Monday 08.12. - Thursday 11.12.2008On Monday I had my last exam at my university for the "Information Systems for Business" course. This one was ... how should I say this ... horrible. The tasks during class were quite easy but the exam itself was really difficult. We had to do 12 pages of multiple choice questions and some excel exercises. My feeling on that exam where really horrible but finally I got a 4 (which is equal to an Austrian 2). I don't know how I managed it ... but who cares :P.
Trip to Riga (Latvia) and Vilnius (Lithuania)Nevertheless, right after the exam I took the train from Myyrmäki to Helsinki to go on a "big" journey with Heon, Dobroslawa, Lukasz, Sun and Jarek. Our journey plan: Going from Helsinki by commuter train to Tampere, take the bus from Tampere railwaystation to Tampere airport, take Ryanair-flight (for EUR 1,00) from Tampere to Riga and continue with a local bus to Riga city center. That's the thing we did.
You won't believe it. Tampere really has some x-mas lightning to offer, compared to Helsinki.
Tweety is welcoming us as well *gg*.
Our Ryanair Boing 737-800 at Tampere apron.
Extremely cheap (EUR 5 / person / night) and a looot of space, free internet, ...
..., a big flat screen with 80+ channels, ...
... and a kitchen for everyones use.
After we arrived at 11pm we started our nightly Riga sightseeing tour. That's a "normal" car for Riga. Pffff
And on our way through the city, we were invited by a stranger to join him to an ERASMUS party somewhere.
The day after: Riga sightseeing during daylight.A few words about Riga:a very nice and friendly city, English skills here are not as good as in Finland but still "useable", the old town is really a must-see, the lightning of many buildings during nighttime is like a dream, the prices here are really low if you are used to Finnish prices (arround half or less of the Finnish price, WOW!). You really can see the strong economic development in recent years --> you can see A LOT OF really luxurious cars on the streets.
Riga has a lot of old buildings in very good conditions
A typical picture for Riga ... Old building and modern and luxorious cars right in front
A supermarket bakery with a lot of excellent and very cheap.
The orthodox church ... at least one of them ^^.
The monument of freedom.
The center galleria shopping mall in the old town.
A very modern and big shopping mall with all well-known brand stores.
A nice night shot of one of the bright lightened buildings in Riga.
Today, we continued from Riga to Vilnius, which is a 4 hours bus trip in a really comfy bus which offers large seats, newspapers, toilet, drinks, free internet, music videos, .....
As my schoolmate Christoph is living in Vilnius, I took the opportunity to visit him.
Our coach service to Vilnius. Nice coach, isn't it?
As we arrived in Vilnius, we went to a typical Lithuanian (tourist) restaurant to try the famous Lithuanian Cepelini (kind of meat-filled dumpling). It tastes better than it looks on this photo! :-)
Afterwards we started a sightseeing tour on our own, just with the tourist map in our hands.
Conclusion: they have A LOT OF churches here, the prices are a bit lower than in Riga and the city itself is not very spectacular, already a little boring because you have seen everything which is worth to see in about 3 hours (almost like Helsinki).
In the eastern part of Vilnius you can go up a small hill and enjoy the view over the city. That's really recommendable!
Me in front of the newer part of the city. I have been there!!! :-)
The Vilnius cathedral at the cathedral square which is really big.
A nice building.
Afterwards I met Christoph. I also slept at his place for this night.
Our dinner this evening was served in a stake house. Not too much, but delicious.
Afterwards, there was an ERASMUS leaving party ongoing in Vilnius so Christoph and I took the opportunity to celebrate the last days as ERASMUS students (even if I'm not studying in Vilnius ... who cares). Well, that was really "funny" :P.
The day after was quite unspectacular. We travelled back from Vilnius to Riga (by coach), spend 4 more hours in Riga (a bit sleepy).
As last "attraction" in Riga, we visited the really recommendable
Sky Bar on the 26th floor of the Reval hotel, the highest building in town.
There you have a great view over the city and you can enjoy a drink high above the floor level.
Nightly (5pm) Riga
At arround 6pm, we headed back to the bus station to take the bus to the airport and the Ryanair flight to Tampere (once again, only EUR 1,00, amazing) the bus from Tampere airport to the railwaystation and the pendolino train which took us from Tampere to Helsinki in 1:34h.
We arrived at home in Helsinki at half past 1am, as our flight had 45 minutes delay and we weren't able to catch an earlier train.
The nice airport of Riga ... respect!
And the "busy" apron in front of the terminal
This was our last trip together and we really enjoyed it! Riga is a great city, I really want to visit it again. Vilnius is nice as well, but not that spectacular, except you know somebody there ^^. Thanks Christoph for your welcoming and sorry for any inconveniences. :-)
OS345 from VIE arrived exactly on time so my flight was on time as well.
Leaving Helsinki during bad weather conditions.
