Finland Triptober 26

Well, Triptober has come to an end, and let me just say that it was exhausting! I just got back from Berlin last night. Before I get into that though, I need to talk about my roadtrip to Nordkapp, Norway.

I went on a road trip from the 16th until the 19th. It was alot of fun. I went with Gordon, Kristo, Daniel, and Charles. Charles and I were the only Americans, the others are all from different parts of Germany. We rented a car and started heading north. Westopped in Rovaniemi and saw the santa claus village and where the arctic circle is. Along the way we stopped at the most northern point of the European union, inari and ivalo, parts of the Norwegian fjords, and then finally Nordkapp. When we got there is was very rainy and windy. It was nice though. The mist everywhere was awesome and you could look over the cliffs into the arctic sea. There was a big monument that marks it as the most northern point of Europe. After Nordkapp, we drove down through hammerfest and some northern parts of Sweden. It was really pretty up there and we saw alot of reindeer and some moose. It was a really fun trip :)

My trip to Berlin was alot of fun, but definitely too short. The city is so huge! I saw all the major stuff like the Berlin wall, holocaust memorial, Brandenburg gate, humbolt university, the cathedral, 3 museums, checkpoint charlie and some smaller statues and monuments. The first day Charles and I were there we met a guy from Belfast, ireland who gives free tours of berlin and then you can give him a tip if you want. He was awesome and full of energy. He showed us where hitlers bunker was, all the major sites, recommended a good microbrewery, and even showed us the hotel where Michael Jackson held his baby out the window. It was awesome. He knew alot about thecity and it's history so it was really nice to have a guide. The other days we just went to museums and then the last day we were shown around by a local. We saw some cool parts of town that the average tourist probably wouldn't see. It wad really awesome, I had a great trip :)

Well, I guess that's all for now. I have my first exam this week and I am not looking forward to it at all!

Finland Triptober 18th

Well I haven't posted in a while, I kind of forget that I have a blog sometimes. Unfortunately, I'm in a car right now so I won't be able to put this up for a few days or a week when I'm back in oulu and have wifi. I have renamed October to be Triptober because I am going so many places this month. From the 9th to the 14th I was on a study trip for my architecture class.

We left Oulu by train at 11:50 pm. The train was really cool because I had never been on one before. We got to sleep in these cool cabins that had bunk beds in them. We were all on the same hall so we were all loud and stuff, It was like being on a high school trip. We got to Helsinki at like 9 am or something like that. We stayed in a hotel called Omena Hotelli (Apple Hotel). It was pretty weird there because there was no front desk. You just go in the building and book a room on this computer that's in there. And there is a phone in there that if you pick it up it calls the front desk somewhere else in town. It was weird. I don't know where you'd go if you needed more towels or something. The bathroom had a towel warmer. I guess it's a Scandinavian thing because they had it in sweden too. The hotel was weird too because sarah and i got stuck in the elevator. We were screaming and stuff, it was scary, but there was a sign about what to do if it gets stuck so it must happen all the time which i thought was kind of scary. While in Helsinki we walked around and looked at these old buildings and talked about the architecture and stuff. It was interesting. We saw the old university building, the library, the cathedral, the art museum which had a really cool Picasso exhibit, the house of estates, an old fire station, Eliel Saarinen's house,and an artists museum (see facebook for pictures).

After our second day in Helsinki we got on the ferry to go to Stockholm. I was expecting a small boat, but the Gabriella was a huge cruise ship. It was awesome. We ate Swedish meatballs on the ship and everything. We also bought a bottle of wine each (bad idea in hindsight) and had a little party. At some point, I got separated from everyone and I ended up meeting a bunch of really crazy characters while I was trying to find my friends. I finally just went back to my room though and they came back shortly after. We got to Stockholm around 830 am I think.

Once in Stockholm we took our luggage to the hotel (which was really nice and amazing) and took off to explore the city. Stockholm was really cool because they have alot of streets and buildings left over from medieval times. Stockholm is also a really pretty city because it is right on the water (like Helsinki). The first thing we did in stockholm was buy metro tickets and go to Drottningholm palace, which is where the Swedish royal family lives. It was pretty cool. We also saw a theatre that one of the queens had gotten built. After walking around on the cobblestone medieval streets, we went to the cathedral. That was pretty cool too, although the churches did get old after a while because they all just looked sort of the same. We saw stockholm's city hall after that. That was interesting too, especially the room where the town council meets because the ceiling is modled after the benches Ina Viking ship because Vikings used to turn their ships over and hold council under them. I thought it was pretty interesting.

We took a ferry again from Stockholm to Turku, this time it was the Amorella. This ferry ride wasn't as nice because we were on the 2nd floor and could hear the engines and stuff all night. We were also right by the water because I could hear the waves and feel the boat rocking and I was feeling kind of seasick. It was ok though.

Once we got to Turku we ate breakfast at a hotel across the street and then we took a bus tour of the city. I would have rather done a walking tour, but oh well. We did get to get out of the bus though and tour the important things like the cathedral, Turku castle and a handicrafts museum. I took alot of cool pictures during the trip, Scandinavia is really beautiful :). I think Norway is the most beautiful place I have seen so far, but I'll save that for another post!

Finland October 5th

So I woke up to see it snowing pretty hard outside. It was cool seeing snow in October. It's not too cold outside though so the snow is kind of slushy and melting. Not very fun to walk in, my shoes are wet.

The trip to Ranua Zoo was alot of fun. The drive up was really pretty because all the trees were covered in frost so thy were all white. I saw alot of cool animals, but the reindeer were the best. On the drive back there were about 20 reindeer standing in the road and then they all ran off into the woods. It was awesome. I'll upload pictures once facebook stops being lame. I got some cool souvenirs to bring home from the zoo, and lots of chocolate. Exciting stuff.

The weekend was fun, after the zoo I had dinner with Jack and we drank a bunch of wine and sang really ridiculous songs. Then there was a party upstairs in our building so we went up there for a while and we me some really cool Finnish guys. we ended up going to their apartment and hanging out until like 630 in the morning. It was a really good night, but the next day wasn't so fun, it was raining And cold so we just stayed inside and did nothing. It w as relaxing. Well, I guess that's all for now, I leave for my study trip on Friday, and then it's on to Norway and Germany! I can't wait!!!

Finland- October 3rd

Well, I'm about to go to Ranua Zoo, and I'm pretty excited. Getting to the bus was kind of scary because it's 27 degrees and there is ice everywhere. I slipped on some black ice on my bike and fell, it was scary and now my hand hurts, I'm gonna have a bruise :(. I couldn't imagine dealing with this all the time. Some Finns were saying that this cold has caught everyone by surprise because it's not usually this cold this early. Some people haven't been able to drive because they don't have their snow tires on their cars.