Thoughts and Words: Adventures of my Nordic semester

Hey guys!

In continuing my series on my time in the far north this past year, I wanted to write a bit on the beautiful places in and near Finland which I was able to see earlier this year.

Aloitetaan!

1) ESN Lapland Trip, January 22-29: ESN, which stands for "Erasmus Student Network," is an organization which organizes events and trips for exchange students, existing in chapters at various European universities. I became a member upon my arrival, and when I heard that they were organizing a trip to Finnish Lapland at the end of January, I knew I wanted to go, as experiencing Lapland in wintertime had been a dream of mine for years. It did not disappoint. We stopped at the Santa Claus Village in Rovaniemi on our way up, which, although it definitely was touristic in nature and a bit kitschy, was also very beautiful and a sentimental stop for anyone who's favorite holiday as a child was always and still is Christmas (aka me). We stayed in Levi, which is essentially a skiing village three hours north of Rovaniemi, far into the Arctic Circle. It was truly a magical experience, one of those things that you get the feeling you have few chances to experience in your life and will stay with you for years. The sheer quantity of snow everywhere was unbelievable, countless tens of centimeters, reflecting everything and always generating more light. I got to partake in some pretty awesome activities, such as downhill skiing (which I love doing) for the first time in eight years, a husky safari (which was magical in and of itself of course), a delicious Lappish dinner in a fusion restaurant in town, visiting the Samiland Museum and learning a great deal about the indigenous Sami people of the region, and enjoying countless sauna runs and hot drinks with my Slavic and Midwestern American cabin mates. It truly was a highlight of all my time in Finland and my life experiences in general.

2) Rauma: A while before I left for Lapland, I wound up spontaneously deciding to join a big group of my neighbors in visiting a lovely little town called Rauma, about a ninety minute bus ride from Turku. It's well known for being a UNESCO World Heritage site, due to the fact that an unprecedented amount of traditional, colorful Nordic wooden houses that burned down in most other cities in the region (Turku itself, in fact, burned many times throughout its city, and no such houses remain). This was the primary attraction for us as well. After enjoying lunch in a restaurant recommended to us by the Rauman tutor of one of the exchange students present (who graciously showed us around the whole day), and admiring the lovely aforementioned houses, we also took some walks around the city visiting churches. Admittedly, we may not have planned it in the best way possible - so much is closed or not worth seeing in the wintertime that we finished quite early, and had to cafe-hop for a few hours to stay warm while we waited for our bus back. But in that time we also managed to bond a bit and get to know each other a bit better, which was nice as well.

Image may contain: house, sky and outdoor

Image may contain: sky, cloud, tree and outdoor

3) ESN Chocolate Trip to Helsinki: In February, we enjoyed a week of vacation off from classes at the University of Turku, and so I scheduled a little trip to Sweden, with an overnight in Helsinki before leaving the country. With little to do for the first few days of the break before I left for the trip, I spontaneously decided to stop by the Erasmus Student Network (ESN) office to sign up for a day trip to Helsinki I'd heard about. I spent a day in the city, first visiting the National Museum and enjoying some exhibits focusing on such topics as the formation of the Finnish nation, the independence movement, and the importance of the sauna in Finnish culture. After a brief stop on the Senate Square in front of the cathedral, where we saw high school students taking pictures clad in suits and prom dresses for their third year dances, we continued to the headquarters of the famous chocolate company, Fazer. We got a guided tour of the building, a chance to sample some delicious chocolate, and have a look at a greenhouse in which "the world's only Finnish bananas" are grown before heading back to Turku.

4) Helsinki Take Two: A few days later I went back to Helsinki to meet a family friend called Laurel, a New Zealander who lived in my mother's hometown in Italy years ago and befriended some of her close childhood friends. I got to stay overnight at their Helsinki residence, meet her Finnish husband and their two daughters, and their dachshund Daphne and adopted Athenian street cat, Tiger. The next day Laurel and I did a bit of sightseeing in the city, checking out the inside of the Cathedral and the Design and Photography Museums before she graciously dropped me off at Vantaa Airport before I set off for my trip to Sweden.

