Before I heard about my Zurich time I was rather excited about the summer holiday in Finland. I am still excited but now this period in another country is also creating some buzz. So, what it shall be then?

Work. I have had chats with people and the project is based on rather interesting combination of technologies. I do have some experience with them but the project itself is huge and definitely it brings a lot new knowledge to digest. Working environment also differs from usual but at least the office is the same.

Location in Zurich. After two short visits I have good first impression. But I want to see more and also visit other cities. I have small network of people who could provide accommodation outside Zurich so I just have to agree when and where.

Language. Even though Swiss-German is different than general high German it will be a great opportunity to boast my German skills. Anyways, all written text is pretty much standard German. I have already applied to some staff dinner party and if old signs are still valid I will hear most of the time German.

Myself. Ten weeks is a short time. But my traineeship in Krakow in 2003 was only couple weeks longer and I really benefited from it. So why wouldn't I benefit now? Of course, it is not my first time to work abroad (but it is the first time to work abroad from abroad) and I even have some clues about the language. It will be also time to explore country and sort some thoughts.

My boss offered me an opportunity to work some time in Zurich. It was easy decission and I am going to spend ten weeks there, right after my summer holiday. I have enough time to unpack and pack.

Exciting time - again.

And then my summer holiday begins. The schedule is pretty full already for those two and half weeks in Finland. I booked tickets long time ago while they were still cheap and I decided to use Sterling.dk which had opened connection between Budapest and Helsinki. So far so good... Unfortunately their business did not get lift to carry on so they decided to terminate all Finland operations. Of course I was not too happy to see that but the July flights are still flown so no harm for me.

There is one thing that comes to mind already when I think about this summer holiday. A road trip. During those days we are about to travel from Helsinki to Sodankylä (950 km one way) and back in addition of visits to summer cottages.