kimberly.: Finland

October 17th-19th, 2008…..

Tampere Finland

Finland. The land of a thousand lakes. This trip was not like anything I’ve done since I’ve been here. It was more like a vacation and much less touristy. It was pretty nice. We actually got to learn about the culture, the food, and some of the language. We experienced what the locals actually do. It was really neat. We visited the city of Tampere. Tampere is an industrial city so there were lots of old factories which made for much different scenery. Tampere is also situated between two lakes and forest. The leaves were all changing colors and falling; it was beautiful! Upon arriving we explored the town a bit and went to an old observation tower. It had a great view of the city and the water. And it was nice to drive on the right side of the road again, it feels safer :) After coming down from the tower we had a snack of a delicious doughnut. If Ireland is famous for Guinness, then Tampere should be famous for their doughnuts. It was the best thing I’ve ever eaten. I had like four more throughout the weekend. Yummy! Then later that night we went to our friend’s house and met a bunch of his friends. The house had so much personality. There was something on every inch of the wall and you could spend all night just looking at everything. His dad has been collecting little nick nacks for many many years and just adorned the house. The basement was like something out of a movie. There was a disco ball and a few jukeboxes; a pool table and big video games; a slot machine and many other little trinkets. Then one thing that is installed in every Finnish house, apartment, and basically everywhere- The Sauna; even our friend’s one bedroom apartment had a built in sauna. So we of course tried that out. It was very nice; really hot, but very relaxing. On our second day we did a bit more sightseeing. Then went into the city center and watched a little outdoor rock concert in the main square and visited a huge market. We followed that by eating a traditional Finnish lunch of blood sausages and milk. Hmm, well, the blood sausage wasn’t nearly as bad as I had imagined, I finished all of mine; but it still wasn’t very good- no meat, just blood, grains, and mush. But it was quite the experience. We then were going to go to see a floorball game which is one of the most popular sports in the country but it got cancelled due to illness of many of the players so we went and watched some on TV. We also watched a couple Finnish films. They were interesting, very different from any American movies. Saturday night we drove through town to look at the lights they put up each winter along Main Street. We then checked out the huge skyscraper observation tower. It was cool to go at night and see all of lights and the city from above. On our last day Michelle and I wandered around on our own. We went to a huge, beautiful park and then bumped into this really cute little market type thing. There were sheep everywhere and little stands up everything was handmade. It was really unique. There we enjoyed some Finnish crepes and jam and I got a handmade sheep wool hat; it’s nice and warm which was perfect because Finland was very cold! We then explored the city a bit more and made a stop at the store to try a variety of Finnish sweets. Some good, some bad, and some very odd. They have this candy called Salminak that is very popular in the country; but to me it’s sick and wrong. It’s candy but it’s like a black licorice type flavor, that is salty. Weirdest thing ever! But they did have delicious chocolate! We also visited the Tampere Cathedral that had a beautiful nave that was all frescos and huge arched ceilings and gorgeous stained glass. It was really cool. For dinner we had another traditional Finnish meal. We had some pea soup and rye bread. It was surprisingly very good. I hate peas and definitely pea soup, but this stuff was fantastic, looked gross though. The trip was really neat and I learned a lot about the country and culture. I also learned some interesting random facts. Did you know that Santa Clause lives in Finland in an area that is the closest to the North Pole called the Laplands. Yep, Santa lives in Finland. And Nokia isn’t some Japanese phone brand; it was actually came from Tampere’s neighboring town of Nokia. Kinda cool. All in all, the trip was great. I met lots of wonderful people, got to know a new culture and even learned a little bit of Finnish.