Day 1 - 27. December 2012
I woke up early enough to not need to rush. After making final preparations for about an hour, I left home and then the public transport of Tallinn showed its best: I think the trolleybus came in time, but the bus that was supposed to come two minutes before it was following it and when I made it to the tram stop, I saw the tram that had just left the stop - at least 5 minutes early. Luckily I had time, so I just waited for the next tram and made it just in time.
Kristiina, who came to send me off, was waiting for me at the port. She gave me a letter to deliver to Samuli, waited with me at the check-in line and then sent me off with a hug. When I finally got on the ship, I took a nice seat next to a window and stayed there. I slept most of the trip, but I did see the children entertainment programme which is always fun to watch, and when we arrived to Helsinki, I saw MS Mariella there, and witnessed one of the most impressive ship maneuvers I've ever seen - our ship passed it about 0,5m away from it. It made me think that driving big ships must be similar to making elephants walk on a rope.
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| MS Mariella |
After getting off the ship, I started slowly walking towards the train station - again. It was not the most enjoyable walk I've ever had, since the snow was on the edge of melting and dragging a heavy suitcase through it was quite an exercise, and my suitcase got quite dirty too. In my opinion, dirty snow takes at least half off the beauty of Helsinki.
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| Aleksanterinkatu |
When I made it to the train station, I almost panicked when I didn't find my departure on the list. Then I realized that what I was supposed to take was a commuter train, and I was just looking at the wrong table. The wait wasn't too long and soon I sat on the right train. I slept the first half of the trip, until, near Riihimäki, I heard an announcement, that those who are going all the way to Tampere, will have to move to another train, because the one we were in was staying in Riihimäki. So we got off the train and about half of the crowd moved on another train.
At about half past two o'clock, after about 6 hours of travelling, I arrived at Tampere. I noticed Samuli standing at the platform from far away. When I got off the train, we hugged and went to meet his mother, who was waiting at a nearby cafe. After meeting we took a bus to Ylöjärvi.
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| Entering Ylöjärvi |
At home I gave Samuli and her mother the presents I had for them. We thought of going for a walk with Samuli, but I was feeling sick from all the travelling and I stayed home.
Day 2 - 28. December
I was still feeling sick in the morning, but I pulled myself together and went for a walk with Samuli. We walked to the library, where Jonne was waiting for us. He drove us to Riina's place, where he managed to park in that one particular spot which had not been cleared from snow. Inside we were greeted by Riina and her sisters (I'm still having troubles counting them all...). We sat at the table and chatted for hours, and soon I felt good enough to actually eat something. Then we went to another room to watch some random stuff on TV. Even though nothing much was done that day, the company was good and I had a lot of fun. When we left, it took Jonne (and Samuli and some of the girls who were pushing the car) a while to get the car out of the pile of snow. When we finally succeeded, he gave us a lift home and left.
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| Freaks :D |
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| The cat that reminded me of a chipmunk |
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| Us :) |
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| Getting the car out |
Day 3 - 29. December
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| Me & Arttu |
In the morning I was finally feeling well enough to spend more time out of Samuli's room, and I finally exchanged some first words with Samuli's mother and showed them my Finnish schoolbooks and the part of my Nightwish collection that I took with me. Later on we went walking to Arttu's place, which was about 11km away. On our way, we walked past the school, where most of my Finnish friends go to. We even passed the exact spot where me and Samuli met in August. Later on we also put a candle on the memorial site of Arttu Ollila (who happens to have the same first name as our friend). The walk was long, but a lot of fun.
At Arttu's place we skyped with Kristiina for a bit and watched some South Park. Then Arttu's mother showed us pet mice. They must've been the cutest creatures I've ever seen.
Later on we started heading back home. I almost froze on the way back, but it was still a lot of fun. We stepped into some kebab stall, ate a bit, rested and unfroze a bit, but when we got home we were almost frozen again.
Day 4 - 30. December
We had planned the day for staying home and doing nothing. And that's how it went - we slept long in the morning and watched some Nightwish movies. After we were done with them, Samuli grabbed my Finnish notebook and started making notes. I like when he does that. We can always talk about languages and find similarities, it's a common interest that unites us very well.
