Weekend Travelling - Jyvaskyla

Ok I've had quite a week so this is a bit late, but better late than never here's the next part of my trip...

Tampere to Jyvaskyla

After spending Saturday exploring Tampere, I headed to the station for the 1800 train to Jyvaskyla. I was going to visit Jyvaskyla anyway, but I had a bit of great luck (and quite a surprise) when I finally got in touch with my Finnish friend from home, just two days before leaving for Tampere and found he lives in Jyvaskyla! He offered to let me stay and I gladly accepted. I also called Nina from the Helsinki EILC (erasmus language course), who just moved there and arranged to meet up in the evening.

Jyvaskyla Town Church

My friend, Antti, met me at the station and we headed to his apartment which was conveniently just around the corner. After my first real look at Finnish TV (which seemed to mostly be English programming!) we went out to the centre. Most of the bars and clubs in Jyvaskyla are arranged along a single pedestrianised road, which is definately a good idea as in Helsinki we seem to end up wandering from one end of the city to the other looking for places to go. We started off in a Finnish sports bar then moved along the street to a rock club, which is the first I've been to in Finland and was very good but a bit empty.

The view toward the university from the town

In the rock club we met with Nina and her friend Natalie and after a few drinks went to Memphis Bar where I had possibly the most expensive beer I've ever had - €5.90 for 0.6l! Needless to say we didn't stay long and headed back to the rock bar which was now packed and had a queue and stayed until closing.

Walking around the lake

On Sunday I managed to drag myself out of bed early and went out to do some sightseeing and properly explore the town. There wasn't too much to see tourist-wise, the church in the centre was nice and the view from the observation tower on the ridge was quite impressive and unlike everywhere else I've been in Finland there are actually some hills in the surrounding area so it's a bit more interesting to look at.

Jyvaskyla University

After a couple of hours I was joined by Antti and we walked along the shore and around the lake using the two bridges. One of the bridges connects the two halves of the main Jyvaskyla University campus across the water, which has to be the most spectacular university I've ever seen. Antti described the location as 'alright' - I suppose the students there get complacement but coming from London I'd do anything for these surroundings!

Nina preparing to conquer the tower

I decided to go off on my own and see some of the museums but ended up callling Nina and walking with her around the edge of the other lake, toward the ski jumps. Jyvaskyla is the winter sports centre of Southern Finland and features some very scary looking jumps. I could see them in the distance from the city, but up close they're terrifying. So what did Nina do? She insisted on climbing to the top of the biggest one.

The stupidly high ski jump

I decided to keep my feet on the ground, but I am reliably informed that the view was spectacular. Having said that I did climb the smaller one, which is still extremely high and looks suicidal to jump off - I can't imagine what it would be like for the skiiers. They must be mental!

One of the steamboats in the harbour

I met with Antti and said goodbye, then got the 1930 train back to Helsinki, which took 3 hours and collapsed into bed ready for university at 8am the next day!