The End

I have been home a week now and a day hasn't gone by when I have thought about my time in Finland. It was without a doubt the craziest, most intense and maybe even the best time of my life. I met so many people - I knew at least 100 by name and counted most of them among my friends. I had no idea that things on exchange would be so good. Before going to Finland I feared I had made a huge mistake and would be stuck in a freezing country all alone for five months. Instead I did things I've never dreamed of, met some of the nicest people I've ever known and simply had an enormous amount of fun.

Many people signed my flag with farewell messages

So many great things happened in Finland. I went on three cottage weekends. I went camping. I tried the sauna for the first time. I went to Estonia. I went to Lapland. I went to Sweden. I even went to Russia of all places. I've seen the sun set at 10pm in the summer and 2pm in the winter. I've drunk in a bar made of ice, eaten reindeer and learnt to eat squid with chopsticks. I sang karaoke in a taxi, passed out on a cruise ship and built an igloo.

Some of the Erasmus Intensive Language Course group, August 2006

I was trying to think of my favourite moment in Finland, but there are far too many. Instead, here are some of the most memorable:

• Lying on the roof of a summer cottage, in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by forest, listening to the sound of wolves howling in the distance
• Running out of a traditional wood-fired sauna and jumping in the Baltic Sea, while it was snowing
• Sitting on the edge of a jetty out in a lake at night with a friend, gazing at the stars
• Climbing to the top of a hill I discovered in Leppavaara, watching over the whole town as the sun set
• After our bus suddenly stopped, looking out the window and seeing my first wild reindeer walk across the snow-covered road right in front of us, in Lapland
  
  

Evtek exchange student group, Autumn 2006

And how did Finland affect me?

• England now feels warm
• I cannot get drunk on beer any more
• My English actually got worse
• ...but my Finnish is considerably better than before I left!
• Every Thursday I get an urge to go to Onnela for happy hour
• I consider it normal to get away with not buying a ticket when travelling on a train or tram
• I can now swear in a wide variety of different languages
• I am now addicted to coffee (Finns are the world's biggest drinkers)
  
• I get confused when crossing the street, trying to remember which side of the road cars drive on
  
  

Most importantly of all, I'd like to thank all the wonderful people who made my time in Finland so special. It was magic guys. You will not be forgotten!

So to sum up, how best to describe my Erasmus exchange in Finland? In the words of one friend...it was erasmic.

Thanks for reading!

David Allan,
December 2006

Leaving Finland

After a week of partying and saying our goodbyes, it was time to leave Finland. But things were not over...yet. By chance, about 10 of us had flights leaving at almost the same time, between 5-6pm on Saturday 23rd. So this meant one thing...airport party! As usual I had left everything important until the last minute and was frantically trying to sort out my things, pack my bags and clean the flat, before running to the station with all my bags to catch the train that the others were on. There was no time for a fond farewell to Leppavaara but maybe that was for the best.

Gunther uses his travel card for the first time

On the train I met with Gunther, Steffen and Linda as we headed toward Helsinki to meet the others. We decided to pay for our last train journey - most of the erasmus students always tried to avoid paying - and above you can see Gunther ironically using this 'travelcard' thing he had got but never used. We thanked the rather bemused conductor for 5 months of free travel as he passed by.

Me with my bags, travelling to Helsinki from Leppavaara for what must have been the hundredth, but final, time

We met with the others in Helsinki central station, and with time to be spare we enjoyed a coffee before getting the bus to the airport. Amazingly, considering it was almost Christmas, the huge airport was almost empty and I was first in line for my check-in. We wandered through security without even having to wait, which has never happened to me before. With a few hours still to spare I spent the last of my euros on presents for my family in the shops and then we enjoyed a final beer in the airport bar.

Waiting for the bus to the airport

We were having fun together, joking and chatting right up until the last minute. I normally hate airports but it was great fun. Finally, it came time for me to leave for my plane. I said a fond goodbye to everyone and walked alone to my gate. The flight home gave me time to reflect on my experience in Finland, but it wasn't until I got back home that I realised that the best time of my life was finally over. It was not a good moment.

The Beginning of the End

The last week in Finland turned into one massive party. Despite it still being exam period, we went out the last 6 nights in a row and things intensified once we had our last exams.