Day 5 - 31. December
After midday we walked to Arttu's place again. This time the walk was long and hard, I got very tired quite soon. On the way we went into Elo shopping center and rested, but it didn't help much. When we finally got to Arttu's place, we rested for a while, ate a bit and then went out again to shoot Arttu's fireworks (most of them were shot by Arttu, who wasn't too much into following safety instructions). When we got back home, the sauna was heated up for me and Samuli, and that's how we welcomed 2013 - just like in that russian movie they keep showing every year.
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| Arttu the Great Wizard |
Day 6 - 1. January 2013
When we woke up long after midday, we watched some movies and then walked to Vilma's place. We stayed for a couple of hours, chatting and playing some video games, which was fun. I tried to control it, but since I'm not exactly the biggest gamer in the world - I've held a video game controller maybe twice in my life - I pretty much turned the game into disaster. Vilma's father baked some delicious cinnamon buns. That reminded me that a couple of days before I left, I finally got a proper baking oven and I can finally start baking pies, buns and cakes as I've wanted for a long time.
In Vilma's room I noticed a page from a local newspaper hanging on the wall. It was a long article about the rising stars of manga drawing - Vilma Ruopio and Samuli Björkling. It made me very proud to have such amazing friends. I'm sure they'll both go far in life.
After leaving Vilma's place, we walked home. While walking, we chatted about anything and everything with Samuli, and that made the walk go by fast.
Day 7 - 2. January
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| Master at work |
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| You're going down. |
Day 8 - 3. January
We woke up early in the morning to catch a bus to Tampere. We walked around there for several hours, checked different music stores and I got three records for my Nightwish collection: Highest Hopes, Nemo and Dark Passion Play Collector's Edition. We also took a lot of pictures on our walk. When it started to get dark, we took a bus back home.
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| Help, I'm lost! |
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| Näsinneula |
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| The Nightwish items I got during the trip |
Day 9 - 4. January
In the morning we went to pick up Imaginaerum the Wine from the store. Then Jonne picked us up and we went to his place, where we were also joined by Toni. I'm usually strongly against drinking, but the Nightwish fan in me forced me to have one glass. It was nothing special. Awfully bitter, though I don't really have anything to compare it with. Somehow the four of us managed to empty the bottle though, without anyone getting in trouble. Now the bottle decorates my Nightwish collection.
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| Jonne & Samuli |
After drinking the wine, we watched some videos and played some Wii games. I like games where one actually has to move to play, because moving is always better than just sitting.
In the evening we were given a lift home. Samuli finished the picture he was drawing for me, I also drew him a couple of pictures and we just chatted till late at night. I'm very proud of myself, because in that short time, I taught Samuli to pronounce the Estonian letter Õ. He will need to practice for a while, but he got the core of it, and knowing him, he will probably say it like an Estonian the next time we meet. ☺
Day 10 - 5. January
In the morning after waking up, I packed my suitcase and soon after that we took a bus to Tampere. I didn't want to walk around too much with my heavy suitcase, even though there was no snow on the roads, making it a lot easier to drag. We headed to the train station, and soon the time was right to exchange final hugs and goodbyes and I got on the train. It wasn't easy, since I had just got used to the life there, but unfortunately I have to go back to school in a few days. A bit before reaching Riihimäki, I heard some announcement about Riihimäki and ambulance, but I didn't understand it. When we got to Riihimäki, I saw an ambulance waiting there. The train was delayed by about 10 minutes, and some older woman was taken off the train. Because of that, we also arrived to Helsinki some minutes later, but fortunately I had plenty of time. I slowly walked to the train station, this time following a bit different route from the usual. The dirty snow was gone, it wasn't very cold and near the port I stayed to look at the sea. Seeing beautiful Helsinki made me feel a bit better. When the time was right, I got on the ship and once again, I managed to take one of the few seats at the front window of the ship. In Tallinn, mum had come to pick me up and we walked home from the port.
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| Bye bye Tampere |
Compared to my previous trips, this one probably had the least sightseeing and the most living with locals. And I feel like it was the best trip I've had so far. I really hope to have something similar again in the next year. About a month ago I spontaneously filled in an application form to become an exchange student. A week later I had given in all the documents needed for the application, and now I'm waiting for the first events. I have high hopes for this, because a year in Finland would definitely do a lot of good.
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