars and alley cats.

We had no idea that close to 90 % of all the residents in UAE are immigrants, there for a job but never getting a citizenship. The mix of cultures is amazing, and different parts of cities, populated by people from different countries, can look totally different from each other. The biggest population group in UAE are Indian people, followed by Pakistanis. The immigrants have of course brought their culture and cuisine with them, and we have maybe never eaten as delicious Indian food as in UAE.

More about our experiences will follow later in the blog and social media. Sharing you here some of the recently published articles; travel guides and short stories from Caucasus, tips for traveling on a budget and a beginner’s guide to beer tasting.

Wishing you Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Anne&Toni

POSTS AND ARTICLES since previous newsletter

yerevan

City guide to Yerevan including the main sights in the city center and some tips for planning your trip to this interesting city.

Daytrips from Batumi: Machakhela Valley

Day trip from Batumi to Machakhela National Park and hiking above the river valley.

How to make a day trip from Batumi to Machakhela National Park and Makhakhela Gun Road. Hiking routes and sights like waterfalls, arched stone bridges and fortress ruins in Makhakhela River valley. | FinnsAway Travel Blog

Farewell Caucasus – new travel plans

Time to say good by to Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Wrap-up of three months travels in Caucasus, with some new travel plans for coming months.

Tips for traveling on a budget

Tips for traveling on a budget in Europe and beyond, from planning a budget and following it, to making better (cheaper) choices when on the road.

Beginner's guide to beer tasting​

Short guide on how to taste and rate beer, and to what is craft beer overall.
FinnsAway Newsletter 17/11/2018
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Hi there, and greetings from Georgia! We are once again back in Batumi, for the last steps of Toni’s dental treatment. Winter is clearly coming in Caucasus; days are getting shorter, it rains more often and it’s pretty chilly even here in sub-tropical Batumi area. It’s time for us to plan the next steps of our journey. We have still airBaltic cooperation flights left, so we are thinking about going for a week or so to Abu Dhabi and Dubai to warm our bones :). Too bad that Arab Emirates is a really expensive destination, so maintaining our daily budget will be a challenge. For the winter months the plan is to fly back to Cyprus, where we stayed in February this year. Weather there should by quite nice and warm throughout the winter.

But yeah, we spent the last couple of weeks in Azerbaijan, and it turned out to be a great destination for us. It’s welcoming, very inexpensive, and easy to travel around. Nature is beautiful at least in the mountain areas, around Baku it’s more like desert. Azerbaijan is not very popular travel destination yet, but surely getting there. They have loosened the visa process and show interest towards supporting tourism and offering information in English.

We started the Azerbaijan trip from Sheki, and from there traveled to the Caspian Sea coast, to the capital Baku. Baku is famous for oil industry (and maybe for F1 GP), and the money really shows in the city. There are huge, splashy skyscrapers and shiny, expensive cars (unlike elsewhere in the country, where majority of cars are old Ladas). Income inequality is huge, and price differences as well. Dinner in basic restaurant can cost well under 10 euros for two, but it’s possible to spend hundreds in high-end places. But has also quite some old charm, especially in the old town area. Post about Baku will follow soon.

Latest posts in the blog are, not so surprisingly, about Azerbaijan. We wrote a short story about first feelings of the country, a travel guide to Sheki and a post about traveling from Georgia to Sheki. In addition there is a brand new post about getting an electronic visa for Azerbaijan.

LATEST POSTS AND ARTICLES IN FINNSAWAY SITE

FinnsAway Newsletter 2/11/2018
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Happy November!

Yerevan treated us well, and it was great to participate in the Yerevan 2800 years anniversary! We only had one week in Armenia, so we decided to stay in the capital the whole time. There would be so much interesting sites to visit elsewhere in Armenia, that we want to explore the country whit more time in use. So next time then, some day.

We hurried back to Batumi for a dentist appointment, and stayed for a few days in a small, cute apartment in the city center. When we arrived, in the middle of the night by a train, it was pouring with rain, and the city streets were almost flooding. But then the sun came back, and we got to enjoy almost summer-like temperatures. The rain came as snow up in the nearby mountains, and the snow-tips were a magnificent sight, seen from the palm-lined beach boulevard. Will post a pic about that in Instagram soon.

Right now we are in a town called Sheki in Azerbaijan! We arrived here yesterday, after an exhausting trip form Batumi. It included a ride to Tbilisi in a night train with normal seats, so not much sleep, a 6 hour mini-bus ride from Tbilisi through Kakheti region, over the border and to town called Qax, and then yet another mini-bus from Qax to Sheki. So we were tired, but very happy to be here. Azerbaijan is a new country for us, and it seems really nice so far. Locals are super-friendly, price-level is very affordable, and here below the mountains the autumn colors are stunning. Haven’t had yet time for any sightseeing or hiking, but both should be worth it.

