On Coming Home

A home from home
But home all the same.
Nothing has changed
But the season.
Looking on from a familiar seat,
Absent for months,
Though I was here yesterday. 

Helsinki Ending

I think this shall be my last blog post of my time here in Helsinki. Although I do not leave until the 22nd I will be handing over my laptop Friday morning to my mum to take back to the UK safe and sound.

Since the last update I have mostly been settling down with work. I have now only one exam, one presentation and one essay to complete (all within the next 5 days, eek!) until my education at the University of Helsinki comes to a close.

Both mother and father came out to see me, which has been lovely! I managed to squeeze out a very fancy meal from dad's wallet and have since been pottering around with mum when I can - although a family friend also hopped over from Oslo and so has been her company whilst I revise/write/present. Oddly it hasn't made me miss home-home much but it has made me miss Nottingham - especially as their coming out here signalled the final stages of my adventure in Helsinki. It isn't long now until I will be back and catching up with my friends back home (I'm hoping there is a sofa I can kip on somewhere!) and then also seeing my nephew for the first time. Baby Zach has been a source of many smiles and squeals of delight - from myself and my friends here (but mostly me...definitely almost all me) - and I cannot wait to give him a cuddle.

Some plans have also been made since St. Petersburg. I am now headed to Sardinia, Dubrovnik and Ljubljana with my new friends in July and I am hoping to take a post university gap year in Australia. I hope with all my heart that this is not a plan of mice and men and will in fact become a reality - I have caught the sickness that is the travel bug and I don't want to stop moving across the world. More shall come in regards to that so keep your eyes on this space                             .

So that brings me to the now. This experience has been incredible, I am so grateful that Nottingham gave me the opportunity and so happy that I got my head down when others were saying 'but you only need 40%!'. Coming here has meant new friends and a new outlook. It's cliche, I know. I may still be in Europe but Helsinki is a far cry from anything I've encountered in the UK and spending the last 5 months with people from countries across the globe makes you appreciate everything so much more.
We have already had to say our goodbyes to some. Goodbyes to people who have been the most amazing, funny and interesting (amongst weird, unreliable, terrible at timing, silly and beautiful) companions on this exchange.

In 5 months I have visited the oldest city in Finland, seen the Northern Lights in Lapland, swam in the Arctic Ocean, drank in 27 different coffee shops (with more to come), eaten far too many korvapuusti (cinnamon rolls), walked across a frozen bay, been to the old town of Estonia, seen Swan Lake in St. Petersburg and planned an adventure through Europe.

And now it isn't long until I will be saying goodbye to it all. Others go before me and others after but it won't change how difficult it will be to turn around and go our separate ways. However, Finland has inspired me to write. Poetry has flowed non stop and I am incredibly eager to continue writing my thoughts and feelings in the hope that someone likes it enough to put it in a pretty binding. What this means is that I will almost certainly be staying in touch with these, my fellow stewards of the earth but, I hope, in a way that is much more in keeping with the relationship we have forged...yes we will still talk on the multitude of facebook group messages that have been created but I cannot wait to sit down and hand write letters, because who doesn't enjoy receiving an envelope that isn't a bill?!

I shall have to stop with this emotional spiel as most people will probably be either throwing up from its sickly nature, crying from the realisation it ends soon or laughing at me for writing such drivel but I have to say this has been the best thing I have chosen to do in my life. I have made eternal friendships, shared laughter and tears, drunk my own weight in coffee and most importantly...saunaed naked.

My adventure shall continue through Europe until mid June: Stockholm, Copenhagen, Prague, Krakow, Vienna, Budapest, Venice, Florence and Rome are all now awaiting my presence - it will go unnoticed by the majority but I will try and let you know how things are progressing.

But for now, I must revise for this exam!

Moi moi. x

The prettiest of all the korvapuusti

This is us - Domus

View from the rooftop, late evening

It's not all just snow here - ending on a high (of 15 degrees)

Helsinki update: St. Petersburg and work

Although it is now some time ago, I went to St. Petersburg.
We'd heard a lot about the Russians before heading out there, that they would be unfriendly to English speakers and that they would quite happily push you out of the way if you were in their's.
Far from it.
The city is beautiful, the streets vast and so too the buildings. Anyone we met, even if they couldn't speak English tried their best to speak English...even if that was still in Russian. An odd experience but quite funny too.

Myself, a fellow Brit and an Italian organised the trip ourselves so that we could go at the same time as our other friends who were going with ESN (Erasmus Student Network) and the Aussie, who was going with her mum (who is BRILLIANT!). We stayed in a rather dodgy looking area, it seemed to be the only place which was made of red brick - and was called the red brick territory - but the hostel was actually very nice. We bunked in a 12 bed dorm and were told the sights we should see and how we should go about seeing them by one of the hostel workers.

Cathedrals and Palaces are abound in St. Petersburg, even if they don't much look like them yet there is one feature which links them all...gold. My word it is everywhere!
So we did all the sights we should see and I also saw Swan Lake at the Mariinsky theatre. The lead was a Bolshoi dancer and the evening was fantastic - finishing with a few sparkling wines and then getting locked out of the hostel but that was all soon resolved.

