Finally, after a long super-tour of some of Europe, we ended up in our final [semi-final] destination: Helsinki, Finland. a warm 1 degree, we were happy that it was not -30 degrees Celsius as we were told it should be. We spent a great New Years night in Helsinki, party party party, with Ilona, Anna and their friends. Traditional food, and vodka with the family then off to a Club. :)Then over the next day to Turku our final final destination, where we where to "study" for the next 4 to 5 months. Turku is the oldest and fifth largest city in Finland and has been designated the European Capital of Culture for the year 2011. It is a nice town, with the most beautiful women on this planet earth. I swear, Finnish girls are beautiful! Blond, blue eyes, tall. Muah! I took some pictures of the area, my village, my room, and some other snowy things, including the frozen river, of course they can be viewed at the web album.
So far it's been great. To give you a run down on Finnish culture and life:
Finland: it's cold, this is the north pole, no seriously, this country is one of the northern-most, it
touches and passes further north of the "Arctic Circle"! They say in winter, around February or March the temperature drops to -30 degrees Celsius, the Baltic sea freezes over so thick that you can drive a car on it. :| Now that's cold. It's also quite cloudy, dark and depressing at most times. In core-winter, you may be lucky to get 4-5 hours of sunlight per day, in the far north, the sun doesn't rise for days! This also, is the home to Santa Claus, no seriously, his house is in the north, we plan to visit of course. And, the northern lights can be seen from here to the north [that's just to show how much into the north pole we are].
Finnish people are quiet, and depressed :), not all of them, but most are shy. They enjoy their "sauna" - after all, they invented the word. A common Tradition is: after sauna, you run outside and dive into the freezing Baltic sea, which I've tried already [in the waters in the picture to the left] and it's quite insane, and nice - NO it's quite freezing, [crazy people]. They're known also for their heavy drinking [Finlandia? no, that's their exported vodka, Finns usually drink something better. Koskenkorva Viina?]Anyways, Welcome to the second chapter of my Erasmus adventure: Welcome to Scandinavia!
Picture Links:
Helsinki: New Years
Turku: Åbo: Culture Capital
