Oh yeah, although I am writing down all those memories now, I’m changing the date, a matter of keeping some sense in the timeline.

It was the first time I was on a ferry. And for me, hating travel on water, it was a bit awkward in the beginning. But the ship is so freakin’ huge, you barely notice being on water (apart from the strong wind gusts in your face). And there we were, killing time for 2 hours. Everybody had his own way of doing that apparently…

Michael sleeping

And then we finally arrived in Tallinn, the small capital of Estonia. And when we disembarked, it suddenly became clear to me. Literally, not a SINGLE FINN wasn’t carrying alcohol. We just couldn’t believe our eyes. Some people even had trolley’s to transport their beer crates. And yes, we were about to do the same thing.

But, off to the hostel. The ferry harbor was at the outskirts of Tallinn, so we had to walk quite a bit to our hostel. Luckily Tallinn isn’t too big, and we found ourselves quite fast in the picturesque, medieval city center of Tallinn. It was nice, something else than I had seen already. But the hostel was nothing like what I had ever seen…apart from Sarajevo. And yet again it became clear that the standard of living of Estonians was waaayy lower than the one of their relatives, the Finns. But heck, it would do for a night, and we had 2 rooms for our group, we would have fun nevertheless.

So, the mandatory sightseeing, including a 63m climb to the roof of a church, resulting in a stunning view of Tallinn. And, some more tourist stuff, grabbing some food in a nice restaurant. Oh, and why can McDonalds be so cheap in Tallinn? 3,40€ vs 6,00€ in Tampere for exactly the same -_-. And then, the night arrived. We went out to some small clubs, and had a great time.

So, the next day, after the daily routine, we had to catch our boat back to Helsinki. But before we embarked, we made a stop at a local hypermarket. Get some of those notorious supplies, right ? Next to the booze, I bought some soap, shaving gel and stuff like that. It was way cheaper than in Tampere, so might as well grab some while being at the place. And, there we were, in the embarking lock, carrying booze. Talk about integration aight? While embarking, Brian and I got shaken up quite harsh. We were on the ramp connecting the lock with the ferry while that ramp shifted into place. So there we were, on a carbon ramp, the only thing between us and the water 15m beneath us. Apparently it didn’t slide in place initially, and it did while we were on it. No big consequences, we were only scared as hell. But safe and sound. And we were off, back to Finland, loaded with alcohol and other insignificant stuff.

So, off we were, almost 2 hours of train with the Pendolino (that’s the commuter train, the fastest connection between Tampere and Helsinki). With our guides Sohvi and Sinni we went to the Museum of Contemporary Art.

After checking out the museum, we were allowed to roam in Helsinki, and get back whenever we wanted. So we did some sightseeing, take some tourist pictures, visited an indoor market and get some food, grab a cup at Wayne’s Coffee. Pictures say more than words I guess:

At the time, it wasn't applicable. But when it's freezing -20, it is...

That is the first sign before entering the lake at the Kaupinojan sauna. Yes indeed, I went to visit the public sauna with my classmates.

Earlier that day, we had an introduction session for the IMP course. Getting to know each other, setting the objectives, practical information, stuff like that. In the afternoon, our coördinator, Cai, took us out to play a traditional Finnish game, mölkky. It’s looks a bit like bowling, but slower, and you throw a cylinder shaped piece of wood at some other cylinder shaped pieces of wood. I wasn’t good at it, I can tell you that .

And later that day, we met at school for some prep talk. The 2 teachers joining us, handed out a paper with instructions and safety precautions. Safety precautions??? My thoughts exactly. Some of those precautions:

• Eat before you get into the sauna. Sauna is very energy consuming, if you haven’t eaten enough, you might pass out
• Don’t go alone in the ice. (Not that there was any, but even just jumping in the cold water could get you in shock)
• Don’t overestimate yourself. Begin on the lowest tier in sauna, it’s hot enough to start. You should enjoy sauna, not suffer from the intense heat
• Don’t drink in sauna. (Well, after a couple of times, we just went on with the flow, it’s Finland aight?)

