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In the last 10 years I have stayed in some really crappy hotels. What has become clear is that price does not guarantee a thing.Most people want a good bed, peace and quiet and a decent breakfast. Internet connection would also be nice. However, more often than every now and then I have fought with a crappy air-conditioning system, tried to find something fresh from the breakfast buffet of sweaty cheese, stale croissants and weird mayonnaise salads. And even in some fancy hotels the only thing they have to offer is a 10 euros per hour slow Internet, which works only with a cable. Hotels too often only end up increasing the traveller´s stress. I also cannot stand the idea that hotels are just copy-pasted to dozens of locations without any link to the local setting. I don´t want to stay "anywhere in the world".But the good news are: there is hope. Easter in Amsterdam showed that great can be affordable. The new Citizen M budget boutique hotel chain provides the essential: great bed, natural light in all rooms, free WLAN, beautiful settings, good breakfast - and excellent service. The rooms are small - I mean under 20 sqm2 - but everything works. The breakfast comes in a paper bag but has freshly pressed orange juice and a fluffy but crispy croissant. It seemed Citizen M has got it right: invest in quality in the things that really matter - staff, interior design, produce, bed.The design furniture lobby was one where you did not feel like you were working in a hotel lobby. You were not constantly surrounded by people with supersize bags and tour groups waiting for their bus. The staff at Amsterdam City was relaxed and hospitable. I and many others ended up working in the lobby for the entire day. The canteen had a selection of personal British and Dutch snacks and dishes - not the normal boring Pringles cans. The staff was helpful but not intrusive. They seemed to switch smoothly between the canteen and reception. None of the regular "you can go and ask my colleague".The most amazing thing was that when I tweeted on the hotel, the staff responded in 10 minutes asking if they could give me any more information. We exchanged some messages back and forth and within a day I got great information on their take on sustainability and service. They told me that "from the development of our hotels, the efficient building system is combined with a dedicated offsite factory allowing the construction of the rooms with higher quality, less environmental impact at the construction site, less waste produced spite of reducing the total construction time from 2 years (market average) to around 10 months." This answer came from Diego working at the Amsterdam hotel, not from someone somewhere in the "service center". It seemed clear to me that the staff is proud of their concept - and the enthusiasm is addictive. You can find out more here.And all this for, get this: 90 euros for a 2-person room.By now they are only in Amsterdam. But according to the website, "hotels are planned across Europe – in all major cities – such as: London, Barcelona, Glasgow, Berlin, Stockholm, Brussels, Milan, Copenhagen, Moscow, Paris, Istanbul, Warsaw, Budapest to name a few." I wish the best for them. My first visit to Citizen M made me a loyal regular. I love promoting companies like Citizen M and Virgin, which have realised how to make the entire service chain work. They are also proving to the consumer that the whole extra premium for better experience is often just disguised greed.
Flying domestic is not something I do often, I think actually four times in my life if I count the return flights to Kittilä last week. And as before, flying domestic with someone non-Finnish makes one take another perspective as one tries to explain the behaviour of one´s fellow citizens.Already on the flight to Kittilä, it was pointed out to me that the Finnair flight attendant allowed a Finnish man visibly drunk to occupy the seat in front of the emergency exit. I was informed by my company (someone who knows more about flying than anyone I have met) that this actually counts as a violation of airline protocol. On the way back it got worse on the plane. The positive side was that we got to test the new Finnair Airbus 330-300, which will be used for flying to New York. It was the first week of the plane and things looked brilliant. The revamped Finnair colour scheme makes the cabin seem much more spacious and the new seats make you keep a good posture. But as the plane was filled with Finns ending their one-week holiday either in Ylläs or Levi, it smelled like the empty bottle room of Alko. Big portion of the customers were visibly drunk already when boarding the plane. We actually changed our seats on the last minute due to the odour created by the people behind us. I managed to catch the frightened looked on a face of a young father who was forced to sit with his one-year-old in the middle of the Boozy Family. And the 5 euro charge for alcohol on domestic flights did not stop the people from boozing up more. I mean hey, last moment of holidays.I am not blaming the cabin crew for slacking, I am sure they do not love the drunks in the back of the plane anymore than I do. After moving back to Finland from the Netherlands I have been in quite a number of situations where I notice how differently people and institutions tolerate overuse of alcohol in public transport, at stations not to mention restaurants. The Finnair case seems to be just another example of Finns looking the other way when the drunk is making another situation uncomfortable - or even risky as in the case of the emergency exit - for the rest of us.
I wonder if there is a school where they teach how to be on holiday. As my last week of summer holidays starts, I realise that I suck in taking a break. I find it extremely difficult to stay away from work emails or from scheduling. It easily leads to a situation where you create anxiety for the days passing by without allowing yourself to let go. I confess opening it several times over the last month and then ending up answering emails which might as well waited.