The group gathers in Metzi's flat in Leppavaara for once last pre-gaming session

In the last week we still kept up all the usual traditions - Barfly on Tuesday and Onnela on Thursday for the cheap student nights. But every day there were less of us as people started leaving, by mid-week it seemed the group had shrunk by half. There used to be so many of us going out together - between 20 and 30, so it was quite strange going to a bar and not finding so many recognisable faces any more.

Leppavaara hill on my last day

On the last Thursday I went to Kilo where the Spanish provided some of their home cooking and then headed to Onnela - the one club in Helsinki we had returned to every week, the place of so many happy memories. It was really sad being there, knowing this was the last time, but I managed to enjoy myself. Then on Friday, my last full day in Finland, I took a walk back up to the top of the hill for one last look over the town and to watch the sunset.

Up close with the band

By Friday night most of the exchange students had left. I must have said goodbye to about 50 people in the last week. But still, the remaining survivors decided to make the most of our last night in Finland. After a few beers and a final game of table tennis in the Leppavaara club room, we all headed into Helsinki to Molly Malone's, the Irish Pub. This was the first bar I had been to in Finland, so it was fitting that things had come full circle and it would be the last.

Things got crazier as the night wore on

The night was amazing, one of the best I've had in Finland. The band was great, the atmosphere was fantastic - all the exchange students were dancing and singing along and the band were playing up to us, even dedicating a few songs to the erasmus students and responding to requests. I stayed as late as possible, until the last train, before heading home to catch a bit of sleep before flying home the next day. Things were, unfortunately, coming to an end.

Last Weekend in Helsinki

My last weekend in Finland really crept up on me. In fact I didn't realise it was my last weekend there until after it had passed!

The Cathedral with newly-added Christmas tree

I had managed to get on a rare tour of the Presidential Palace on Saturday, with some fellow students. It had originally meant to be earlier in the week, but it was postponed until the weekend so we didn't get to see the palace on a working day. Still, it was very interesting and I learnt a lot about this mysterious building where the President works.

Inside the State Room

Inside it was quite grand, we even had to wear plastic covers on our shoes to keep the floors clean. It was nice to see the State Room, which I had previously seen in the newspapers as the place where the independence day ball was held. We also saw the President's study, where, our guide informed us, is where she met Conan O Brien!

Ice skating in railway square

After the tour I headed back along Esplanade, through the Christmas market selling all kinds of hand-made crafts. I then met up with my friend next to the railway station and we went ice skating on the outdoor rink.

All aboard the exchange-student-train!

I haven't been skating in many years so it was quite a harrowing experience at first but I warmed to it and by the end was busy racing with friends and playing steal-the-hat which was a lot of fun. I didn't even fall over once! That night we went to Myyrmaki (the location of my university's other campus) for a final student flat party there and I spent Sunday evening with a friend who was leaving the next day. It was already time to start saying goodbye to people and the air of finality began to set in. Still, there was more partying to do before the end!

Lapland Part II

It was great to wake up in the nice warm cottage, look out the window and see everything was covered in thick white snow. After breakfast we headed outside to make use of the few hours of daylight available to us.

The boys prepare to get the girls

The plan was to walk to the town centre and inquire about skiing and other activities, but on the way we inevitably became bogged down in a snowball fight between the ten of us.

In the midst of the snowball fight

It ended up being everyone v the British, which actually made the sides even and allowed me to concentrate on throwing snowballs at the French (that is to say, Florian, the only French person with us!).

The truce, which as you can see I broke shortly afterwards

Eventually we made it to the bus stop and took the free ski bus to the resort town of Levi. We hadn't actually seen the town yet and I was quite impressed by the big slope that dominated the view.

The Belgian couple romantically vandalised this innocent car

We asked about the possibility of skiing, but with it already quite late we decided to hire the equipment the next day to make best use of the time. Me, Andrew and Rachel booked a ski lesson for the following morning.

Our finished igloo, complete with snowman guard

We spent the rest of the day doing the usual snow things of throwing it at each other, sledding, creating snowmen and working on our igloo. We finally finished our igloo in the evening and to be honest it really came out great - it was big enough for four people, atmospherically illuminated by candles we had sunk into the walls and even had a window. Inside it was really cosy and actually quite warm, so it worked well.

The four builders inside our igloo

It had been a very long day spent outdoors in the cold, so what better way was there to relax and warm up than with a sauna. We were quite thoroughly freezing after finishing our igloo so we spent much longer in the sauna than usual and then tried the ultimate Finnish tradition...running outside and rolling in the snow (naked) to cool down before running back to the sauna. It was a great and very refreshing feeling.