5) Stockholm!: In planning side trips during my semester in Finland, Sweden was the destination at the top of my list, due to a longstanding interest in visiting (largely thanks to my Swedish heritage on my father's side of my family). It was truly amazing - Stockholm as a city is incredibly beautiful, full of warm colors that came alive in the late afternoon sunsets and dusting of snow. I visited some of the main sights in the city, such as the Royal Palace, Central Cathedral, Nobel Museum, Photography Museum, and so on. I spent the better part of one of my days in Sweden visiting my good friend Louise in Uppsala - she is Dutch but was on the midst of writing her Master's thesis for a program she was finishing at the University of Uppsala. We had a grand time hanging out together, wandering a bit about the town, and cooking a couscous that turned out to be surprisingly tasty and filling. One of the most satisfying things about my trip to Sweden was that I was able to use some of my improved Swedish thanks to the night class I was taking in Turku in simple interactions as I moved about the city. Being in Sweden was something very fun and natural for me that I have a lot of fun memories of, and I truly hope to go back and continue to explore the country and my roots there.

6) Helsinki Take Three - Nupur Reunion!: In early March, an opportunity for a unique reunion arose for me and Maarit: an unprecedented convergence of people from our 2016 Icelandic program in the Westfjords. Our Swiss friend Chantal had been on exchange in Oulu in the far north of Finland all that academic year, and was coming to Helsinki to spend a weekend with some friends coming to visit - Dennis and Gitta from Germany, Britt from Denmark, and Ingunn from Norway. Since we were so close in Turku, we thought it would be fun to spend a day hanging out all together in the big city. And so we did, observing the elegant lines and unique creative work of the famed Finnish architect Alvar Aalto at his former place of residence, enjoying a foray into the world of Georgian cuisine, and just enjoying catching each other up on life and memories of our time in Iceland two years ago.

7) Helsinki Take Four: Since we had a longer university break over Easter, I'd initially been pretty keen to go abroad, but due to a lack of planning and indecisiveness, I waited too long and prices for flights and hostels abroad were jacked up because of the holiday, and I decided against it. I went back to Helsinki instead to spend a couple of days with Laurel and her family again, which were really nice. Her husband used to be a Finnish ambassador, so every visit to their place is full of unique and amazing stories of travels and sojourns abroad in different places where her husband Pekka served. I also got to do a little bit of exploring in town, and as I did, I ran into a classmate of mine from Beloit named Nozomi without having any idea we were in the same country, which was a giant shock for both of us (she was studying abroad in Spain but doing a bit of traveling in northern Europe)! I also got lunch with my Italian friend Michele who I met on exchange in Moscow last fall and was doing a semester at the University of Helsinki. Overall I didn't do a ton of specific things, but it was a nice and special little weekend, since I got to just explore and have fun in Helsinki, which solidified its position as my favorite place in Finland and one which I would ideally like to spend more time in over coming years.

8) ESN Moomin Trip to Tampere: In early April, I took advantage of another ESN day trip, this one to Finland's third-largest city of Tampere. Its main focus was to visit the Moomin Museum, dedicated to the characters of the iconic books written by Finnish author Tove Jansson and the TV series based on it. Not having read any of the books or watched the TV show, I didn't have a ton of context for what I was seeing, but it was still cool to learn more about something which is an iconic childhood staple for most Finns that comes with a lot of nostalgic association. I also did a bit of exploring with an Italian and a Czech, walking over to a park on the other side of the city which had an observation tower with a lovely view over the cityscape and the two lakes which surround it.

9) Copenhagen: Shortly after, I spent a few days visiting Copenhagen, which was honestly one of the loveliest and most special experiences of my entire time abroad. I found it to be a lovely city with an absolutely beautiful energy and full of friendly and easygoing people. I visited some staple tourist attractions, like Christianborg Palace, Tivoli, Freetown Christiania, and the like. I also had some lovely times hanging out with two friends of mine, a classmate from Beloit named Katie who was studying abroad there for the semester, and Britt, who I'd just seen in Helsinki a few weeks prior. The weather was also a major treat - while it was still chilly in Finland, the sun was shining and it was surprisingly warm the whole time I was visiting Denmark, and it provided a much needed reprieve from a prolonged winter (even I'm saying this, as someone who hates when it gets too hot). Overall my time in Copenhagen was truly wonderful, and I hope to go back soon.

