Important for every EU-citizen to know what's going on: October 2 is approaching!
September 27, 2009
September 23, 2009
I shouldn't exctly be surprised... I was, however, when I bumped my bike this beautiful-sunshining morning: the handle simply got loose and eventually just fell of completely: I guess, there is just no way to fix that anymore. Well, maybe cK could have done it...
Later in the afternoon - after Sven and I totally managed it to fill our bellies with quite some huge pizzas - we attended the city-rallye (which our group gloriously mastered): the video shows the rather confusing get-together on Market Sq.
September 22, 2009
OULU on September 22, 2009.
Sun rises 7:00 and sets 19:19. Length of day is 12 h 19 min.
OULU on September 13, 2009.
Sun rises 6:33 and sets 19:52. Length of day is 13 h 19 min.
See the difference? /:
Source: http://www.fmi.fi/weather/local.html?kunta=Oulu
September 21, 2009
Yay yay, our Scandinavian Studies course singing Sámi folklore, better known as Yoik!
More on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoik!
September 20, 2009
Hi there once again...
My flatmate Kristo and I have been daytrippin' to Sweden yesterday - to a little city called Luleå (see Google map below). We started early in the morning, took the train from Oulu up north to Kemi, then headed to the 'boarder'-city Haparanda-Tunio by a real stylish bus, had (a 2nd) break at IKEA and continued west - by another, real comfortable bus. So far from what we have seen: Northern Sweden is utterly pretty! We also got lucky with the weather, though, but still: the 'highways' are surrdounded by dense forests including reindeers, little creeks and numerous red/white-coloured farmhouses... simply lovely.
Luleå's city centre is located on the centre of a a dozen or more islands, right above the Baltic Sea which is going to freeze in winter.
Check also on wikipedia, if interested!
Otherwise: pictures online at facebook!
View Larger Map
Ladies and Gentlemen: the world's northernmost IKEA! XD
Luleå's main street - we arrived right in time for a satiric demonstration against the corrupt banksystem.
I felt weirdly warm and embraced when reading the name of this, erm, erotic store not off the city centre. (X
Being back in Haparanda: because of pictures like these we had to hitch back to Kemi since we missed the last bus. However, Haparanda does technically belong to Sweden, but uses Finnish Time (GMT+2) to co-operate with its twin-city and Finnish counterpart Turnio.
September 18, 2009
It's Friday night by now, we returned from Oulanka Research Station (in Oulanka National Park) after five days of studying and hiking within our comparatively little group of 17 students (from 8 different countries).
We started last Monday, encountered first (rather stubborn!) reindeers on the way north and arrived in the park right in time for dinner (as early as 17:00 which is apparently usual in Finland) and had our first classes on Tuesday morning. We'd usually be hiking in the afternoon, making some real amazing trips (e.g.) to the Russian boarder and some real NP walkings (e.g.) at Little Bear's Circle, close to Juuma town: we spent whole Thursday for this in particular. At night, that is at about 8-10 we went to the Station's sauna and would later on play cards, read books or even have bbq in a tipi in the woods, just 50 meters from the sleeping area. Last big thing (and probably most amazing of them all) had been finally catching a glimpse of what the notorious Northern Lights (Auroral borealis) are looking like! It had been rather hard to see them with one's own eyes, but the camera caught it almost perfectly! But see for yourself...
Pictures online at facebook.
Northern lights (Aurora borealis; visible on 30sec time-exposure) above the Research Station.
Entrance to the Oulanka Research Station.
Group-photo in front of the boarder between Finland and Russia...
Pictures online at facebook.
September 13, 2009
OULU on September 13, 2009.
Sun rises 6:33 and sets 19:52. Length of day is 13 h 19 min.
Source: http://www.fmi.fi/weather/local.html?kunta=Oulu
Daytrip to Kajaani, some 200km south-east of Oulu. I actually wanted t go further east, to Kuhmo, close to the Russian boarder (which apparantly is quite a nice place and there also is a theme park concerning the Kalevala. However, I had bad luck with the train and bus connections so I kind of got stuck in Kajaani which hadn't been too bad either. I did a nice extending walk across the river and enjoyed the pine wood surroundings. Oh, and I also found the perfect atmosphere to start reading the Kalevala... (X
Pictures (as usual) online at facebook.
