14^th of October.

Woke up in 16 Murray Drive, Melbourne. We said our teary goodbyes to the Tomlin family who had looked after us for ten days like their own family. Australia is FAR away… But so is Finland if you look at it from here. Then we were picked up by older Tomlins who kindly gave us a ride to the airport. As it was once again pouring down rain, it was most appreciated. It’s somehow miraculous that someone on the other side of the world would do such a great favor to us, but sometimes the world amazes – there has clearly been that up in the air in the last two weeks.

I then decided to try and figure out how long our day was going to be, and more importantly, how long was our *flight* to Honolulu. After careful calculations, I came to the conclusion that the time difference is 21 hours, (or three, depends how you want to look at it) so our day was to last 45 hours. I doubt the day will ever be longer than this. We started from the future and went back to the past. You might think that no one noticed… What does it matter which day it is? But there you would be wrong. In the evening we realized that my husband’s credit card had been canceled, because he had made the suspicious purchase of buying supermarket dinner for us in Honolulu *before* he bought a jacket in Sydney… This is what happens when you do the day twice. Better to use cash, I am telling you.

After the long airport complications and flights from Melbourne to Sydney and Sydney to Honolulu, we arrived in the past at 9:30am, on the same day as we had left. This was my first entry to America, so I was expecting a whole good two hours of customs at least. Instead, we were through in ten minutes after the plane landed – which was amazing considering that we also had bought Kangaroo and Alligator Jerkey, which qualified as a meat product and needed to be declared. They laughed and thanked us for showing the items and we were through. Seriously the quickest immigration so far…

Our hotel is the Aqua Aloha Surf and Spa near Waikiki Beach, which I chose because it had complimentary internet in the room. We were blessed to get a room at 10:30am, after which we showered and head for lunch. It’s a good feeling to be back in the warm again, even if this is our last time on the trip… We managed to burn our noses through the sun cream, thanks to the ravaging sun that points almost directly at you.

We had Japanese for lunch and headed to see Waikiki Beach, after which we decided to walk to see the ‘Iolani Palace. This was the residence of Hawaii’s king and queen in the 19^th century and the only royal (monarch) residence in American soil apparently. Two monarchs governed from ‘Iolani Palace: King David Kalākaua and Queen Lili’uokalani. We took the self-audio tour around and it turned out to be really good and informative.

The King Kalākaua was a modern man and had travelled around the world (first monarch to do so) and collected modern items such as a flushing toilet and the telephone. There was even the electrical light installed into the Palace much before European equivalents. He ruled with his queen Kapiolani, but they had no children, so when the king fell ill and couldn’t get the remedy even from San Francisco, he died and left his sister, Princess Lili’uokalani in charge. The events on her time of power were quite contradictive, because a small group of influential men in court took her out of power and enprisoned her in one of the rooms of the Palace for eight months. This was done against the current President of United States as well, but unfortunately monarchy was never re-established in Hawaii. President Clinton did a public pardon for these events of the power taken from Queen Lili’uokalani without any legal right. This was a second museum that had a very guilt-driven story to tell. Perhaps the like that around the Pasific Ocean.

As far as what I think about Hawaii after the first day: It’s clear that Waikiki is a holiday resort for tourists, which we are not accustomed to see, but in anycase welcome the constant 7-11s and cheap food. When ordering food, or paying for services, one must remember around here that 15% is the current tip. It may look like things are cheap, but add tax and tip and they are suddenly expensive. It’s also a country built for private cars. I was actually surprised to find pavements to walk on in the centre of town. We are determined to survive without the hassle of renting a car, paying for the petrol and parking as well. Not to mention the stress of reading a map. So I think we’ll try some of the tours that the hotel offers for at least Pearl Harbor and the Polynesian Cultural Centre.

Day 36-37/63

It was a beautiful day in Melbourne, so we went for a walk in the Botanical Gardens. These gardens hold an especially dear place in the hearts of the family that we are staying with, because they got married here around ten years ago. My husband was there in best man duty which made visiting this garden like a must place for us.

Australia is all about gigantic trees. In Finland, on average you can put the arms around a tree and put your hands together. That’s a normal tree. In here the bark is huge and leaves spread around with branches really wide. They also have a wide variation of flowers, plants and animals that I have never seen in my life. The gardens are spread on a huge area in the city centre, definitely worth it for a walk with family, perhaps a picnic with kids, too.

Afterwards we had a nice wander around Williams town, which is a sea shore area, on the other side of the bay (looking from where we are currently based in the Wattle park). This area has lovely boutiques, bakeries and cafés… All you could want really. Reminded me a little of Naantali harbor, but of course that is much much smaller. There is even a Titanic themed restaurant where you start to drown during dinner. Honestly, what is it with melbourneans and weird dining habits?

We had a baby sitter booked for the evening, but unfortunately none of us could face another night out, so we stayed in and watched television like a bunch of muppets. Well needed time to chill out, because on the next day we had some more fun coming to our way.

