Sunday, November 23, 2008

Welcome Winter & Santa Claus

Sunday, 23.11.2008
About two days ago, we recognized that the winter is knocking on Southern Finlands doors. Our termometer showed temperatures of arround -7°C in the morning. A little snow could be seen already yesterday. But today, the "real winter" started.
Furthermore, Helsinki opened it's christmas street (the big joulukatu avataan) today at midday, so we took the opportunity and went to Alexanderinkatu and surrounding area, where this opening took place. There really have been a lot of people for the opening, but the "christmas street" is disappointing. There are just some christmas light on the streets, nothing else. NO wooden cottages where they sell hot wine, punch, chocolate fruits, langos. Actually, there was nothing, just a few lights. And the christmas lightning in my hometown Baden in Austria is for sure better than the one here. That's really boring, I have to say. So no Glühwein or Punsch for the Austrians in Helsinki. We miss it!
And it's really strong snowfall and heavy wind here. Enjoy the photos!

At the railway station in Helsinki ... on the way to Alexanderinkatu

A lot of people on the senatssquare (senaatintori).

Yvonne enjoying the winter experience.

Punainen risti ... the Finnish red cross selling staff for charity

Céline and Heon took the opportunity for a photo shooting with a snow man.

SantaClaus (in Finnish "joulupukki") is arriving with the tram this year, because his sledge isn't able to go on the streets as they aren't fully covered with snow (at least not at this time).
You can see joulupukki in the middle of the picture.

Afterwards, he went upstairs to the cathedral, spoke a few sentences in Finnish, Swedish and English, sang with the whole group up there and took a seat in his improvisational sledge to join a christmas parade along Alexanderinkatu.

The "christmas lights" along the christmas street. WOW :-(.

A winter-proved Austrian (me) together with a South Korean (Heon) not used to see that much snow at once.

The parade along Alexanderinkatu (the street connecting the senatssquare in front of the white cathedral and the biggest road Mannerheimintie at Stockmann).
The parade took appr. 5 minutes, that's it. Not really spectacular.

As this weather isn't really cosy, we rewarm ourselves in Fazer cafe. A good idea!

Half an hour later, everything was over. Just a few people on the street.

A snow-covered Mannerheimintie.

Stockmann shopping mall in a snow storm.

The eastern part of the railway station square (Rautatientori) . Wääää weather.

Let's go home again.... That's how it look like from my flat a few hours ago. Now, everything is covered with snow and the national weather agency asks all Helsinki residents to stay at home and avoid any car drive, because it's extremely slippery on the roads.

Nevertheless, it's a nice experience. That's how Finland should be at this time of the year.
The snow will get even stronger till midnight, so we'll enjoy a real winter wonderland tomorrow morning.

Wednesday Night

Wednesday, 19.11.2008

Today, a "small" party evening was planned. It's already a kind of "bye-bye" party, as many students start to travel all around the country or abroad and therefore won't see each other too often any more.

Homemade hamburgers ... far better than McDonalds crap :P

On the way to Amarillo Bar in the center.

France - France - Hungary

France/Hungary - Austria

Finnish girls x 2

And one part of the group

You won't believe it, he is Finn. :-)


I still have no clue what this Cherokee was doing ... or what he was trying to tell us.

One of our "Culture & Management"-team member, Tommi

Short conclusion: Nice evening and (for Helsinki) really cheap drinks!

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Christoph in Helsinki

16.11.2008 - Christoph is visiting Helsinki

Today, Christoph, my fellow student of FH Wien is visiting me in Helsinki. He is studying in Vilnius, Lithuania this semester and is right now on a trip from Vilnius to Tallinn and Helsinki for 4 days. That's a good opportunity to meet each other here. It was quite short, but "successful", I would say. Just the weather wasn't as good as it could be ... like always :P.
Christoph, I hope you've enjoyed your stay here in Helsinki.

Here some photos that prove that Christoph really has been to Helsinki:

here in front of Kamppi shopping mall in Helsinki

Christoph in Ruoholathti, in front of the "Pricewaterhouse Coopers" tower.

Taking the metro back to Rautatieasema (main railwaystation)

Take a hot cup of coffee here at Roberts Coffee at the Olympiaterminalli.
More photos on studiVZ.

It was pretty nice to hear his experiences from Lithuania and how they study there. We definitely share the opinion that the Austrian (and German + Swiss) way of working is far better than the one of many other countries. Au ja!
Nice flight back home, Christoph!

Finland is ugly & do something against it

15.11.2008 - Finland is ugly & do something against it

As the weather here in Southern Finland is still not getting better (except for a few hours every 10th day ...) and it is getting dark earlier every day, you can really understand why Finland has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. Then, I went out and took some photos of my area ... than you really understand why some Fins might not appreciate their life here ... :-).

Nobody on the street, rain, drizzle, fog, clouds, and a bit windy.

A "nice" unintentional pond in the forest ... because of continous rain during the past days.

A nice landscape, isn't it? Like out of the Finland-tourism-brouchure :-(.

An old RTW of Helsinki EMS

That's how they look like.

15.30 ... it starts to get a little dark here.

Okay, that's definitly NOT healthy for your body & mind .... so
a) take a sauna first
b) cook Palatschinken (oh, I'm sorry, pancakes) ... or better --> eat pancakes which are cooked for you :-D.

"Gyöngyi is throughing pancakes through the air"

Fill it with marmelade or Nesquick and enjoy.

And some traditional Korean food ... rice balls with tuna and chili paste.
Jep, a little spicy (at least for Europeans *gg*).

Germany - South Korea - Austria

Turkey - South Korea - Hungary (hungry)

Some French people have a problem with alcohol ... some without alcohol :-D.

Patrick's visit & Teamwork

13.11.2008 - Patrick's visit in Helsinki

Today, my friend and Austrian Arrows (Austrian Airlines / Tyrolean) Fokker 70/100 first officer pilot requested a night-stop in Helsinki and got it. So we had one morning to spend together for a short sightseeing of this small city :-).
He arrived from Vienna on flight OS 347 (12NOV) on the day before very late at night and had to fly the service back to Vienna on this day (OS346).
I picked him up from their crew hotel (Radisson SAS hotel near Kamppi) and we started a small city tour.

Patrick and me at Helsinki's Rautatieasema (railway station)

Right afterwards, I headed to our university for a "moot court simulation".
European competition law in English can be quite difficult if you already have problems in understanding it in your mother tongue German. :P


12.11.2008 - Culture & Management "Teamwork"
We were supposed to do a groupwork for our course "Culture & Management" in my flat. Well ... we did, but the most time was used for ... yeah, a "Palatschinken-Competition".

First of all ... prepare the crêpes

Then turn it ... yeah, I'm already a real profi

And then you serve it as French serve it.
2 out of 4 members of our group are French, so they won *gg*.

Satisfied faces ... and nobody died because of my cooking *gg*.

Long nights

08.11.2008 - Once again, school on Saturday

Today we had our 3rd time a course on Saturday, this time "Business in China" for the whole day. This is how our university looks like at appr. 5 in the evening ... when it is dark outside :P.

The B-part of our university building ... the newer one.

on the left = new part; on the right = old part

And after studying, students are hungry ... even if it is half past 2 in the night on Saturday (or already Sunday)

Scrambled eggs for my whole flat (3 persons).

It's getting dark very early now ... See this picture. Actually the exposure time was set quite long to be able to see something. It wasn't that bright at this time.