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Hi, I'm Alexa.

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And I'm Rory. And together we are the Romies. We're a husband-wife duo and longtime travelers who believe travel isn't just about where you go. It's about how it shapes the way you live when you get home.

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On the Roamies Podcast, we explore where to travel, how to travel, and why to travel through our lens of creativity, wellness, and everyday life.

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We're calling it this season Rome to Home. As we travel near and far, we're sharing the ways we bring inspiration home through food, daily rituals, business and design ideas, and the renovation of our historic picture upward.

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It's all about making travel tangible, livable, and meaningful long after the trip ends.

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So whether you're planning your next adventure or reimagining the life you're building at home, you're in the right place.

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Now, let's get into today's episode. Welcome to season eight, everyone! We are so excited to be here, not just kicking off a new year, but a brand new season. And yes, you are officially in season eight of the Romies Podcast.

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And this season comes with a bit of a twist.

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We're still doing what we love, sharing cool destinations, places that inspire us, and some of our favorite brands that make travel easier, more fun, or just more efficient when you're on the go.

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But this season, we're also asking a new question with every episode.

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How do we bring it home?

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So we're calling this season Rome to home.

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Another thing we're doing this season is keeping most of these episodes a little shorter and sweeter when we can. But you never really know with us. Each episode and each letter has its own rhythm.

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Letter. Wait.

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Yes, letters. Okay, so since we're releasing these episodes throughout 2026 and there are 26 letters in the alphabet, I thought it'd be fun and more thank you, a little more helpful to add a little structure and creativity by making this an alphabet themes season.

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So learn your alphabet.

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Yes.

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Each episode is built around one letter, not just a theme, but as a jumping off point for ideas, travel stories, and practical takeaways.

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So today we're starting at the beginning.

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From the top.

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Yes. A is for Airbnb.

SPEAKER_03: 2:24

Well, that's okay.

SPEAKER_00: 2:27

So this past summer, Airbnb was a huge part of how we traveled, especially during our time in Finland and Norway. So it really became our way to base out of places and actually kind of live in the areas we were exploring. So we wanted to share about our trip because we haven't shared it with you yet and kind of just how Airbnb facilitated all of that.

SPEAKER_03: 2:48

Yeah, our choice was to stay at Airbnb's everywhere we went. I mean, there's a number of reasons to do that. And as we talk about these, we'll discuss some of those reasons why we decided to do what we did. The first one is Bu Lanka, Finland.

SPEAKER_00: 3:02

Yay. Do you want to give just a quick before we even dive into some specifics? Do you want to give a quick overview to our trip? I can kind of kick that off because we go to Finland every year. Rory and I have been teaching at this super cool arts. Now it's arts and sports camp for teens. Art and sports.

SPEAKER_02: 3:21

Art and sports camp. Yeah, yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 3:23

In Rutula, Finland. And we've also recorded our music with Finnish musicians. We just really love connecting with the Finnish people and their chocolate. Okay. Anyway, but back to the camp. So usually what happens is we come for camp and then we launch our musical tour in other parts of Europe. So then from there we'll hit Switzerland and Belgium and the Netherlands and last year, like the UK, blah, blah, blah. Um, but we really have not spent a lot of time in Finland proper.

SPEAKER_03: 3:55

And well, yeah, not exploring anyway.

SPEAKER_00: 3:58

Right.

SPEAKER_03: 3:59

We had some we had a concert tour in Finland, and we would go to a place, you show up, you do sound check, you do your concert, you go to your hotel, you sleep, and you leave. So you don't really get to see any part of the country or the city that you're doing c uh concerts in if you're in and out like we always have been. So we decided this year to take some time and see Finland.

SPEAKER_00: 4:17

So that was we were purposeful about that. And really forever, Rory's been talking about going to Lapland.

SPEAKER_01: 4:24

Forever. Yeah. Forever, you know. Seems like, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 4:27

And so that had to happen of like us going to Lapland.

SPEAKER_01: 4:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 4:32

And we also got to go to this super cool part. We also had talked about visiting, say it, Rory. Thank you. He says it better than I do. I sound American trying to speak Finnish. And we have a uh friend there who teaches at the camp, who is kind of in that part of the eastern Finland. Kind of.

SPEAKER_02: 4:51

They are very in that part of the Eastern.

SPEAKER_00: 4:54

She teaches horseback, right? You have a horseback like ranch, what do you do there? And so she teaches lessons there and this whole cool thing. We'll put that in the show notes. But um, so we wanted to see that too. So we kind of like kicked after camp, kind of kicked off and headed there. And then we went into Lapland and into like the top fingers of Finland and Norway where the land just kind of like fingers out. And we took a big old road trip all around the border of Finland and in even into some parts of Norway.

SPEAKER_03: 5:27

Yeah, the extremes. When as far north as you can go in Finland, even cross the border over into Norway, went as far west and as far east as you can go in Finland.

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We totally learned about Santa Claus and how all of that works and where it came from and the whole deal.

SPEAKER_03: 5:40

Yeah, we know how Santa Claus works now.

SPEAKER_00: 5:42

Yeah, it's super great. Okay. I just wanted to give you all like a premise for this trip.

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So each of these Airbnbs outlines our stops that we made on this amazing adventure through Lapland.

SPEAKER_00: 5:55

Yes, in Finland. We can put these in the show notes as well so that you can reference them. And if we don't have actual links to the actual Airbnb that we stayed in, you can always message us and ask for that.

SPEAKER_03: 6:06

Yeah, if we don't have the actual links to the actual Airbnb in the actual show notes, that was a lot of actuals you use in there. Yeah, and uh, but I said Lapland in Finland, but it also includes Norway, as you will see while we're discussing this. So let's start at our first stop. In Polanka, Finland.

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Nice.

