Unlike No Other Place: Finland (Helsinki, Part 2)

So in the last post I recounted what Helsinki had to offer to me on Thursday while I was there, continuing on with this theme I will share my favourite places in Helsinki from the activities I did on Friday and Sunday.

Friday in Helsinki – Suomenlinna

Suomenlinna is an island located just off the coast from Helsinki – it’s sea fortress dates back to the 1700s when Finland was part of the Kingdom of Sweden. However although its construction began during the Swedish rule, there are guns that face west on the ramparts at Kustaanmeikka (an area on the island), which demonstrate the period of Russian rule (in the 19^th Century).

The island and sea fortress is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (since 1991) as its preservation will allow future generations to see the European military architecture of the 1700s.

The island is quite small, so it is easy to explore on foot. I didn’t visit all areas of the island, but I did of course visit one of the main parts of the fortress. It was actually a scary experience. I was by myself, so this clearly did not help ease my fear. I walked through the fortress and decided to wander through the old archways and see if I could find anything. It was a bad mistake – it was dark and cold, and no one was around. Suddenly I heard some eerie noises, and at the moment decided to walk quickly out and into the open space. I decided soon afterwards that it was haunted, and better to be visited in a group instead of alone. I can’t imagine what it must be like at night…

Since I was at Suomenlinna in the morning, I decided to have my breakfast here. Now I had read that traditionally Finns usually have coffee and a sweet bun (usually a cinnamon bun) for breakfast. Keeping up with trying to embrace living like a Finn, I decided to have the same – and to be honest I was gladly obliging since I love coffee and anything sweet, so for me this was actually an ideal breakfast. Unfortunately the café didn’t have any cinnamon buns, so I chose something else, which I was later informed, consisted of butter and sugar in a bun. I thought to myself that I was being incredibly unhealthy and was willing myself to have a heart attack in the future from too much butter consumption – yet, regardless it was a very tasty bun and didn’t seem to overpowering with butter and sugar, there was a sort of calculated balance. The coffee was amazing though. Usually I don’t like to drink coffee just black, it has to have at least milk, and quite often I’ll take it with a teaspoon of sugar; but the coffee here in Finland was really nice and I didn’t need to take it with milk or sugar in order to enjoy it. (Lappish coffee was even better – but more will be said about this in the next post).

 

Suvilahti Cultural Centre

Probably one of my favourite places in Helsinki – it used to be an industrial area with the Suvilahti power plant generating gas and electricity for Helsinki for much of the 20^th Century, but now it is a cultural haven. What I loved most about the cultural centre is that it has kept the remains of the power plant, so to any unknown walking they would still assume this is in fact an industrial area.

Among the cultural events, they host open-air music concerts in the summer and circus performances. In fact, in 2013, Finland’s biggest circus school, Circus Helsinki, made Suvilahti their new home and area of practicing their performances.

 

The cultural centre is big on creating culture and arts, and most of all to get the youth involved. They even provided a wall whereby people could use it for their graffiti art (instead of on the streets):

Hakaniemen Kauppahalli

This is an old market hall not far from the Kallio district (definitely worth a visit, the coolest vintage, antique, local designer, and record stores can be found in this area) – but back to the market hall… When I mean market hall, I mean that it is a market hall of food. As soon as you walk through the arched doors you are immediately thrown face-to-face with local produce. Walking around (I walked in a clockwise direction), I first walked through the meat area; there were so many different cuts and types of meat, I saw some that I was completely unfamiliar with. It was incredible, if you are a lover of meat or wanted some fresh produce to make dinner, then this was definitely the place to come. The only problem I had was that I hate the smell of raw meat, and there was a LOT of raw meat so the smell was quite strong. However if you keep walking around, you’ll begin to move away from meat and towards the seafood area. Again, like with meat, if you are a seafood lover and wanted to make lunch/dinner, this is an ideal place to stock up on ingredients. Keep walking and you’ll soon leave behind the fish and arrive at the baked goods section. All the lovely breads and pastries, this is definitely a nicer smell than the raw meat and seafood. Continuing on, you’ll find yourself moving away from the fresh produce and come to preserved jams and other goodies, like chocolate! The chocolate they had looked incredible, but the price tag was quite high, and while they did look like amazing chocolates, I really couldn’t bear to part my money for a piece (and besides, their chocolate in the supermarkets are by Karl Fazer, still amazingly delicious). The market hall offered many areas to sit and eat, whether it be cafes or bakeries, so if you’re lazy and don’t cook, you could still get a taste of Finnish local produce.
I loved this market hall, and I think if I come back here (which I definitely will be trying my best to come back to Finland soon), then I would definitely get all my local produce here to make an awesome meal and feel good for supporting the Finnish local industry :) 