One of the places we visited was the Hermitage and you could go to St. Petersburg just for it. The museum is vast, a 3 story Palace which has a vast array of everything. To put it in numbers only 5% of the exhibits are on show at any one point, I was there for 4 hours and didn't see everything. My friends were there close to 6 hours and I saw things that they didn't. If you were to look at every exhibit without a break it would take 3 years! The place was truly amazing and I got to see Seurat, Sisley, Monet, Matisse, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Reynolds and Picasso...I somehow missed the da Vinci.

I had a brilliant time there and I thoroughly recommend it as a place to visit. I would certainly like to go back or maybe further in to see what 'real' Russia is like, considering are Russian friends said it was very European.

It was a whistle stop tour of the city however, as we can only be there for 3 days visa free so it was back on the long ferry trip back to Helsinki and to work.

That work is suddenly piling up. I have just, at this moment, finished my Finnish Literature essay - although I am awaiting some feedback as it undoubtedly needs improvement. I have one more essay to write on Australian literature and its portrayal of Aboriginals, four exams (two of which are next week...on the same day) and two presentations. I will however be finished by the time my friends back in Nottingham have returned from their Easter break, as it is only an extended weekend here in Finland.

Tonight we will see Via Crucis, a promenade performance which culminates in the crucifixion of Christ infront of the Senate Sq. Cathedral. By the looks of photos and experience of Finnish-ness I imagine it will be excellent and quite graphic, what is more who cares if it is in Finnish as I know the story well enough to narrate it to myself - perfect!

Mum and Dad are in the midst of planning their trip over at the beginning of May, I must admit that I got quite excited when telling Mum what we could go and see. I'm also excited to show Dad the liquorice chocolate which is the best chocolate I have ever tasted, much to everyone else's amusement and confusion. It is a saddening thought that they will be coming though as it marks the last part of my time here in Helsinki. When Mum leaves on the 9th I will have only 10 days left in this city which I have already grown to love; I guess it is bittersweet however as it also signals the start of my interrailing home. My procrastination yesterday involved working out a plan and so I plan to visit: Sweden, Denmark, Czech Republic, Poland, Austria, Slovenia and Italy with a hope to be back in England for a World Cup game or two and possibly a cheeky night out at Crisis.

There will probably be one more update, a final update, before my laptop is passed over to my mother to take home but until then I'll leave you with photos of St. Petersburg and love to all you guys reading who I miss ever so!

St. Isaac's, Patron Saint of Peter the Great

Inside the Cathedral on Spilt Blood (best name ever) which is all mosaic

The beautiful exterior of the Cathedral on Spilt Blood

As with any city, especially those with waterways, it looks so much better when sunny!

I have no idea what this is but damn look at it!

The Hermitage, opposite the above 'damn look at it' structure.

Justice for the '96

Despite Hillsborough being 4 years before I was born being a Liverpool supporter means that it lives through us all. I can't pretend to know how those who experienced the disaster felt but when you invest in Liverpool you invest in the memory of the fallen fans who give so much to the passion we have on the pitch and as fans.

On this day, the 25th anniversary of the disaster, you will see many people talking of Justice for the '96. Despite the 25 years and countless inquiries there are questions that are still left unanswered and that is why it still lives on so fiercely. We are all now dreaming that this years memorial to those '96 in the sky is a title, lifted by a captain who was so overwhelmed by a win against Man City - which merely guides us to the title rather than ensures it - let his tears flow.

I want to add my voice, to the incredible work the Justice campaigns have done these past 25 years. I am only one in millions who sing "You'll never walk alone" and only one of millions whose thoughts are with those '96 today but I hope that I capture, in some way, the way we feel for our club and our fans in the sky.

Justice for the '96

The 15th of April, 1989.
25 years today.
We remember the '96 in the sky,
Our wounds still open despite the time.

We have asked for justice,
And still we wait.
Enquiries and inquests slowly make their way,
But it wasn't 'til 2004 we got an apology, piss!

Even now we are left in shadow,
But because the darkness now has light.
Hope, love and passion makes us strong,
And strong we shall stay as we follow.

Liverpool top of the table,
Our fate in our hands.
We shall never forget and always remember,
As we dream of glory from our cradle;

Anfield. A home for all,
Where the '96 are eternal, immortal,
And live on in the strength of us.
So stay together friends and stand tall.


YNWA.

Untitled

The wind howls above my head,
Safe in the territory of my bed.
Creaks and moans of the pinewood bunks,
But only three days filled are our trunks.
This city is large and beautiful,
But my eyes are heavy, dreams are full.
My companions have gone out to explore,
But I shall now sleep, my apertures sore. 

Those Three Words

Three words.
I love you,
But they are not the words I heard.
Yet my heart still beats,
And mind tangles itself,
Over and Over.
Statement? Accusation?
Whatever, I lose
Synchronization.
Just. Don't. Lie. 

The 30th March

I wake and revert back to childhood,
In need of a mother to look after me.
But now in an adult's body stood,
Hungover, by the power of three.