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So this was a small town. We show we showed up, and uh honestly, I well, when I booked the Airbnb, I thought it was near Robaniemi. That was our first stop, was Robaniemi, which is where Santa Claus is, as we'll discuss in a minute. But it turns out we were like 70 or 80 miles from Roba Niemi. So one thing to consider when you're booking Airbnbs is to make sure you look at the mileage that it's showing you. If you put a city in such as Robaniemi, it will show you a wide section of Finland to stay in, especially if, like this part of Finland, it's rather sparsely populated. Right. So you'll want to make sure you say, hey, within five, 10 miles or kilometers, whatever, of your destination.

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There you go.

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I found this great place. I booked it. We showed up, and I was like, wow, this is a really tiny town on a wonderful, beautiful lake, of course. It was really uh kind of a gym that we stumbled on. Uh, we had just left. It was our first experience getting out, well, close to Lapland. We weren't officially in Lapland at this point because we were about 80 miles south of Robinami, but it was a beautiful lake, and we found this cool little restaurant. Of course, they had pizza in kebab, you know, which a lot of places there do. We had really great pizza, and then we went to this Airbnb where we stayed. They had us uh we had a house all to ourselves. Behind the house was not a shed. Uh they had built a separate building where they had built their sauna. Their sauna, of course. And it was a wood-fired sauna.

SPEAKER_00: 7:59

It gets cold in Finland, y'all, you know. So at least everybody has a sauna. So that's something you can search for and make sure if that's a feature that you want, that your Airbnb that you're looking at may or may not have a sauna.

SPEAKER_03: 8:12

Yeah, because it was with it. It was getting down to the 40s or not. It was getting down to the 40s on those nights, most of the nights. In the summer, some even colder, yeah. So we're we're pretty far north, so keep that in mind. But they had a wood-fired sauna, a fireplace in the house, all these really cool things. So for our first venture north in Finland, it was really great. I went and started a fire in the sauna to heat it up so of course my wife could enjoy the sauna experience. Sweet. I was tired and I think I instead slept, maybe. I think I sent you to the sauna by yourself.

SPEAKER_00: 8:46

I think I never figured out how to light it.

SPEAKER_03: 8:49

Yeah, well, I we I was doing a lot of driving, so I was also trying to do a lot of resting.

SPEAKER_01: 8:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 8:54

So that was our first night in Puolaka, Finland. What else, anything else, stood out to you about that one? We had the whole place to ourselves. Like I said, it was in a quiet neighborhood in a small town, on a lake.

SPEAKER_00: 9:05

Like, and we could walk in town. Like it was just very centrally located as well. So it made it kind of nice and cozy and easy.

SPEAKER_03: 9:14

Yep. Yeah, easy. Exactly. We got in easily. Everything inside was well uh marked out, the directions were clear.

SPEAKER_00: 9:22

Mm-hmm. I think one thing too, I guess that attracts us to keep going to Europe every year is that a house that you might stay in or live in in the States is going to feel very similar. And the amenities that you're used to at in the States, you're gonna find in Europe. They're gonna have normal, like power and stove and a refrigerator. So there's so many things in common that you feel at home kind of anyway. So it's very easy to adapt and adjust and have a lot of the things that you're used to at home. And so sometimes that can be good when you are traveling and you're already stepping out of your comfort zone. It's nice to have some of those things that you are used to and you're comfortable with. You're like, oh yeah, they they use a heater also.

SPEAKER_03: 10:12

Yeah, and Airbnb allows you to do that. It's all laid out clearly, right? So when you book it, you know what you're going to, right? Yep. So we stayed the first night there, as we said, in Pualanka, Finland. And then we made the track the next day up to Roba Niami. And we had an Airbnb in Rova Niami, only a what uh three miles from Santa Claus's big place.

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So we got to meet Santa's reindeer.

SPEAKER_03: 10:39

Yeah, we got the pet as reindeer.

SPEAKER_00: 10:41

Walk, see the post office. You can actually mail from Santa's official post office. That's right. There is a post office there, and you can do that, and you can go in and you can meet Santa. And you there's also a Mrs. Claus building. It was closed the day we were there, so we didn't go in it. And it's just really, really fun where you can go to Santa Village and it's right on the Arctic Circle and on the sidewalk. They have it lined out for you so you know exactly. There is the line where you cross in to yes.

SPEAKER_03: 11:18

And that's where Santa is where Santa really lives and comes from. Yeah, that's right. So we only stayed a few miles from there. It was an easy drive in and out. The place we stayed was in an apartment complex. One of the really cool things about that is you're staying with people who live in Finland with the locals. You're staying in the same place they live. So you're not staying in some hotel that constantly keeps you out of the environment and the culture of the locals. You're living in the environment, in the culture with the locals. We really like that.

SPEAKER_00: 11:49

And we ended up staying in a few Airbnbs that were in apartments, and you get the whole apartment to yourself. At least that's what we search for, and that's we we do kind of the ones where you can just have the whole place to yourself. What I noticed in every apartment where we stayed, they were all crazy super quiet.

SPEAKER_03: 12:09

Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_00: 12:10

If you're an apartment in the States, you're gonna hear the people, you know, oftentimes, yeah. You'll hear them through the walls in some capacity, in some way, or their music or their talking or they're stomping or whatever. And even like walking the halls, we we rarely saw people, and it was just very, very quiet in all of the apartments that we stayed in.

SPEAKER_03: 12:33

Yeah, the Finnish people are very cognizant of each other and respectful of them. Very respectful, yeah. Of their homes. Right. Yeah, of their homes.

SPEAKER_00: 12:41

They always take off their shoes. That's a big adjustment for the show. Yeah, so be respectful of their homes when you walk in.

SPEAKER_03: 12:46

Yeah, you'll be respectful of their homes as well. Well, that was Rova, Niami, so that was a really cool place to stay. As we had mentioned before, we'll put, I think, links to all of these in our show notes so that you can see where we stayed and you could actually choose to stay there as well. When we left Rova, Niami, we went to Inari. Inari is a huge lake. I think it's the third largest lake in Finland. It I mean, it goes on and on and on. Uh, and it's not just like a big round lake, it's it's sort of what she described earlier, all these fingers and inlets and stuff that go for miles and miles.