Me, Andrew and Rachel trying on our equipment. The helmets came in handy!

The next day we got up early and caught the bus to Levi. We all headed to the ski shop, where three of us rented the downhill skis and the rest went for the cross-country skis as they were more interested in trying it. They went off on a long distance track while the three of us took a lesson. It was at beginner's level and despite the rather cheap price we had our own instructor just for us.

The others were not getting on so well with the cross-country skiing

I had actually been skiing once before but never learnt the 'proper' way to do it, so it was good to learn things like the correct way to fall over, how to slow down and how to stop (which I had never actually got the hang of). Our instructor was a great teacher and even made us take off a ski and ski down an easy slope with just one leg to learn to balance.

Andrew outside our starting area

Me and Rachel got the hang of it very quickly indeed, while it took Andrew a little longer but considering we were all relative beginners we made a lot of progress. Rachel persuaded me to attempt the terrifying-looking red level slope, as we were getting a bit bored of the kid's slope and realised we were not going to improve much more without tackling something tougher.

We tried this just hours after putting on our skis for the first time!

By this time Florian had joined us, as he was something of a pro at skiing and didn't need lessons. In fact he even took the absolutely suicidal-looking 'black' level course, which is used for the skiing world cup that took place a couple of days before we arrived. Anyway, Rachel went first down the red slope and despite a couple of falls she made it in one piece. It was then my turn, and while it was frankly the scariest thing I've ever done (at times clouds obscured the top so you couldn't even see the bottom!), it was a great feeling to make it down. We spent the rest of the afternoon taking it in turns on the slope (as we had cheekily only bought one ski pass so needed to share it) and by the end I had improved enormously and after a day I was at a level Florian said had taken him weeks to learn!

Outside the cottage on our last day

Eventually we had had enough of downhill skiing and swapped our skis for cross-country, which was if anything much harder as there was no gravity to assist you. We skied back to the cottage instead of taking the bus, and returned them in the morning (as the rental was for a 24 hour period). We then packed our things, caught the bus back to Rovaniemi, where we briefly met our friend Robin who now studies there and got the overnight train home to Helsinki. I was exhausted after the weekend so I found it much easier to sleep. It was just a shame we had such a short time in Lapland. It was an amazing experience and I really want to go back sometime!

Lapland Part I

At the beginning of this month a group of 10 of us went to Lapland for a 3-night stay in a cottage. I have always wanted to visit Lapland, so this was like a dream coming true.

Our fellow passengers were not amused at the level of noise we made all night

The overnight train journey took 12 hours (!), with us leaving Helsinki around 2230 and arriving in Rovaniemi the next morning. The journey was actually quite fun, with us exploring the train, meeting fellow travelling students in the restaurant car and playing cards. I found it very difficult to sleep though, the train was extremely uncomfortable and very strangely designed. I started to have flashbacks to the trip to Russia!

The snow was a bit thicker than I expected

We arrived in Rovaniemi, on the edge of the Arctic Circle to discover, to our horror, that there was no snow. Anywhere. It was freezing cold but there was no white stuff...and we were in Lapland in December! It seemed that our dream trip was going to be ruined - we had been talking for weeks about skiing and building an igloo and snowmen. Luckily we had further to travel and got the bus two hours further north to Levi. I was so tired after the train journey that I fell asleep almost immediately, waking up when the bus stopped very suddenly - there was a reindeer in the road, straight in front of us! Then I looked around and saw that there was heavy snow everywhere! It was amazing.

The landscape was completely blanketed in white

The first thing I did when I got off the bus was sink up to my knees in snow, which was a great feeling (until my legs got cold). We headed to the nearest service station where we ate in the smallest, emptiest Hesburger I've ever seen (we were the only customers) and bought enough food and drink to last the weekend, then called for taxis to take the 10 of us, with our bags and supplies to the cottage.

Our cottage

The cottage was much closer than we expected, but it was still nice not to need to carry all our things through the snow. We did have to wait outside for a short time while we waited for the owner to bring the keys, but we entertained ourselves with our first snowball fight.

The weekend beer supply

Inside, the cottage was great - very modern, clean, with a nice big kitchen, huge fridge, its own sauna and multiple rooms. It even had a TV, which I hadn't since leaving home four months ago! This was my third cottage weekend in Finland, and this was definitely the nicest 'mokki' I've been to.

