As I’m travelling quite a lot for business purposes, I end up in situation where it’s easier to combine trips than always return back to Finland. One example was this occasion where I was planning to visit Mongolia and was later asked to attend the ASPRS conference in Baltimore shortly later. With just a few days in between I then decided to combine these trips and go on my first around-the-world trip.
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia / Beijing, China
After leaving Finland behind me, the first part of the trip went to Mongolia and China. Mongolia was surprisingly developped. Didn’t expect skyrisers and that many modern buildings at this end of the world.
Beijing was fun, as this gave the opportunity to meet with a friend who showed me around. Interesting city, but not sure if I could live there with all this smog. It was actually the first time that I was wearing a mask just to go outside! The hotel I was staying in was kind of funny, dark hallways and very designed rooms. Most be a chinese thing…
Seattle, USA
From Asia I continued via Vancouver to Seattle to visit my old friend from high school time. Haven’t had such a great time in a while. Working for Boeing we obviously went to see the factory tour and he even took me on a quick flight to the nearby mountain area. Being a former barista, I had to stop by the original Starbucks of course :-)
Baltimore, USA / Philadelphia, USA
The last part on my trip took me to the east coast of the US. First Baltimore where I met with CEO to attend the ASPRS conference. Afterwards we flew to Philadelphia to visit Keystone at their premises. After all this traveling, I finally found the time to do some jogging. Didn’t prepare myself much, just followed the water areas I found close to my hotels.
Helsinki, Finland
To my surprise there was still plenty of snow when I arrived back home. After jogging in the US, I wasn’t really in the skiing mood anymore, but still managed to go for a few times before I put my skiis away.
