Lapland, reindeer, and irresponsible sled-boarding...

The next couple of weeks spelled a revision period for me, as, like as was for many, Lapland was approaching amid several exams I had no intention of studying for, but in the end I succumbed to the necessity and got about learning the Finnish (which was by no means easy). A couple of hardcore hours with local Chinese genius Yanyan and I was ready. Already feeling the knowledge draining away as I packed for Lapland (my most highly anticipated trip of the year) and made my way to the train station with some friends. I knew there were few people on the trip I knew although this did not bother me as in fact some of the best friends I'd made I met in Russia alone. The trip started in the evening where we took a night train to Rovaniemi, the capital of Finnish Lapland. Once I had found two guys (a Frenchman and a Lithuanian) to share a room with we played some cards and then hit the sack as we wanted some level of sleep.

We awoke the next morning to find the outside a beautiful white with trees as far as the eye could see, although this did make a lot of sense as we were sitting on the railway some 45 minutes outside of Rovaniemi. The locomotive had broken down and they had to send another one to pick us up. After this minor delay we arrived in Rovaniemi where the bus was waiting for us, and we loaded our luggage on board and subjected ourselves to the same treatment for the 5 hour (so far as I can remember) drive north to the small town of Inari, Finnish Lapland. The drive was somewhat uneventful, interrupted solely by a stop for beer and food, and the presence of a moose on the road, however to credit it with such a description would be a disrespect, as the nature we travelled though was phenomenal. Either side of the road small tress stood, covered in snow as the real winter began to come into it's own, giving a strong sense of isolation and oneness with the world. I cannot speak for others, but it definitely had a profound affect on me. On arrival it was, of course, dark. We dragged our bags to the main building, which was not much more than a large cabin, and collected our keys.

Not knowing anyone before I can on this trip, I found myself in the most legendary cabin I've ever seen along with a couple of Dutchmen and a German. Another cabin of four next door held their friends in the shape of two Austrians, a Swiss, and another German. These had been the loud ones on the bus, and would proceed to contribute to a hilarious week. Thanks to all of you! That evening beers and pizza formed our stable meal and naturally, bedtime occurred at around 3:00 am. Now my exact memory does not serve me so well on the exact proceedings of the events that week, however I will endeavour in no particular order to tell a day by day story of the antics we got up to.

Saarisleka is a resort deep in the Finnish Lapland where it is possible to ski, amongst other things. We arrived at the resort with the twilight of Nordic winter in full force, and disembarked from the bus. The remaining contingency of the trip (all except us) stayed on the bus and went to ski for the day. We had other plans. We conveniently found some small plastic snow sledges which were free to borrow, and we proceeded to explore the area, using the sledges at full effect, covering large amounts of ground in just a short time. Kevin (one of the Dutchmen) decided to use his as a snowboard, which proved highly successful for him but rather less so for me when I decided to give it a try as well. We came upon a snowmobile rental shop and decided to check it out. It transpired that it was both possible, and affordable to rent one each and go on a trek right into the heart of the wildlife, away from all forms of human life. We signed up. The next hour proved to be amazing. Following in a line, we rode through the heart of the wilderness stopping occasionally for pictures. In one particularly flat section we all gave the gas a squirt and I am both proud and slightly embarrassed to say that I reached 95 kph, holding on for dear life on what was clearly an adrenaline rush.

After returning we went to eat, finding a very authentic restaurant and yumming down some heavenly burgers. We then proceeded to find a sledging hill, upon which the light of the lamps and the rapidly dying sun provided visibility to a point about 100 metres from the bottom. We climbed all the way to the top, perhaps 500 metres from the bottom and in almost complete darkness bombed down the track hanging on for dear life, guiding ourselves only by the darkness that symbolised the trees at the edge of the track, and as we reached the bottom some quick, dangerous manœuvres were necessary in order to avoid the small children at the bottom. Tiring, cold, and extremely fun. However, the day was not over and we returned to our cabins for a sauna session (we had one in our cabin), an awesome spaghetti bolognaise provided by Kevin and I and some beer, whiskey and card games afterwards. Another late bed time.

