Helsinki- first impressions

Hello all!

My next plan –writing about our journey and arrival at Helsinki- is not as easy as I've imagined before. April of 2013 was long time ago, and it's hard to remember what kind of thoughts I had back then. I can remember that all the seven of us were very excited at Budapest ‘Liszt Ferenc’ Airport. For some of us it was the first airplane flight in our lives, and none of us have ever been in Scandinavia. After enjoying the travelling with Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), our plane landed in the home-country of Santa Claus. From the plane we could already notice that Finland is green, Finland is forests and nature is pure, wild and untouched. The view from the plane was constituted by an immense green carpet made of forests. Big like for that!

The little Hungarian group was formed by Anna (midwifery), Petra (dietetics), Dorka and Zsolt (nursery) and me (physiotherapy) student on the one hand, and two of our teachers joined us as well, a law and an addictology teacher. I won't distinguish us in two, the traditional teacher-student hierarchy could be totally forgotten, because our teachers were youthful, open-minded, and energetic just like us. Moreover, they had to prepare for this study-trip, do a small research and summarize and present their results similar to us. So this actually created a ‘group Erasmus’ fever.

I would warmly recommend ICHCI course to every Health Science student, because this uniformity, unity, inclusivity and community feeling is specific for the whole programme. Students and teachers are partners, and friends, regardless our disciplines, professions, study fields, cultural backgrounds, nationalities. Two weeks of brain-storming, group-work, team-building and effective partnership. To be honest, I think the secret of this short-term Erasmus programme is in the fact, that all the attendants are following Health Care studies (nursery, midwifery, speech therapy, social work, occupational therapy, nutrition, physiotherapy and so on), fields which automatically include empathy, openness, acceptance and altruism as key-characteristics. We had a lot in common, and I’m glad that I touch base with some of the people I’ve met on this intensive course nowadays as well.

How is Finland and Helsinki? Locals told us that in the XX century most of the old and ancient-designed classical buildings were destroyed, and were replaced by new and modern ones, because Finland ‘needed to’ develop and look like a modern country, with fresh infrastructure and trendy and new style architecture. So there are many glass-steel-concrete-brick buildings mostly pastel-coloured, or having gray or darker tones. However, Helsinki is very well-organized, very clean and pure, but comparing with the old town of Prague, gives less visual impulses for visitors. Thus, mystique, magic and majestic words don’t fit at all for Helsinki, but well-structured, uniform, up-to date adjectives can 100% work. Exceptions: we although find some older churches, basilicas, cobble-stoned streets and squares, romantic restaurants and baroque sculptures and monuments in the city centre, but not as many as in Budapest, or Western-Europe. Of course a lot of characteristics make Helsinki a special place in the World, but for me those are different from the city’s general look. But I can't deny, that I fell in love with it (I'll explain why in my following posts).

Helsinki is eco-friendly. On the one hand, public transport includes mostly trams, moreover, lot of people choose to ride bikes, and maintain this way a less polluted environment. Secondly, supermarkets reward customers if they collect plastic, glass, or paper cartons and bring them at the collection points for recycling. By recycling only one 2 l plastic bottle, You receive 50 Cents on a virtual account. The money you receive for the sweepings, can be spent in the actual shop or store you're in. That's a good deal!

Another characteristic of Helsinki is its silence and calmness. Maybe it's because of the sea breeze, and the uniform aspect of the city, but people are not hurrying, they seem balanced, healthy and content with their lives. I saw just a few marginalized, homeless or aggressive people, but I'd say Helsinki is one of the safest capital cities Worldwide.

After arriving at our hostel which was located on Katajanokka peninsula (www.eurohostel.eu), just 2 minutes walk from the harbour and the sea, we immediately left our rooms and suitcases, and went for a walk to discover the surroundings. We've seen lot of block of flats and modern family houses, beautiful playgrounds and gardens, nice apartments. We've been walking around the harbour, and saw big ships and ferryboats. The famous red-white Viking ferry (having daily routes between Sweden and Finland) was docked close to our hostel. I’ve never seen such a big ferryboat. We listened to the quarrel of the seagulls, we enjoyed the sea breeze and watching the sunset. Did I just say SUNSET? Well it’s better to clarify, that in Finland there’s half a year summer and half year Winter. In April it was already Finnish summer, meaning that even if the sun disappeared, darkness didn't descend over the city during the night. If I haven’t been looking at my watch, I would say all the night that there’s 5’o clock in the afternoon. Interesting, huh?

More interesting facts about Helsinki coming in my next post.

P. S. : Sorry for the quality of the pictures, I'm not a professional photographer.

Thanks for reading, Dóra

(If You're interested about more writings of mine, click here: http://erasmusu.com/en/dora-csatari-560876/erasmus-blog)

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