Finland, Visit One
Being offered a place to stay in Helsinki with someone that I really enjoyed spending time with was a no-brainer as to where I would head next after Riga. So, on leaving Riga I decided to make a large dash to leave early morning and arrive in Helsinki by night fall. If it hadn't been for terribly ferry timetables and incompetent staff then I may have arrived early and not endured 5 hours of waiting at a port. Regardless, it was a nice thought to be heading towards Finland and not staying in a hostel. Seeing it was a very random descion on my part to suddenly depart for Scandanavia a buzz of excitement ran through my entire body.
My bus from Riga left at the rediculous time of 6.15am or something and I arrived in Tallinn just after lunch. The lovely surprise was the abundance of ferry terminals to choose from, as all the ferry company's convienently were not housed all in the same place. Staff inside the first terminal I ventured into were very unhelpful and surly but I was tired and could not be bothered 'shopping around', so I was off to get on a ferry not leaving for a very long time...the travel time was also double that of any fast ferry on offer. After a botched attempt at phoning home, I settled down for the long wait till I left...which suprisingly didn't feel that long after all. The ferry was crazy though...it was like Highpoint on water. Shops everywhere, bars, cafeterias...all for a trip that was only going to take three hours. Didn't make sense to me but what does in Scandanavia: Where everything costs something and nothing is for free...yes I am saying the same thing in one sentence but it has a nicer ring that way.
Finally arriving in Helsinki at around 7.30pm, Anni was there to greet me and guide me to her student apartment on the other side of town. Ahh the wonders of student housing. Free food for students, free sauna, free washing and somewhere to stay. All for a lovely fat sum of zero. Leaching off student accomadation. Well it if for all those times that I was told I am not a student when asking for student discounts. I am a bloody student Europe...why do you not believe me?
Helsinki in one word is: Ugly. While I still had a very enjoyable time there, that can only be because I was with a wonderful person. The city itself has very little to offer the everyday tourist and doesn't make you feel any better about the large prices of everything that you are paying everyday to get around and see it. Nearly $4AUS a trip on the tram? Crazy. Even so, I did some interesting things with Anni including a trip to the Modern Art Musuem which was fantastic and also a trip to the Winter Garden...a quaint 'n' cosy greenhouse with plants from around the world.
Another good thing about staying with Anni though was I finally had a nice change to hostel living and managed to meet many people my age also living in the block. The parties really reminded me of home and the people were lots of fun. It is always fascinating to be able to talk to the locals and get a feel for how they do things in their own country.
My biggest cultural experience was Finnish Sauna. Something that every Finn knows and usually does on a regular basis. I will try and explain it the best I can but I don't think words can really describe how amazing it is till it has been experienced first hand. While you are suppose to head in naked all together I could not bring myself to do that which Anni thought was rediculous. I told her that it wasn't something that is usual in Australia and being naked around friends is not something that is abundant in our society. Anni couldn't understand it as she goes to sauna naked with a lot of her friends and even with her family, including her brother and sister. Even so, Anni understood me going in with my 'panties on' as Anni liked to put it. The weird thing is, I was actually embarrased but at the same time relieved to be wearing some kind of covering. I was torn in two between new experiences and my own traditional views. It is rediculous to care about what is underneath your clothes but maybe there is an endless story (ahh okay, enough jokes about Shakkira)...seriously though, we are all human after all with the same biological makeup.
Back to the description. The sauna is made up of three levels...similar to that of a stadium set up. In the corner opposite the door is a heater system with hot coals on the top and on the second level (well doesn't matter where this is really) is a large bucket of water and a smaller object used to collect water out of the bucket. Anni and me would usually sit in the sauna with myself being on the same side as the coals, as it is a slightly cooler. Then one of us would proceed to throw scoopfuls of water onto the hot coals which would then in turn evaporate the water and fill the room with clear steam...hence the room would get hotter. The more scoops the hotter it got. A beer in one hand is also part of the tradition as it apparently 'helps you breath'. I got pretty use to it after being in a sauna a while. Even got the temperature over one hundred. Anni was impressed...whooo! When we'd had enough, the both of us would go outside either to sit on in the cold talking OR (and this is the fun part if it is possible) roll or run around in the snow. I made a snow angel once and there is a photo to prove it. You then go back into sauna and the feeling is even more amazing than the first time because of the hot/cold change. See how much I wrote about it...I love it and I have never felt so clean and relaxed in all my life. I am yet to try jumping in a freezing lake after being in sauna which people have assured me is a great feeling.
