Rauma-Trip

In the last weeks I did among other things two trips - to Rauma and to Turku! 

First let's tell something about Rauma: at the day I travelled to Rauma it was rainy and quite cold, but my group members and I were determined and motivated. We took the bus to the city, it takes about 1,5 hours to go to Rauma. First (due to the weather and the early time of the day) we stayed some time in a nice little café to indulge ourselves some sweet tooth :-D You can see two examples below:

After we had our trip to chocolate-land, we visited the two museums. The first one, the Marela house, was owned by Abraham Marelin, who was a tradesman and a shipowner in earlier years. Here are some information from the official homepage:

'The large granary is from the year 1830. The carriage shed next to it was built in the mid 18 hundreds. From the 1830’s is also the other roadside building, which originally had storage rooms, as well as the row of outbuildings, which consists of the stable, cowshed and woodshed. During a later renovation a bakery and workers’ quarters were added.'

'The present exterior of the main building is from the end of the 19^th century. It was then that the house got its splendid Neo Renaissance-siding. During the same time period renovations were made in other parts of the town as well, so that approximately two thirds of the houses got a new, fashionable look. Wealth was brought by the flourishing sailing ship trade era of the 1890’s.'
 

'During that time Marela was owned by one of the wealthiest tradesmen and shipowners of the town, Mr. Gabriel Granlund. The decorative tile stoves, the doors, the paintings on the ceilings, and the panelwork reveal the wealth and the museum furnishing the lifestyle of the old shipowner family. Wealthy townspeople, such as the Marela residents, were those who regularly supported lace makers with limited income by buying laces for their linens. Marela has operated as a museum since the beginning of the 1980’s.'

To wrap it up: you can see all the furniture of the old way of living, like very tiny children beds, an old toilet, a fancy dining room and much more. Furthermore there was a little part with old hand-weapons and basic war commodities. The whole interior was very fancy and posh, you could imagine that wealthy people must have lived there. Just have a look at some pictures:

 

The next museum was the Rauma museum, which was founded in 1891 on the initiative of private citizens. The museum is concentrated on local history and the culture the city represents.The three main topics which are on exhibition are the architectural environment, shipping and lace (the Rauma Museum did even have its own lace makers). The collections of the Rauma Museum consist of objects, photographs and archival material of over 100 000 units. Here is a picture (you can find the origional one on the museum's homepage): 

On the second floor there was an exhibition with photographs of some UNESCO World Heritages - all of them showed places in Germany. Good feeling to see some of the most beautiful cities of its own homecountry :-D One other German guy who was in our group and I were like 'Oh, I know this, it's near my hometown!', 'I have been there just this spring!' and 'Yeah, I have a friend in this city!' - yes, it was a very interesting museum, especially for us Germans ;-D

 

Those museums were both in the old part of the city, also called 'Old Rauma' - of course this part of the city was on our list! We informed ourselves before the trip and found out that this part of the city is the 'largest unified historical wooden town in the Nordic countries'. In opposite to most other 'older city parts'  nowadays, where tourist trips replaced the 'real' city life, in Rauma the old part today is still the heart of the town, where living, social life and business go hand in hand all year round. 

After that we walked to the harbour to see the old lookout  tower, called KIIKARTORNI. First again some official information about the tower: 'The original Kiikartorni was located in the harbour, close to the present maritime school. It was completed in 1892, at the peak of the Rauma sailing ship era. It offered information services to the harbour, the town, and those at sea.The tower was still giving weather reports in the 1940’s. It was torn down in 1956 as unnecessary. The current lookout tower at the shore of the Syväraumanlahti bay is an exact copy of the old tower in the harbour. The 18,6 metre high tower was built in 1992. The tower offers a beautiful view into the archipelago as well as a chance to observe the lively traffic of the boat harbour.' Here is a picture of the tower:

 Unfortunately...it was CLOSED that day :-(

But we made some nice little photosessions behind the tower on a lot of very big rocks. It was even not that easy, because of the rain which made the surface of the rocks very slippery. Nobody felt into the water or broke some bones - just to let you know! Here are two pictures of the group (we had to separate it, because there was not enough space for the whole group):

Yes, that was our Rauma-trip, it was rainy, but nice though! I would say it is the typically Finnish city someone expects coming to Finland! For sure, it is worth a visit!

Moika! :-D

Kurnajaiset

On Wednesday 8th we had a very big student party in Pori, called Kurnajaiset! The event consists of three main parts, I would say.

First part: there was a 'crawling marathon' (yes, literally, it is no methapher or just an allusion). I think words can't describe it that good, but pictures can. So, have a look:

By the way, here is the official description of the crawling marathon:

• Lenght of marathon is 50 metres.
• You either crawl on your own without competing or you create a team (4 or more crawlers) and your team participates in a crawling competition.
• Team must be tied together during the race. You must have your own rope or etc. If line breaks you must stop and fix it before you continue.
• All time during the race the contestants knees MUST touch the ground.
• Referees can disqualify or give warnings if they see cheating or any false activity.
• Best dressed team might get a headstart.
• Winning team is the one that crosses first the finnishline (whole team has to cross the line).
• Winners geta trophy on which the team members names will be carved.
• Everyone who crawls the marathon will get a crawling badge.

