Life in Turku

Hello!

Feels weird to write a blog here in Finland and to be honest I keep forgetting the whole blog, but here it comes again!

I was back in business (aka student life) right away after my arrival since we had the annual gentlemen's dinner two days after I arrived in Finland. It's a dinner girls arrange for the guys from our faculty. There's always a theme (dress code), food & beverage, program and on behalf of equity guys arrange a ladies' dinner then in the autumn. It's this kind of special parties/events where you get those tokens you collect and sew on the overall (lazy people use glue :D). So now I have sewing to do :)

The token. This time the theme was sailing :)

My faculty's overall from the back...

...and from the front

Actually I would say that the Finnish student life is pretty awesome! The thing is that well, yes, there is a lot of alcohol involved but there's also (non alcoholic) events during the day. Every day I can see someone walk around in the city center wearing the overall going to an event (well, the city is not very big, approximately 180 000 inhabitants and there's 2 universities, the Finnish and the Swedish and 2 polytechnics, also a Finnish and a Swedish so Turku is definitively a student city. It's not that I could see overalls every day in every Finnish city). Well, I'll tell more about the student life in another post since that's definitively a theme worth writing about - today I'll write about the city itself.

Turku is located approximately 160 km west from Helsinki. The reason why I am writing about the 6th biggest city of Finland is that I happen to study here and I really enjoy the city! :)
Turku is very old, actually the old capital of Finland before Russia moved it to Helsinki. The city is full of pretty old buildings and it's divided into two: this side of the Aura-river and the other side as they are called with a very strong Turku accent which I find extremely funny! :D Sometimes it's very hard not to laugh when business men in their suits are talking serious business with this funny accent :D I am from the capital city area so I'd say our dialect is the closest to the written language. We do have some own words but pronunciation is pretty close to the written language. Haha, I might not be objective saying this and someone might disagree but haha, that's just my point of view ;)

There are several bridges to connect the sides

The pic is taken from this side of the river towards the other side :)

So back on track: This side, where I live nowadays (I used to live on the other side) is older I guess, at least the most important parts used to be here since the dome is here, the universities are on this side and there's an old square which is called the old great square. Nowadays then again the city center and the main square are on the other side of the river. I like it how the river is a central part of the cityscape even if the river it's not as big as the Danube and the water is grey due to the thick layer of mud on the bottom :D We don't care though, (well, sober people don't swim there) when the sun is shining and it's warm enough both sides of the river are full of people having a pic nick or just enjoying the sun and all the cafes and restaurants along the river are full!

We don't really go out and eat here that much since the prices are pretty expensive so I was surprised three years ago as I arrived here to see all these crowded restaurants. Maybe the small size of the restaurants has something with the crowdedness to do ;) I love walking along the river in the evening because there are lights everywhere and it's very atmospheric! Luckily my work is by the river, 2,5km from where I live so I can take a nice walk along the river when I go to work. Well, I have to be realistic now: since we are in Finland and it's spring you never know what the weather is like. When it's raining and it blows from the sea which is 4km from the city center I hate the 2,5km walk! Waterproof mascara is definitively a thing here!

The main building of my university, Åbo Akademi

The dome in the night

Small restaurants in the old buildings by the river :)

The riverside in the dark :)

Oh, I almost forgot to mention one of the most important sights here: the castle of Turku! The castle, like all the castles in Finland, is very simple; totally different from the well known German castles like Neuschwanstein. Our castles are very old, from the medieval times, when we were a part of Sweden so they are built by the Swedish kings. Even if our castles are a lot more simple (just like the Scandinavian style all in all :D) than the famous European, they are interesting spots to
visit and they are all built by a lake or by the sea like most of our cities :)

The castle of Turku

This pic is taken last May I guess and that's why it looks so green. Actually everything is still gray and in northern Finland there's still plenty of snow. Half of my family is up there skiing atm :D  Well, this was a little sneak peek to Turku, come visit me to see more ;)