Sunday in Helsinki – Design Museum

I went to the Design Museum especially because I had read about their current exhibition: “Don’t Shoot the Messenger: The Expanding Field of Graphic Design”. As I had mentioned before in my last post, since I am particularly interested in topics like this due to studying Communication & Media Studies, I have a massive interest in the arts/culture and media industry.

While the Design Museum has a permanent exhibition on Finnish design over the decades – which I must say was incredibly interesting – my heart was beating towards the upstairs exhibition about graphic design.

My expectations I had of the exhibition were completely wrong, they were exceeded as the exhibition was much better than I had anticipated. There were designs by a range of artists from all over the world. There was one about the importance of poster art – it was stating how in today’s society there is an argument that with technology there is now no need for poster artwork and prints, but the artist disagrees. I do too. Especially since I have been part of the poster group for Hulen in Bergen, I can see there is a huge importance still for posters. People who are overcome by technology take for granted the importance of these artworks, but the thing is, if a person is walking down a street and there are posters placed on the wall, they will still catch your attention, regardless of whether you find out about upcoming events through social media. Back home, whenever I walk the streets in the city, I come across posters and I always stop to look at them, because sometimes there are events we miss seeing via digital media because we are too busy using it for other things, like socialising.
I found a pattern emerge with the exhibition – while I had originally thought with the title “The Expanding Field of Graphic Design”, the attention would be placed on digital graphic designing as we know it today, I was completely wrong – what I found was majority of the exhibits were graphic designers fighting against the digital age, all stating the importance of graphic design as a substance, an artwork that should still remain in the real world, not being swallowed up and overtaken by online media. All around the floor were many texts which asked questions about the importance of graphic design, and they helped not only make the exhibition an even more enjoyable experience, but it also provoked me to think more about my perception of graphic design.
While I loved all the artists’ works, there was one part of the exhibition I completely fell in love with. It was on the importance of books, not e-books, but the hardcover books that people have seemed to forget about with moving their lifestyles completely online. They had showcased loads of different books with placing the importance of their cover designs. There were long quotes placed around the rooms suggesting this – how we often sometimes will pick up a book just by being lured to the cover. While the saying goes “don’t judge a book by its cover”, the fact remains that the cover of a book is incredibly important. The cover of a book will reflect the story that’s within, or it’s a piece of the writer giving the reader slight glimpses into their unknown minds. The covers of a book are important, they speak so many words without us even realising it, and sadly people just often take it for granted. However, all book-lovers understand the gloriousness that not only comes with an amazing read, but the attractiveness of a book cover which we look at again and again and can evoke so much. Sometimes it can be completely simple, and provide no clues to what the novel is about, but that makes it even more alluring, because it holds secrets inside that you just have to discover.
All in all, I really appreciated the exhibition, and the team at Design Museum presented it in such an effective way that made the whole experience for me very thought-provoking, and I’m sure it did to many of the other visits, who I observed seemed glued to the various artworks.

 

Yrjönkatu Swimming Hall

I ended my weekend in Finland in completely bliss and harmony - AND in a traditional Finnish way, by going to one of the swimming halls to sit in saunas and swim in pools NAKED.

