I released my last blog post in between two days of weekend band rehearsal and I wanted to take a second and update you on how things are going on that front. As I mentioned in my first post, I decided to get back into playing trumpet and joined Teekkaritorvet, one of the bands on campus. We spent last weekend rehearsing a couple hours a day with student choirs Cassiopeia and TeeKu, as well as the University Chamber Orchestra to prepare for our upcoming performance to celebrate Suomi100, Finland’s 100 year independence anniversary. It was a really cool experience to play with string instruments and a choir. On Saturday night after a band social, we performed at a place called Walhalla for a party for students in the faculty of medicine. It was the first gig I’ve played with the band and it was so much fun! I’m incredibly happy with my decision to join Teekkaritorvet this term. Everyone in the band has been so welcoming, and, despite being pretty lost during rehearsals since 95% of the talking is in Finnish, I’ve still really enjoyed getting to know the other members of the band and making music with them!
And now, back to traveling! The following weekend I attended ESN’s Pirates of the Baltic Sea event. Long story short it’s essentially a party on a ship from Helsinki to Stockholm, a day in Stockholm, and another party on the way back. Our bus left Oulu at 5am on Sunday and reached the terminal in Helsinki by about 2pm. We boarded the ferry at around 4pm with about 1500 other (primarily exchange) students from across Finland, Estonia, and Latvia. We started off the trip with a buffet dinner and activities like speed meeting. At midnight there was a midnight show full of different acts like a Siberian dance group and various musicians. And then began the party.
The next morning our arrival was delayed about two and a half hours due to an unfortunate man overboard incident and the resulting search and rescue operation that ensued. With our time in Stockholm cut short, we were all eager to get off the ferry and start exploring. Having purchased a train ticket on the ferry already, we went to the nearest train station and made a couple stops at Kungsträdgården, St. James’s Church, and Sturegallerian along the way to Gamla Stan station in the historic Old Town.
Once there, we joined a Free Walking Tour focused on the history of Old Town. The island on which the Old Town resides was actually the first part of Stockholm. Stockholm, which translates to “log island” in Swedish, actually has an interesting story of how it got its name. Legend has it that the leaders of Sigtuna, the original capital of Sweden, were trying to decide on a new place to move to. So, as most people would logically do, they took a log of wood, hollowed out a hole in the middle, filled it with the gold and valuables of the town’s people, and let it float down the water. They followed the log until it finally hit land, and decided to make that area of land the new capital. And thus, Stockholm was born.
During the tour we saw the German Church, Alley of Mårten Trotzig (the narrowest street in Stockholm at 90cm), Iron Square, Merchant’s Square, Iron Boy, The Royal Palace, The Great Church, The Big Square, The Priest’s Street, The House of Nobility, and Birger Jarls Square. As a quick side note I cannot give enough praise to Free Walking Tours. They offer tours in over 80 countries and so far I’ve had nothing but positive experiences with the guides I’ve had! I definitely recommend trying to catch a tour next time you travel!
After the tour I spent some time walking through some of the shops in Old Town, crossed the bridge to see Riddarholm Church, and then walked along the water before heading back to the train station and catching the train back to the harbour. While it was a short day in the city, I really enjoyed what I was able to see. Stockholm was beautiful, and I’d love to return one day!
That evening we boarded the ferry at 4pm again and followed a similar routine. The activity that evening was a trivia night followed by a midnight show and another party. After another late night, we arrived back at Helsinki at around 10am the next morning. Instead of doing the sane thing and heading back to Oulu on the bus, I began the next leg of my journey. You see a couple weeks prior to the trip one of my floormates told me about the trip he was planning to Poland because of the cheap flights available from Turku, Finland to Gdańsk, Poland. While I was initially planning visiting Poland in December, I figured it would be better to make use of the fact that I would be in Helsinki already after the Pirates of the Baltic Sea event, and so I decided to book my flights and spend a week traveling through various cities in Poland and seeing Prague in the Czech Republic.
So after getting back on land we took the tram to Kamppi bus station, ate lunch, and caught a 12:40pm bus to Turku about two and a half hours from Helsinki. While our initial plan was to crash at the airport overnight we realized we were way too tired to survive that, and instead booked an Airbnb on the bus ride to Turku. We got to Turku around 2:55pm. Fun fact: Turku is the oldest city in Finland and was actually the first capital city of the country until 1812 when the capital was moved to Helsinki. We spent a couple hours sightseeing though there isn’t too much to see in Turku. We visited Turku Cathedral and Market Square before catching a bus to our Airbnb. We stopped by the nearby Prisma to do some groceries for the next morning, and went to bed pretty early so that we would be well rested for the start of our next adventure. I’ll end with that for now and talk about my time in Gdańsk, Warsaw, Kraków, and Prague in my following post or two so stay tuned for that!
As always thank you, or tack (Swedish for thank you) for reading!
-Pallavi