The second part: after the crawling all students met in the middle of the city to get 'baptized'. Every first year and Erasmus student was standing in front of a stage while members of the student union (with support of the local firefighters) were giving them a nice, cold shower. That's the Finnish way of saying 'hello' to new students - different, but funny though! But there was more than just the baptizing procedure, for example a little 'Zumba Session' for everyone. In case you do not know 'Zumba', here is an extract from Wikipedia: "Zumba is a dance fitness program created by dancer and choreographer Alberto "Beto" Perez in Colombia during the 1990s. The program combines Latin and international music with dance in an effort to make exercise fun." There was one instructor on the stage showing all the different steps and the whole audience was taking part in it.

The third part: 'Bar Tour' was on! The members of Sammakko printed some bar maps guiding through different places in Pori. In every bar the students had to do different challenges, like 'saying something in Finnish', 'singing a song', 'remembering movie- and tv-show-titles', 'improvising a role-play' and so on. The biggest score you could get was about 8 points, and I have to say our group consisting of Finnish, Italian, Spanish and German people was quite good at it! We almost gained 8 points at every 'bar-station'. :-D We had also to try some Finnish shots. Weird shots. The first one was a 'lakritsi'-shot, yeah right, a shot tasting like liquorice... different, sweet and, well, just not for me. The other one was a shot made out of toffee and mint - interesting, too. No more comment! The last stop of the night was a location called 'Vakuun Nights' hosting Finnish rap artist Petri Nygard. All in all, I have to say it was a great event, nice people, large variety, well-arranged and full of a lot of funny and memorable moments! :-D

The Party Crew

Hiking @ Joutsijärvi! And hiking and hiking and hiking...but survived!

Last Saturday it was time for a looooong walk: my colleague Annukka asked me if I want to join a hiking trip arranged by a friend of her in Joutsijärvi. In the end it was five of us: Annukka, her boyfriend, Petra (a friend of Annukkas), my flatmate and I. The trip started at 9.15 in the morning, it took us app. 35 minutes by car to get to the area of Joutsijärvi. We started around 10 o'clock with our 'hiking mission'. The plan was to circle the whole lake, and this track is about (don't be shocked) 30 km... Yeah, right, the '0' in that number isn't a typing error, honestly - again in words: thirty kilometres! Well, but I am still alive and I have to say: it was worth it!

The track was very, very fascinating - the surroundings and the condition of the soil vary a lot and it's never getting dreary. First we had to go a few minutes on a street covered with grey stones, but then we were leaving the street, entering directly into the unspoiled nature. We were hiking through parts of the wood with a lot of rocks, then again green parts with very soft ground, covered with moss. There were parts in the wood with a lot of rocks, then again sections with very soft grounds covered in moss. Sometimes we had to walk on little 'wooden-bridges' (as you can see on one of the pictures), especially in the swamp areas.

We passed  a few smaller lakes (or better to say: little watercourses) and some nice places to rest and to recover. You can find fireplaces to have a little BBQ, wooden houses to sleep there overnight, tables and benches. In total we had three breaks: one to have some sausages, another to have a cup of tea and the last one to eat some noodles. Therefore a very big THANK YOU to our dispensers!

Another thing quite funny was the necessary 'little boat ride' we had to do twice for continuing our tour. We  used these boats to get from one side of the wood to the other... And suprise surprise: we did NOT get wet, although sometimes it was very, very close :-D Those boats were chained on strings which connect both parts of the woods over the river. It was very groggy and the boat seemed to be quite old, but it was fun though, and a bit of a thrill! Well, the point is, this trip was for me not the normal 'forest-trip'. I mean, of course, I did a lot of hiking trips before, but then they took maybe 3-4 hours with very (veryyyyy) low speed and mostly on prepared forest trails. And compared to that, this trip was something different and new to me - a trip back to real nature.

Last but not least, I want to share a little story - let's say a myth - with you: as I said to Petra that after my opinion, Joutsijärvi has some pretty scary parts, which are kind of mysterious, dark and foggy, according to that she told me a Finnish myth about the 'Maahinen'. Maahinen are man-like creatures living in subterranean dwellings, mainly located in the forests. But they are living a so-called life upside down: they are walking on the same ground as human beings do, just mirrored. According to a rumor, the 'world' of the Maahinen is like a paradise: nature is rich, exclusive food, beautiful housings and so on. Of course, that sounds invitingly and alluringly to people, but there was a rub in it! So, people got the idea to enter Maahinen world, to take some of the beautiful things from their and then returning back to the 'real' world. But of course: there's a fly in the ointment! If people succumb to the temptation of entering the 'other world', there is no more chance for them to return to their world - never ever. On the one hand, life of the Maahinen seemed almost perfect, but on the other hand, stepping into their world can be compared with a confinement for the rest of one's life. Therefore people were scared of (probably) meeting them in the woods or even getting captured by them. I hope, I could explain this myth in a right way - if not, please correct me or tell me that story again!

WANTED: those 5 persons are suspected to have killed at least 2 Maahinen!