First things first, about the swimming hall: the Yrjönkatu swimming hall is absolutely beautiful, it was built in the 1920s and it features an interior of Roman archways and tiled floors. The colours of the archways are white and the walls are a beige colour, making the crystal clear blue of the swimming pool stand out. The pool really dominates your attention, especially if you’re on the second floor above. As you look over from the second floor, all you can see is the pool. It practically begs for attention, and you simply can’t look at it and not want to dip your toes in and submerge yourself for at least a quick swim. Apart from the swimming pool, there are also three saunas: one is electric, one is steam and the last is wood – which I was told was a proper traditional Finnish sauna. (I can’t remember if I went in the steam or the wood sauna, I would like to believe it was the wood sauna, but my feeling is that it was the steam one – which doesn’t matter, at least it is better than the electric one).

The rules of these swimming halls are simple: men and women have separate hours (they do not swim together), you must shower before going in the sauna/pool, and you can choose whether you want to swim naked or not (it wasn’t until recently that this changed, I think sometime in the 2000s, before it was compulsory to swim naked, but now they allow the options of bathers if you wish – but where’s the fun in that?).

Now the day before I was going to the swimming hall I had no doubts about getting my kit off to go in the sauna and pool, however on the actual day when I was standing there in my cabin, the decision to go bare was not as simple as I had thought. I lacked courage, and it took me three trips to my cabin to finally wear my birthday suit. These were how many attempts happened: 1) I arrived, looked over the balcony to see who and how many were actually naked, there seemed to be only older ladies which made me think perhaps it was only the traditional Finnish women who still swim naked, so I went in my cabin and put my bathers on; 2) walked out (you get giving bathrobes by the way, so you are not walking around naked, only when in the saunas, showers and pool), saw there were more people in the pool and walking around with their tops off but bather bottoms on, so I went back to my cabin and took my bikini top off; 3) thinking I was ready to finally relax, walked into the shower room where the sauna was and saw EVERYONE was naked, all ages groups and there were many my age, alas I walked back my cabin took off my bottoms and hence finally had the courage to be completely bare. I thought to myself I would have stood out more for wearing my bathers than not wearing anything at all.

The whole experience was rather enjoyable actually, and completely relaxing. I went to the saunas first and sat there for a while warming my body up. Satisfied I had enough heat, I walked down the pool and swam some laps. There is something really so liberating at swimming naked, it feels so natural that you start to begin whether the inventions of bathers were really a good idea and that surely our human bodies were designed to be nude in the water. When you swim naked, you truly understand how constricting bathers are against actual swimming, I swear the material must hold you back because when I was swimming my breaststroke laps, I felt like I was gliding through the water (although I probably didn’t look this way, more like a struggling marine animal who can’t swim properly). As I started to feel like I had done enough laps, I headed back up to the sauna for my last sweat session. I was in there longer this time, and oh boy did I really sweat. It happened so suddenly, I felt a few drops coming off my back then it all of sudden felt like rainfall was coming off my body! Clearly my body obviously needed a desperate detox, and I felt I probably haven’t been treating it with the best of love while I’ve been away – which is often the case when you are away from the comfort of home. Afterwards, feeling like I really shouldn’t sweat any longer or I could faint, I sat in the seat and tables situated around the balcony and ordered a refreshing drink. It was called “tuorepuristettu mehu” and was made up of apple, ginger and celery, and it was meant to be detoxifying. It was really refreshing and tasty, but it went away too quickly – definitely needed a bigger glass!

(NB: see more about the swimming halls in the upcoming post)

No Sunday Brunch??

The only thing I found strange about Finland was that there were no cafes or restaurants open on a Sunday (except for a select few scattered around). What made me found it even weirder was because the shopping malls were still open – I could understand if the shops were closed then perhaps cafes/restaurants would be closed too.