Thoroughly tired, day 2 came in the form of a bus tour around the northern territory of Norway. It goes, unknown to many that Norway actually loops right over the top of Sweden and Finland and actually has a border with Russia. Although a large amount of time was spent on the bus, we saw some truly amazing sights, as we drove further north and towards the border. The snow covered forests made way for snow covered hills, and the vast expanse of nigh on complete rurality and almost desolation of the place began to sink in. As we straddled a hill travelling parallel with a fjord, an eagle came into sight and this provided a few minutes interest. As we continued further north we came upon a small settlement by the name of Bugøynes, surviving nearly solely on the presence of the king crab factory. Here we had the opportunity to swim in the Arctic Ocean, and naturally we accepted this offer, as it is an achievement I'm sure not many can hold to their name. It proved to be extremely cold, to my belief with temperatures in the region of -6°. However, due to the higher salt content in the water, it does not freeze during the winter. The Baltic Sea, on the other hand, does. We opened some Champagne like drink when we were in there and took the warmth gladly, however no more than a minute or 2 could we stay in there, and made for the bus to warm up again asap. The usual evening ritual prevailed, and another late night tested our abilities to rise in the morning for the reindeer farm.

Barely managing to arise for the final time in Lapland, we forced down some breakfast and just about managed to pack and leave things in a passable state before jumping aboard the coach one more time for the reindeer farm, followed by the journey home. A short time later and we had arrived, and one thing there was not a lack of was reindeer. We were told a few things about them, for example how there were over 5000 different ear markings to define ownership of each reindeer, as it transpired that no reindeer are wild, although they are allowed to run free they roam inside a massive enclosure, owned by different farmers. We were then allowed to feed them, which they took very nicely to, although not pet them, as apparently they have intimacy issues... We then went inside a T-p shaped hut and were seated at a wooden bench around a central fire, where we were given excellent coffee and a performance of some songs that, whilst sounding very odd, were most enjoyable!

Although our trip had been short, we had experienced the majesty of these creatures in a way few can. The journey home was a somewhat sad one, as the previous days had been a fantastic experience, and it was a pity that it had to end so soon. However, there was one more stop. Santa Claus Village, just outside of Rovaniemi. The place proved to be, for me anyway, a quite magical place, especially as the light dwindled and died and was replaced by twinkling lights all around. Aside from the souvenir shops, they was the opportunity to meet Santa himself, and we all had a photo with the man in red before we left. Kevin, Tim and I then went to the ice bar, a quite impressive dome made completely of ice, where we drank some Jagermeister and then went down their free ice slide in a rubber ring. Needless to say, we went down that a few times. The rest of the journey home proved uneventful and a significant increase of sleep was definitely on the cards. As we arrived into Helsingfors centralstation I knew that it was unlikely I would ever experience something like that again, and this lead me to take another reflection on the walk home as to the privilege I had had to go to this fantastic country. Unfortunately this was short lived as the imposition of my Finnish exam dawned and I hit the book once more to refresh my memory. After this exam, the end of my first semester would be immediate... A quite positive view considering how much I had already experienced, and the second semester promised no less... But that is for another day.....

Helsinki, Tallinn, Stockholm, Tallinn, Helsinki...

After returning from St. Petersburg I had only a short break to collect myself, get some sleep, and catch up with the missed work before I was packing again for a 3 day cruise in the Baltic Sea. First stop: Tallinn, to get the big boat. As we waited in the port, one of my friends gave me a beer (and it was 12.30 pm) and it became apparent to me what this trip was for people - an excuse to disrespect your liver...and to whomever is reading this who judges about this kind of thing I would like to point out that I was relatively speaking responsible, although I did have a few. Regardless, I was armed with my small army of German's and Spanish with the odd Belgian here and there, and I knew I was in for a good trip.

The first day however, turned out to be one of mixed emotions. The buffet was fantastic, and a somewhat childish experience, but stood as the prerequisite for the seasickness I was about to feel. It seemed around half the people on the boat were suffering from the rather worrying rocking occurring, and many people were being sick, including myself. However, I continued, and eventually gave in to the drive to sleep and went to bed.

The next morning we arrived in Stockholm and received various information, which first included riding the metro. We then proceeded to walk around the old part of the city, taking in it's fantastic views, regardless of the nausea I still felt from the night before. We came across an ice rink in the centre of the city, and passed an hour or so on that before eating. One down side of this trip is that we were not given long in either of the cities to see, and so after eating we decided to walk back to the boat, some 2 or 3 km away. It already being dark, we arrived just in time to the boat. I had another beer put in my hand.