In the blog the latest posts are about Georgia off-the beaten path and about the Yerevan 2800 anniversary. From Georgia we introduce Khulo and Tago, scenic mountain villages in the heartlands of Adjara region, and stunning Rabati Fortress in Akhaltsike, in Samtskhe-Javakheti region. The Yerevan-post includes also a video about the festival, to show how they threw a party in Armenian style 🙂

POSTS AND ARTICLES since previous newsletter

FinnsAway Newsletter 19/10/2018

Greetings from Yerevan, Armenia!

It’s time for some new adventures after staying a whole month in Batumi, making just short day trips out of the city. Toni’s dental operation will still take some weeks, but there are now some longer periods with no need to go to the clinic, so we decided to utilize them by traveling around Caucasus.

Our route to Yerevan from Batumi was interesting to say the least, along small winding mountain roads (that were partly in very poor condition) through pretty remote areas of Georgia and northern Armenia. We stopped for a night in small but scenic mountain village of Khulo, and again in Akhaltsikhe, a Georgian town that is most famous for its huge and beautifully restored fortress.

The main reason to come to Yerevan right now is, that the city is celebrating 2800 years “birthday” this weekend. Yerevan actually is one of the oldest cities in Europe, with interesting history. We just arrived in the city this afternoon, after 7 hours in a minibus. The capital of Armenia is home to 1,1 million residents (which is more than a third of the whole population), and it seems very lively. During the weekend there will be a lot of concerts and other events, we are looking forward to participate!

Blog posts and short stories related to our bumpy ride here, and about Yerevan will follow later, but now the latest story and photo gallery in the blog is about the amazing hike that we made in Svaneti region in Caucasus Mountains a month ago. In addition, there is a news post about our cost and sport diaries, that we publish on monthly basis.

Have a great weekend!

LATEST POSTS AND ARTICLES IN FINNSAWAY SITE

Is traveling and living abroad as nomad expensive? How to combine doing sports and traveling? Check out our monthly travel costs and sports diaries. | FinnsAway travel blog

October 9, 2018 – Monthly cost and sport diaries are out!

Multi-day trek from Mestia to Ushguli in Svaneti area, Georgia, is breathtaking. Hike 3-4 days in amazing views over snow-topped Caucasus mountain peaks, glaziers and Svan villages. | FinnsAway Travel Blog

October 13, 2018 – Mestia – Ushguli hike in Caucasus Mountains

Best wishes,
Anne & Toni


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FinnsAway Newsletter 4/10/2018

Summer has turned to autumn also here in Caucasus. In the mountains it means first snow and below zero temperatures, but here in Batumi in the Black Sea coast it just means not-so-hot days and increasing thunderstorms and occasional rains. Due to Toni’s dental operation we are still here, but it has been a pleasure to stop traveling for a while, and focus on work and getting to know what this place is all about.

Construction boom in Batumi is crazy, they are building huge amount of skyscrapers, not only for hotels but for accommodation purposes. Already now there are so many apartments for rent, maybe most of them are occupied during the busiest summer season, but for sure there are not enough people to stay in them during autumn, winter and spring. Time will show how the housing business develops here, but at the moment there seems to be plenty of investors.

While staying here, we have had some time to write new blog post and develop our site, as well as focus on some customer projects. Latest posts are about Minsk, the Belarusian capital that we visited in August, about Riga as a craft beer capital of Latvia and about out current temporary home base Batumi. This town keeps astonishing us, and while it’s very touristic, it’s also quite charming and full of genuine local life.

We also wrote a post about Rokua, a nature area and National Park in Finland. It is a place where we used to relax when still living in Oulu, and it is slowly developing towards an international outdoor destination.

LATEST POSTS AND ARTICLES IN FINNSAWAY SITE

Riga for craft beer enthusiasts

Craft beer boom goes strong in Riga: Visiting Latvia Beer Fest, and getting to know microbreweries and brewpubs of Riga Beer District | FinnsAway Nomad Travelers

Minsk, interesting capital of Belarus

Travel guide to Minsk, busy capital city with Stalinist architecture, picturesque Trinity Hill old town, fancy Upper Town and lush green parks. | FinnsAway Travel Blog

Batumi, Georgian gem by the Black Sea

Short travel guide to Batumi, Georgian beach holiday hub, that is developing quickly. | FinnsAway Travel Blog

Great outdoors in Rokua, Finland

Rokua Geopark and National Park in Finland offers great outdoors around the year. Go hiking, skiing, snowshoeing, fishing or kayaking in the unique nature. | FinnsAway Travel Blog

 

All the best,
Anne & Toni


FinnsAway adventures can be followed also in social media;

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FinnsAway Newsletter 20/9/2018

Greetings from Batumi, the second largest city of Georgia and a popular summer holiday destination by the Black Sea! We have just arrived in the city couple of days ago, and have to say that it is a confusing mix of shiny new architecture by the beach and rather modest traditional Georgian neighborhoods further away from the coast. It seems that we’ll stay here (and exploring surrounding areas) a bit longer than planned, since Toni is getting his tooth operated, after it practically fell apart. It will take few weeks to get it fully repaired. Luckily we are in a country where high level dental care is widely available and affordable, and here are clinics that serve customers in English. More about this experience and prices will follow later.

