Anyone who has had the pleasure of visiting Finland will back me up when I say this has got to be one of the most scenic countries to visit! The National Parks are expansive and vast, meaning you can visit in shoulder season and feel as though you have the entire place to yourself. From winter in the North to the beautiful colours of Autumn in the southeast, to the intriguing and ever-changing capital city of Helsinki… there are so many reasons to visit Finland! Here’s a little more convincing for you:
Because surely this is the real Chronicles of Narnia!?
Because even in the winter time it is encouraged to get outdoors and get amongst your surrounds! A nice Finnish local made me this fire – what a charmer!
Because where else in the world can you go to meet & feed reindeer in their natural habitat! (so cute!)
Because you can run into locals riding around the “streets” on their snowmobiles (eeeeep!)
Because canoeing is considered a regular activity and you’ll find plenty of locals happy to take you out and about!
Because you can meet (and cuddle) huskies!!! These gorgeous snow dogs were gearing up for the winter season of dog sledding (which is also way cool!)
Because there are ENDLESS lakes with ENDLESS activities. It really is too beautiful for words!
![[Stories, pt. XI] The only guy I ever fell for in Los Angeles was an Emmy award winning producer of documentary films. At least, that’s how his LinkedIn profile reads.
Let's start with the Saturday we met on Sunset Boulevard. It sounds cliché because it was. Doing this story justice feels like a hefty task - plagued by my own bias, naturally. But when your story ends in a foreign country alone on Christmas Day having been left in the middle of the night, you earn the right to tell the tale. And tell it I did - to every air hostess who would listen on that 30 hour flight path back to Australia on 26 December 2018.
This may take a while (you've been warned). I had decided I would only date older men - a phase? Perhaps. Convinced age must have been the downfall to my previous failed relationships, I swore on a 30’s or 40’s kind of guy. Statistics show 60% of men prefer dating younger, so if nothing else, the stats were on my side.
I was introduced to Simon (names have been changed) at an inconvenient time. There are cute foods to be eating when you meet a man and then there are acai bowls. My teeth covered in a layer of purple soup, I smiled and introduced myself. I was with a friend and her beau - used here as an adjective because in LA a “boyfriend” is as good as a lifetime sentence. He happened to walk by and, caught by surprise, noticed his work colleague was sitting with us. “Hey Brian, fancy seeing you here”. I would later come to learn that the meeting was as set up as a Hindu wedding.
Later that evening I was the 4th wheel in a double date to an emo band playing at a venue in Highland Park. In a haze of vodka sodas and white wine, we stumbled into the uber and darted across town. Uninterested at first, my eyes darted around the room to a sea of eligible bachelors. It could have been the white wine or it could have been the laser beam lights that framed his face, but I caught myself lock eyes with his and for a split second, I really noticed him. “He’s won an Emmy” Brian announced the next day. “And he’s into you” he finished. After a series of first dates that apparently weren’t into me, my ego got the better of me.
To be continued...🍷🍿](http://www.worldofwanderlust.com/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)