I mean it has been a fantastic holiday. We have done a lot and been to zillion places. But i remember a situation from the hotel pool in Las Vegas where I was told that my behaviour gives reason to believe that I have AD/HD. I am bored within 20 minutes at a pool. I find myself carrying a book, the iPod and a pile of magazines with me to kill the time. And before long, I had to get up, walk around the pool, check the cabana shop, buy the newspaper and dive into the world of global politics. I was told that this gives reason for concern. Only the overpriced Internet connection kept me away from updating the Facebook status. How sad.
I do understand now why a lot of people decide to spend their holidays in places without proper Internet connections and where using your mobile phone is ridiculously expensive. It is a useful but painful exercise to detach and admit that the world keeps on spinning and things don´t immediately fall into pieces when you are away for a bit.
"We're all struggling here, black, Latino or white." Last Wednesday evening in a Californian living room The Financial Times reports on America's recession turned into worsening credit scores, houses put on sale, endless job hunts, rising numbers of violence at the local mall, spanking new cars losing half of their value in a matter of months and news about another friend being a subject of a radical layoff. The radical fall of the US economy is not just Bear Sterns and Fannie Mae, thebiggest price is paid in these living rooms.
I cannot help being blown away by America. Every visit makes me love it more and simultaneously leaves me more and more confused. I am realising ever clearer thatwe should not pretend like our lifestyles would be similar. Where Europe is safe and cosy, America is radical in its ups and downs - on the individual, local and national level. No European economy goes up and down like theirs and no European nation state contains the same diversity as the US. The New York Times featured earlier this week a research that by 2043 minorities will form the majority of the US population.
But simultaneously no European state is as divided as the United States. Visit to Chicago and California makes everyone race conscious, whether you want it or not. As novelist James Frey puts it in today's Financial Times:"I think Los Angeles is a city that embodies contemporary US society. It's segmented and divided, rich and poor. It's the American dream in its purest form, whether you're there searching for a roof over for your head or for international stardom." It's no place for cowards, America is still in many ways a cowboy's playground.
It is not a coincidence that in affluent areas of big American cities African Americans and Hispanics could be seen largely only behind the coffeeshop counter or cleaning the hotel rooms. United States is a diverse society which does not mean yet that it would be a mixed or equal society. Recent study showed that only 1/70 of children are born into black-white families. Mixed families or circles of friends tend to be still the rare incident proving the rule right.
But beyond all these things, like James, Frey, I have been seduced by the American Dream. People still believe in the power of the individual to make it. They believe in their possibilities to provide happiness and affluence to themself and their family. In that Californian living room I heard no comments about giving up. Everyone I talked with over the last three weeks said the same: it will spring back up, it just takes some time. It's this relentless optimism that leaves me energised. It is what James Frey captures in his fantastic book Bright Shiny Morning: no one claims America is living up to its promise for all but the dream keeps the springboard swinging, and millions of people reaching out for that happiness.
It’s quite amazing. It demonstrates such strength and beauty in a way that forces you awe, halt and breathe it in. It is far more captivating than the touristic Hollywood Walk of Fame or the rainbow celebration of San Francisco’s Castro. It is not man-made like the glory of Las Vegas, actually it is largely untouched by a human hand. California is more than Chinatowns, SUVs, film studios and excessive capitalism. It is vast national parks, mountains and the home of one of the most impressive coastlines in the world. Seeing this explains in part why here a Republican governor understands the importance of fighting climate change.
I am writing this post on a slow and run-down dinosaur called an Amtrak train. Even with magnificent views, the train is a strong example how the American government has consciously ran down its public transport system. The train is already an hour late and takes twice the time the same distance would take by car. But that does not really matter now – summer holiday is not about timetables.
Over the last few days we drove from San Francisco to San Luis Obispo down the Pacific Coast Highway. The road winds down the coastline and takes you to beautiful smaller cities such as Pescadero, San Luis Obispo and Monterey. You can actually opt out on McDonald’s and visit an 89-year-long family-owned grocery store instead. The drive shows you the richness of California beyond Hummers and bling bling. You see redwood forests changing into neat rows of palm trees, sea lions and pelicans as your soundtrack, vast deserts and blooming artichoke fields, the grass and bushes destroyed by the recent fires, sea going through all shades of blue, thick San Francisco fog making way for blue skies and the steep cliffs fighting with the sea for their existence. You drive down that road, ocean all the way to Japan on your right and the entire North American continent on your left. It is not a word we Europeans use very often: awesome.
After four hours driving in a 40-degree heat, it started rising in the horizon: Las Vegas. Arriving during the day it actually looked sort of calm. I mean you had Empire State Building and a pyramid next to the Eiffel Tower and the Colosseum but you get over that rather soon. I must confess that I was expecting it to be corny and camp when it actually was all about money and wealth. So less Elvis and more Ferrari.