I was lucky that evening, either due to the lulling for the sea or the change in direction of the boat, as I experienced much less rocking and subsequently an absence of sea sickness. This certainly improved my moods. Although I returned to my cabin at the quite respectable time of 4 am. (given the club was open until 9 am.) I did not actually get to sleep until around 8.30 in the morning, and it was disturbed by the various comings and goings of my room-mates. One of them (Andres) actually came to bed at 9.50, given that the boat was arriving in Tallinn at 10. Crazy.

Now it need be said that by this point everyone was beginning to feel the effects of tiredness, and so we retired to an African restaurant for some lunch (with many a joke about ordering an Elephant). I was convinced to have a beer after my initial order of Coca-Cola Light was deemed "cowardly", to paraphrase. Having spent most of our time in the restaurant we returned to the boat with some 'drinks' and then enjoyed watching nearly the whole boat sleeping on the way back. German's, it seems, have as much determination to drink as the English, which ensured me of company on the return journey. Armed with cheaper alcohol, we returned in the dark again, we made our way home and for many people more sleep. I couldn't for some reason...

St. Petersburg...

Just as things were starting to settle down into some kind of repetition, the time came for something I had been waiting to do all my life - to see Russia. Many would say that St. Petersburg doesn't represent true Russian identity, and that it's European connections make it something different. For me it was fantastic. After a quite hurried pack, a short tram ride and the rather suspicious and anxiety invoking experience where by we had to hand our passports over to a guy we had just met, not knowing when we would have them back, we waited in the port. Once we had filled in and paid for the specific activities we wished to do we boarded the boat, Russian style (which turns out to be just walking like you do in every Country).

The boat ride out took place over night, and thus called for some consumption of beverages, however the sea was not in the best of moods with me and saw fit to make me feel like I wanted to die for most of the journey, however I persisted until around 4 in the morning, where I finally called it quits and headed to bed. Another point worth mentioning is that the ambient in the cabin was (and this is not a joke) about 40° Celsius. Thus I spent the night staring into the darkness praying for sleep to come and the boat to start rocking in a more consistent way.

The alarm awoke us the next day where I had a chance to meet my other two room mates, as, being one of the only guys in a rather large group of girls I had no one I really knew to room with. They transpired to be a German by the name of Tjark, and a Frenchman called Hugo. Cool guys. After disembarking from the boat we got a taste of the kind of weather to come, cold, a little wet and cold. We then proceeded to go through customs, avoiding the cold stares of some rather mean looking Soviets, change some money, and climb aboard the bus. Here is where I met Tjark again. Having been separated from my friends who were on a different bus, I took the opportunity to get to know him, and which subsequently led to me having a room-mate for the Hotel.

We then proceeded on the bus tour of the city, with opportunities to take pictures every now and then, and fascinate at the intricate web of bridges and rivers that forms a large part of St. Petersburg. It was first here that we noticed the rules of the road in Russia followed something along the lines of, 'there are no rules, unless a cop is watching, in which case make sure he is looking the other way when you commit the 5 offenses per second that is common place here'. We saw some truly impressive buildings, including the Peter and Paul Cathedral and the Palace on the spilled blood. After that we had a quick stop at the souvenir shop where they were serving free Vodka, we went to the hotel and had a couple of hours to settle in.

After this we were transported to the place where we would take our river boat tour at night time, which was made more enjoyable by the presence of Champagne. This part of the trip was one of the most enjoyable, as St. Petersburg at night is far more beautiful than the industrial dirt of the day time. After this we returned to the hotel where I resigned myself to sleep as the two days affairs were starting to take their toll on me, and I knew we had an early start the next day. This however, was not to be the case, as sleeping in the hotel proved just as difficult as sleeping on the boat, and I was awoken by the return of Tjark from the club at 3 am, whereby he got me drinking a beer in bed. Good times... Nevertheless, I got 3 hours sleep.

