Four More Days in Helsinki

So I'm back in Helsinki yet again for the beginning of my new pan-European adventure. With any luck, over the next few weeks I'll be heading south through eastern Europe, stopping off at as many cities and places as I can along the way.

By the sea

I arrived back in Finland Saturday afternoon and gave my friend Gerard a bit of a shock when I remembered that I had forgotten to tell him I was coming. Thankfully he was as welcoming as ever and offered to let me stay so I headed to drop my bags off. The one thing that surprised me most when I arrived was the heat - the thermometer on the flat balcony said 31 degrees! I had been in Helsinki just a month previous and at that time it was still practically winter.

On the boat to Suomenlinna

In the evening I headed to Suomenlinna, the large UNESCO-protected island fortress in Helsinki harbour with some friends for a picnic. We ended up staying until 1.30am, but luckily the boats were still running at that time. We managed to see the sunset over the city, which was beautiful from the island. It was especially interesting as the sun didn't set until after 11pm! It stayed quite bright all night, which seems really strange for someone from England. It makes Finland feel really different from home, but it does have the annoying side effect of making it difficult to sleep.

On the island at sunset

Anyway, we got the boat back to Helsinki and went to the very-crowded Aussie Bar in Kamppi before heading to a flat in Pasila to drink cocktails until 7am. Considering that thanks to my flight I had been up since 5am this was far too much for me and eventually I fell asleep.

Lonely man on Suomenlinna

The next day I drifted back to Gerard's to recover for a bit before meeting with a couple more of the erasmus survivors, including a friend from last year who by chance was in Helsinki this week, which was a nice surprise. We decided to head to the beach here in Leppavaara. We had only recently heard of its existence when someone looked on Google Earth and realised with quite a shock that "oh wow we actually live near the sea!". In fact there was a reason nobody had been there before and it took us several hours of getting lost in forests and down country lanes until we found the sea, but no beach.

On the ´beach´in Leppavaara

We ended up lying on the rocks drinking beer which was good enough for me. Problem was I had to meet some friends in the city so I ended up walking almost all the way to Helsinki until I found a tram line, which was quite a feat as I don't know anybody who has done this.

Best bar view in Helsinki?

I met with Florian, Rafi and Giulia and together we headed to the best bar I've been in Helsinki. It was on the roof of a very tall hotel, right in the centre. The view was absolutely amazing, it was possible to see in 360 degrees across the entire city. I can't believe I didn't know about it! We got to watch a spectacular sunset over the skyline before I headed back to Gerard's for a barbecue.

In the studio

On Monday I randomly ended up in a recording studio with some friends. I can´t sing or play any instruments so I was able to just sit back and watch. It was quite an impressive show - I had no idea my friend has such an amazing singing voice.

Today I´m heading into town to meet a friend before the traditional Tuesday-night sauna and then Bar Fly. Tommorow is the big one...I´m heading by ship to Tallinn to begin my adventure. I can´t wait!

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!

Vappu!

Despite the cold weather, we had been out in the city all afternoon, meeting as many drunk Finns dressed in all sorts of crazy outfits as we could. We had gathered from some unnecessarily-long conversations with these people that the traditional celebrations in Helsinki would begin at 5pm with the 'capping' of the statue in the harbour, and it was something we didn't want to miss.

You don't see something like this every day...

Most students are wearing overalls, which act as a uniform for their particular department, e.g. Electronics is navy blue and Media Engineering orange. Adorned on these overalls are badges earned through different events, most of them parties involving heavy drinking. Some students were covered in a frankly alarming number of these.

The students are lowered over the statue. And yes, the top hat is apparently back in fashion

After spending the afternoon drinking in the park, we headed to the statue where I was to meet my other friends. Unfortunately the thousands of people surrounding it made the task a bit more difficult than expected, but I found them in the end, after being told to look for a 'giant bear'.

After the capping of the statue

The atmosphere was electric, everybody was so happy, although most likely because of the enormous amount of alcohol consumption, but it was quite a strange thing to see on such a cold day. It was also unusual to see so many people together at once in the city.

Andrew, Florian and me, feeling generally bewildered by the whole thing

Eventually the ceremony began, and I can honestly say it's one of the most random things I've ever seen. A group of students, hanging from a giant hat (itself connected to a crane), lowered over the statue and after a countdown placed a cap on the head. Apparently the cap is awarded to students graduating from university, so this marks the end of the academic year.

Heading toward Senate Square

The moment the statue was capped, the crowd went (even more) crazy, cheering and singing and firing off the corks from bottles of sparkling wine. It was an absolutely bizarre scene but a lot of fun to experience.

That's me about to sign somebody's leg

Afterwards we headed, along with the massive crowds, toward Senate Square and the steps of Helsinki Cathedral where more partying ensued.

Apparently a gas mask is standard student attire these days

There was a rather average free concert, featuring an unfortunate hip-hop act that tried to fire up the crowd and get them moving but it was far too cold and the people far too drunk to comply.

It's a shame Lordi weren't playing but it was still 2 weeks until Eurovision

I stayed for a while, at various times losing friends and finding others in the crowds, before queuing for about half an hour in a McDonalds to use the toilet. Afterwards I decided enough was enough and caught the train home.

Xavier and Josep getting in the party spirit

We partied in the flat the rest of the night, my third full night of such activity, but this time we knew we'd have to drag ourselves up in the morning(!) the next day for the traditional picnic.

Return to Finland

It had been four months since I left Finland, and I was desperate to go back. Many of my friends there were lucky enough to be staying for a whole year, so I had been feeling a bit unlucky with only getting to stay for five months. I needed an excuse to return to Finland, and luckily it came in the form of...Vappu!

The overly-happy musician in Helsinki continues to play...good to see that nothing's changed...

Many countries celebrate May Day (1st May), but none do it like the Finns. In Finland it is a celebration of the start of summer and the graduation of students from university, so it's a lot happier and livelier than the 'traditional' anti-globalisation protests we have here in London. Generally it's a week of partying and heavy drinking (which is pretty much how the Finns seem to celebrate everything) and that sounded great to me. After finding that eight of my friends from across europe were also heading back for Vappu, I booked my ticket with just a week's notice, and dragged my housemate along for extra company.

Chilling with Metzi back on the balcony, just like old times. It may look nice but it was almost freezing!

I didn't 'officially' have the time for a week-long holiday such as this, as exams were coming up at university, plus important coursework deadlines, but I knew it would be worth it. Walking back through Helsinki was such a wonderful experience...it seemed that nothing had changed, it was almost like I had never been away. I got the train, just as usual, back to Leppavaara where my friends were staying (right next to where I lived last year).

The things you do in the middle of the night...

The moment I walked through the door into my friend's flat, a beer was placed straight in my hands and the partying began. We literally didn't waste a second! It felt just like being home again. In fact the only shock was the temperature...in London we were having a phenomenal, record-breaking heatwave for late April of 26 degrees. Upon landing in Finland, it was 5 degrees and very, very windy!

Rob, the beer robot. Unfortunately I cannot post the dance.

The best part of the first night back was definitely the sauna...I forgot just how relaxing it is, especially in the freezing weather. After five or six goes in the sauna we headed back up to the flat and partied until late. It was nice to catch up with friends I hadn't seen in months and gave us a chance to warm up our livers for the main event of Vappu that would be kicking off in a couple of days...

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

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!