SPEAKER_00: 13:17

Rory, for someone who has not been to Finland before or has not even studied it, let's just share a little bit about kind of what the landscape is. It's fairly flat. And one of the reasons Rory won has been wanting to go to Lapland for so long is that we're told there's mountains there.

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But let's see the finished mountains.

SPEAKER_00: 13:37

In general, because we're mountain people, but in general, Finland is fairly flat-ish, and there are like a gazillion lakes.

SPEAKER_03: 13:45

Yeah, yeah, there are hills, but you're not like walking around looking at mountains like you might in a place like Switzerland. There was a lot of lakes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 13:52

Or in Scot our experience in Scotland, we saw a lot of hills.

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Especially the highlands.

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And but in Finland, you're looking at like fairly flat, yet still beautiful.

SPEAKER_01: 14:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 14:05

But do you remember, I remember you telling me like how many lakes were just in this one city or this one area. Can you remember any of those specific numbers?

SPEAKER_03: 14:13

No, I don't. I think I think Finland is known for having like a hundred something thousand lakes.

SPEAKER_00: 14:18

Like a hundred thousand lakes in one country.

SPEAKER_03: 14:21

Yeah, well, it's more than that. It's more like 150. I don't remember the number, but it's a lot of lakes.

SPEAKER_00: 14:26

Like that's insane. And so you are constantly in an environment where you can see water. And that has, I think, one reason that it's become so much a part of their culture because usually what they're gonna do is they're going to get warmed up in their sauna, and then they're gonna jump in the freezing cold lake, and then they hop back into the hot sauna and get back into the freezing cold lake. And they can do that because there are so many lakes around. And so just wanted to kind of throw that in for people who are not super familiar with the terrain and the landscape.

SPEAKER_03: 15:00

Yeah, lakes and rivers. It's a very outdoor-oriented country. And in that respect, in Enadi, we chose to stay in an RV.

SPEAKER_00: 15:12

Because y'all, like, how cool is that?

SPEAKER_03: 15:16

Yep. Like we were out in the kind of like not the forest, but well, we were we were uh the RV was parked in someone's yard next to their house. Safely. Yes, but Inari is a very small town. It's remote. You gotta go there to get there, pretty much. And the it's it's like a village. So we were staying with the village people. We stayed with the village people. So anyway, uh that was really, really super cool because we got to meet the owner, who obviously I felt like we could be besties with him.

SPEAKER_00: 15:54

Like it was really fun. The RV itself was very, very cool. It had everything you needed, plus a porch.

SPEAKER_03: 16:01

It had its own little porch covering with chairs with chairs reindeer pelts laid over them. So when you sit in these outdoor chairs, you're like, oh, they were plastic chairs, but finish king of a Viking. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 16:15

In this particular RV, you would need to shower in the house. And so they had their home set up and kind of a little system set up so that if and when you want to shower, you just walk over across the driveway into their back door and use the shower, and then you can head back.

SPEAKER_03: 16:34

Yeah, it's a separate section of their house, so you're not walking into the kitchen or the living room or through the hall with bedrooms where they're all looking at you.

SPEAKER_00: 16:41

Right. You're not walking in on them or anything like that.

SPEAKER_03: 16:44

No.

SPEAKER_00: 16:44

And then um, but the toilet itself was in the RV. So you you had that, and then you would just so it had everything except that shower. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 16:54

We really enjoyed staying there. It was a great place. Yeah, I think we were there two or three nights, maybe three nights. And it was a wonderful place to base out of. So we really enjoyed being in nature, especially since driving around that area, it's countryside, it's the middle of nowhere all the time. You're seeing reindeer everywhere. We got to talk to him and ask him great places to go to see more wildlife and nature, and he gave us some great recommendations. We discovered some wonderful beaches and followed reindeer around in the wild. It was really, really cool. So I think staying in the RV in E Nighty was a a really great choice.

SPEAKER_00: 17:27

And this RV, because it was near his home and like in his driveway, basically, we had Wi-Fi and I was able to do my conference calls for work that I needed to do and things like that. So that was available.

SPEAKER_03: 17:41

Yeah, well, high-speed Wi-Fi was a must for us because we work from home. And while we're away from home, we're still working, so we also work away from home, if you will. So we had to have high speed, high speed internet, and it was available everywhere we went.

SPEAKER_00: 17:55

Right. Otherwise, we didn't choose it because we chose something else.

SPEAKER_03: 17:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 17:59

I think the only doubt for me with the RV had nothing to do with the RV. There was a dog who would bark a lot and loudly that was like we were in the neighborhood over, not even near us, but you could hear the echoes of the dog barking. Yeah. And like that was the only drawback, but it was nothing like wrong with the RV itself.

SPEAKER_03: 18:16

Yeah, and the dog didn't keep us up at night or anything like that. It was just, you know, dog barking during the day.

SPEAKER_00: 18:21

So and most of the time during the days, we were out exploring.

SPEAKER_03: 18:23

So not too much of a thing. So we left Inari and went to Kanasjok, Norway, just across the border where we stayed for the first night. It was had the whole house to ourselves. The yard wasn't kept that nice, but the house was really nice inside. They had uh redone it looked like not too long ago, full laundry room and everything. Enjoyed our night there. We only slept that night. We got in just before dark, left early the next morning. So we can recommend staying there, but we really don't know anything about the town because we were only staying the night on our way to I think it's pronounced Bosfjord, maybe commune, Bosfjord Commune, Norway. Yep, I'm guessing.

SPEAKER_00: 19:03

Fjord because they have fjords all over Norway.

SPEAKER_03: 19:06

All over the place.

SPEAKER_00: 19:07

Do you remember what you learned about fjords?

SPEAKER_03: 19:10

Uh yes, somewhat, and I'll probably be totally wrong with it, but a fjord has to do with the way the land drops off under the water.

SPEAKER_00: 19:17

Okay. So I think that's we'll just And I think you learned that a fjord can doesn't have to be this tall cliff. It can even be like uh level with the water.