The next morning proved an effort to get into, however with a breakfast of eggs on eggs with a side of eggs we were ready to go, 2 beers in hand for the bus journey and nothing but anticipation for St. Catherine's Palace, Pushkin. The palace proved very beautiful, along with the grounds, but it must be said that after a while long tours get a bit boring. Still, we had the photos. After we returned to St. Petersburg we had the run of the city for the afternoon, which we used to get a tasty Subway and take a look at the metro, set deep into the depths of the city at the bottom of a really really long escalator. We rushed home just in time to get ready for the 'Nutcracker' Ballet. This was also fantastic, although not much can be said to stimulate the mind as to what it was like. You just had to have been there.

We returned to the hotel for some drinks which lasted longer than anticipated, and at a rather late hour we set off for the club, which involved the most exhilarating experience of my life, taking a taxi. Negotiate a price, get in, and hang on for dear life! Then, if you get out at the other then everything has gone well. We waited with our thumbs pointed down and then without too much wait an old Soviet Lada pulled up, driven by a young Russian man. We bartered, and settled at 300 Roubles, a quite honest price considering how far it was, the time of night and how long we spent in the car. The most exciting part came when the red light went up, and the driver took a look left, a look right, and then turned straight into a line of perpendicular traffic. "Wow, what a night this is turning out to be", I thought to myself. It was a tricky thing to get into the club, but with some big old impatient Russians pushing behind us we made it past the threshold, paid entry and proceeded to party the night away. Afterwards we got another taxi back where we met some other really drunk Russians who took us to a small bar with really nice people, but eventually the pain of not sleeping returned and we returned home at around 5 in the morning.

After 4 hours sleep we arose again, showered, and packed, as this was to be our last day in St. Petersburg. Eggs, Eggs, and Eggs served as an insomniac's breakfast, and the next stop was the Hermitage State Museum, otherwise known as the Winter Palace of the Tsars. Another slightly boring tour later and we decided to get some pancakes in a famous place. I will never forget turning onto Nevskiy Prospekt, one of the main streets in St. Petersburg, as it was around 10km long and deadly straight, almost 80 metres wide. Unforgettable. We finally found the pancake shop and yummed up around 3 each, and then hurried back to the buses for departure.

Shortly we arrived back at the port, and after a rather hectic collection of passports, proceeded once more past the scary gazes of Russia passport control. Once on the boat we located our rooms, bought a 24 pack of beer and had a cold one. Or two. Or three. You get the idea. Hitting the bed at 3 am, I finally managed to get what could be considered a reasonable night's sleep, and it is needless to say that the tram journey home was a quieter affair than normal, even considering the presence of Spanish people. On returning I slept for 6 hours during the day, savouring the sleep before getting up for 10 am Finnish with the devil herself. Soon I will be in Stockholm, with surely another story to tell, and I hope you have enjoyed this one. St. Petersburg truly is a unique place, and one should never pass up an opportunity to visit...

The rythm of routine...

Over the last few days somewhat of a variable routine has emerged from the perpetual rhythm of Finnish life, and the fading of the light into dark and then back again at a surprisingly early hour. Wednesdays and Thursdays seem to be the best nights to go out, with Amarillo providing €1.60 beers and ESN providing an Erasmus party every Thursday night. However, amidst all the fun I am having, it has become apparent to me that University involves work.

Thus, and I cannot explain how I arrived in this predicament, I found myself with a group presentation on the history of Finnish art to complete, and given the second experience of turning up to a Finnish lesson with only 4 hours sleep and a sleep inducing blood-alcohol significance level, it has occurred to me that doing some learning outside of lectures wouldn't have been the stupidest choice I've ever made. The result of this is that I actually have something to do when I get bored. Which is never.

Amongst all this 'fun' has also emerged the opportunity to go to Lapland and St. Petersburg, the latter of which has been booked and will happen at the end of October. Unfortunately, subject to my teacher being accommodating, I am unable to go to Lapland before Christmas due to my Finnish language exam, although I'm sure they wont notice if I skip it. One other thing to mention which I feel is of great importance, is that the other day I cleaned my floor! Until next time...

A word about Spaniards...

After the long day spent in Estonia, a late start was necessary, as believe it or not, students do need to sleep sometimes....or at least I do. For those reading this were with me at these times, please forgive my inaccuracies, as my memory is somewhat foggy. Later in the day I had my first attempt at learning a Spanish card game which is somewhat of a nation treasure, called Mus. Gonzalo taught Alba, Yanyan and I how to play, and it instantly became a 'must do'.

