A Frozen Picnic & Home Again

We ended up oversleeping a bit, originally intending to head to Kaivopuisto for the picnic in the morning, but 2pm was fine by me anyway. It was slightly less freezing than the day before, which was nice and so we managed to drag ourselves across the whole city, up and down hills carrying heavy food and drink, to get to the park.

Who's idea was it to have an outdoor picnic in early-May Scandinavia anyway?

On arrival we were faced with quite a sight, the whole place was rammed with thousands of people, most of them uni students wearing their distinctive overalls and caps.

With the fellow exchange students at the picnic

For some reason we decided to sit on the rocks by the sea, where the wind made it feel ridiculously cold but after a few beers it didn't seem to matter.

Me, Rob, Cord and Xavier doing something stupid again, no doubt

Walking round the park, I spotted all kinds of strange things. From people dressed in costumes to elaborately-decorated tents and even a Vappu push-chair, which thankfully contained a sound system and not a child.

It was surprising the lengths some people went to

It was too cold to stay for long and eventually I headed back to the city centre with Rob. On the way we passed one of the weirdest-decorated cars I've ever seen, but I've got used to seeing things like this by now.

Pimp My Ride...the Finnish version

I spent the rest of my Vappu week in Finland visiting friends, partying and clubbing as well as quite a bit of sleeping. It was really great to be back and have such a fun holiday. However, by Friday it was time to say goodbye to Helsinki (again) and return home to face reality and take my university exams, but I knew I'd be back eventually.

A bird by the sea...

In fact I'll be back sooner than I first thought. I'm returning on June 9th for a few days before I begin my pan-European adventure, which of course I hope to write about here. In the meantime, thanks to all the people who gave me such a wonderful time and perhaps I'll be seeing you on my journey!