December month has been a really remarkable
month for me! I have spent Christmas in London UK. However, just
before I went back, I have decided to visit few places in Scandinavia and
explore the neighboring countries. I have to admit I have never thought before
I come here that I would be visiting so many places. This is also an
opportunity to mention that I have also visited many places within Finland too.
I have visited Tampere several times, Turku (the old Finnish capital) and of
course Helsinki many times. Not to mention that actually the region where I
live (Satakunta) full of beautiful gems that are absolutely a must to see,
similar to Yyteri beach, Reposaari, and of course Rauma that I have mentioned
in the first post.
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| Tampere |
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| Tampere |
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| Tampere |
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| Turku |
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| Turku |
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| Turku |
I have to say that I have been so lucky to
have Krista, a lovely Finnish friend who I met in Pori. I met Krista when I
first arrived in Pori through Roosa another friend who was on an exchange in
London 2 years ago. Krista is a fashion student in Stockholm Sweden, she invited
me twice to Sweden and she was an amazing host and a perfect guide that showed
me Stockholm and its beauty thoroughly. I cannot thank her enough for her
incredible hospitality. Krista took me around the city, and its beautiful
districts, she also showed me her fashion school, which I found it really
interesting. Stockholm consists of many islands connected by many bridges, so
you can see the sea wherever you go, it has also a beautiful old center called
Gamla Stan that has small cozy streets full of shops, cafes, restaurants and
bars. I loved Stockholm so much to the extent that I visited it twice! The
similarity between both countries Finland and Sweden is astonishing, especially
to the west of Finland and its cities such as Turku. There are cities in the
west of Finland that their first speaking language is actually Swedish similar
to Åland Island and Vasa and many others, even where I live Pori, which is Björneborg
(the Swedish name), has a Swedish school and a Swedish club. Finland therefore is
considered to be a bilingual country that has two official languages Finnish and
Swedish. Swedish language is a compulsory subject that all students has to
study in schools, even some jobs require good understanding of Swedish
similar to nursing. Nurses in Finland should have adequate level of Swedish
before embarking any job dealing with public. Wherever you go in Finland you
find signs in Finnish and Swedish. Not to mention some of the food is very
similar, similar to eating plenty fish especially salmon, cinnamon buns with coffee (Pulla in Finland and Bullar in Swedish). Flights from Helsinki are incredibly cheap, as cheap as €25 in you
book it in advance of course. I have used only Norwegian airline. Norwegian is
a cheap airline that flies to many destinations around Scandinavia; it has
excellent service compare to other cheap airlines. I have also used the boat
once to see the archipelago between Turku and Stockholm, which was definitely
worth it.
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| Stockholm |
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| Stockholm |
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| Stockholm |
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| Gamla Stan - Stockholm |
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| Swedish Bullar ( Cinnamon Buns) |
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| Taken the Ferry from Stockholm to Turku |
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| Sunrise over the archipelago between Stockholm and Turku |
So here was the plan in the mission to
explore the rest of Scandinavia cheaply and efficiently. Since I was planning
to go back to London anyway for Christmas I thought I can take advantage of the
situation and reduce the cost of travelling by stopping over in places, the
cost of a flight from Helsinki to London was about € 100 while a flight from
Helsinki to Oslo or Copenhagen was around € 30 more or less, therefore I have
decided to stop over on the way going to and back from London. On the way from
Helsinki to London I decided to do two stopovers. Since I have been really
fascinated about the life above the artic circle and since I come from a sunny
Mediterranean background where I don’t see the snow ever (That’s before I moved
to the UK 8 years ago), I decided to go to the beautiful artic city Tromsø. So
many people asked me why Tromsø in particular? and how I come across it?. The
honest answer is that I come across it through Google maps. I was playing on my
iPhone one day, looking at this north part of the world and all of the sudden I
found the name Tromsø, it attracted my interest. I typed the name in Goodge
pictures, I read some information on Wikipedia then I looked at visit Tromsø
website and instantly, I fell in love, I had the urge to visit this place. I
wanted initially stop over in Oslo just for the day before I fly to London, then
it just came to my mind why don’t I stop over in Oslo and instead of flying
directly to London I fly to Tromsø and then London.
That was the plan, and in fact it went so
well! First, I went to Helsinki after I finished my first exchange period.
Going to Helsinki was very emotional for me, as I had to say good-bye to my
lovely friend Judith at the airport. Judith is a beautiful clever physiotherapy
student who was flying back home for good to Belgium. We met in Finland at the
beginning of august 2013. We learned Finnish together; we went to many Saunas,
lakes and visited many places in Finland. We cycled around Pori together, we had
coffee, dinners together. We had lovely movie nights at home with popcorn and
wine. We even danced together! It was sad to see her go through the security
gates at Helsinki airport and say good-bye. In this exchange period, I made
great friends that are truly friends for life and I will always cherish these
memories forever.
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| Me and Judith |
It was nice to be in Helsinki to experience
Christmas spirit in Finland. I slept over there and early in the morning I took
a bus to the airport, it was effortless, everything was smooth, the flight took
off to Oslo, it was so quick, I have arrived, picked my bags, and off I went to
explore this city.