Putting up the Christmas decorations

It was already very dark, despite being about 2 o'clock in the afternoon (it was practically night time by 3pm!), so we spent the afternoon relaxing, talking and drinking, as well as decorating the cottage for Christmas with some decorations we found in a cupboard.

Relaxing in the afternoon

It was quite disorientating that it was so dark but still relatively early - in Lapland the sun doesn't rise at all for several weeks over winter, and vice-versa in the summer, so it's quite a confusing place. We were already relaxing as if it were night time, so we made an effort to go outside and actually appreciate what Lapland could offer....snow!

Me sledding down the hill...shortly before a big crash no doubt

There was a lengthy slope next to our cottage and we found a couple of sleds in the shed, so we took them out on a test run. It was great fun and by the end of the day I felt quite a professional at it, although stopping was still a bit of a problem.

Our unhappy snowman

We ended up playing a drinking game that involved making challenges, and silly me came up with the idea that the next person to drink had to run outside and build a snowman. And what do you know...the next person to drink was 'the boys'. There were only 3 of us, so we had 7 girls pointing and laughing as we struggled to build a snowman but I think the results were quite impressive, as you can see above.

Building our igloo

Later on me, Rachel, Andrew and Florian embarked on our quest to build an igloo, as we had always wanted to do so. It wasn't quite the traditional kind...it had snow walls and a flat wooden roof covered in snow, but it turned out really nice. You can see what the final version looked like in my next update.

The cottage group (minus the camera lady) surrounds our snowman

We spent the rest of the night in the cottage chatting away, playing games and planning what to do over our next three days in Lapland. Stay tuned to find our what we got up to!

Russia Part VI: St Petersburg II

Our second day in St Petersburg began with an early rise and a trip on the metro to the centre of the city, from where we walked to the Hermitage.

Scenes like this make it clear why St Petersburg is regularly compared to Venice

We were heading to the Hermitage for a guided tour arranged for our group. Many people didn't make it due to the early start - the partying the night before had been quite intense. I'm glad I made the effort to go because the others missed out on the museum - we were lucky to get there just in time to miss the queues which by midday stretched for up to 3 hours. The wait was mainly down to a lack of cloakroom space (coats and bags are not allowed inside) rather than a particularly large amount of visitors.

The large square outside used to be home to military parades

The Hermitage is one of the largest, oldest and most important museums in the world. Spread across six buildings, the largest being the Winter Palace, the collection includes works by Michaelangelo, Van Gogh, Picasso and Leonardo da Vinci amongst others. In fact the da Vinci collection is considered to be enormous, with a grand total of two paintings - which makes sense when you consider there are only a handful left anywhere in the world.

The palace is also an attraction in itself

The winter palace is enormous, featuring over 1000 halls and rooms, all intricately decorated. A former winter residence of the Russian tsars, the assault on the palace is considered to be the official milestone of the October Revolution. Thankfully today it is a little more peaceful, with the exception of the chaotic cloakroom queues.

Back outside the palace

We then walked across to the other side of the rather wide river, taking several bridges on the way, to visit the Peter and Paul Fortress. A large fort on its own the island, it houses multiple museums including the museum of St Petersburg, which charted the history of the city from its early days to the present, including the monumental 300-day siege of 'Leningrad' in WWII, during which over 1,000,000 residents died.

Resting place of Peter the Great

An attractive church on the island holds the resting place of the city's namesake, Peter the Great, as well as the remains of the last emperor of Russia, Alexander the II, who was murdered by terrorists. His body, along with that of his wife has only recently been interred here, due to the Soviet attempts to delete that particular era from history.

There was a great view from the island at night

Exhausted, we took the metro back to the hotel and after a quick rest the entire group headed out to a Russian restaurant. While my experience was pleasant, again we had problems with some of the others only being told their food could not be cooked due to lack of ingredients two hours after they had ordered!

Taking a break in the club

Afterwards a group of us went out with our guide, who took us to some very strange 'alternative' bars in a rather scary looking part of town. It was an interesting experience but I really wanted to try clubbing in Russia, so we ended up going to a place called Revolution. It was clearly a very trendy place - we had to queue outside for quite a while and pay a rather hefty (by Russian standards) entry fee. It was also quite an ordeal to even get through the door - I had to empty everything from my pockets and was very thoroughly searched, more so than at any airport. Still, it made me feel a bit safer once inside. The club itself was great and one of the best I've been too, with multiple dance floors and a karaoke area. It was here that we finally met some very friendly Russians - the young ones. Whenever I mentioned I was from England they seemed very impressed and wanted to shake my hand. This was the opposite reaction we got from anybody else during our stay!