SPEAKER_03: 19:28

Yeah, well, but yeah, the fjord is I think it's in the water in these cases. Maybe I don't remember all the things I learned, but I did learn them at least in my temporary memory. They were there and perhaps. Perhaps in an earlier or later episodes, you'll I'll speak more intelligently about fjords.

SPEAKER_00: 19:47

I think that's good though, what you know.

SPEAKER_03: 19:49

Fournel, just know that we stayed in a town called Balls Fjord, something like that. Yeah. Commune Norway. Full kitchen, full living room, laundry.

SPEAKER_00: 19:58

That one had laundry, not all of them. We did use the laundry at that place. We need to do that and catch up with that.

SPEAKER_03: 20:03

Yep. That's something to consider when you're booking your Airbnbs is hey, you need laundry days. And that was where we did. Basically, we were on our way to Kilpisjarvi. And we wanted to take the route along the river because it's in all the things you read, and all the things that I read, and I'm sure all the things that you'll read, of course, because I'm saying it, so it must be true. You're listening to us, so it has to be the truth, is the most beautiful highway in Finland. And of course, we were crossed the border, so in Norway as well. Beautiful driving that. And we decided to follow the coast. So we followed the coast of Norway along the Barents Sea, all these in and outs and fjords and through the mountains and everything.

SPEAKER_00: 20:44

And till it So it's their version of the Highway One in California.

SPEAKER_03: 20:49

Yeah, basically, yeah. And we we eventually the sea changed over to I think the Norwegian Sea or something, anyway. My I'm an American, so my geography, you know, is wonderful.

SPEAKER_00: 20:58

And I think it was fun that like we were driving and we were on the Finnish side and you could look over the river and there's Norway and Yeah, and we were on the Norwegian side. Sometimes we would be driving when at the end of the trip, we'd have Finland on our left and Sweden on our right as we were driving back closer to back to Helsinki.

SPEAKER_03: 21:18

Yeah, some of this drive that was the case. But once we got deep into Norway following the coast, you couldn't see Finland anymore. Plus, it was bought blocked by huge mountains. So in Kitila, yeah, in Kitila, we were in the middle of these huge, like what's the word? Strong mountains.

SPEAKER_00: 21:36

Foreboding.

SPEAKER_03: 21:36

Well, foreboding was what kept coming to me, that they were very foreboding, but you used another word that was better. Foreboding kind of they did kind of have like this dark conf they were like confident mountains. They were a bit very strong. They they had a little bit of an aspect of fear to them for me. I'm not sure why, but they were kind of foreboding. But they were beautiful, beautiful mountains. Yeah. Very rugged, very steep, and we were staying right in the middle of them.

SPEAKER_00: 22:03

Sorry.

SPEAKER_03: 22:03

Right in the middle of them in someone's home. So they had the home above, and we stayed below in this apartment. We had all to ourselves, private entrance, and all that sort of stuff. So we never even like ran into the owners, I don't think.

SPEAKER_00: 22:14

Right. But sometimes we got to meet their cat, and that was fun.

SPEAKER_03: 22:16

Yeah, yeah, their cat did come around.

SPEAKER_00: 22:18

Which, yeah, that made me happy.

SPEAKER_03: 22:20

Pronounce that, sorry to you Norwegians. We stayed there in that home in the mountains, and daily we would drive across about 45 minutes into Finland and visit Kilpisjarvi. So I think we stayed there three nights, went to Kilpisjarvi for two days, and from there we crossed back over into Finland permanently. And then we drove to Kitila, Finland. We wanted to stay in Levi, and Kitila was an Airbnb that came up in the Levi area, and it was only maybe a 30-minute drive from Levi. Levy's a huge ski resort in Finland, snow ski. And I had always wanted to see it. It had such a cool life, even in the off-season while we were there, just driving through it felt happy. It felt like a resort.

SPEAKER_00: 23:02

Also, Rory had this app on, or you had several apps going. Rory was our northern life. Chasing the Northern Lights. Yes. So he was the master with that. And had there are a few apps that can help you find them and see people get on there and share when they've had a sighting of the Northern Light.

SPEAKER_03: 23:19

Yeah, live video pictures.

SPEAKER_00: 23:21

And as we were traveling, Levy kept coming up as like, we saw them, we saw them, we saw them. So Levy was like the place.

SPEAKER_03: 23:28

Yeah, every night the Northern Lights showed up in the room.

SPEAKER_00: 23:30

So Rory was really excited. We gotta get there.

SPEAKER_03: 23:32

You gotta go to Levy. We also saw the Northern Lights outside Thrumsa on the coast, was the first time we saw them while we were standing at Boston.

SPEAKER_00: 23:41

I could see it like moving. It was just, I don't know. It was just we caught just a glimpse. It was only a few minutes northern lights. And yeah, it was really, really fun.

SPEAKER_03: 23:53

So we stayed in Kittila. We were really excited about driving into Levi to look at where they recommended to go on this wonderful lake to see the northern lights. And we could talk more about that in another episode, maybe. But it was awesome. They lasted for, oh gosh, a couple of hours.

SPEAKER_00: 24:07

That night in Levi, they were a long yeah, it lasted a while.

SPEAKER_03: 24:09

Yeah, it was really cool. So the place we stayed at in Kitila is a very historic property.

SPEAKER_00: 24:14

It's an adventure, y'all. That place is an adventure.

SPEAKER_03: 24:17

So cool. Where do you see the pictures? Really, really cool looking, uh rustic. Matter of fact, we cooked over an open fire. That was super fun.

SPEAKER_00: 24:28

Part of your stay is the area has an open fire.

SPEAKER_01: 24:32

Huge.

SPEAKER_00: 24:32

And that's a separate room. And you go through that room where that kitchen place is and get into your room after that.

SPEAKER_03: 24:41

Where you're gonna sleep. Yeah. Which there's also a kitchen in there. So you've got all the modern amenities going. But in this one room, it's a huge seating area with tables and stuff where you could have a huge group having a big dinner in there and cooking makara over the fire, whatever comes out. That means sausage. After all, you're in Finland, which makara is synonymous with Finland and Sauna and Finland and it's basically their version of sausage.