It was very bizarre, and I wondered whether there is a tradition on a Sunday for Finnish people to stay home and cook?

Regardless of this, I could still easily live in Finland though, and I would just make an amazing Sunday brunch and dinner at home after buying all my produce from the market hall. I think my ideal Sunday would be a morning walk along this beautiful park (on a street called Merisatamanranta), then make a mouth-watering brunch, followed by a visit to the swimming halls in the afternoon, then dinner and a movie or book on a comfy couch. Aw simply bliss! I’ll somehow have to try create a similar day back home in Perth I think.

I have only the best memories of Finland, there was not one bad thing about the place, and I will truly miss it deeply in my heart.

Stockholm Is Where My Heart Is (Part 2)

Continuing on from the last post (like I had promised), here is a recount of some of my favourite places I had the pleasure to visit whilst staying in the lovely Stockholm.

SHOPPING, SHOPPING, SHOPPING

As I had previously mentioned, one of the best shopping streets (in my opinion) is Götgaten, but this is purely for a fix of high street clothing.
Yes, definitely check out the high street, but Stockholm has some amazing vintage stores which I highly recommend anyone who is a vintage lover to rummage through them.

Emmaus: This is more akin to Salvation Army or Save the Children stores whereby all the clothes, entertainment, household stuff, etc, are donated by the public and the money profit goes to helping the children and struggling communities in Africa. There are two stores next to each other, one is just called Emmaus and is more like an op shop (for those back in Australia think similarly to Good Sammies), and the other store is called Emmaus Vintage – and here it is more clothes that are of a better quality, and most of them are designer brands (but for a seriously good cheaper price). Emmaus is found in a street just off the main Götgaten, and it’s not easy to miss as it is a big yellow building with EMMAUS written in giant black letters. It’s a place worth checking out, both stores are good, but go to Emmaus Vintage to score yourself an original designer coat/jumper/dress for a ridiculously cheap price – most of them are in that good quality shape that they look as if they may have only ever been worn once.

Grandpa: Now this place is not cheap…. However it is a really interesting store to just have a browse through (and dream about one day owning all that you desire). There are two parts to this store – upstairs it displays clothing and accessories, and little knick knacks or quirky books; whereas downstairs it is called Grandpa Vintage, but it’s not clothes, actually it is a range of old school furniture such as chairs, desks, wardrobes, old desk globes, and lots and lots of old maps. It’s sort of fun in a way to just come here and look at this tea-coloured maps from long ago which show the world or parts of the world different to what they are now. I absolutely adore old maps, especially for their sepia colour, but also I feel there is more character and love about them – I think it’s similar to my love of old towns, it’s the history of it that makes me smile. I just find the maps today all in bright colours are so boring and there is no magic to them, whereas you can look at an old map and immediately think of the first explorers who were discovering all these new foreign places around the world, and they dared to travel the unknown.
Back to Grandpa though – even though the clothes are not vintage, they are very good designer brands, so as I said, it is nice just to float around the store occasionally putting on a coat and thinking maybe one day you will have this exact one… or something similar to it for half the price.
Have a look through yourself, here’s the website link: http://www.grandpa.se/en

POP Stockholm: This is just around the corner from Grandpa. My friend and I didn’t plan on visiting here (unlike the other shops which we had previously read about) but we just stumbled across it as we were passing by. Although stumble is the incorrect word, you basically bump into it as the sign outside grabs your attention through its big orange writing against a purple background (those colours definitely work so well contrasting against each other to make an eye-catching design). It feels like quite a small shop, but that’s only because there is so much stuff inside! You are surrounded by clothes, but in a good way – not in any way overbearing as you can just get lost flicking through the different racks. I’d say the store is more retro than vintage, most of it’s inspiration comes from the 60s and 70s – this was not only reflected in the clothing and accessories but also by the music the store owner was playing and through the decorations (my eyes scoped across the walls and found a poster of The Who which made me a very happy chappy, and I felt very at home in the store). I could of spent more time in the store, but sadly time was against me – although the good news is that there is a website to help console me, and for you to have a peek through too: http://www.popstockholm.com/

NOT CARPE DIEM, BUT CARPE NOCTEM

Unfortunately, my friend and I didn’t get to experience too much of what Stockholm’s nightlife had to offer, but we did get to have a little exposure to it on our Saturday night there.