Our guide...and the Russian taxi

By the early morning it was time to leave so we did something else I had wanted to do since arriving - take a Russian taxi! how does it work? Well, you simply hold your arm out by the street, wait for any car to stop, make a deal with the driver on the price and then he takes you. There are few official taxis in Russia and even then they are unmetered so this is the best way to get around and also very cheap - just a couple of euros to go across the city. I was also happy that the particular kind of old Russian-made stopped for us - it was great fun to ride in, especially as our driver didn't seem to regard red lights as any kind of an obstacle. Once back at the hotel we got some much-needed sleep, ending our final night in Russia.

The early morning view over the city

We got up quite early again, tired but wanting to make the most of our last few hours in the city. I took the metro with a friend back to the centre and we climbed the long staircase to the top of a church for a great view of the city. After eating, it was time to head back for our 3pm coach departure back to Helsinki.

Yes, we stayed in the Hotel Moscow...in St Petersburg

The trip back was fun, with us stopping just before the border to spend the last of our Russian money on cheap goods. I bought a 1 litre bottle of vodka for just 3.50EUR (~£2.00), as did most of the others along with enormous quantities of cheap chocolate and snacks. The border was quite a process - we had to get off the bus twice for passport checks (once on each side), as well as a couple of searches through the bus. In all, my passport was checked six times just to leave Russia! Once we finally crossed the border our guide shouted out 'Welcome back to glorious Finland!' and everyone cheered and clapped. It was great to be back, although I had an amazing time in Russia. For a while we all unanimously agreed that we had fun but would never go back again...ever. However, I find my opinion changing slowly and in a way I miss the sheer hectic craziness of Moscow - St Petersburg was nice but to me wasn't nearly as interesting. So I get the feeling I'll be back...one day!

Russia Part V: St Petersburg I

The overnight train journey was much more comfortable than the previous and we arrived in St Petersburg early in the morning relatively well-rested and awake. A tour bus met us at the station ready to take us around the city, helping to give us a good feel for the place. The weather had not improved since Moscow - it was still very grey but not too cold. My first impressions were that the city seemed a lot nicer in comparison to Moscow, with better architecture and more historic buildings.

This is probably the most edible-looking building I've seen

We stopped at a couple of churches, which were very impressive from the outside but both were currently closed to tourists for some reason. We got to see many of the main sights of St Petersburg from the bus (which saved a lot of walking) and like with Moscow stopped to take photos every now and then.

The Winter Palace, home of the famous Hermitage museum

The sheer amount of water in the city was quite surprising. St Petersburg is nicknamed 'The Venice of the North' due to its large number of canals, bridges and interesting architecture. The bridges themselves are quite an attraction - the main river is lined by draw bridges that raise overnight to allow ships through. This literally cuts the city in two and means if you are stuck on one side of the city late at night, you have to wait until morning to get home! Thankfully we weren't caught out.

The Cruiser Aurora

One of the key sights was the Cruiser Aurora, the Russian warship that fired the first shot of the October Revolution. Preserved by the Soviet government, it is now a museum ship and can be entered. The shot fired was actually a blank, being symbolic rather than a shot in anger, aimed at the royal Winter Palace which now houses the Hermitage Museum.

An all too-common sight

While the city was much cleaner than Moscow, it was still relatively dirty and the cars filling the streets were the same filthy grey mud-covered colour. The people were also nicer and more open to foreigners (and we even found some that spoke English!), yet we still unfortunately encountered a lot of rudeness.

The city is very colourful at night

After a day of sightseeing we went to the hotel to leave our bags and then headed out with our knowledgeable guide to a rather obscure underground bar/club where we watched a string of live acts. The first in particular was very good and we had a great time listening to the Russian music.

It took us a long time to realise that this band was singing in English

Afterwards many of us went to another bar, quite a distance away on foot down the immensely-long main shopping street. It was packed with students, most of them international-looking, so we didn't exactly get the Russian atmosphere there but at least the beer was cheap...

I think we had drunk one too many by this point

We took the long walk back through the night to our hotel where more partying occurred before heading to bed. Our last full day in Russia was approaching!