CHRISTMAS TIME (Part 1; Finland trip: Helsinki time!!)

It is christmas time, at least in the place where I live, so let me talk you about my christmas time in Tallinn.

It started at the end of November with the trip to Finland organized by ESN Tallinn.
We were a big group of people, I do not remember the exact number, that took the ferry from Tallinn to Helsinki one cold morning. The trip was one hour and a half long, so we were very motivated to arrive to Helsinki, however, our adventure started in the boat itself.

It was a really cool ferry!!!!

When we entered on it the tripulation gave us some necessary cards to be on the ferry and… We were very lucky because one of my friends received a cabin card, so we had acces to one room and we could leave our lugagge on it before taking a look around the boat.

First of all we went to the cafeteria, it had some picture windows which allowed us to see how the ferry sat sail from Tallinn´s port. The sight from the sofas of the bar was marvelous. After taking some pictures we decided to take a look outside.

It was cold and windy, but the views were amazing. We could see we were navigating close to some small islands which were really cute and nice. When we decided to come back indoors we simply sat down for resting and chatting a bit.

At the moment we realized we were arriving to Helsinki we decided to went out again, just to see our arrival and how the ferry tied up. Some minutes later we were all sat down inside our bus.

Our first contact with Helsinki was from the bus. They gave us a bus tour around the whole city showing us the most important places and explaining us a bit of Finnish´ history.

Once we had seen downtown´s monuments such as the government´s palace, the university library, the senate´s square or the Tuomiokirkko (the Lutheran Cathedral), the bus drove us to Temppeliaukio.

Temppeliaukio was a lutheran church designed by Suomalainen brothers in 1969. The interior of the church was dug out of a rock, however, the daily light illuminated the whole place thanks to a glazed dome. I must add that more than a church it seemed like if you were inside of a cave, but I must also confess that the place was stunning and marvelous at the same time.

As it was a turistic place we decided to investigate the surroundings and to buy something to eat before continuing our tour. What we did not know was that the tour was going to change a bit.

From that moment we could walk alone around the city center before taking the bus again to travel many hours until we arrived to Rovaniemi area.

So, as one of my spanish friends had an old friend living in Helsinki, we thought: Who could be a better guide to get us lost in the downtown?

After having a walk and taking some pictures we met him. He was a very interesting guy, he left Spain to achieve its dream. He was the singer of a Heavy Metal group (a very popular music in Finland) and we worked also in a restaurant (if I remember properly).
While being with him we discovered many interesting things from Finnish culture such as the love Finnish people have to Karaokes, the importance of Heavy Metal music in the country, the way the government promote foreign people receive Finnish language´s lessons…

Everything he told us was really interesting and it allow us to learn more about that country and its culture. After drinking something in a bar we walked across the city center until we arrived to a karaoke and OMG!!

It was true!!

People in Helsinki finished working and they went to the karaokes to drink something and to sing a pair of songs before going home.

We also sang, and we tried to did our best, but it was impossible... We did not sing as well as they did… At least we had really fun ☺.

Later, when it was time to leave, we went to the train station. There, the bus was waiting for us to start our night trip to the North of the country…

…But that is another story ;).

By the way, if you like Heavy Metal maybe you would like to have a check to this site CRAVED OF ASHED and to meet this amazing group and its music.

http://es.myspace.com/carvedinashes

https://www.facebook.com/CarvedInAshes?fref=ts

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