The Sunday started with lovely coffee and scans at the Borensztejns’. They have an absolutely gorgeous house with high pillars and high rooms, you know the houses in Gone with the Wind before the war? Pretty much like that. We were on our way  to a charity auction, where they raised money by selling pieces of art that the artists had donated. This was officially my first auction, which turned out to be an interesting occasion. Too bad the painting that I liked the best and the Tomlins would have quite wanted, went for a really high price. For us it’s easy: We don’t have walls anyways… I can’t even hang out my own pictures… And there is always need for new shelves… But in case there would have been something great that no one else wanted, then I can see the auctions being really good places for bargains. However, I am sure you need to go a serious load of stressful ones where someone buys you off on something you really wanted. I could see some incredibly rich people there, just buying some pieces off to possibly show that they can. If I ever have money, I swear that that’s not the way I’m going to be using it. Life is actually perhaps easier when you are not loaded. Possibly because you have needs and wants that you can work for and goals to achieve there. I was reminded once again, that I am really blessed to live my current, occasionally very poor life. I am sure glad I could afford to take this trip, but I am also glad that I need to go back to work straight after…

I’ve still got sand in my shoes and I can’t shake the thought of you.
I know we said goodbye, anything else could have been confusion, but I want to see you again.

For the record, this is not going to be a very informative post. So I apologise in advance. It’ll be closer to a diary entry.

Well, I’ve got sand in absolutely everywhere now. In my room floor, in my bag, in my shoes, in my hair, and most of all, inside the fabric of my bikini, somehow it goes in but doesn’t quite come out… I hould know more about the laws of physics to figure out on how to get it out. I am seriously going to tip the maid who cleaned my room today. They must get a lot of sandy bathrooms, but mine was seriously like hairpin and sand explosion in the morning.

It was one of those nights. You know the ones. They make films of nights like last night. I feel blessed to experience them in my First Life though. Last night reminded me so much of another night in my life, after which I felt pretty much the same. I feel blessed that this time I don’t have to walk through Rome in a hangover like I did back then. Because just getting yourself out of the bed is a serious effort.

I’ve been to Greece for a week now and it’s time to leave. This trip I has been a special one. It certainly has made me friends for life, it’s incredibly hard to say goodbye to Daniela. One more dinner at the hotel and definitely an early night. It’s been one of the best weeks in my life.

I lost the lens cap of my camera, seems like a fair price for it all. My work here is done.

El Greco is our hotel by the very Beach in Rethymnon, east from Chania. The hotel is four-five star and is designed to entertain their visitors, preferably so that they never leave the hotel on their trip. There is no need. The breakfast, lunch and dinner are served with fabulous variation of buffet Greek food. Lots of Greek salad to serve mummies, stakes and fries to serve daddys, macaroni and cheese to serve the kids and possibly 12 choises of pudding, including chocolate mousse, tiramisu, meloni, greek yogurt with honey – even its own ice cream cubing possibility. After browsing the salads, I find olives and feta. I know what I’ll be having for the whole week. It’s going to be both easy and hard to keep one’s diet in here – on the other hand, there’s good salad options, but then you are spoilt for choise with all the tastes around the huge area of food…

This is a holiday destination for many, but a work for me. I would probably never pay for this kind of place for a holiday – Even if swimming, eating and sunbathing might be someone’s dream, I’m a Finn with a milky white skin, all my skin does in the sun is burn. Therefore, and for reasons of interest, I would much rather climb mountain, shoot temples or statues with my camera or find some interesting people talk to. Even to sweat like a pig kicking high, rather than sitting in the sun. Don’t get me wrong, I love that work has sent me here for a week, I am lucky, because I get to be here as my job and I don’t have to choose it as a holiday. The sea is stunnigly beautiful in colors and I cannot remember the last time I swam in one.

The hotel has its own shop that sells pretty much everything, including make-up and german novels. I can see this is not a Finn-resort, they would never pay these prices. The cost of a room is 172/night and then there’s also food on top of that. There’s about 3-4 pools for what I have found so far and of course the sea is twenty metres away, so one can pretty much find their own spot and just stay there. Must be very nice for those with kids. Somehow, I still feel like in a prison. It’s too hot to go anywhere else, so I am stuck here. Also, there’s no wireless in the rooms – I am going to go and check if there’s wireless in the lobby though. But if not, El Greco for me is missing the one thing that I cannot work without… I am tempted to go for a swim, but decide to leave the bikinis in my suitcase for a couple of more hours, the non-sleeping last night has caused a real need for the siesta. Work begins again at 5pm. I plan to be ready.

You know how some hotels give you chocolate as the treat? This one has given me a bottle of white wine and a fruit basket. Could be worse. Looking for a little more carefully – white wine *and* red wine. I am wondering if my husband and I will some day have half Finns and say: fuck it, we want an easy life with pools, sea, sun and wine poured on to our room and just come down here… Who knows.

When the sun sets with glorous red dusk over the Mediterranean, I walk in the sea with my legs getting soaked. The unbearable hotness has slowed down by the cool air breeze and it’s the best time of Greece. Just at sundown, perfect light, sea’s voice is harsh, call of the poseidon, somehow feels like heaven for a second. It’s the same as with so many times in my life when travelling, I wish I were here with someone else. I once was in Samos with my dad. Sometimes you get only one chance like that. But that time might make all the difference. Because it at least happened and I was there. Life is so momentary and fading, he said to me. He might be dead, but goes on with me.