Our Final Day

Nuuksio Haltia Museum

Because of the thunder storm, we were unable to do a second day of community action, instead we went to the Nuuksio Haltia Museum which told us all about the types of animals that can be found in the National Forest in a very interesting way.



Sauna (chopping wood and experiencing the Sauna)

After lunch we had the opportunity to go Geocaching and experience a traditional Finnish Sauna. We had to chop our own wood to fuel the sauna! Although we went on a little adventure, we didn't find the geocache, but it was still lots of fun going to look for it!

  

  

Our Community Action Weekend

On Saturday we got to work with the Finnish Girl Scouts and did our Community Action together. We cleared up illegal camp fires that people had made. I found it really interesting finding out about the impact that forest fires have on the National Park.

  

One of my favourite parts of the trip was swimming in the lake, we got to do it twice.
The water was surprisingly warm as long as you took the plunge in one go! We also had a splash fight with Ellie, where some of us ganged up on her!

In the evening there was a massive thunder storm, which was supposed to be the worst one of the summer!  To keep some people’s minds off the thunder someone put music on and we all started to dance to it. There was a real sense of togetherness (cheesy!) and we all had a load of fun.

We did a lot on things on our trip to Finland...

By Eleanor Gaskell

We did a lot on things on our trip to Finland and I would like to talk about a few of my favourite ones.
Obviously, as my fellow Finland friends will appreciate, I just have to talk about the Moomins, as over the week, I developed a bit of an obsession with them. So, of course, I was thrilled that we went to the Moomin cafe! It was a beautiful little cafe with Moomin themed cups and saucers and Moomin themed decorations scattered about and I just about managed to resist the temptation to buy everything from the little shop that they had.

Even though I loved everything about the Moomins, I did enjoy other parts of the trip including the shops in Helsinki as it was a good opportunity to buy nice souvenirs and more moomin goodies of course!

After shopping, we went to the Linnanmäki Amusement Park. They have a wooden rollercoaster which is 65 years old and still very popular today. Other rides to enjoy were water rafts, modern, high speed rollercoasters and fast-dropping rides. For those like me, with the weaker stomachs, there were also carousels, ferris wheels, funhouse mirrors, a tram ride and a cinema - we all had a great time there!

    

We also visited Helsinki Zoo, arriving there by ferry. There was a large selection of animals for us to see including the red pandas, which were my favourite. It was a beautiful sunny day, which was lovely as there was a fantastic view from the Zoo looking out over the sea whilst we walked around. There was also a viewing platform in the zoo, which we were able to go up and later, eat our lunch by.

  

I would like to conclude by thanking Becky, Ellie and Caz for their help and support and also the people and organisations who supported us by funding the trip. I had a superb time and made some great friends!

It is amazing how much you can actually see in one day...

Written by Caitlin Clarkson

It is amazing how much you can actually see in one day with the help of a hop on hop off bus and a sky wheel. We travelled around the sky wheel enjoying seeing Helsinki from the air but a little scared of the wobbles.

With our feet back on the ground we jumped on the bus and toured the city seeing all the beautiful buildings more closely while listening to interesting facts on our headphones.

We visited the Rock Church which is quarried out of the natural bedrock. It had a spectacular atmosphere but even better acoustics.

Then we were hungry so we went to Hesburger which is similar to Mcdonalds. It was here that Carys started her record on how many drinks one person can spill.

We finished the day at the Allas Sea pools which is three pools one of which is filled with sea water. This was great fun but the sea water pool was freezing but we soon heated up in the sauna.

And so the adventure begins!

We met at the airport at 6am and checked in, which seemed to take a very long time because there was so many of us! We were all excited, not only to begin our adventure, but also because it was Eleanor's birthday! Caz made us some cupcakes for breakfast and they were fantastic!

A group photo before we said goodbye to parents!

Becky and Caz eating cake for breakfast!

Here we are feeling  pretty excited to board our first flight!

There was a great world sculpture at Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam where we spent a couple of hours waiting our connecting flight!

And we're here! After flying from 9am - 5.30pm, we arrived safely in Helsinki!

After having dinner, we got on the ferry to take us to our hostel! A very busy but fun day of travelling!