Study abroad in Helsinki, Finland: Still a lot of spare time

Thursday, 04.09.2008
I still have quite a lot of spare time. Excellent! :-)
After my first class of "Digital Marketing", which is indeed quite interesting but actually just the things I've already heard at FHWien by Mr. Netek, Mr. Kotzab and Ms. Völk, like 4 (Digital-) Marketing-P's, Kotler, Kotler and Kotler ^^. Furthermore we "formed" the definition of the term "Marketing".
As every first class, it was a lot of Administration and not really a lot of topic-related things.

I finished school at 10.45 (because the second course of this day was cancelled due to the illness of a teacher). Therefore I decided to go to Itäkeskus shopping mall, the biggest one in Scandinavia.

Itäkeskus entrance

Subway & Kebab, that looks quite familiar :-)

The MediaMarkt of Finland = ONOFF

Schoggi-cookbook, unfortunately in finnish :-(

The only metroline in Helsinki, connecting West and East-Helsinki

... and they look quite new

After this "shopping tour" I headed towards Ruoholahti, the westend of Helsinki, which is known as business district. You get there easily by metro (endstation Ruoholahti). When you get out of the metro, you stand right in front of this NOKIA-Building.

A NOKIA-office building in Ruoholahti

PriceWaterHouseCoopers - Building

a lot of glas

I haven't seen something like that in Austria, hmmm!?

Once again, the NOKIA-building. That's not the HQ, it's just a normal office complex.

Symantec is in here

NOKIA-Building from the back.

Yes, they have skyscrapers here (at least this one *gg*)

HolidayInn Ruoholathi

The Helsinki cargo port

A seaside building of Zurich Insurance Group

Unfortunately not my flat ;-)

After this Ruoholathi sightseeing (or office complex)-tour I continued in direction to Rautatieas (Central Railway station) to reach the Töölönölahtipark. On the way I found ...

... a streeeetch limousine. Nice, isn't it?

The Töölönlahtipark also offers a lake for it's visitors

... as well as a fountain ...

really large

From there I continued to Pasila station to get home again. My total walking distance this day was appr. 14km, so I was quite tired and didn't move any more as I reached home :-).

Friday, 05.09.2008
Today, I had my first class of "Survival Finnish for Foreigners". You can imagine how funny it is to look at people who start to learn a complete new and very difficult language ;-). Oh my dear!
The things I've remembered till now ... is ... ähm ... yeah ... not much. Just the right pronounciaction of the words *gg*.

As I was already finished by 12 o'clock, I decided to make a trip to Vantaa Airport. As "homo flug fanaticus" a must. From Myyrmäki I took the M-train to Vandaakoski and there the real challenge started. I just took a photo of the busline-map and tried to find the airport, which I managed to find after a 3 hours walk through a lot of green landscape, forrest and a lot of rain :P.

Here I'm at the extended RWY centerline of RWY04L. A good point for planespotting!

Here I was happy to see the sign of Vantaa Airport ... nevertheless the walk took 45 minutes to the terminal :P.

Finally reached the terminal, on the left, the Finnair HQ.

Ahhh, the departure hall.

The Austrian Check-in counter, operated by Blue1.

Because my legs hurt, I took the airport bus (#615) to Helsinki Central Railway Station (40 minutes) and went home by my M-train.

Nevertheless, it was Friday and we had to go out this eve :-). Tonight, a firework competition which include 5 amazing fireworks took place. There were crowds of people in the city (of course many drunken as well). The fireworks were really amazing, I think the biggest and most impressive one I've ever seen!! Really recommendable if you're here in summer (or September).
I made some good videos, but they're fare to large of size.

But here's a YouTube video: