[301211-010112]
HEI SUOMI!!
(Hello Finland!)
Just before the start of my semester in Oulu, I flew over from Frankfurt (after touring Germany for one week) to Helsinki, the capital city of Finland, and spent new year's eve there!
Omg I really miss Finland :( It's so peaceful, quiet, safe and sparsely populated! Traffic jams do not exist. The Finns are really nice and friendly people too :)
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| After a failed white Xmas in Germany, I had a WHITE NEW YEAR :D |
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| Met up with Ivie's friends, Elgin and Xiuqi and Darren (not in the photo), and together, we headed to......... |
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| SUOMENLINNA! A UNESCO fortress on an island off Helsinki. |
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| The fortress was rather quiet because it was winter and most of the museums and shops aren't open |
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| OMG WARMTH! |
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| Serenity |
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| These kids tried to relive their childhood |
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| yeah, XQ was really enjoying it |
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| REAL xmas tree because who needs fake ones when you can grow real ones in your backyard |
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| hehe elgin, xq and I accidentally sneaked into a vikings' museum |
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| I have no idea what's with eagles....many countries seem to have them |
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| Medieval clothing |
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| SEE UNESCO SITE!! |
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| taking an adventure through the fortress |
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| Rustic old houses |
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| No birds :( probably hibernating... |
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| Check out this lake!! It's half ice and half water!! COOL RIGHT?? |
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| soon, we reached the scenic point, King's gate |
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| yes, it's a real seagull |
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| OMG a ray of light from heaven?? |
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| first time seeing natural ice, we were damn fascinated by it!! Looks like harry's wand right!! |
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| They even engaged in a ice popsicle fight ;) |
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| Seagulls heading home during sunset (which was 3 or 4pm btw, yes winter is cold and dark) |
HERE COMES THE BEST PART, FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD! AHAHAHAH
We managed to find a food court like place in helsinki and they did serve pretty good food....
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| When in Scandinavia, one can never go wrong with salmon |
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| Cheesy chicken fillet |
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| (dubious) Kebab meat with rice |
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| Fancy some wine in refill packs? |
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| I think this was the first buffet i ever had in europe LOLLL PIZZA BUFFET......and i swore never to have one of those again. |
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| A deck of cards, two bottles of vodka..................you get the story ;) |
Nearing midnight, we headed to the senate square for the countdown to 2012!!!
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| GIANT rubik's cube |
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| the lightshow was pretty impressive, the patterns kept changing, almost as if the buildings got painted a different colour every few minutes |
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| Helsinki Cathedral |
Because it's the new year, we are bound to make some new year's resolutions......and to spice things up a little, we decided to choose random boards (that are non-english) and make it our new year's resolution without knowing what it is until we google translate afterwards!
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GUESS WHAT'S MINE?? AHAHAHA *HINT* IT'S SWEDISH
I think it's something like "take my beloved out for a romantic dinner" and yes i have yet to fulfill it...... |
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| Elgin got something like "godparent of the restaurant", loosely translated from Finnish... but i think it probably means owning your own restaurant. |
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| XQ got "I do my work smarter" (translated from Finnish) |
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| Darren got "I'm going to join a reading circle" LOLLLLLL translated from swedish |
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| colourful cathedral! |
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| the fireworks display lasted like 15min or smth |
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| Check out the different colours of the statue |
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| ORANGE |
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| RED |
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| PURPLE |
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| I think this was the first time and the last time that i saw so many people in Finland at one place LOLLLL |
Counting down in another city, another country, another language, was definitely a whole new experience ;) Not only was all of that different, the people, the weather and atmosphere was different too.....but not exactly in a manner that I like because the program was rather boring HAHAHA. It was almost like having a tight budget? There was only two main singers who alternate each other. The countdown ended at 12am exactly and then it was like "HEI HEI, NADAAN!!" (Bye bye, see you!!)
Nevertheless, I still enjoyed myself for the fact that I wasn't sweating and squeezing with people back at home :P
Labels: Finland, Helsinki