10) Tallinn: Shortly after I got back from Copenhagen, I attended my last lecture of the semester, and with only a few online assignments left to submit before being completely finished, I thought it would be a great idea to take one last fun trip in my final weeks before going home. Tallinn, Estonia is a staple place for people to visit from Finland, as it's well connected due to the high numbers of Finnish tourists that go over for quick getaways, and also for cheap booze to bring home (alcohol is very expensive and government-regulated in Finland). I spent two days in the city, and checked out some of the staple churches and museums to visit. I found it to be a very fascinating blend of the Finnic/Nordic and Russophone worlds. Architecturally and aesthetically, it felt very much like a mix between Stockholm and St. Petersburg, which are incidentally two of my favorite cities. And linguistically, most people spoke Estonian (though it often sounded so similar to Finnish that I would have trouble figuring out which of the two people were speaking), and Russian was widely spoken among local communities and visitors alike (though I didn't use it that much myself, falling back more on English except for a few occasions). I enjoyed my time in Tallinn a lot, as it's a truly lovely city which is also quite compact and easy to navigate (bonus points for the stellar gelato at Gelato Ladies; 100/10 would recommend).

11) Oslo: Succuming to my typical travel bug and having a few hundred euros left of my host organization stipend to blow, I decided to spend a few days in Norway as well, scratching an itch I'd had to visit for a bit as a dialectology nerd that was compounded by getting addicted to the amazing Norwegian television show SKAM earlier this spring. All in all, I enjoyed my time in Oslo a lot! I visited some main sights like the Jewish Museum, the Akerhus Fortress with a great view of the city, the Kon-Tiki Museum detailing the eccentric beliefs and expeditions of Thor Heyerdahl, the FRAM Museum which had an entire reconstructed boat used by Norwegian teams in polar expeditions (I actually nearly got locked in the museum at closing time), and perhaps the highlight of the trip was the boat tour I took of the Oslofjord in beautiful, sunny weather. In my opinion, Oslo is a very underrated city. All anyone ever seems to say about it is how expensive it is. And expensive though it may be, it has areas of serious grit, character, and edgy uniqueness. Among the Nordic capitals, it's surely easy to be overshadowed by the sheer beauty of Stockholm and the dynamic, energetic friendliness of Copenhagen, but I would highly recommend Oslo as well.

12) Reunion with Sofia and Louise: Shortly after my arrival in Finland, my dear friend Sofia who I met two years ago in the Westfjords booked a ticket for a long weekend to visit me and Maarit in May. Throughout the early months in Turku, it was a silver lining that I looked forward to. And it was made even better by the fact that Louise spontaneously booked a ferry ticket to come and join us from Sweden! I spent a few days in Helsinki with my aunt and uncle when they came to visit from Italy, and right after Sofia and I met up and stayed a night in a hostel together, enjoying a bit of time to catch up just the two of us on the last few months of our lives. The next day Maarit and Louise came to join us in the city for the day, and I introduced them to my aunt and uncle, we had lunch together in my favorite cafe in Helsinki, explored a bit, and then headed back to Turku with Sofia. The next few days were full of laughter, hugs, and happy memories, as we took a day trip into Naantali, a lovely little town near Turku, cooked lots of meals together, and watched the Eurovision final.

13) Finnish cabin experience: A few days before I flew back to the States, I experienced my final highlight of my Nordic semester, which was a weekend overnight at Laurel and her family's mökki, or cottage. Theirs was a river mökki located deep in the countryside a few hours northeast of Turku, complete with a mill, sauna, and old bakery. Getting to experience an authentic Finnish sauna and typical, historic old mökki was an opportunity that granted a priceless edge of authenticity and cultural depth in my time in Finland, and I'm truly grateful that it's one that was granted to me.