SPEAKER_00: 25:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 25:05

Followed that. And Fatzer. And Finland, Fatzer, chocolate. So Kitila, really fun place. The lady who owned the place is an artist, and she had created most of the artwork that we were seeing in the room.

SPEAKER_00: 25:17

She does painting, sculpting, texture. Uh so she she does multiple forms of artwork, and she also has an art studio. And so you can go like purchase her art and things like that.

SPEAKER_03: 25:31

And uh I mean you're just sleeping with her art in the same room.

SPEAKER_00: 25:35

It was just a very art and creative inspired place. And it our place where we stayed was part of this little I feel like that was its own little commune because her house was on.

SPEAKER_03: 25:51

There were several buildings that she owns on her property.

SPEAKER_00: 25:54

The cool thing is buildings there.

SPEAKER_03: 25:56

Yeah, and I love history, and she knew the history of the area. So here's the thing when the Germans came into Finland, they burned and pillaged cities. I mean, just like destroyed so much of the history. But Kitila, the great story, one of the really cool stories that she told us about that is when the Germans were coming into Kitila, the Finnish Army had sent two soldiers ahead to uh spy out and see what the German army was doing. The officers in the German army saw the two guys from Finland, fent from the Finnish army, and thought the Finnish army was coming right then. So they left Kitila alone and didn't burn it to the ground. So the history still exists there. The building we stayed in was a hundred, I don't know, 150 years old on our whole property. All of the buildings were really old. And I love that aspect. And so right there in that area, there's a ton of cool history that you can see in the homes and buildings that people are living in.

SPEAKER_00: 26:42

And she loves sharing the story about them. So you can hear the story of the places you're staying in, these historic structures that you're staying in. It's really cool.

SPEAKER_03: 26:52

Very rustic, loggish feeling, in a sense, right? Lots of wood. I really, really enjoyed that night. That was Kikila. I've had so many students and met people who are from Olu, and they would say, Yeah, we're kind of uh one of the gateways into Laplanding. So I always wanted to go there. And we visited it, and it was not a letdown. Olu is on the coast. And it was so cute, such great, uh there's great history there and everything. And one of the things I loved is I found a place that specializes in coffee. They it's like a coffee roastery. Yeah, they have coffees and teas from all over the world, single origins coffees and teas. And they don't actually make coffee, they just sell it like the beans of the ride.

SPEAKER_00: 27:36

Rory has been complaining about the coffee in Finland. Oh, yeah, that is so like super lame. So finding something like this was a treasure.

SPEAKER_03: 27:43

Yeah, and what I learned is in the last couple of years, Finland has really taken a step forward, particularly in some of their cities like Olu, uh Turku, and Helsinki, for having coffee shops that are really great coffee shops and having coffee that you would expect to find in a modern country. Really good coffee. So that's a plus. Olu, wonderful uh city center. We really liked it. So we really enjoyed our time in Olu. What about the Airbnb there in Olu?

SPEAKER_00: 28:10

That was another apartment building. And it was on the ground floor, so you could go into their cute little fenced-in yard area.

SPEAKER_03: 28:17

Yeah, they weren't you didn't you didn't walk into hallways to get to the room or anything. It was just right there on the on the uh exterior.

SPEAKER_00: 28:22

And it this one was very child-friendly. So for those of you traveling with kids, like this one had just a lot of kid-friendly amenities available.

SPEAKER_03: 28:31

Yeah, we enjoyed it a lot. We were only there one night. Oh, it rained that night. We were gonna try and see the northern light, but instead we just sort of looked out the window and realized it's completely covered with clouds. We're not gonna see them. But Olu, we really enjoyed the place we stayed at. Yeah, it was quiet, great rest. They had, of course, sauna there and laundry as well. So uh check out the link to that. It might be a place you want to stay if you're ever in Olu. And from Olu, we traveled to Torku down the coast. And it had been a long time since we've been we'd been to Torku and we never really got to check it out. What a great town! So much history in Torku. It's got a great old downtown area. Man, it was I think a Sunday when we were there, so all the places were closed for the most part, but we drove through that and we got to go back and really explore that town.

SPEAKER_00: 29:18

Uh it's very inspiring.

SPEAKER_03: 29:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 29:21

I think like but like Olu and Turku had these kind of feels of old school Finland, like in a very cool way. Yeah, right. Porvo had a little bit of that, had like what I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_01: 29:34

Yeah, totally.

SPEAKER_00: 29:35

But then also like they're like mini Helsinki's in a sense, too, where you feel like you are in the modern city.

SPEAKER_03: 29:44

Particularly Olu felt like a mini Helsinki. I remember I said that to you. I think it has a university there and stuff, but it just felt like a little Helsinki.

SPEAKER_00: 29:51

Like it's not an overwhelming city, it's very welcoming and accessible. Accessible, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 29:56

Yeah. And so Torku felt a lot that way. Torku had an old city center. I think we didn't see one quite as big in Olu. Uh, but it all the all of the old businesses and stuff, they stretched on and on and on. It was really a cool place. And the Airbnb we stayed at in Torku was also an apartment complex on a bottom floor, accessible from the outside. We had a little more trouble getting into this one only because the directions, uh, we had trouble making sense of the directions that they gave us, but they were very responsive at our uh and we gave them feedback.

SPEAKER_00: 30:28

So I think we we were like one of their first guests, and so they really wanted to know like what they could change. But it had everything, it had a beautiful sun inside, it was modern and clean and probably one of my favorites just because it was just so like new feeling.

SPEAKER_03: 30:44

Well, yeah, and the host was very responsive to a lot of our messages. Hey, how do we get in? Where do we need to park? Tried to help us find parking and all that sort of thing. You can't park on property, but only a block or so away you can park. And uh it's it's in a beautiful, well, again, I was gonna say quiet area, but pretty much, I mean it's it's Finland, so it's gonna be a quiet area. Uh and the next day we were with an easy reach. I mean, uh maybe a kilometer and a half, two kilometers of the downtown area. We drove down, since we weren't staying another night, we took our car, drove down and looked downtown there, and poked around in Turku. So we can recommend that place to you as well, the Airbnb we stayed at. And again, you'll find the link to this and to all the Airbnbs we're talking about in our show notes.

