Vappu

Finland celebrated Vappu, mayday, this Thursday. University students start celebrating the 30th of April. Most people meet in Koskenranta, near the river, and maybe move the party to a bar later in the night.

 

I celebrated by going to Helsinki on Tuesday. I met with my friend Sofia who is also Belgian, she showed me around in the city. I was very excited, of course. While walking past the town hall, we noticed there were a lot of cars which looked fancy, then we noticed these cars belonged to diplomats. We even talked to the driver of the Belgian ambassador. He told us that the president had invited the Finnish ministers and ambassadors for a dinner in honor of Vappu. I was a bit disappointed because my camera's battery was dead, but I charged it, and the next morning I went back to all the nice places and took pictures.

The White Church on Senate Square

Statue of Alexander II

Railway Station

After the sightseeing, I went the Fazer factory with other exchange students from Espoo. Fazer is the biggest producer of chocolate, candy and baked goods in Finland. We didn't actually get a tour of the factory, but we were shown some movies about Fazer's history, its products and its factory. After the tour, we could eat all the chocolate we wanted. As you can suspect, the last part was our favorite...
When our bellies were full, I went to the city with a smaller group of friends and we went to have a drink and catch up, since we hadn't seen each other since our trip to Lapland.

 



I came back to Tampere around six o'clock in the afternoon. I dropped my stuff off at my host brother's place near the city center and then I joined my friends who were in Koskenranta.

 

The next day, actual Vappu, I went to the city, this time with my friends Azusa and Yukino. In koskenranta, students in the first year of university "swam" in the river, meaning they were in a basket and put into the water by a crane for like a minute, but no other movement...