77 days

Escape.

Everybody needs one. That's why we are going on an adventure. We are going to travel through South America next spring. Originally we planned on travelling throug the whole Americas from south to north within six months. At some point we realised, we would never be able to travel so fast and see all the things we wanted to see, and so we decided to stick with the southern regions, leaving out both North and Central America.

Our departure from Finland is on December 29th. We'll fly via Amsterdam and Rio de Janeiro all the way to Bahia to celebrate New Years in Salvador. In about two months we are planning on travelling all the way from Salvador to Buenos Aires and visit Uruguay on the way. The remaining time will be spent travelling through Paraguay, Bolivia, Chile, Peru and Ecuador, all the way to Columbia. All of this will happen also way too fast, within four months. We will head home (home?) on April 29th, just in time to arrive in Finland on April 30th to celebrate May Day Eve. Munkit porisemaan, simasuut <3

Who are we?

Sanni is a stunning, spiffingly hilarious and quick-witted young lady. I don't mind spending time in silence and frankly, I like being alone at times. I love christmas, knitting, my friends and family, travelling, reading, winter, music and mud cakes. And dough!

Anneli is a freakingly neurotic individual but at the same time the most amazing human being on Earth. I am in many ways too much, too open and too loud. I love woolen socks, warm wind and pasta. Oh yeah, and pasta!

We got to know each other two and half years ago, when Anneli had just returned from her year (and half) abroad in Konstanz. From further away she confused Sanni with another dear friend of hers, began running towards Sanni realising halfway through, it wasn't her friend - in fact, it was a total stranger. Nevertheless, we hugged to prevent an awkward situation. (Anneli: so I touched Sanni's boobs before I knew her name - love at first touch) (Sanni: it was awkward) We didn't really bond before 2012, when Sanni came back from her year abroad, which she incidentally also spent in Konstanz. After a couple of months we were already planning the trip. 'Nuff said.

Why are we going on this trip?

Sanni: "I need a break." That's the thought I had sometime last autumn, when there seemed to be too much going on, too much to do, too much to stress about. Easiest solution is to travel, I reasoned, as far away as possible. So where to? It was five years ago in the end of my year abroad, when I solemnly swore to my friends and families in Brazil to come and visit them as soon as possible, probably within the next two years. Well, that didn't happen - I had to finish school, I got into university, I moved to Germany etc. About a year ago I decided that I'd finish my bachelor's degree by the end of this year to be able to do whatever I want in the following spring. When I told my friends about my plan, many asked me to squeeze them into my luggage. It was Anneli, who, instead of asking for something, told me that she would be joining me. Said and done. Now I'm seriously in need of a long break, I need to sort out my thoughts and try to make plans for the future. Escaping your problems is always the answer, right?

Anneli: When I heard that Sanni wants to go visit her "family" in Brasil and asked would I want to go with her and travel South and North America, I immediately said of course! Reason number 1, because I had never traveled outside of Europe and reason number 2, because I definitely wouldn't let her go alone and die without my protection. (Maybe I was also a bit jealous that an another friend of mine was just about to go on an around  the world trip.) This all happened last autumn and as the year changed and the new year went on, I found more and more reasons to escape. Since I've moved away from my parents, I haven't been living in one city for more than 1,5 years. I always had the next trip or move thought out. It was time for that again. Also, I was having anxiety about that one thing that every self-respecting student should have when studying in their should-be-the-last-year-of-college -year: What the hell am I doing here and what the hell have I been doing the last 4 years? Yes Sanni, escaping your problems is always the answer!

Why English?

Even though writing in Finnish would be a more natural choice for us, we decided to use English instead, so that our numerous non-Finnish-speaking friends could keep tabs on us. We hope you forgive us our grammatical errors and misspellings.

Welcome aboard!

We'll try to be active bloggers both before and during the trip. A lot has already been planned and done - we'll let you know about those in future entries. After eight months of careful consideration, we finally came up with a satisfying blog name and voilà! here we go.