Stockholm in May

We did a trip to Stockholm from work (my school). Or you could call it work-related, but very little of the first part was involved:)

I took a few days off while the other teachers with the students only had one day off... I took the bus to Helsinki, then flew with Norwegian to Stockholm. I stayed at a, hmm, stuffy and yucky hotel (I don't recommend it if you have high standards) in Södermalmen. On my time "off duty" I met with friends for a few glasses of wine and in the morning I went to the photo museum (with exhibits of Jacob Felländer, Edward Burtynsky, Albert Watson). Fotografiska is a wonderful museum and they change the exhibits quite often, so one has to go there just as often to see the famous photographers! On the way there I saw a Swedish movie star Mikael Nyqvist!:)

The work-part was to visit Norra Real, a nice upper-secondary school in Stockholm. We met with the teachers and our students met with Swedish students, we talked and discussed Finland/Sweden/Russia -relations and so forth. The "work-part" was over quite fast.

Afterwards I went shopping and walked around in the city taking photos. The following morning i checked out from the stuffy hotel and went to see the exhibition  of Gregory Crewdson at Kulturhuset (central STHM), and it was awesome! A few days break resulted in stress and a persistent flu, but the trip was nice despite this:)

Jacob Felländer - awesome!

This is what Norra Real school looks like! Not too shabby! 
(The students called it Hogwarts:)

Gregory Crewdson at Kulturhuset.

Hiking in Turku

A few years ago we went to Copenhagen with a couple of friends. We are members of TOPN - Turun opiskelijoiden Pohjola-Norden association, which is a Nordic association interested in, well, all things Nordic! So we went to Copenhagen and had a lovely time with our Norden friends. I think this was in 2007.

A blast from the past came when a girl, Trine, from Copenhagen contacted me and asked for tips on traveling in Finland. I of course invited her to come and stay with me - and she came.

Despite the rainy weather we saw a lot of fun stuff in Turku: The Dome church, the city library, Turku Design week. In the evening (Saturday) we went out on the town and checked out Koulu = "The School" , which is a local restaurant and brewery. They had a huge screen and were showing the Eurovision Song Contest. The atmosphere was nice, so we stayed a while. After a few pints we went salsa dancing to Bryssel, a quite new and nice bar in the city center. After that it was bed time!

On Sunday we got up early to go for a hike. We took the bus to the city center, where we met with the Norden Association (TOPN)  girls. The hike was in Katariinanlaakso and is called "Pyhän Katariinan reitistö".
My thoughts on the hike: the path is easy, it's easy to do the different paths with the help of a map and the marked routes. You don't have to be "super fit" to make it, our hike took about four-five hours (+bus home). You can enjoy many different types of forests along the path. There is also a look-out tower with a nice view!

Here are a few photos of our hike!