There were other things though that made my time really enjoyable. Anni is a brilliant piano player and singer, so both of us had sleepless nights staying up and singing away to all kinds of songs, inventing harmonies and all the works. She even had a clarinet which I picked up for a play after so many years and was suprised to find that I remember a vast amount. I can even remember what the notes are and it was good fun to play along to piano.
Lahti and Orimatilla (spelling is most likely wrong)
About 100km's away from Helinki, Anni's country home lay as her father is a farmer and I was told there was an old fashioned sauna that wasn't heated by electricity but coals. HA! Didn't need the sauna incentive to go because getting out of Helsinki was enough. The other exciting prospect was that a large amount of snow had fallen around that area so it would be my first real trip into proper snow and not just 'city snow'.
I do not really have much to write about them as it was just relaxing and pleasant and nothing more. Brilliant times were had and I met more people including Anni's sister, brother and father. One thing to note though: Sauna with coals is much nicer and it was a proper one with no modern technology as it was over 150 years old. Funny to think that a sauna is older than my house but that's Europe for you!
The biggest decision that was made at Anni's house though was where the BOTH of us would be heading next. Originally the plan was to go to Lapland, in the north of Finland but that was ditched after we found out the prices. It would cost about 35Euro to travel by train (12 hours) and the hostel would cost abotu 35Euro a night...whereas if compared to Sweden, a 36 Euro plane ride (50 minutes) and 24Euro a night hostels in Stockholm, the latter seemed much more logical. On returning to Helsinki we prepared for our trip to Stockholm...one of the most spontaneuous travel moves I have done on this trip. Waking up in the morning and finding out the plane tickets are booked before headnig off that night...ahh very exciting (notice how everything is exciting at the moment?).
My bus from Riga left at the rediculous time of 6.15am or something and I arrived in Tallinn just after lunch. The lovely surprise was the abundance of ferry terminals to choose from, as all the ferry company's convienently were not housed all in the same place. Staff inside the first terminal I ventured into were very unhelpful and surly but I was tired and could not be bothered 'shopping around', so I was off to get on a ferry not leaving for a very long time...the travel time was also double that of any fast ferry on offer. After a botched attempt at phoning home, I settled down for the long wait till I left...which suprisingly didn't feel that long after all. The ferry was crazy though...it was like Highpoint on water. Shops everywhere, bars, cafeterias...all for a trip that was only going to take three hours. Didn't make sense to me but what does in Scandanavia: Where everything costs something and nothing is for free...yes I am saying the same thing in one sentence but it has a nicer ring that way.
Finally arriving in Helsinki at around 7.30pm, Anni was there to greet me and guide me to her student apartment on the other side of town. Ahh the wonders of student housing. Free food for students, free sauna, free washing and somewhere to stay. All for a lovely fat sum of zero. Leaching off student accomadation. Well it if for all those times that I was told I am not a student when asking for student discounts. I am a bloody student Europe...why do you not believe me?
Helsinki in one word is: Ugly. While I still had a very enjoyable time there, that can only be because I was with a wonderful person. The city itself has very little to offer the everyday tourist and doesn't make you feel any better about the large prices of everything that you are paying everyday to get around and see it. Nearly $4AUS a trip on the tram? Crazy. Even so, I did some interesting things with Anni including a trip to the Modern Art Musuem which was fantastic and also a trip to the Winter Garden...a quaint 'n' cosy greenhouse with plants from around the world.
