Finlandia

Finland is awesome, and I am positive that all three of us want to go back. Our full day in Helsinki was spent walking around the city (Juha had class :( ). We saw some of the churches and interesting architecture. We walked around the shore and coast and saw the ends of an outdoor market that was also full of all the touristy things one could ever want. My favorite part of the day was when we just sat on a park bench and watched people for a couple of hours. The most curious thing we saw all day were groups and groups of people about our age dressed in different colored jumpsuits. All the suits were worn with the top tied around the waist. Some of them were filled with patches all other and sharpy writings. While other were less covered. I stopped one of them who walked by alone and asked him what was going on. He replied that they were all students in Helsinki. The different colors were correlated to what faculty the student was studying. The more a jumpsuit was covered with patches, stickers, and writing the older the student was. The jumpsuits are uniquely Finnish as far as he knew. I thought it were the greatest thing ever created for college kids. No one cares if they get dirty, and you are actually not allowed to wash the suit, unless of course you are wearing it into the shower or diving into a lake.

 

 

 

Jumpsuits! Greatest party attire ever.

 

 

That evening we went back to make dinner and chill with Juha before we all went out to the college party that all the jumpsuit kids were preparing for. It was cool to see all of the students in a club with their different colored jumpsuits on. We didn’t stay out to long and caught the last bus back to Juha’s place. The next morning we departed for the North and said good-bye to Juha and thanked him for being such an awesome host.

We were headed about seven hours north to Oulu, Finland. Before we graduated from Colorado College I had made a CouchSurfing account for us. We never really talked about it that much but it was something that I definitely wanted to try and do. Since we were in Europe and low on cash we decided that we should try and couchsurf everywhere we could. While we were in Helsinki I sent our first couchsurf request to a Mr. Sami Latvalehto. He seemed nice from his profile and was a student studying in Oulu. He had never hosted anyone and we had never surfed anywhere so it seemed like a good match. It was more than good, it was perfect.

We met Sami and his housemate, Simo, downtown in front of a pizzeria. It turns out that Oulu is famous for pizzas and has 152 small pizzerias. The city’s population is 150,000 and is the 6^th largest city in Finland. He read that I was from Chicago, which is also famous for pizza, and he wanted me to have a Finnish experience regarding it. It was delicious. Jack, Richard, and I all got different pizzas and shared them all. My pizza was covered in reindeer meat, yum. Jack’s pizza was covered in mayonnaise, yum. Mayonnaise around the world is so much better than in the USA. This stuff was delicious. Richard’s pizza was called TexMex and was covered in tortilla chips, salsa, jalapeños, and meat, yum. The pizza hit the spot and during our conversation during dinner we realized that this was going to be an awesome couchsurfing experience. We were given a short tour of the town as it got dark and met some their friends. Everyone was extremely friendly and we had a great time meeting everyone that Sami and Simo introduced us to.

 

Reindeer and Mayonnaise! 

 

Richard's TexMex Pizza

As it got later we headed back to their charming 75 square meter apartment. We were only supposed to stay one night because they were hosting a party the next evening. After hanging out with us though they wanted us to stay another night and even attend their party. We were happy to oblige. The next day we woke up late and relaxed at their apartment while they were at school. Sami skipped his second class and came to chill with us for the rest of the day. We made dinner together and prepared for the party. I was super pumped because it was another jumpsuit party (I am definitely going to get one if I get the chance). We had a great time meeting all their classmates and friends and talking to them about our trip and their lives. We met some really amazing people and definitely want to return to Oulu. We were even invited to stay a third night because everyone wanted to hang out with us more. We wanted to as well, but sometimes the road calls. When the road calls you, you gotta go. We enjoyed our stay in Oulu with Sami and Simo so much. These two guys were awesome hosts and it was great to meet them. I am sure we are going to stay in touch. Sami, we definitely want to get some of your Finnish music. Thank you guys for such an amazing time, we will see you soon somewhere around the world.

 

Simo, Jack, Sami, Richard, and Me

-- Ezra