SPEAKER_00: 31:25

Yes. So if you've never stayed in an Airbnb before, we really do recommend that you try it.

SPEAKER_03: 31:32

Yeah, Airbnb really allowed us to explore places from the side out instead of just passing through.

SPEAKER_00: 31:38

Mm-hmm. Yeah, really connecting with more locals.

SPEAKER_03: 31:43

Uh yeah. One thing that we appreciate about Airbnb is the platform that helps vet people in places so you can actually uh see great pictures of it, uh, hear what people said about it. You can actually talk with the host. Sometimes hotels, it looks, you know, you think, oh, it's going to be great. You get there and you're like, oh, okay, this wasn't what I thought. Airbnb is really great. You're you're staying with the with the locals in one sense, but you have your own place if you look for that kind of Airbnb. We wanted to find ones where we had our own place, had high-speed internet, had washer and dryer, blah, blah, blah, all these things. And every time we found what we wanted.

SPEAKER_00: 32:16

Most every time we found what we wanted. You know, sometimes there wasn't laundry or something like that. But you can live with that, right? So so you can do all of those searches for the features and things that you want for your trip. And so that could be whether you just need a room in someone's home or you want the whole place to yourself. And I love that there's such a variety of options. You can do a tree house, you can do like a little tent pegs covering in the middle of a forest.

SPEAKER_03: 32:46

Yeah, we stayed in two island actually one time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 32:50

Um, so is there sometimes a risk? Sure, there would be with hotels too. So as hosts and guest build reviews over time, you can usually get a good feel for what to expect. And the variety is endless.

SPEAKER_03: 33:03

Almost endless.

SPEAKER_00: 33:04

So again, we listed this, but you can do private rooms, cheaper options with local interaction, entire homes. We've stayed at like a mansion type home when we needed a bigger group, and then we've stayed in like little tiny campers. So there's a big variety. You can have separate sections of a home with private entrances.

SPEAKER_03: 33:24

Sometimes you can get a room and stay right there with the people that own the house, and you'll see them and be in their faces. We like to have our own private things, so that's what we did every time.

SPEAKER_00: 33:32

Mm-hmm. And sometimes the view is the luxury. So yeah, the bathroom situation might be nature itself, but hey, which we decided not to go with the landscape, and you've got the views.

SPEAKER_03: 33:42

So Yeah, you can totally book your mood with Airbnb.

SPEAKER_00: 33:47

So how do we bring this part of travel home? Well, we are Airbnb hosts ourselves.

SPEAKER_03: 33:53

Yep. We became Airbnb home.

SPEAKER_00: 33:55

So we actually rent out one room in our historic fixer upper home here in Waco.

SPEAKER_03: 34:01

Yeah, uh, emphasis on fixer upper. It's not renovated yet. Well, yet.

SPEAKER_00: 34:07

Right.

SPEAKER_03: 34:07

And we do have cats, which can make allergies a deterrent for some people.

SPEAKER_00: 34:12

And yet we stay fairly busy with the bookings and love the guests that we've met so far.

SPEAKER_03: 34:17

Yeah, we're the hosts that stay out of your way. And when we're in town, uh we love offering historic tours of our house.

SPEAKER_00: 34:24

Yeah. So if if it works with the guest schedule and all of that, then we are we have so much fun giving people tours of our home.

SPEAKER_03: 34:30

So even on renovated, and the house is pretty incredibly special, full of stories and Waco history.

SPEAKER_00: 34:37

Yes. And we want to just tell you a little bit about that because we are going to be diving into our home and talking about our home, hopefully inspiring you with yours this whole season. So a little bit of background on our house is that it was built in 1916 and then it was renovated in the mid-60s. And it has really fun details kind of all throughout it. So we have Toulouse Latrec wallpaper in the upstairs bathroom, which is very fun. We'll be talking about that in the next episode.

SPEAKER_03: 35:04

Yeah, a famous family in the Waco area from way back is the Cameron family. The park is named after them. They owned thousands and thousands of acres, I think, in Waco. And their house, the Cameron House, is a very famous house that burned years ago. But we have pieces and fixtures from the Cameron House built into our house from the 60s renovation. There's original stained and leaded glass that he had built by local artisans in the 60s that he put in the house. So not just historic stuff that was taken from other homes, but really cool original artwork and artisan things in this house.

SPEAKER_00: 35:40

Along with that he brought in the renovation, he being E. B. Morrow, we actually have a street called Moro in Waco. Yeah, near the house. Um like corbels and medallions.

SPEAKER_03: 35:52

Architectural elements from other historic homes and places in Waco and the Waco area. He would go around and find these things and homes they were going to tear down in the 60s and 50s, and he would take things out of the homes. They'd give them to him if he could take them out himself, and he built them into our house. Well, well, what is now our house?

SPEAKER_00: 36:08

Our fireplace around is from the original YWCA.

SPEAKER_03: 36:13

It went through a number of iterations uh as different buildings and stuff, but it was once the original YWCA in Waco. We also have light fixtures of rather mysterious origins, things all through the house that we look at and go, where did that come from? That is not original to the house. But we do have some things like our chandelier in the dining room that's original to the home from 1916. We can see it in the old black and white photos. Also, the banister on the stairs is the jury rail, the former jury rail of our historic McClennan County Courthouse. And you can see that you can see that in early 1900s photos as well. So fun.

SPEAKER_00: 36:52

So that is now our stair banister. Crazy.

SPEAKER_03: 36:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 36:55

So we also have salvaged elements from a historic home that was built in the late 1800s. It no longer exists because parts of it are now like attached to our house as part of it.

SPEAKER_03: 37:07

We even have pictures of the original house, and you can see these elements on the original house. So we have the stained glass windows, and then in the master bedroom.

SPEAKER_00: 37:15

We have the bay window.

SPEAKER_03: 37:16

Bay window from the bay window off the house and built it into this one.