Those were the most significant instructions. I was a bit afraid, I’ve been in sauna 1 time before, it was at a swimming pool, and I left after a minute…
But hell, I wasn’t going to retreat now. Sauna is part of the Finnish culture. 1.7 million sauna’s for 5 million people. Now that I think about it, the sauna/people ratio is the same as the gun/people ratio…Anyway, we took the bus to Rauhaniemi, a residential area of Tampere. We were dropped of at a forest, and had to go for a 15 minute walk to reach the sauna.

So we arrived, paid, jumped in our swimming shorts and had a go. First in the sauna, and boy, 110 degrees is hot. And after a 10 minute boiling session, us prawns were ready to hit the lake. No nonsense, just jump!

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Oh….my….god. What a sensation! You feel your heart rate increasing exponentially! I think I’m in love <3. Daaaamn. Everybody seemed to enjoy it. And everybody looked wasted . Yes, you could get a "high" feeling from the sudden temperature change.

Another tradition was to eat makkara’s afterwards (eventually, we put ‘em on the grill while being in the sauna). And those were lovely, especially with the spicy/sweet mustard gently provided by the sauna.

Some noteworthy facts:

• Hottest temperature I’ve experienced: 129 degrees
• Coldest water temperature: 3 degrees
• Longest run in sauna (without breaks): 20 mins
• Longest run in sauna (with breaks and dips): 3 hours
• The sauna got burned down the weekend I was in Romania…

So, around 18h40 we arrived in Copenhagen. We had a quick meal. And suddenly Brian had to take a leak. After a few minutes he came back, totally elated, and said to me “G, you really have to take a piss at that toilet.” A bit of exaggerating, but hell, might as well have a go before heading to Tampere. And then, I entered a temple! Marble cans, begging me to donate my litter to their shininess. Talk about exaggerating! That was, and still is, the most AWESOME toilet I have ever used.

And then, off to Tampere. The plane of Cimber Air looked quite shabby, but hell, it would do the job. And then, at 22h50 we finally arrived in Tampere. A crap airport, but we were safe and sound. I realized I made a big mistake in communicating the arrival time to the locals. I kept the 1 hour time offset in mind. So when I saw that we would arrive around 23h00, I told the locals we would arrive at 00h00. Trying to be clever and stay one step ahead, little did I knew that airlines already calculate the time offset -_-…

But then, a black haired girl, and a blond guy with a ponytail up ’till his ass (It’s a cool pony tail Juha) approached us, and asked us, are you [insert abstract pronunciation of Brian Cox] and [insert abstract pronunciation of Glenn Veugen], from Belgium? Affirmative. Luckily the blond guy also tried to stay one step ahead, and checked the timetables in advance. Smart guy. So we got in the van, together with 2 French speaking Canadians, Sylvain and Guillaume, awesome guys by the way. And after a half hour drive we arrived at our crib for the upcoming 5 months. We immediately noticed the 3 sex shops in our street. And then, le moment supreme, we entered our room. Not too shabby, and we had our own can and shower. Awesome start. After settling, Brian and me went for some nocturnal sightseeing in Tampere. We did like the city, although we noticed the contrast with Belgium. We, being all casual and stuff, were the weird guys, the goths and emo’s were casual in Tampere. Yuck, I’m allergic to emo’s -_-. But hell. We went to sleep, and then one of the freakiest moments in my life occurred (another would occur 3 days later, but no details on that one, sorry). We didn’t knew how to get an internet connection, and Brian started panicking in his sleep. And how. He was making noises, and woke me up.And as I woke up, I hear him saying “excuse me ma’am, we have no internet. How can we get it?” Those exact words….

The next few days we settled, explored the region, found some free internet in the public library (was a 2km walk though, but so worth it), and made some new friends. Here are some snapshots of our room: