Week 13 - Cultural

This week I have been travelling a lot. I have attended the ESN event called the Sea Battle where all the students from Scandinavia went on a boat together from Helsinki, to Tallinn, and then to Stockholm afterwards. There were students from Finland, Norway, Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. For me, this was an amazing opportunity to experiences cultures from all over the world, as many of the students on this trip were exchange students. The first day, we went to visit Stockholm after travelling all night on the boat. When we arrived in Stockholm it was beautiful weather and the people were very friendly and open to us. We went to visit the palace and several monuments in Stockholm. The currency in Stockholm is the krona (plural “kronor”) and one euro equalled 10 kroner. We spent a total of 9 hours in Stockholm, and for me it was not enough. The city has a lot to offer, and many different cultural events like free concerts and exhibitions. The day after Stockholm, we went to Tallinn in Estonia. Tallinn was also a beautiful city with two parts, the old town and the new town. In the old town, many people were dressed in old outfits, and were giving people medieval coins as souvenirs. They also had people who had stalls on the streets who made traditional Estonian nuts and fruits. They made this food using traditional tools and barrels and this was very interesting to watch. When we arrived back to Finland after the sea battle, the next day i went to St Petersburg in Russia. This trip was interesting to me as we visited different children's homes and centres there. St Petersburg was a beautiful city, but you had to be very careful with your belongings there as there were many pickpockets about. Many of the people in Russia did not speak English and so it was difficult to engage and communicate with them. Also in Russia, it is rude to blow your nose in public, or for a woman to cross her legs whilst on public transport. This was interesting to learn because for me these are normal everyday things and I would not find them rude at all. St Petersburg was a very beautiful city, and it was very different from any other city that I have been in. It is interesting for me to see the differences between all these cities, and I thoroughly enjoyed this experience.