SPEAKER_00: 37:20

So you see the frames of the windows that came from that house, and then also the bay window are now the front of our house.

SPEAKER_03: 37:27

Yeah, that that house that home was a clearly Victorian, really fancy home. Ours is arts and crafts. So this bay window has all of these Victorian hand-carved and created details. Really beautiful. Also, he did something crazy with this house. Well, uh well, with the same historic home we're talking about.

SPEAKER_00: 37:45

Right. That was built in the late 1800s. It used to be a second floor room in that home.

SPEAKER_01: 37:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 37:52

It was then detached from there and brought over into our yard. And we now have this gazebo that came from this house built in the late 1800s.

SPEAKER_03: 38:02

On the second floor of that house. So we have pictures of the of the crane bringing it over and stuff. Really cool. Really good.

SPEAKER_00: 38:08

So our yard yard is quite magical. We have a historic fountain.

SPEAKER_03: 38:12

Yeah, the fountain. I think we have an eyewitness who claims it is from the Cameron House. They used to have a gardens that you could walk through. And he says it was one of the fountains in those gardens. It matches a fountain in downtown Waco, uh, that is uh smaller than this one. But he claims that when he was a boy, he saw them there. And so I think our this huge, massive cast iron fountain we have is actually from the Cameron Gardens.

SPEAKER_00: 38:36

Cool. We also have these cherubs, like these concrete cherub statues that are represent the four seasons.

SPEAKER_01: 38:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 38:43

And we're just excited for it to become a beautiful space for people to be able to come enjoy for photo shoots, events, things like that. So we really hope that our yard and our home can be a place where people can gather and commute. So we're excited about that as you guys are with us on the journey.

SPEAKER_03: 39:02

And we also hope that our Airbnb income, our Airbnb income will help us pay for the renovation, help us fund the renovation.

SPEAKER_00: 39:11

So when someone stays in our Airbnb, all of those funds go to renovate the home. So that is what we're doing. That is how we're bringing travel home. And as travelers visit our home, they are investing into rebuilding this historic home. So keeping the history alive.

SPEAKER_03: 39:27

Yeah, and the stories alive.

SPEAKER_00: 39:29

Yeah. And this house has so many stories left to tell.

SPEAKER_03: 39:32

Yeah. If you'd like to stay in our Airbnb room here in Waco, which I'm sure that you do, of course. We'll have a link in the show notes where you can book, of course.

SPEAKER_00: 39:39

Yeah. And so being on the hosting side of Airbnb has also allowed us to engage with fellow travelers in a completely new way. And we kind of want to bring this even a little bit more practically home for you today before we close out. And we want to talk about like what makes a great guest and then also what makes a great host. So what makes a great guest is someone who can communicate clearly, like communicate clearly with your Airbnb host.

SPEAKER_03: 40:07

Yep. Your needs and what you're looking for.

SPEAKER_00: 40:09

I want to give an example. We recently we had someone that shared after their stay, after they left, shared a couple things that they would have enjoyed to have or that they would have liked. And if they had messaged us during the stay, we totally could have hooked them up with those things. They were things we had.

SPEAKER_03: 40:26

So of course we would have had them taken care of right away.

SPEAKER_00: 40:28

Yeah, we we had those things. It would have not been an issue at all. We could have just said, hey, it's just right here. So please communicate with your host. It you are not bothering them in or anything like that. So just let your if you if there's something you need or want, you can ask about it. If they can't provide it for you, they'll let you know.

SPEAKER_03: 40:48

Yeah, and read the listing details. We've also uh we've as she said, we've loved all our guests, but we have had some who came expecting something that wasn't listed at all on our page, completely different from the house.

SPEAKER_00: 41:02

And respect the space like it's someone else's home because it is someone else's home. Just be respectful. And you can message a host, you can share a public review, but you can also then give private feedback to your host. And so that's a really great tool that Airbnb offers so that you can give feedback to your host without like ruining the reviews. And it as much as you can leave five-star reviews, please do because it really does help the hosts when you give a five-star review. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 41:31

So but ask questions instead of assuming if you've got something that's a specific question, ask it.

SPEAKER_00: 41:36

And then make sure you, you know, leave the space how you would hope to find it. Along the lines of just being respectful, leave the place how you'd hope to find it. Be be considerate and be nice and don't trash their house.

SPEAKER_02: 41:48

Yeah, it is their house.

SPEAKER_00: 41:49

So even if you never turn your home or room into an Airbnb or BRBO kind of place, you might still host friends or family or someone crashing on your couch.

SPEAKER_03: 41:57

We've had all of the above. So we want to share some.

SPEAKER_00: 42:00

And we do that to others. We have many people around the world that are open their couches and their guest rooms to us, and we're so appreciative.

SPEAKER_03: 42:08

Absolutely. It makes us want to do and do the same. So we want to share some things that have made us feel welcome and appreciated, uh, whether it was at an Airbnb or just friends, not just friends, or friends in their guest room.

SPEAKER_00: 42:20

Yeah. So whatever level of hosting you have, you're going to be a host at some point. So we want to just give you some thoughts around what makes a great host. So one of the things uh is having clear expectations. So again, if you are having, if you have your own Airbnb listing, just be clear about, hey, this is broken or hey, this is like this, have plenty of pictures. And we'll just make it clear.

SPEAKER_03: 42:46

Yeah, which flows into the next one. Honest descriptions.

SPEAKER_00: 42:49

Right, right.

SPEAKER_03: 42:50

Thoughtful communication as well. How you say things is important.

SPEAKER_00: 42:54

Right. And respect, I guess, privacy. You can please be communicative with them, but just don't hover.

SPEAKER_03: 43:01

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And little touches are things that make make people really feel welcomed.

SPEAKER_00: 43:06

Such as like bottled bottled or filtered water in their room.

SPEAKER_03: 43:10

Small snack like a granola bar or local treat.

SPEAKER_00: 43:14

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 43:15

Fruit, yeah, chocolate on the pillow.

SPEAKER_00: 43:17

Right. Fresh towels folded nicely.