I have never been the Las Vegas type as I really am not tempted by gambling. I did not plan to spend a lot of money into the slot machines. I guess I am just too cautious and pragmatic for that stuff.
But I would be lying if I would state that I would not have been tempted. It all started from the moment when a bet of 2 dollars hit a row of sevens and the numbers started rolling. Suddenly my evening buffet and drinks were covered and I still had money for souvenirs. With just 2 dollars and pushing a button. In the end I spent threefold the planned money on the slot machines and the win of the first day was quickly gone.
Las Vegas is bizarre. The luxury shops and the blitz of the casinos are quite overwhelming. Everything seems to be possible in Las Vegas if you just have the money. The machines and tables around me seemed to be calling: it could be you, you could be the person walking away with the suitcase of dollars.
But even if I enjoyed the visit, I must confess that California is a place where I feel more comfortable. Everything is not about money and getting rich, it is also about kindness, beauty and quality. Shopping today at Irvine's Whole Foods organic store felt good. It is highly needed that someone reminds you now and then that maybe you don't need that extra plastic bag even if you could afford it or maybe spending that extra dollar on the organic lettuce makes sense.
"Thank you so much. But where are the bridges exactly?"
A discussion with an Italian tourist in the cafe of Topkapi Palace earlier this week was a wake-up call. My holiday in Istanbul consisted of breakfasts, dinners and drinks with local friends. I stayed in the guest room of my friends far away from Sultanahmet's touristic buzz. The discussion with the tourist - smart woman approximately my age - reminded me of the great wonder of having friends all over Europe.
The girl had not left the Golden Horn during the four days she had already spent in Istanbul. I visited the Golden Horn every day but in the evenings returned to the Asian side. Her experience of the Turks was that they all wanted to sell her something, mine was from the amazing hospitality and kindness which seems to characterise people outside the tourist attractions.The locals we asked for help went out of their way to make sure that we make the right bus or find the right address. The mosque experience of the Italian tourist were the men selling souvenirs by the door, mine was an older gentleman proud to show us around his local mosque. Her most intimate discussion with a local was the receptionist of her hotel or a friendly waiter, mine were hour-long discussions over Turkish pop music or funeral traditions in my friends' living room in the middle of the night.
I am a people person. People define my mood and create the highs and lows. My Europe and European cities consist mostly from superb dinners, long breakfasts or cocktails with a view.
Been on autumn holiday now for more or less a week. Started in Helsinki, went to Rautalampi in central Finland for a weekend, stopped in Tampere, back to Helsinki and currently in Tallinn for work. I have opened my work email only twice during this holiday which I think is a new record.
It was a splendid idea to start the trip by going to our summer house for the weekend with my parents and my uncle. If I would have just stayed in Helsinki, I would not have been able to drop my tempo from the working one to a holiday one. I would have kept going from a meeting to another like in Amsterdam. Now I had good food, slept late, went to the sauna twice and finished a book, Haruki Murakami's strange but fascinating Kafka on the Shore. Big ass feng shui.
They say every Finn's dream is a house in the countryside, by a lake and growing one's own potatoes. Not mine even if I support policies that keep the rural areas alive and do not turn them into one big resort. Even if I absolutely love going to the country house for a weekend or even for some weeks, I need people around me. The suburban boy has turned into a city boy and not turning back. But as living with constant background noise, it is amazing being in a place where you stand outside around midnight, it is completely dark and fully silent. It's like charging up.
My new Year's resolution last year was not to kill myself with work. I decided to take more time for myself. I must confess that I have not been too successful with abandoning the protestant work ethics. It has been one exhausting April and May. For weeks and weeks my life has been only full-on work which was starting to show on my face, on my skin and on the quality of delivery. In that sense the 5-day holiday in Barcelona scheduled months back really came at the perfect moment.
One of the best outcomes of this work is a network of wonderful people across Europe. My Europe is really a pool of great people. Partying in the middle of the night at the office of my friends' magazine in Gracia is something you just cannot do as a pure tourist. Having a glass of whiskey in your hand, seeing the cleaners wash the silent square and listening to Daft Punk really makes one forget work.
And like we people of the north every year, I went overboard with the warmth and the sun. One just does not learn. In the first two days I managed to burn my chest on the beach, get a decent blister between my toes from the new flip-flops, barely make my way through a completely random absent-minded work call and party until six in the morning.
Barcelona really is high on my list. I think every city in the world should have quiet cool streets, heavy investments in public art, boutiques instead of supermarkets and decent priced food made from fresh ingredients.
This week my colleague and I are in London for meetings and I continue on Thursday to Switzerland to give a lecture on visual strategies of teenagers. The emails keep flooding in but after the holiday I answer them much more in peace.
In the last 10 years I have stayed in some really crappy hotels. What has become clear is that price does not guarantee a thing.
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