Sauna Party, Beach Party, Roof Party...

Ok so I finally have time to update my blog. A lot has happened over the last few days. I went to the beach party on Friday and have only really just got back - I've been away from my flat for about 3 days now. Every day I say to myself I'm going to study and then I get distracted. For example last night I was finally on my way home from Kannelmaki on the train when my phone went - it was Rachel asking if I wanted to go into Helsinki with all the others. I wanted to say no but then I turned around and saw they were on the train behind me! We ended up going to a 1 euro bar, where the drinks are all...1 euro. All night until 4am! Not a good idea. I've now been drinking about 6 nights in a row. Hopefully tonight will be much quieter.

Anyway on to the sauna...

On Wednesday most of us went to the sauna in the evening. I wasn't really interested in going, but when I found that pretty much everyone was going I decided to go for it. Besides, you can't really go to Finland for half a year and not visit a sauna. Everybody in Finland goes to the sauna regularly. Almost every home in Finland has a sauna, and pretty much everybody has easy access to one. There are over 2 million saunas for just 5 million inhabitants.

Getting drunk after the sauna

Anyway, needless to say it was hot. Extremely hot. The temperature inside reaches over 100C if you sit at the top, which is what most of us did. It is traditional to spend a few minutes in the sauna, then jump into a lake or the sea for a swim, then go back into the sauna again. I did this 3 times. Once you are thoroughly warmed up it's incredibly refreshing to swim, even if normally it would be a bit cold. It's also tradition to bring beer and food, like sausages to eat outside in between sessions. After an hour of sauna and swimming we pretty much just drank and ate for the rest of the night. Fun was had by all! By the end of the night we were singing along to Radiohead on Luca's guitar.

Singing along to Radiohead's greatest hits

On Thursday we somehow ended up in a gay bar, probably because it's the cheapest place in Helsinki. Obviously we left pretty quickly - I think my friend put it best: 'I like this gay bar so much, I don't think I'm ever going to visit another one in Helsinki!'

Earlier in the day we visited Suomenlinna (Fortress of Finland) by sea, which was very nice. I got some great wildlife pictures which I'll probably post later.

Exploring the beaches at Suomenlinna

On Friday we went to the Finnish National Museum, which was quite interesting. Better than classes anyway!

Group photo at the National Museum

Later that night we had a party on one of the beaches in Helsinki. It was great fun, we started in the evening and watched the sun set over the sea.

Beach party

I stayed until very late then went to the London Pub with a few others, which was alright and stayed at somebody's place in the centre as I had missed the last train back.

Night time on the beach

On Saturday I stayed in central Helsinki, visiting the Toyota F1 motor show, where I took lots of freebies and watched the free rock concert but didn't stay for too long as it was way too crowded. Some of us then got the tram to Linnanmaki Amusement Park, one of the biggest attractions in the Helsinki area. I wasn't too impressed but the wooden roller coaster was good and the view from the ferris wheel is one of the best you can get in Helsinki.

Linnanmaki Amusement Park

Later that night we had a party at Kannelmaki on the roof of the student flats. Again, it was very atmospheric, the view from up high was great and we watched the sun set quite spectacularly. The Italians cooked us dinner and the English made the desert!

Drinking on a roof...what could go wrong?

I stayed the night there and as I said earlier as I tried to come home on Sunday I was dragged back to Helsinki for more drinking. At the 1 euro bar we met some Finnish people who said they can get us some tickets to the Finland v Portugal match in September, which should be good. Hopefully we are going to watch Finland v N. Ireland at the Olympic Stadium on Wednesday, needless to say we'll be wearing Suomi shirts.

Lots of us are interested in going to Stockholm my boat so it was great luck that we got talking to another Finnish guy who happens to work on the Silja Line that runs the boats! He said he can get us very cheap tickets, which would be great. On Saturday we're going to Estonia so it probably won't be this month.