Railway station.
And once more pictures from Oulu: this time we went on a bus-trip to a recreation-area just south of the city - very close to the local airport, one of the busiest in the whole country, by the way. You'll see three bus-loads of ERASMUS-students trying to spend their time properly: having bbq, playing cards, doing some (more or less) extended walks and any imaginable sport!
Pictures online at facebook!
September 10, 2009
Just returning from a little trip with my new bike which I purchased for a couple of euro... actually it had been way too expensive, considering it's a bunch of fragile crap! Right now I was visiting the two lakes north and southeast of Linnanmaa, the university's campus: Kuivasjärvi and Pyykösjärvi.
This is where I live, just the 2nd floor on the very right side - yeah, I envy those people living above for their view!
The sunset cycling trip...
One possibility to enter Oulun Yliopisto (the university), the way I take every morning from now on.
Writing this post...
More pictures on facebook!
And one more thing: I won't be able to send or answer any messages since I'm attending the Nordic Nature and Environment Field Course. Have a look at the Oulanka Research Station!
To quote from wikipedia:
Oulanka National Park (Finnish: Oulangan kansallispuisto) is a national park in Oulu and Lapland Provinces, Finland, covering 270 square kilometres (104 sq mi). It borders with Paanajärvi National Park, established in 1992 in Russia. Oulanka National Park is a unique and versatile combination of northern, southern and eastern nature. The landscape is made up of pine forests, river valleys with sandy banks and rapids, and in the north of vast mires. The area is rich in animal and plant species, even endangered ones.
Oulanka is one of the most popular national parks in Finland. The most well-known Finnish trekking route, Karhunkierros, is located in the national park.
Oulanka National Park was established in 1956, after which it has been expanded twice: in 1982 and 1989. The area has been known for its beauty from the late 19th century, when it was a popular stop for artists and naturalists.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oulanka_National_Park
September 09, 2009
September 08, 2009
Hi everybody, down there in the rest of the world!
It's Tuesday night by now in Oulu, Finland; I'm starring into darkness just in front of my room's spacious window. So well: today was the day I finally got my internet access so today I will also start to inform you about life up here.
What happened so far: I flew to Helsinki on September 3 and stayed two nights with a local couchsurfer (Max) in quite a kewl neighbourhood named Kallio, just north of the city centre. Coming right in time for the annual firework championships we were having some drinks at the southern tip of the city.
On Saturday (September 5) I eventually made it up north to where I am living right now: Oulu in the same-called Finnish district, which took me roughly eight hours by train. It would have been shorter, but at one stage the follow-up-driver had been at least half an hour late, but he excused himself repeatedly so everybody will have forgiven him by now.
So well, here is where I'm exactly living now, right between the city centre of Oulu (to the south) and the University campus (to the north):
View Larger Map
The orientation week of us students (we're about 400 all together) started yesterday and tomorrow we'll have the first courses - however, there had been a lot of stuff to arrange yet, e.g. buying a desk-lamp since the one in my room is way too dark, opening a bank account, getting a monthly bus-ticket, filling out lots of formulars and various papers on all kind of subjects, but all that is nearly done by now. Before this all started we had the time to get an idea of how the area looks like and of course I've already taken a whole bunch of pictures. You might simply stop reading and just look at them. And don't worry, I won't overload you: you all got stuff to do and nobody likes watching too many of other people's photographs... :D
The follow-ups are just a tiny fraction, though (if at all). I had to put the pictures on facebook.com since blogger isn't exactly the best platform for it yet.
HELSINKI.
Helsinki Fish Market and harbour.
OULU.
Just some 2 kilometres outside the city centre - Oulu is located right behind some gorgeous little islands, we even have some nice sandy beaches up here!
UNIVERSITY (OULUN YLIOPISTO).
Spacey toilets! For obvious reasons our uni is happily coloured... XD
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