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

Stockholm Part II - The City

As I mentioned in the last post, we drifted off the boat in a daze, hungover and tired. But there was work to be done! We had just 6 hours to look around a city several times the size of Helsinki.

The old town

We originally intended to get the metro into the city centre, as the port is right on the outskirts but we couldn't find the station and ended up walking, which took about 30 minutes. It had the side effect of allowing us to see some of the non-tourist parts of the city.

The architecture is much nicer than Helsinki

After a much-needed breakfast consisting of a hotdog and coffee, we began walking around the city centre. As I said, Stockholm is much larger than Helsinki and more spread out. It's built across multiple islands linked by bridges, with canals adding to the confusion and it's also quite hilly in contrast with Finland's relatively flat capital.

A typical street in the old town

The city is very historic, with many old buildings and even an entire 'old town' on its own island. This was definitely the most attractive part of the city with its narrow winding alleys and cobbled streets. Unfortunately we didn't have time to visit any of the museums or major attractions, including the royal palace which really is a must when visiting Stockholm.

Old meets new

We climbed a couple of hills to get some rather impressive views of the city and walked around a few of the many districts, each with their own individual character.

Outside the royal palace

It was also quite interesting to get used to Swedish currency, the Kronor, with its confusing variety of coin sizes and unclear labelling of values. Luckily we didn't spend too much money in the shops during our short time there, although it was nice to see my first Burger King since leaving the UK!

Looking toward the old town

Despite feeling rather ill after the night before, we had a great time looking around the city. It's a shame that we didn't have more time, as really at least a few days are needed. I suppose I'll have to go back some time!

Me. In front of a statue. With a large group of Spaniards in the background.

We headed back to the port by metro and boarded the ship even more tired and exhausted than when we had left, ready for another relaxing evening of...insane partying!

You can view more of my photos from Stockholm in this gallery on my Flickr site. As for now...I'm going to Russia this evening! Expect more updates when (and if) I return in a week...

Stockholm Part I - The Cruise

A couple of weeks ago I went to Stockholm. Well...I say I went to Stockholm but to be honest I don't remember much of it. It was definitely one of the craziest and most intense experiences I've ever had. The events in this blog post are reconstructed from my hazy memories, the accounts of others and the mysterious photos I found on my camera and have no recollection of ever taking.

Our ship, the Silja Symphony

The trip was a two-night cruise to Stockholm, travelling there overnight on Sunday, giving us a day in Stockholm and returning on Monday night. The Helsinki-Stockholm cruise has a reputation for heavy alcohol consumption and all kinds of debauchery (the ship is nicknamed the 'love boat'), but this trip was actually even more special. Called the Porauslautta, it's held annually and is known amongst students as the biggest party of the year. There were over 1000 students on the ship with a duty free shop...not a good mix!

Inside the main lobby

We arrived at the ship 1 hour before sailing time and found the way to our cabin. The room was small but we didn't intend to spend much time in there. The boat itself was huge and had shops, restaurants, bars, a nightclub and a sauna (obviously).

Me on the deck in the freezing cold before leaving Helsinki

By the time the boat left I had already started drinking and my memories of the outward trip become vague shortly after the duty free shop opened. I vaguely remember being in the nightclub and then I apparently fell asleep in my bathroom after being led to my room. I know that the latter happened because my friend, ever the one to help, removed the camera from my pocket and took photos of me sprawled on the floor.

Looks like we're in the water...this is what happens when you get the cheapest cabins

I had met with the other exchange students and spent time wandering around the ship. Walking through the corridors where the cabins were was quite an experience, most of the doors were open and you couldn't get to the end without being pulled into a party.

Some of the exchange students (and one Finnish tutor)

There were all kinds of crazy things going on in the ship. People racing around with shopping trolleys, spontaneous parties being staged in the corridors and when heading to my room I was even narrowly missed by a stereo thrown out of a cabin which shattered into pieces on the floor. Apparently somebody didn't like the music!

Sitting in the smoking area, which seemed to become our home for much of the evening

All the cabins had a free telephone for communication between rooms so we had much fun prank calling each other and used this to arrange parties. I spent much of the night drifting between the different exchange students' cabins across various decks.

One of the cheerful decorations in the typically-Finnish tutors' cabin

I am reliably informed that the rest of the trip there was good fun and I am inclined to believe them, judging by the shape of everybody in the morning. We arrived in Stockholm at 9am and I awoke in my room with no recollection of how I got there, still feeling very tired and with a terrible hangover. But nothing was going to make me miss out on visiting the city!

The nightclub

Some people never made it off the ship and simply slept in their cabins for the 7 or so hours we had in the city. Mostly the Finns to be honest - they seem to have quite an apathy toward Sweden. None of the exchange students had been there before and were determined to look around so we headed out into Stockholm.

Hanging out by the staircase near our cabins

As I mentioned before, I awoke in Stockholm with little memory of the night before. But as the day went on, it started to dawn on me that I must have gone a bit over the top. Every fellow student I met over the course of the day (which was quite a few) seemed to greet me with something along the lines of either "Dave! You're alive!", or a rather amazed "You actually made it off the ship?!".

The state of our corridor during the first night

After an exhaustive day of sightseeing (which I'll write about later), we made it back to the ship. I was incredibly tired after only a couple of hours sleep the night before so I went to bed for a little while before the ship left.

I don't even want to think how much effort somebody made to do this

It took a couple of hours for the partying to start again as everybody was so tired and worn out from the last night and all the sightseeing. In fact I had proudly proclaimed "I will never drink again!" after arriving in Stockholm, but to be honest that was a rather short-lived promise. I decided to stick purely to beer for the journey home, which would give me a greater chance of staying concious than the insanely varied concoction of drinks the night before.

Yes, that is a man with a condom on his head which he inflated with his nose. This kind of thing happened more often than you might think.

My plan worked and I didn't pass out on the journey home, so I actually remember all of it and can safely say it was more enjoyable. I again spent time drifting from cabin to cabin, hanging out with the other students. I also had a rather lengthy discussion with a Finn about whiskey (he wrongly assumed I was an expert due to my Scottish roots), a debate about the death penalty, I learnt to swear in Spanish and I stole a hat from one of our tutors and was chased around the ship when I wouldn't give it back to her, amongst various other strange things that happened.

Departing from Stockholm in the evening

I actually stayed awake partying almost the entire night, only heading to bed after 8am and getting about an hour's sleep before the ship arrived in Helsinki! This gave me maybe 4 or so hours of sleep across the 3 days. Needless to say I was absolutely shattered when we got to Helsinki.

We managed to get sixteen people into one cabin meant for four

We walked in a daze all the way back from the harbour to the station with our heavy suitcases full of tax-free beer, not really noticing the heavy snow all over the city which hadn't been there before we left. Once I got home I jumped into my bed and slept for the rest of the day.

The ship docked in Helsinki

All in all, it was an amazing experience and probably the best party ever, if you can call it that. It was literally non-stop insanity over the two nights, with a rather cultured day of sightseeing sandwiched in between. It took me a couple of days to recover...but it was worth it!