It seems appropriate now to mention that of the Erasmus population present, the majority with whom I am friends are girls. Victor and Gonzalo are two really cool guys with whom I can share some banter with, so a shout out to both of them. Thanks guys!

Another week of lectures, including one gruelling Wednesday evening from four until eight about the history of Finland since the 1300s, read in a dulcet mono baritone by a professor who is otherwise a really cool guy. Last night we went to Amarillo, a Spanish themed place with criminally cheap alcohol. Needless to say, four hours sleep isn't the best prerequisite for getting up in the morning for a Finnish lesson. However, I achieved this and proceeded to sleep for a few hours in the afternoon, barely aiding me in the eviction of the cold from my body.

Here is something I forgot to post in an earlier entry, but in one of the orientation lectures we were shown this video, which is somewhat amusing... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN2ZJBh92SM

So I am finally up to date with recording my activities, and will continue to post every week, or when necessary...

Studies begin, lack of sleep continues...

As the days began to blur into a conglomerate haze of fun, the stabbing reality hit me that I was here to study. My initial reaction to the problem of trying to find courses was that of fear, as I did not realise that each semester is split into two periods, where different classes are taken in each. I was happy I wasn't going to have a 30 hour week, to say the least. Due to the lack of courses presented in Social Psychology, I was implored to look outside the box and choose some modules that interested me. The Finnish language course was, of course, a necessity, and various other interesting topics presented themselves. Thus, studies had begun...

It became apparent to me over the next few days that 2 hour lectures were guaranteed, and 4 hour lectures were likely. Not something I really wanted to hear, but it actually makes things easier. Another problem arose, that being the demand of payment of rent. As im sure it is obvious, IBANs cost a charge from England at least, so I set up a Finnish bank account. This makes life much easier for me, with no charges.

After the first couple of days studying (which included a very amusing statistics lecture with my German friend Isabelle - note to self: don't ever watch binocular football during a lecture, its very rude!), the opportunity arose to go to Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia. The term 'booze cruise' comes to mind, and is indeed correct, as many Finnish people hop over the Bay of Finland to the port city of Tallinn for the near half price alcohol. Old Tallinn is fantastically beautiful, looking something not dissimilar to that of a medieval town within a castle, right down to the old fashioned clothes the waitresses wear. And hot chocolate that is other worldly.... Whilst many people slept on the return trip, I played an energetic card game with the Spanish contingency, and by the time we got home it was dark. As I went to sleep that night, I thought to myself "another day never to forget in this seemingly endless adventure in the place I would come to call home in the next months. Of that I am sure...."

Orientation...

After around 45 minutes on the bus (getting confused why cars were over taking us on the left hand side), we arrived at the train station, where we found some lockers to put our bags until we had time to collect our keys. Then we made our way to orientation, thoroughly tired from the journey. We arrived at the building, where we signed our names and began tours of various buildings and lectures, the final one in which we were split into our tutor groups. These people were to be our friends for the next few days as we acclimatised to the country. Laura, our tutor, was a Finnish third year Social Psychology student who was to show us around, how to get our student cards, library cards, travel cards etc... A long list to do indeed!

Once day one was finished we made our way back to the train station and then across the city to the accommodation office, where we received our keys. I opened the door to my room feeling like I wanted to die (40 hours awake helped). Once the initial euphoria of not having to carry 31 Kg of dead weight around with me, it dawned on me that I had forgotten a) my Ethernet cable to connect to the Internet, and b) I had no sheets for my bed. Needless to say, I spent the next two nights sleeping in a hoody with my towel over me. Funny, I know, but at the time not so much.

During the orientation I had made friends with some lovely people from many places, including Spain (with whom I am now re-learning Spanish - at the cost of a vice versa arrangement), Germany, Hungary, China, and Italy, and these formed the group with which we went to the first ESN (Erasmus Student Network) party. Pre-drinks of Finnish vodka and a whole load of 'I don't know what' formed a fantastic night out, the first of many I hoped. After hitting the bed at 3 am I awoke the next morning to the sound silence, that is Helsinki on the weekend.....