1. Who are we? and 2. How did we meet?
One very frequently asked question that we've received on the blog since we started this documentary of ours is: Why don't you guys tell us more about you!?!?
That is a very big question which might be in need of a complex answer so I'm not sure where to start, but here we go with a short introduction of us both...
Alex was born 1973 in Paris, France. He's half French, half Greek. Grew up as a globetrotter already as a child due to his mom's career in the French embassy abroad in several conflict areas around the world. This obviously gave Alex the taste of diversity of different worlds, from a very early stage. One year he sailed his small optimist and fished Barracudas bigger than himself on the coast of Angola, Côte d'Ivoire or Zaire. The following years he became witness of the disaster that war brought into Lebanon and some years after he would wake up every morning to the sound of the morning prayer call from the Grand mosque of Omayyad, Damascus.
In between studies in France in his early 20's, he left Europe again for surfing around the globe. This brought him to California, South Africa, Mexico and Australia. No matter where he ended up, he was always close to the sea. Sometimes he lived on a boat, occasionally in a house on the beach or on a surfing camp. The sea has played a massive role in his life, still do, and he was also studying the basic courses for becoming an oceanographer, but later on he changed direction into the music industry. After five years of studying at the university, he graduated as a Sound/Mastering Engineer and it is from that profession he has made his living in the past ten years or so. That is also what brought him to Barcelona, where he opened his own mastering studio.
People who know Alex would all describe him as a very relaxed and down to earth person. I assume his story and his fascinating adventures from the day he was born until today - has made him a very humble, loving and understanding human being. He is a person who has his heart on the right place and appreciates the real things of life, instead of the materialistic or worldly objects. I admire him for many of his strengths, rare personality traits, which make me love and respect him more than any man I met, or ever thought I would have the chance to meet.
He has been sailing all his life and he bought and moved aboard the Hallberg Rassy, just three months before he met me here in Barcelona. Considering the fact that I had never sailed in my whole life before I met Alex and now we live together on the boat, is a great proof of how compatible we find ourselves to be with one another.
About myself...
I was born in Finland in 1982. A short history lesson for you who are not familiar with my part of the world: Finland is the small country between Russia and Sweden, close to the North pole in the North. Finland hasn't been independent for more than 93 years of its history and it has experienced a past of cruel civil wars, the cold winter war against Russia in the 30s and my grandparents were fighting on the German side against Russia, in the Second World War. My family has for years and generations been a very divided one, all the way from the early periods of the war. Me myself took on my grand mothers destiny and just like her, I grew up in an orphanage. She as a war child in Sweden before she moved back to Finland to produce my family, and me in a smaller city of Finland. I lived in the orphanage from the age of 3 and when I was around 9, I got moved to a foster family in Sweden and there is also where I got a new family and siblings, went to school, got my first best friends and learned to take care of myself - as I moved from "home" at the early age of 16.
Traveling came to be a very important part of my life as well and all the way since I moved from home as a teenager, I have done everything in my power to get out in the world to explore new places, cultures and people. Might be my background made me more unbound and free from the usual need of security - as I remember myself traveling to places such as Egypt, Malaysia and Spain just by myself, at the age of 18-20. One day I decided to leave the security in the neutral country of Sweden behind, for adventures in Spain. I stayed some months, came back to Sweden, opened up my own fashion store online and travelled extensively between New York, Paris and London until I realized the fashion world didn't teach me the things I needed to know about life. I then moved to the Middle East for a little more than a year and eventually found my way back to Barcelona, Spain - where I later on met Alex.
After around four lovely months of, again, living in the beautiful, wonderful eclectic Spanish city of Barcelona, I was due to organize a Halloween party in my house for all of the craziest people I knew in town. Earlier that night, one of my friends asked me if it was OK to bring another friend of hers. Of course, I told her, who is he? "He is very nice guy, I'm sure you would like him. He's living on a boat, he's driving a Harley Davidson, he has a lot of tattoos (very important information?) and is just the sweetest man on earth. I'm sure you'd like him."
He came very late that night, and he was indeed very intriguing. And very, very sexy. At this time of my life I was more than fed up with men - but this one was special. He kidnapped my camera and took my photos all night and I remember I was impressed by his creativity. He was the only one with a steady calmness, sober and all (he doesn't drink alcohol), among us butterflies flying high in the night and he had the manners, those manners that are so rare to find in this modern world. I even remember telling my friends in front of him that night: "This is the man I'm going to marry one day" - given the fact that I do not believe in marriages, that was a clear statement of the strong impression this stranger had on me. So... 7am that morning, when everyone was on their way home, I told him that he had to stay with me and ... the rest is history.
That is a very big question which might be in need of a complex answer so I'm not sure where to start, but here we go with a short introduction of us both...