During the last couple of weeks we have explored the capital Tbilisi and administrative capital Kutaisi before taking a mini-bus up to Caucasus Mountains. We headed to breathtakingly beautiful Svaneti area in northwestern part of Georgia. This historical region is all about snow-topped mountains that raise up to over 5 000 meters, green valleys and small mountains villages with medieval-style stone houses and defensive towers.

We made a three days, 60 km hike from Mestia, the unofficial capital of Svaneti to Ushguli village beneath the highest mountain of Georgia. It was an epic trek over mountain passes, staying the nights in guesthouses in the villages. More about that will follow in a blog post soon.

In addition to posts about Georgia, we recently published a guide for hiking in Czech Republic. During our road trip around the country last June / July, we found some great hiking trails and nature wonders in northern parts of the country; up in the Krkonose Mountains next to Polish border, in Czech Switzerland National Park and in Bohemian Paradise area.

LATEST POSTS AND ARTICLES IN FINNSAWAY SITE

Greetings from Tbilisi | Short story
The Adventure in Caucasus begun with a week exploring the capital of Georgia. Tbilisi is busy, yet very charming city with interesting mix of architecture. | FinnsAway Nomad Travelers

Historical Kutaisi | Short story
Kutaisi and surrounding Imereti region is famous for old monasteries, Bagrati Cathedral and deep canyons and caves. Short post about our visit to the city. | FinnsAway Nomad Travelers

Mestia, the beating heart of Svaneti
Mestia, the ‘capital’ of Svaneti region in Georgia, in the heart of Caucasus mountains, is a great base for enjoying mountain views, hiking and skiing. | FinnsAway Nomad Travelers

Hiking in northern Czech Republic
Hiking in Krkonose and Bohemian Switzerland National Parks and Bohemian Paradise; amazing rock formations, mountain trails, castles, canyons and forests. | FinnsAway Nomad Travelers

Wishing you colorful early autumn,
Anne & Toni, FinnsAway


FinnsAway adventures can be followed also in social media

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FinnsAway Newsletter 4/9/2018

This a new biweekly FinnsAway newsletter

As a part of our website renewal, we have created a new form for our newsletter. Before you got mail about individual blog posts, but from now on we’ll provide a biweekly letter, that collects all recently published posts and short stories, and includes some news about our whereabouts.

We have just started our two-months adventure in Caucasus, and are at the moment in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. We have a good feeling about this country, it has so much natural wonders to offer, people are friendly and welcoming, and the price level is very affordable. We came here from France, where we were first house-sitting in Alsace region for six weeks and then quickly visited Paris. Our travel partner AirBaltic offered us flights from Paris to Riga, and from there to Minsk and back.

Our five days visit to the capital of Belarus was filled with strolling around the city, working in our apartment in a very soviet-style neighborhood, enjoying local food and craft beer and running in parks. After Minsk we then flew here in Tbilisi.

We are now staying in an apartment near the city center, but still in pretty authentic Georgian neighborhood. The landlords live next door; a charming and hospitable elderly couple with whom we don’t have any common language. The lady often brings us coffee and biscuits, and we have also received some local delicacies like cooked fishes and slices of some vegetable that we didn’t recognize.

The local language, Georgian, is an ancient Kartvelian language, and it’s written with own alphabet that looks a bit like hieroglyphs. Many locals speak also Russian (not that we understand that much better), and the younger generations speaks English, at least here in the capital. Let’s see how this will change when we head to the small villages in the mountains.

The latest blog posts include hiking and road tripping in Italy. Short Stories are a new form of posts, basically for publishing news and our whereabouts in real time. Hopefully you like the new site! Comments in the posts and any other feedback is always welcomed!

Best regards,
Anne & Toni

LATEST POSTS AND ARTICLES IN FINNSAWAY SITE

Road trips in Europe: From Athens to Prague

Road trip from Greece to Czech Republic through Italy and Austria, including a ferry ride from Patras to Ancona, historic cities, Tuscany wine and hiking in the mountains.

Minsk for craft beer enthusiasts

Craft beer boom has reached Belarus, and Minsk has some nice pubs for tasting local craft beers. There is also a yearly craft beer festival. | FinnsAway nomad life and adventures

 

FinnsAway adventures can be followed also in social media;

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