Another good thing about staying with Anni though was I finally had a nice change to hostel living and managed to meet many people my age also living in the block. The parties really reminded me of home and the people were lots of fun. It is always fascinating to be able to talk to the locals and get a feel for how they do things in their own country.
My biggest cultural experience was Finnish Sauna. Something that every Finn knows and usually does on a regular basis. I will try and explain it the best I can but I don't think words can really describe how amazing it is till it has been experienced first hand. While you are suppose to head in naked all together I could not bring myself to do that which Anni thought was rediculous. I told her that it wasn't something that is usual in Australia and being naked around friends is not something that is abundant in our society. Anni couldn't understand it as she goes to sauna naked with a lot of her friends and even with her family, including her brother and sister. Even so, Anni understood me going in with my 'panties on' as Anni liked to put it. The weird thing is, I was actually embarrased but at the same time relieved to be wearing some kind of covering. I was torn in two between new experiences and my own traditional views. It is rediculous to care about what is underneath your clothes but maybe there is an endless story (ahh okay, enough jokes about Shakkira)...seriously though, we are all human after all with the same biological makeup.
Back to the description. The sauna is made up of three levels...similar to that of a stadium set up. In the corner opposite the door is a heater system with hot coals on the top and on the second level (well doesn't matter where this is really) is a large bucket of water and a smaller object used to collect water out of the bucket. Anni and me would usually sit in the sauna with myself being on the same side as the coals, as it is a slightly cooler. Then one of us would proceed to throw scoopfuls of water onto the hot coals which would then in turn evaporate the water and fill the room with clear steam...hence the room would get hotter. The more scoops the hotter it got. A beer in one hand is also part of the tradition as it apparently 'helps you breath'. I got pretty use to it after being in a sauna a while. Even got the temperature over one hundred. Anni was impressed...whooo! When we'd had enough, the both of us would go outside either to sit on in the cold talking OR (and this is the fun part if it is possible) roll or run around in the snow. I made a snow angel once and there is a photo to prove it. You then go back into sauna and the feeling is even more amazing than the first time because of the hot/cold change. See how much I wrote about it...I love it and I have never felt so clean and relaxed in all my life. I am yet to try jumping in a freezing lake after being in sauna which people have assured me is a great feeling.
There were other things though that made my time really enjoyable. Anni is a brilliant piano player and singer, so both of us had sleepless nights staying up and singing away to all kinds of songs, inventing harmonies and all the works. She even had a clarinet which I picked up for a play after so many years and was suprised to find that I remember a vast amount. I can even remember what the notes are and it was good fun to play along to piano.
Lahti and Orimatilla (spelling is most likely wrong)
About 100km's away from Helinki, Anni's country home lay as her father is a farmer and I was told there was an old fashioned sauna that wasn't heated by electricity but coals. HA! Didn't need the sauna incentive to go because getting out of Helsinki was enough. The other exciting prospect was that a large amount of snow had fallen around that area so it would be my first real trip into proper snow and not just 'city snow'.
I do not really have much to write about them as it was just relaxing and pleasant and nothing more. Brilliant times were had and I met more people including Anni's sister, brother and father. One thing to note though: Sauna with coals is much nicer and it was a proper one with no modern technology as it was over 150 years old. Funny to think that a sauna is older than my house but that's Europe for you!
The biggest decision that was made at Anni's house though was where the BOTH of us would be heading next. Originally the plan was to go to Lapland, in the north of Finland but that was ditched after we found out the prices. It would cost about 35Euro to travel by train (12 hours) and the hostel would cost abotu 35Euro a night...whereas if compared to Sweden, a 36 Euro plane ride (50 minutes) and 24Euro a night hostels in Stockholm, the latter seemed much more logical. On returning to Helsinki we prepared for our trip to Stockholm...one of the most spontaneuous travel moves I have done on this trip. Waking up in the morning and finding out the plane tickets are booked before headnig off that night...ahh very exciting (notice how everything is exciting at the moment?).