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| Christmas Tree in Helsinki |
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| Christmas Decoration at Stockman the biggest store in Helsinki |
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| Of course I visited Fazer for brunch |
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| Christmas inside Fazer |
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| Fazer Christmas Sweets |
Oslo was so organized; everything was so
clear and easy to find out. It didn’t take me long to put my bags for a day to
be kept for me at the airport and then I took the express train to the city
centre in just 20 minutes! I couldn’t believe how friendly and informative the
people were there, which is no surprise for me, since I’m in Scandinavia.
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| Oslo |
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| Opera House Oslo |
I just had an amazing time in Oslo, I went
around the city centre, I went for food, visited the famous opera house and of
course I had a chance to see Oslo Christmas market which is one of a kind. Soon my day has come to an end in Oslo and I
had to head back to the airport to fly to wonderful Tromsø. I spent around 8
hours in Oslo center, which I thought it was enough time to see the main
attraction of Oslo, but I will definitely visit again to explore it more.
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| Oslo Town Hall |
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| Oslo Christmas Market |
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Oslo Christmas Market
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Tromsø was a magical place that I have
loved so much and definitely I will be going there again and again! It exceeded
my expectation, the people were friendly, the city was so charming, with its
fjords, snow and its incredible sky that sun never rose during the time I
visited, still the sky was bright with beautiful twilight for hours during the
day, the snow made everything bright even at night. There is no way to describe Tromsø better than
seeing the video that I have made for this wonderful city.
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| Norway-Tromsø |
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| Norway-Tromsø |
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| Tromsø Harbour |
Christmas time in London was a great
opportunity to relax and reflect on my experiences and spend a quality time
with my boyfriend who I missed so much. Sadly time has passed so quickly and it
was the time to go back to Finland, on the way back I have stopped over in Copenhagen.
I stayed there only one night; I have managed to see the main attractions in
this cozy city. Copenhagen was actually
a unique city that I felt that it is slightly different from the rest of
Scandinavian cities. There is a huge amount of bikes everywhere you go in the
city. Despite the fact it was cold outside, still you see people outside
sitting in café shops, bars and restaurants; people seem to be more outgoing
and relaxed, where in the rest of Scandinavia especially Finland people tend to
stay indoors in the winter and be out all the time in spring and summer. I have
also noticed the use of drugs among the young people to the extent that
Copenhagen has a district called Green Light District or Christiana where you
can buy and consume recreational drugs. Despite the fact that smoking indoors
is illegal, you still can see a lot of smokers inside the bars. That actually
has shocked me! It did strike me that this city is a unique mix between
European and Scandinavian cities. Where Alcohol monopoly exist in Finland,
Sweden and Norway (Where you can buy hard alcohol similar to wine and liquors
only from government shops at certain times) this was not the case in Denmark.
Also in Finland you don’t see any adverts of hard liquors or cigarettes you
don’t even see the cigarettes in the shops. In ordered to buy tobacco in
Finland you need to ask for a number that represent the brand name and you
don’t get to see any brands of labels of tobacco on display. In, Denmark this
was not the case, tobacco products were displayed in the stores with no
restriction. Demark seems to be a unique Scandinavia country to compare the
rest of Nordic countries.
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| Copenhagen |
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| Copenhagen |
After I finish my Nordic tour, it was the
time to go back to my lovely apartment in Pori and my quiet life. It seemed
that everything has changed, the weather overnight turned to be below zero
degree, everything turned white, the sun starts to come again and stay longer.
New exchange students have arrived, I’m no longer in classes anymore. I go to
the hospital every day from Monday to Friday for my practice, which I enjoy
very much, I have also started to attend Finnish classes to be able to
communicate with patients.
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| Pori in late November before leaving to London for Christmas |
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| Porin before I left |
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| Beautiful morning along the river in Pori- End of November |
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| Sunrise in Pori - End of November |
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| Pori in snow after I came back |
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| Pori in snow |
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| Pori in snow |
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| Pori in snow when the river froze |
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| Pori with the frozen river |
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| My shadow on my bike on the frozen river- Opposite is kirjoluoto park where I used to suntan in the summer |
Talking about friends that are worth gold
who I met in my exchange period! One of them is Jinny, smart clever determined
girl. She is originally from Thailand and lived and studied in Germany for many
years. She successfully managed to get an internship in Helsinki after she
finished her exchange period in Pori. I met Jinny the same way I met lovely
Judith through the Finnish language course in august. Jinny is the only friend from
the Finnish language course who stayed with me. We live apart, I live in Pori
and she lives in Helsinki where she is doing her internship, however we always
keep in touch and I have already visited her twice in Helsinki where we had an
amazing time.
So far I have managed to see so many places,
meet amazing people from many countries and stay in touch with them. I have
learned so much about countries and their governmental policies and legislations
in order to protect their citizens. I have now a very rich experience that I
thought I would never have.
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| Helsinki |
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| Helsinki |
Click here to see My Visits to Helsinki Video
Sine you know that I love food so much I thought I would share some of the beautiful food I experienced in Hakaniemi Kaupahalli ( Market Hall ) in Helsinki.
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| My delicious lunch ! Followed by browed coffee with pulla |
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| Me- No comment |
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| Me and Jinny |
