CURRENT MISSION

Navigate the world collecting positive experiences and trying to steer clear of the worst potholes on the way...

ABOUT ME

We are a couple in our forties from the capital of Finland. We share a passion to see the different corners of this world and the various cultures and manners and have been active in international student activies. Nowadays we're past student life and seek other forms of social travelling, be it couch surfing, overlanding in a group or other forms of independent down-to-earth travelling.
Jaana is an elementary school teacher. She has a class of her own, but she also teaches music and English to other pupils at the school. Marko is an IT nerd.

PHILOSOPHY

"It's nice to be important, but more important to be nice", quoting one of the deep philosophers of our time, Scooter.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Share our experiences, be it expertise of our own native region or wisdom of life learned from somewhere or someone else.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

We have both surfed on couches and hosted people. It seems to be a lot of fun. There's always something new to learn. We're hoping to get more and more experience on both.

Interests

We're interested in meeting new people from different countries and cultures. We like to experience things that are new for us. We love good food and wine. Photography is also one of our interests.

Jaana used to study french horn and piano playing at music academy for many years. Nowadays she plays only piano to entertain herself and annoy all the neighbours.. She loves singing and has paid several visits to Finnish Karaoke-pubs.

Marko rides his mountain bike occasionally. He's also interested in trekking and has participated in a couple of bigger trips to the great outdoors.

We have two kids, a girl (8years) and a boy (4years). They have traveled with us a lot and they love it.

When we're not traveling, we just like to relax at home, live a "normal" Finnish life with sauna every Friday- and Saturday evening...

• singing
• performing arts
• photography
• dining
• wine
• sauna
• pub crawls
• traveling
• eating out
• music
• piano
• karaoke
• outdoor activities
• cycling
• sports
• badminton
• teaching
• engineering
• beaches

Music, Movies, and Books

We like all sorts of music from classical to metal- and techno. We go to the concerts every time we get the opportunity and have seen Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Boney M, Meatloaf, Sarah Brightman etc. together. We go to see musicals every now and then too. The music Marko doesn't listen to, Jaana does and vice versa. Markos music taste extends further to the domains of techno and metal music. Finland has been blessed with a huge amount of concerts and festivals in the few last years, including AC/DC, Metallica, Marilyn Manson, Ozzy Osbourne, KISS, WASP, Twisted Sister, Dark Tranquillity, Rammstein and many others.

We love to watch movies and we've seen a lot of them. With movies it seems to be impossible to judge the book by the covers as some of movies have been great while some have been just utter rubbish. We watch both European and Hollywood stuff and appreciate most genres, apart from modern brutality-centric horror movies. Outright chick-flicks ain't Markos cup of tea either. Jaana likes to read all kinds of books from travel books to crime novels.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Hot springs, cold water tubs, mud baths... There's a lot of ways to 'treat' your skin. But here are a couple of new approaches we've tried:

- In Singapore hundreds of little greedy fish are unleashed on your feet to eat away the dead skin tissue. It's called "fish reflexology" and believe us, it's hilarious! Check out the gallery for a pic.

- Ever used ice or a cold bag to help with bruises? This technique has been extended to more serious and chronic illnesses. It involves you spending three minutes in your bathing suit in a cryogenic chamber where the temperature is -110 degrees Celsius. What can I say...it's 'cool'!

Marko: Since I come from the always warm, sunny palm beaches of southern Finland, I wanted to experience something more northernly. A year as an exchange student on Spitsbergen sure took care of that. I have also found the limit of my physical performance. It is located at 7600m on Cho Oyu, the sixth highest mountain in the world.

Countries I’ve Visited

Angola, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Benin, Cameroon, China, Congo, Cuba, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Fiji, France, Gabon, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Kyrgyzstan, Liechtenstein, Malaysia, Mali, Mauritania, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Namibia, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Qatar, Russian Federation, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Thailand, Togo, Tonga, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan

Countries I’ve Lived In

Finland, Spain

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