Globetrotters Writer Spotlight — Laura-Liisa Klaas
As long as everyone IS having fun
Hi Globetrotters. My name is…
Laura-Liisa or Laura if you’re in a rush or if you are my friend, family member, colleague, acquaintance, basically anyone except my old teachers from school or the nurse practitioner hollering at me in the waiting room.
My mother had the difficult task to name twins (I have a twin sister) so she was losing her mind trying to find nice and decent names, luckily her own sisters came to the rescue and I am not called Lassie or Twin Number Two.
I love to travel because…
… that’s the only way to arrive somewhere you have not been before. Joke aside, my love for travelling is something I believe my mother instilled in me early on. We were not rich by any measure when we were growing up (or now), but we often went for long walks and hikes in our neighbourhood and came across places that were still exciting and new, even though geographically not very far.
When I grew, so did the distances through means of hitchhiking to other cities of Estonia as well as abroad, once even to the south of France. I vividly recall having to sleep in a highway toilet in France that was playing non-stop hip-hop the.whole.night.
My number one travel activity is…
Sharing in the delight of new views with someone. I respect individuals out there who solo travel, but I feel the constant need to share in the beauty of what I am witnessing, much to the annoyance of everyone I travel with by the third day.
I come from…
Estonia! I lived there until I turned 20, then spent a year in a Danish Folk Academy in Silkeborg and, promptly after, moved to the United Kingdom. In the UK, my sister and I first spent a year in Bristol, England, then another in Cardiff, Wales and then moved to Aberdeen, Scotland. I am still in Scotland, but I now live in a small town called Ellon.
I work as a…
So the “fancy title” would be Employability Support Worker. In essence, I am a youth worker. I help young people and young adults with their employability skills in a very creative charity that uses its radio station and film department to engage with individuals, so literally no two days are the same.
During my first week there, I had to play a scary clown for a film project with young people, so I quickly learned not to get too precious about how I look and to instead just have fun. I also wrote this super cool hilarious article, nudge nudge wink wink ;)
The best place I’ve been is…
Though nothing beats summer back home in Estonia with nice NORMAL temperatures of 20–30 degrees Celsius, the best place was Corfu with my mum, my sister and my partner. Greece is definitely a place I would like to return, with its quaint villages and beautiful little bays, ahhhh take me there now….
In my spare time, I like to…
Write (original, I know). Or paddleboard, roller skate (age is but a number!), sing (my twinny and I recently joined a local Rock Choir!) or go for hikes here in Scotland, where stunning cliffs and picturesque munros are within a half an hour’s drive.
My top travel tip is…
Good shoes. Sounds silly to even mention it here - in front of an audience of very experienced travellers - but yeah, very good shoes with nice sturdy soles for all those steps you gather while sightseeing. If required, also make sure they are letting air through. No one wants to smell that s… stuff in the evening ;)
If I could live somewhere else, I’d live in…
So since I have been living “abroad” or — away from Estonia, my home country — for over sixteen years, I would like to have a parallel universe with me living back home. This way I would not miss out on the lives and relations I for the moment cannot participate in fully…
Or, I would live somewhere with a better climate than the north of Scotland has to offer. Seriously, what is up with this wind and rain??
My favorite way to travel is…
With someone! But also in a campervan. I am lucky to own an orange Volkswagen T5.1 with my partner, now I just need more money and more holiday allowance, muhahhahah… I have written an article about how I totally manifested the Tangerine Machine — read on below.
Three lessons I’ve learned from traveling are…
- You won’t wear anything tight so don’t pack it
- Only travel with people you like
- Embrace the unexpected, everything happens for a reason!