Alex was born 1973 in Paris, France. He's half French, half Greek. Grew up as a globetrotter already as a child due to his mom's career in the French embassy abroad in several conflict areas around the world. This obviously gave Alex the taste of diversity of different worlds, from a very early stage. One year he sailed his small optimist and fished Barracudas bigger than himself on the coast of Angola, Côte d'Ivoire or Zaire. The following years he became witness of the disaster that war brought into Lebanon and some years after he would wake up every morning to the sound of the morning prayer call from the Grand mosque of Omayyad, Damascus.
In between studies in France in his early 20's, he left Europe again for surfing around the globe. This brought him to California, South Africa, Mexico and Australia. No matter where he ended up, he was always close to the sea. Sometimes he lived on a boat, occasionally in a house on the beach or on a surfing camp. The sea has played a massive role in his life, still do, and he was also studying the basic courses for becoming an oceanographer, but later on he changed direction into the music industry. After five years of studying at the university, he graduated as a Sound/Mastering Engineer and it is from that profession he has made his living in the past ten years or so. That is also what brought him to Barcelona, where he opened his own mastering studio.
People who know Alex would all describe him as a very relaxed and down to earth person. I assume his story and his fascinating adventures from the day he was born until today - has made him a very humble, loving and understanding human being. He is a person who has his heart on the right place and appreciates the real things of life, instead of the materialistic or worldly objects. I admire him for many of his strengths, rare personality traits, which make me love and respect him more than any man I met, or ever thought I would have the chance to meet.
He has been sailing all his life and he bought and moved aboard the Hallberg Rassy, just three months before he met me here in Barcelona. Considering the fact that I had never sailed in my whole life before I met Alex and now we live together on the boat, is a great proof of how compatible we find ourselves to be with one another.
About myself...
I was born in Finland in 1982. A short history lesson for you who are not familiar with my part of the world: Finland is the small country between Russia and Sweden, close to the North pole in the North. Finland hasn't been independent for more than 93 years of its history and it has experienced a past of cruel civil wars, the cold winter war against Russia in the 30s and my grandparents were fighting on the German side against Russia, in the Second World War. My family has for years and generations been a very divided one, all the way from the early periods of the war. Me myself took on my grand mothers destiny and just like her, I grew up in an orphanage. She as a war child in Sweden before she moved back to Finland to produce my family, and me in a smaller city of Finland. I lived in the orphanage from the age of 3 and when I was around 9, I got moved to a foster family in Sweden and there is also where I got a new family and siblings, went to school, got my first best friends and learned to take care of myself - as I moved from "home" at the early age of 16.
Traveling came to be a very important part of my life as well and all the way since I moved from home as a teenager, I have done everything in my power to get out in the world to explore new places, cultures and people. Might be my background made me more unbound and free from the usual need of security - as I remember myself traveling to places such as Egypt, Malaysia and Spain just by myself, at the age of 18-20. One day I decided to leave the security in the neutral country of Sweden behind, for adventures in Spain. I stayed some months, came back to Sweden, opened up my own fashion store online and travelled extensively between New York, Paris and London until I realized the fashion world didn't teach me the things I needed to know about life. I then moved to the Middle East for a little more than a year and eventually found my way back to Barcelona, Spain - where I later on met Alex.
After around four lovely months of, again, living in the beautiful, wonderful eclectic Spanish city of Barcelona, I was due to organize a Halloween party in my house for all of the craziest people I knew in town. Earlier that night, one of my friends asked me if it was OK to bring another friend of hers. Of course, I told her, who is he? "He is very nice guy, I'm sure you would like him. He's living on a boat, he's driving a Harley Davidson, he has a lot of tattoos (very important information?) and is just the sweetest man on earth. I'm sure you'd like him."
He came very late that night, and he was indeed very intriguing. And very, very sexy. At this time of my life I was more than fed up with men - but this one was special. He kidnapped my camera and took my photos all night and I remember I was impressed by his creativity. He was the only one with a steady calmness, sober and all (he doesn't drink alcohol), among us butterflies flying high in the night and he had the manners, those manners that are so rare to find in this modern world. I even remember telling my friends in front of him that night: "This is the man I'm going to marry one day" - given the fact that I do not believe in marriages, that was a clear statement of the strong impression this stranger had on me. So... 7am that morning, when everyone was on their way home, I told him that he had to stay with me and ... the rest is history.
Here are some photos from the first night we met, Alex taking all pictures (expect the ones where he's included obviously..)
And the first time Alex took me out sailing, with a couple of our friends.
And here is my private little story of my last 12 months spent in Barcelona, written in my other blog.
And the first time Alex took me out sailing, with a couple of our friends.
And here is my private little story of my last 12 months spent in Barcelona, written in my other blog.
