Helsinki, the capital of Finnland, is one of the most southern Finnish cities, but still colder than many others who are located far more north. Why is that?
Because of the wind. Due to the fact that Helsinki has maritime climate (it is located at the sea), the wind usually blows rather strong, thus the temperature feels way colder. Here is a very informative diagram.
(x: temperature in °C)
(y: wind in m/s)
*BRRR*
After spending nearly four months in Finnland, most of the time in Helsinki, I just have to tell you about the Finns, the Finnish culture, about the things that are “special” here. The things that are important. The things you better know before coming here.
- Santa Claus is called “joulupukki”. No, they actually take this seriously, it just sounds ridiculous.
- Sauna is a very basic thing in Finnish life. Everybody knows this, of course, I don’t have to tell you. But here is a nice quotation of an email about Finnish Christmas culture which was sent around in the foreign-students list – it actually shows, how *very* important sauna is:
“After the porridge and declaration of the Christmas peace people go to the graves, leaving candles for the dead relatives. Then follow often Christmas sauna and church.”
Christmas sauna?…
- It does not matter if you exchange money in the bank or buy something in the supermarket: You will never pay *.49 or *.99, neither will you pay *.21 or *.81, the money is always rounded (which, I hope, is the correct term). I felt kind of ripped off the first time I bought something for 2.98 and actually had to pay 3 Euros.
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J.: “Ein Leben ohne Sex? Da sterb ich lieber sofort!”
A.: “I am a lazy fucker.”
I.: “Rosinen gibt es nicht.”
J.: “AAh, es kocht über!!! Was tu ich?!?”
Laute Hintergrundgeräusche aus der Küche, 1 ist in der Küche, der Rest sitzt am Esszimmertisch.
1: “Willst du Wasser?”
2: “Nein, danke, ich habe noch ein Bier.”
1: *lauter* “Willst du ein Wasser?”
2: *lauter* “Nein danke, ich habe ein Bier im Kühlschrank.”
1: *sehr laut und sehr deutlich*: “WILLST DU WASSER?”
2: *sehr laut und sehr deutlich*: “NEIN, DANKE!”
10 Sekunden später aus der Küche …
1: “Hey hier ist noch ein Bier. Willst du Bier?”
Danke euch allen für die tolle Zeit.
And sometimes, you should not miss to look out of the window at the right moment.
I didn’t.
I could not decide which picture to put up … here are the two best.
Sky (1):
Sky (2):
All pictures are original, no working with Paintshop (yet…).
Random Skies … :
The trip to Russia started at the 14.11.2005 at 5pm and lasted 7 days – a group of about 40 students, Helsinki railway station, Tolstoy night train to Moscow. The first hours passed quite fast, it got dark, and we had to give away our passports 2 times during border controls. The train stopped every now and then, and drove very slowly the rest of the time. The beds were more or less clean, but way too small for me…
Moscow
We arrived in Moscow in the morning at 10am, and were surprised that our hotel (Roosija) was about 5 minutes to walk from the Red Square and the Kremlin, extremely central, clean, and unbelievably huge. From the entrance hall, we had to walk about 5 minutes through the hotel (same distance as to the Red Square) to reach our rooms, and we got lost more than one time. 12 floors, and at least 200 rooms each floor.
The temperature was mostly around zero degrees celsius, no snow though. I spent most of my time in Moscow walking around in the centre, visiting “must see” sights.
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Once upon a time, there was a coca-cola machine. It was red and happy, and so boring, that nobody really took a picture of it.
Soon, funny exchange students started making funny things with the red coca-cola machine. Where it goes from here, you can see yourself…
without further comment…
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