Finland, a land of rare natural beauty and alcoholics...

The Finnish people are probably one of the most interesting groups of people that I have ever encountered. In all of my travels I don't think I have ever come across a group of people that are so unique. Reserved, friendly, intellectual, funny, confident, slightly unstable, alcoholics. All of these words can be used to describe Finns but they do not fully capture the Finnish essence. All I can say is that after spending a bit over a week in Finland the thing I liked most about the trip was just observing the people.

On this trip I travelled with 3 good friends of mine from Vienna. Morgan (Texas), Jasper (Amsterdam), and Satu (Helsinki). We sort of threw the trip together over a few beers in an Irish Pub and late night Ryanair bookings but everything worked out and we all managed to get organised enough to meet at Sudbahnhof at 6pm on the 2nd of November. We had a 12 hour stopover in Frankfurt Airport but managed to content ourselves by playing table tennis, frisbee, and just generally giving the security guards something to do before trying to get a few hours of sleep.

Our arrival in Finland was quite exciting although Satu may not agree with my sentiments. :P With mild turbulence and snow swirling around the plane we descended down to a small airport near Tampere. The pilot managed to keep the plane quite stable however at the last minute he pulled out of the landing and the plane suddenly started ascending again. We circled the airport and came in for a second shot at it, this time with every one's nerves a little on edge. The pilot touched down at the very beginning of the runway and immediately did whatever it is that pilots do to slow down a plane. However it didn't seem to have much effect on our speed and we carried on down the runway at close to full speed. Nearing the end he used the wheel breaks and thankfully they didn't slide on the icy runway and we abruptly stopped at the very other end of the runway. It was an exciting welcome to Finland and I felt quite charged as I stepped down from the plane onto the snow covered ground. Then I smiled, bent down and formed a snow ball and waited patiently for Morgan to exit the plane... :P

Helsinki
Helsinki is one of the smallest capital cities in the European Union and it shows... It has a number of really beautiful churches and it's nice to walk along the waterfront and see all the islands just off the coast. Satu is from Helsinki so it was awesome to have her to take us around and point out all the interesting places. We also did a bit of shopping, saw the Borat movie and checked out a few pubs while we were there. Interestingly Satu seemed to know personally just about every Finnish celebrity that we saw in magazines or on TV. From the main fashion magazine she knew both the people on the front cover, she had partied with the rapper on MTV, she went to school with the Olympic skier on the news... etc... I'm still not sure if it is because Helsinki is small or if Satu just knows everyone... :P While we were in Helsinki we stayed with Satu's Mum who lives about 20 minutes out of the city in a really quite district near some lakes. She even lent us her car to do some more exploring so a very big thank you to her for kindly letting us crash in her house and also for the really delicious home cooked meals that we were treated to every night!

Tallinn
We took a ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn and spent 2 days exploring the old town. On the day we arrived there was a pretty strong snow storm so we spent a lot of the day seeking refuge in restaurants and bars. It is really cheap to eat out in the city and we had some awesome meals! (a nice change from student cooking, which usually includes pasta and some form of cheap meat...) We had a really nice dinner at a place called Old Hansa right next to the main square so if anyone reading this is planning on going to Tallinn definitely check it out!

Our sightseeing included visiting the ex KGB Headquarters in the city where the basement windows have been bricked over. We also checked out the old city wall and the castle and saw a few really nice churches. However the highlight for me was having a snow fight with some random English musicians and then building a snowman/snowcat. :P As Dan has recently discovered in Canada, there is no sweeter feeling than nailing someone in the head with a snowball! :P

Turku
Our final stop on our trip was the smallish town of Turku on the Southwestern coast of Finland. This is the place where Justin (My best friend, also from Perth) has been studying for the last 9 months. It was really great to catch up with him and we had a lot of really fun times in the 3 days we spent with him. The first night we arrived there was a student Beach Themed Party on so we spent most of the night there before checking out a pub in the centre of town. It was cool to meet some of his friends and see the differences between student life in Finland and Vienna.

We did a bit of sightseeing around the centre of town however Turku isn't exactly a tourist haven so there wasn't a lot to see. Justin did take us to an island on the archipelago though which was really nice and we got to see some of the famous Finnish scenery. One of the islands we visited had a sauna on it right next to the ocean so we tried the typical Finnish tradition. This involved going in the sauna for 15 minutes and then running down to the ocean and diving into the very cold water! The temperature difference was somewhere around 70 degrees Celsius so you get a bit of a shock each time! Doing my best to fit in I tried to stay in the sauna as long as I could but when I started to feel light headed I thought I better get out for a break. Stepping down onto the next level I slipped and fell flat on my back to the amusement/pity of the 20 or so Finnish people in the sauna... With a sore back and sorer pride I ran for the ocean and dived under. For those of you who don't know dunking your head in 6 degree water isn't the most pleasant experience. :P Needless to say it didn't really help my light headed feeling although it did hide me from the amused gazes of all the people there. :P

On our last day in Finland we took a train to Tampere and spent a few hours exploring the centre of the town before finishing our trip off in an all you can eat restaurant! :) It was a nice end to a great trip and I am really happy that I got the chance to visit Justin in Turku and get to know the Finnish people a little better. I didn't say understand because frankly, they are still a bit of a mystery to me...

---

Videos from "Finland, a land of rare natural beauty and alcoholics...":

---

---

---