More than 2 weeks passed since I left sweet home in the middle of Europe and moved 1500 km northeast to enjoy the proper finnish summer. There are some conclusions I made after those 2 weeks here:
1) For the first time in my life I admit that a bike can be a real mean of transport.
2) Rugby is fun. Even if you play it for 3 hours after a tough training with frisbee rules and mostly with Spanish guys.
3) Orienteering in Finland can mean even walking around the city for 5 hours and being drunk at 3 o'clock in the afternoon.
4) Being in sauna with 15 naked strangers is neither weird nor gay it is awesome and it literally connects people. Especially when the weather is perfect, sunset is on and there is cold Baltic sea to cool down
5) Helsinki is lively city.. if you wanna party it is not an easy choice where to go. Underground music festival among containers in old docks? Disco party in famous Tiger club? Or exploring finnish law students culture and drinking habbits at one of many Pykälä parties?
Food&drink and price surprises:
1) Beer is disgusting here comparing to the Czech republic. On the other hand it is smaller and way more expensive.
2) 1kg of Salmon in special offer is cheaper than finnish bratwurst.
3) It is cheaper to eat like a king in UniCafé (canteens in the city) than to cook poor food by yourself.
And there is a summary of my first 2 weeks in Helsinki for those who are really interested in how I am doing in the country of thousands of lakes and islands (wiki: about 188,000 larger lakes and 179,000 islands):
At the airport in Prague It was not difficult to recognise who is going to Erasmus in Finland. Distinguishing signs: Sipping last Czech beer and buying huge amount of alcohol for the tough times in the north. I joined this little group, had some fun and after landing I didn't need to travel by night bus to the accomodation in Kody's place because a tutor of one of my co-travellers gave me a lift right to the place.. kind start!
After some days spent in Kody's place, meeting my new classmates and visiting Helsinki's must-see places I finally got healthy so I could hit the finnish forests as well. Concerning this I have to mention unbelievable kindness of Urpo Väänänen. This Orienteer and attorney of law helped me so much - he invited me to his place, provided me all the kitchen and bedding stuff, introduced me to other people who helped me and he gave me the possibility to borrow his car whenever I need to get from the city centre to great terrains 30min driving from my place. Awesome, kiitos!
I got a flat from HOAS right in the city centre on Hietaniemenkatu (one extra bed, you are all welcome to come and visit!). It is a perfect place for a law student - 5min to Uni by bike, all shops and clubs in walking distance. And after all it is not such a bad place to stay even for O-madman. After a bit bizzare 5 min running through the Helsinki cemetery (I would never run through a cemetary in Czech but this is more an awesome park than cemetery) I get to a nice path along a coast. Especially in sunny weather it is a paradise for runners and cyclists.
Even before I came to Helsinki I knew that one of the first missions here would be to find a bike I could ride between my flat and uni. And once again I was damn lucky.. my tutor Kasper had an extra bike and was so kind to lend me this treasure. It didn't take a long time and I fell in love with this black beast. Actually I don't use public transport at all nowadays. Weather is perfect so far and nothing is too far to go by bike in Helsinki. It takes only 10min by bike to get to Central park (ridiculous name for a regular forest with barerocks, hills and many paths in the middle of city) so I can easily get to terrain for some itervals and so on.
Moreover I joined a training group of Antti Ärn. The group is full of well motivated juniors and it is just perfect I can use some of their trainings. They have many atletic and sprint trainings in the city + sometimes some Orienteering trainings outside of Helsinki (relay training on Friday was fun but still long way to feel comfortable in tricky finnish forests).
Many people asked me why I didn't run Finnish long distance champs. The main reason is that I was ill after WUOC and I simply felt my training recently was not good enough to be able to fight for a good race. Now I am getting back to shape but I decided not to go to sprint champs as well and I will just keep training to be ready for World cup in Switzerland in the beginning of October.
Proper school starts on Monday. Excited! Hopefully everything will keep going in the right way. It is simply perfect so far especially thanks to kind people around me and surprising finnish autumn weather.
Photos: Cass-A (my cell phone is not good enough for the beauty of Finland)