SPEAKER_03: 43:20

Extra blankets and throws that are placed where they're easy to find and visible.

SPEAKER_00: 43:25

Bedside charging station or extension cord. Everybody has to charge now. So having that very easily seen and available is a big help.

SPEAKER_03: 43:36

Yeah. Clear Wi-Fi info printed and placed where it's easy to see. We all need Wi-Fi.

SPEAKER_00: 43:42

A handwritten welcome note using the guest name is also a fun little help.

SPEAKER_03: 43:46

Yeah, a local guide card. We've really enjoyed these, especially traveling uh overseas. You open this thing up and find all about the local favorite coffee shops, a walking route to get somewhere, nearby restaurants they recommend. Those are really cool.

SPEAKER_00: 43:59

Having a night light in the bathroom or hallway can be also helpful.

SPEAKER_03: 44:03

Yeah, especially for late arrivals. You may consider a noise machine. I sleep with a noise machine at night.

SPEAKER_00: 44:09

He uses an app on his phone.

SPEAKER_03: 44:10

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or a fan for, you know, those light sleepers.

SPEAKER_00: 44:13

Right. A luggage rack or bench can be nice for guests so they don't have to use the floor.

SPEAKER_03: 44:18

Yeah, to put their luggage, open it up on the floor. We've had to do that a lot of times, but it's so nice when there's a bench.

SPEAKER_00: 44:23

Oh, luggage rack, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 44:24

Yeah. A mirror with good lighting, especially for the um woman traveler in your life.

SPEAKER_00: 44:30

And if you can have a it'd be a full-length mirror, that's really ideal.

SPEAKER_03: 44:35

Okay. Some people may not have to fit themselves in a full-length mirror. I've just said that.

SPEAKER_00: 44:39

You know, you gotta know if you know something's tucked in or out that doesn't need to be.

SPEAKER_03: 44:43

So okay. Uh we'll move on from there. Basic toiletries, speaking of, uh, beyond like just soap, how about makeup wipes or cotton pads or tissues, things like that? We've stayed in places before that didn't have uh what we call Kleenex, facial tissues, and it's really great to have those. So I'd recommend that.

SPEAKER_00: 45:03

If you really want to step up robes or house slippers or cozy socks, those kinds of things.

SPEAKER_03: 45:09

No doubt. And as we mentioned earlier, clear instructions for anything quirky, especially if it's an older or historic home like ours, or even a modern home, and you're like, how in the world do I operate this Japanese toilet? Directions would be nice.

SPEAKER_00: 45:22

Yeah. A plant, a simple plant or fresh flowers can make a space feel alive and homey.

SPEAKER_03: 45:27

Obviously, hangers for the closet.

SPEAKER_00: 45:29

Or hooks.

SPEAKER_03: 45:30

Hooks, yep. Easy to see and easy to use.

SPEAKER_00: 45:32

Do a scent check. Have something like light and clean and neutral, but not overpowering. Some sometimes the the smell things that you can put in a socket are just too perfumey or too gross. I would say like I'm very sensitive to scent. So I have found that if a scent is like an essential oil spray, that those are much nicer to someone who is super sensitive to smell. So just make sure that the house isn't stinky.

SPEAKER_01: 46:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 46:01

That's a good thing. This is my biggest, my biggest request of like if you are going to house us, that I guess this is the thing I see the least or I feel like I'm always missing. And that's having a trash can in the guest room that we're staying in. And having having a trash can is such a big help for anything.

SPEAKER_03: 46:25

And every we try to keep a trash can in every room that people are going to be using, or at least obvious where they're supposed to go to use the trash can. There's one next to the bed on both sides, there's one in the bathroom, there's one in the kitchen. On and on. Have trash cans, especially the places they're gonna stay most, like in the bedroom and stuff.

SPEAKER_00: 46:42

But especially, yeah, in the bedroom. Please have a trash can. Now, if you want to really go extra above and beyond, you can have like if you allow animals, you could provide a pet-friendly note or treat, or you could have seasonal touches with holiday decor or fresh herbs in the summer, just little cozy fall textures, things like that.

SPEAKER_03: 47:04

If you live in a historic home like ours, a small book about the house, maybe or the neighborhood or local history, if they're interested.

SPEAKER_00: 47:10

Right.

SPEAKER_03: 47:11

We enjoyed that a lot with the Burghee House in Scotland. So that was really cool. Even got a book about it. Right. And really over the top, a reusable water bottle for the guests. I mean, I think they're pretty cheap, and it's just nice when we travel. We always want to have water on hand with us when we're going around town and stuff. So maybe a reusable water bottle guests can take with them.

SPEAKER_00: 47:30

Just make it clear that they could take it with them. That's if if you're wanting them to do so. So being a good host is really about making people feel seen, comfortable, and cared for. You don't have to do any of those things, but we just wanted to share kind of just some things to think about. If you are going to be hosting someone, these are things that just make them feel extra loved.

SPEAKER_03: 47:51

Yep. So that's A for Airbnb. And it's the first stop in our roam to home season.

SPEAKER_00: 47:58

In the next episode, we're gonna move on to the letter B. But for now, thank you for joining us at the very beginning.

SPEAKER_03: 48:06

Welcome to Season Eight.

SPEAKER_00: 48:10

We hope we've inspired you this episode.

SPEAKER_03: 48:12

So join us next time.

SPEAKER_00: 48:13

Please subscribe to, rate, and share our podcast with your friends.

SPEAKER_03: 48:16

Or, you know, whomever.

SPEAKER_00: 48:18

And please like and follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook.

SPEAKER_03: 48:21

We are also on X and on all social platforms. We are at TheRoamies. That's T-H-E. R-O-A-M-I-E-S. And our main hub is our website.

SPEAKER_00: 48:32

At www.theromies.com.

SPEAKER_03: 48:35

That's right, that's T-H-E.

SPEAKER_00: 48:37

R-O-A-M.com. We'll be there until next time. Yeah, thanks for listening. Bye.

unknown: 48:44

Together.