Avainsana: Carribbean

merenneitoletti

Matkaletit

Nyt loskan keskellä on kiva muistella, mitä tehtiin tasan vuosi sitten: olimme juuri aloittaneet suuren seikkailun.

Uusille lukijoille voin kertoa lyhyen version tarinasta: olimme muuttamassa Suomeen ja päätimme ennen uuden elämän aloittamista viettää kaksi kuukautta matkustellen perheen kanssa.

[Scroll down for ENGLISH version]

Lähdimme matkaan Sveitsistä, joten aluksi kiertelimme Etelä-Euroopassa. Seuraavaksi matkustimme 5 viikkoa Karibialla ja Meksikossa. Paluumatkalla ajoimme Euroopan halki Suomeen.

puoliranskalaiset letit

Valokuvia tuli otettua vaikka kuinka paljon, ja osa niistä tietenkin leteistä (yllä puoliranskalaisviritelmä, jolla vältimme päänahan palamisen Barbadoksen auringossa). Otin matkan ajaksi pienen letti-projektin: joka maasta ainakin yksi letti Instagram-tililleni. Jaan niistä nyt osan piristämään tätä tuulista ja kylmää huhtikuun alkua.

Ensin kalteva letti Pisan kaltevalla tornilla. Toisessa kuvassa olemme St. Maartenin saarella, josta puolet kuuluu Hollannille, puolet Ranskalle, joten siellä tytöt saivat hollantilaisen ja ranskalaisen letin.

5 strand dutch braid, 5-osainen hollantilainen letti dutch braid and a french braid

Mexicossa näimme niin paljon liskoja, että käärmeletti tuntui sopivalta. Ja Sveitsissä tehtiin tietysti Heidi-letti:

snake braid Heidi braid, crown braid

Ja lopuksi oma suosikkini: merenneito letti Köpiksessä:

merenneitoletti

Lisää matkasta viimevuotisessa postauksessa: Memories of the Carribbean

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Sorry, my English followers, I’ve done couple of posts about very Finland-specific events, so the English versions have been short…. but today, something to cheer you up in April weather.

Exactly a year ago we were starting a great adventure. We were taking couple of months off to travel with the family. We spent couple of weeks in Southern Europe, then 5 weeks in the Carribbean and Mexico, after which we returned to Europe and drove from Provence to Finland….

While travelling, we took a lot of photos, and I did a braiding photo challenge: I posted at least one braid from each country. Here are a few, you can go on my Instagram and find all of the travel braids if you scroll down to last year.

First, a leaning braid at the leaning tower of Pisa. At the island of St Maarten, we did a dutch braid and a french braid because the island is half dutch half french.

5 strand dutch braid, 5-osainen hollantilainen letti dutch braid and a french braid

A snake braid in Mexico… and a Heidi braid in Switzerland.

snake braid Heidi braid, crown braid

Finally a mermaid braid in Copenhagen, at the statue of Little Mermaid:

merenneitoletti

If you want to see more braids from the trip, you can read last year’s post here: Memories of the Carribbean.

Memories of the Carribbean

We are finally settling in our new home in Finland. I didn’t have a chance to blog while we were travelling, as I only had my mobile… My Instagram followers have seen more than enough of my ”travel braids” as I posted at least one braid from each country we went to. So now for those, who are not on Instagram: I’ll show you a few favourites from our Carribean trip.

First, we went to Jamaica. It was amazing. We all agree that out of all the countries we went to, Jamaica was our favourite. The people we super nice, food was good, atmosphere, music, weather, the sea… everything.

There were braiders everywhere! And so many amazing braids! When we first got out the plane, my 5-year old said ”mummy, everyone here has much nicer braids than what you make!”… So, I took it as a challenge, and this was the first morning in Jamaica:

Interlocking french braids, french braid feather braid combo

I got so many compliments for this and other braids throughout the 2 weeks in Jamaica, I even got job offers from the local braid-salons! Really felt that my work was appreciated in Jamaica 🙂

Next, we went on a Caribbean cruise visiting six of the Eastern Caribbean Islands. On each island we did a little trip to a beach, did some snorkeling or just relaxed and went swimming. The braids were always destroyed in the end of the day from all the seawater, so perfect excuse to do new braids every day. Here are some of my favourites (snake braid in St. Kitts, rope braid in Antigua and fishtail-french braid in St. Lucia):
Snake braid on a beach in St. Kitts rope lace braid into rope braid ponytail french feather braids into a fishtail braid

After the cruise we went to Mexico, where I’ve always wanted to visit. It was really interesting with all the history, Mayan ruins etc. and of course Mexican food, one of my favourite cuisines!

Again, we swam a lot, so needed to re-do the braids all the time. I was trying to decide which photo to put here, and then found this:
french braid

This braid was done by my husband. He was complaining he never gets any braiding practice anymore, as I always do the hair! So he came up with this braid, which I thought was beautiful!!

But that’s enough from our holiday (I might do another post with a bit more, but if I add it here it will be too long!)… I hope I’m better at blogging regularly now that we finally have a home again!