Best Vacation Ever Video Contest to Caribbean - Best Friends Travel Story

As a travel blogger, I am more than proud to say that lying in my heart and soul is the ultimate passion for travelling, though I have not been to that many places as a pro/full-time travel writers. One of the foremost inspirations for my trips & stories is my best friend June, whom I have been apart from for almost 1 year until now. June is also a young travel-addict like me. She has lived in 3 different countries and been to over 20 countries.

The Best Vacation Ever Video Contest, which we entered few days ago, gives us the perfect possibility to reunite this Spring 2015 on a funded 10-day vacation on Little Corn Island Nicaragua in Caribbean, if we win hopefully. Thanks Adventurous Kate and GreenGlobalTravel for spreading the words!

Best Vacation Ever Contest Policy. Enter the competition here!

What does Little Corn Island say to me?

Located 43 miles off the coast of Nicaragua in Caribbean are the Corn Islands, including the Little Corn Island which is far more remote and isolated from the big ones. Here you can find the dreamland of sun shining, pure blue beaches and a great opportunity to relax your mind with yoga, spa, and a get-away from the chaotic modernized life. Most importantly, I see Nicaragua - 'The place to be' as an ideal destination for exotic Caribbean food, lovely people from a different culture, new adventure and experiences which differs a lot from European countries. True happiness, which is the main message of Yemaja Little Corn Island travel concept, as well as the Best Vacation Ever Video contest, delivered what we were looking for. 

OUR VIDEO #happyatyemaya

Vote for us in YEMAYA LITLE CORN ISLAND NICARAGUA's FACEBOOK FAN PAGE 

Thanks for watching. We hope you enjoy!

Our Travel Story

We begun our study in Finland at the same class in 2011, when we started to know each other in the little town Rovaniemi located in the very North of Finland, where you can easily find Santa Claus and reindeers in Christmas. We were very young teen girls, sharing the same age, academic program, apartment where we lived together for almost a year, and things we have been through together from good to bad times, especially during depressing winters. 

The year I moved to Helsinki was when June decided to stay in Rovaniemi to continue her study. She met a lot of exchange students from all over the world, made many new friends and fell in love with their story as well as discovering new countries. Half a year later she went back to Vietnam for an internship, then to Germany for an exchange to study. Here she begun realising her travel passion by having couples of trips and road-trips. Last summer June also took her 70-something-year-old grandparents on an Europe trip throughout 6 countries. She wanted to show her family the world in her eyes, and she made it through. Her grandparents' story was very inspiring, well-recognized and appreciated by publicity.

June and grandparents in Barcelona, Spain

Ever since we were apart, I have been to Sweden, Denmark, Hungary, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. We never lost contact, as I would always call her and tell my story whenever I arrive at a new country. We met each other few times every now and then in the last 2 years. I took a flight to Munich where she was on Erasmus exchange to visit her. These days I am dying to meet her to talk endlessly about Netherlands and my experiences in this lovely country.

Eventually, I guess what kept us not falling apart all these years was not only these special memories in different countries we had together, but also the similar aspiration we have and look forward to fulfilling every day. We are definitely thrilled and looking forward to spending the best vacation ever together, meeting people from all walks of life to share food & culture, building great conversations, and creating the best experiences for our last year of college!

Us in Helsinki, Finland

The Finnish girl who lives in Korea

It was random and fun to meet Laura last year during one international event held by exchange students of our school in Helsinki. Laura is a 23-year-old lovely Finnish girl and a business administration student who loves Korean music and culture. I was partly surprised and happy to hear that she has just moved to Seoul to continue her bachelor at Hanyang University.

So we did some chatty and skyping about our lives in Netherlands, Finland and Korea to compare and share our stories. I enjoyed our conversation a lot perhaps because we both are open-minded females who are interested in travelling not only to Asian countries but also in general. Laura has been to Japan, Hongkong, Vietnam, Singapore, but only in Korea did she feel like at home!

What Laura loves about Korea

Korean music

Popular culture

Cute people

Nightlife (everything is open late)

Student life

Cheap prices

Beautiful mountains to hike

Busy city life

What the challenges were

Money, little saving

Expensive and hard-to-find places to live

Language barrier

Straightforwardness

(Korean are indirect)

Of course I must not forget to ask about my favourite topic: Korean food. 

*They have rich food culture here. Most of the restaurants serve dishes with lots of meat such as pork, chicken and beef, which is not vegetarian-friendly. They usually bring the raw ingredients and you make it yourself or they make the food for you. Korean cuisine is sweet and spicy compared to Finnish cuisine*, said Laura

I got couples of photos of Korean dishes Laura tried and favored

ddeokbokki

dakgalbi

Icy noodles Naengmyeon

kimchijjigae

Fried chicken

What do you advise to people who would want to do the same kind of travelling as you?

*In case of Korea, there are many people who want to go. If you are coming from a Western country, you should research, learn the language, and be familiar with customs before moving to Korea. Coming here for a short trip to see how the place is like would be good. It is possible to move alone.*

Iga Oliwiak - the girl who travels for music

''Every time you travel, remember not to take too many valuable stuff with you. Don’t worry too much and just enjoy the journey! And if you are travelling especially for the music festivals like me, you should actually “prepare” a bit which means listening to a few songs of the playing there bands (especially ones you don’t know) because you never know what you are gonna miss or regret not listening. And never, ever go into the mosh pit/pogo wearing sandals, EVER!”

Photo by Elliot Vernon

Those were couples of advices from Iga, an art student from Poland who has always been a big fan of metal music. This summer 2014, Iga has been to 2 festivals in Czech Republic (Made of Metal, Masters of Rocks) and the biggest open-air festival in Europe – Woodstock!

When was the first concert ever that you attend?

‘’I remember the very first concert I went to in my hometown was in the end of junior high school. Luckily I saw an offer of buying a coupon of VIP ticket for a concert in normal ticket price. I have never been to any metal concert so I just wanted to try it out. There were not so many people on audience and we could actually meet the artists and talk to them after the show. We were so excited that we even wrote and gave a letter to the vocalist afterwards. Then we were messaging each other for a while but we don’t keep in touch much nowadays.”

What was your best experience during the 3 festivals this summer?

''My best experience was being able to get to the backstage during last festival in Czech Republic and meet many artists there at the after-party. I could feel the friendly, welcoming and open atmosphere of the party, where you feel like all these famous artists are just normal people after all. It was like a big house party for me where everyone walked and talked to one and another no matter where you are from.’’

 Iga and Konrad in Metal Fest

What is so special about attending the festivals?

‘’I think the best thing about music festivals is that it is the place where you can go to and leave your life behind. You wouldn’t have to worry about anything while being away from your family, work, and school. All you have to do is waking up, checking the program and hours of the bands playing, then enjoying your favorite music with good company‘’.

You also meet and make friends with random nice people, at the place but also on the road just like when you normally travel for sightseeing. My friend found an offer at BlaBlaCar site one month ago and we joined a young married couple going to the same festival. We were camping together then and we told them about this next festival, which was a month later. We went together again but as friends.

Iga and friends with Therion Band in Made of Metal

Masters of Rocks Festival

Any bad experience?

It was during the Woodstock – free festival so everybody can attend. It was only one time during whole festival when I left my bag in the tent and we got it robbed. I lost my phone, wallet and even food and alcohol! I guess it wouldn’t happen at normal festival when you have to pay for the ticket. It was a lesson not to leave anything ;)

Woodstock Festival - the biggest festival in Poland