We chose to go to Marie Laveau – after discovering the club we were originally looking for was only opened on Thursday and Friday nights – however it was a blessing, because Marie Laveau was a very cool/chic/intriguing/lively/classy/grungy/rocking bar and club; and it definitely made a great start to our few days in the city.

What I liked most about Marie Laveau was the fact there was a different atmosphere in each of the different rooms – there was something for everybody, and there were different crowds of people occupying each of the rooms. On the first floor, as you walk in there is a white room with chairs and tables on either side, and hanging on the wall some different photographs or artwork – there was no bar, although you could still drink in here. The people that occupied this room looked like your stereotypical indie/hipster/student type who were enjoying their conversations to each other in a more quieter and intimate space. The next room was a diner/café (I think during the day one can eat here possibly?), it was a darker room, but again more intimate and there was one bar – there were few people here, mainly couples who probably wanted a little more privacy to converse and ‘get to know each more’ if they previously hadn’t. The room next to this was bustling and the busiest on the first floor – it was the main bar, and actually a cocktail bar (you could order any drink you wanted but most – the females at least – were all ordering cocktails); everyone here was dressed a lot more classy, they all seemed smart and sophisticated and were older than the group from the first room. As far as cocktail bars go, is was maybe a tad small, but very stylish, and this trendy vibe made up for the size of cocktail menu list.
Downstairs (which was underground) was the club, COMPLETELY DIFFERENT atmosphere to what I had experienced on the first floor – it was as if we had walked into a completely new place and we were no longer in the sophisticated Marie Laveau. As you walk into the club downstairs, all the walls are covered in graffiti paint, there are retro pinball machines, a bar where most of the orders were for beers, and the floors were much more stickier and the people were much more sweatier. It was very enjoyable though – my friend and I danced a lot to the DJ set, which on this particular night they were playing mostly older tunes, majority of the songs were from the new romantics and new wave era, and it was great! So nice to have a change, especially back in Perth were most of the clubs will play pop/dance/dj music which is all good and fun, but a little variation never hurt anybody.

In conclusion, I’ll never forget Marie Laveau. 

FIKA!

Before I went to Stockholm I had read that it is often described as coffee capital of Scandinavia, and I was hoping I wouldn’t be let down in my expectations.

I wasn’t.

There were cafes EVERYWHERE! I loved it, I felt like I was in café heaven. Every corner I turned, every street I walked down there would always be at least one café, maybe an independent café, otherwise it would have been Expresso House (which I think must be the Starbucks for Sweden).

I soon discovered that the café culture is in the Swedes’ blood as they have this ‘tradition’ called “fika”. Fika basically means to meet up for a friend for coffee and a piece of cake or pastry. Well, well, this was my kind of place. There is nothing more I love than having a coffee with a cheeky slice of cake on the side – I mean you seriously can’t just have coffee on it’s own, it will be lonely, it needs a friend, an accompaniment. I never let my coffee down, and I never will, I choose to always provide it with a companion!

Getting back to the “fika”… generally it is taken in the afternoon, around 14.00 or thereabouts – but I think most Swedes break this ‘guideline’ and take it any time during the day. My friend and I, however, we mostly took our ‘fika’ in the afternoon – it was always brunch in the midday, then fika in the afternoon, then drinking in the evening (but sometimes we also had our fika in the evening after dinner too, we just couldn’t resist!).
As a result, we drank a lot of coffee and ate a lot of cake/sweets and visited many cafes (mostly Expresso House because it was right by our hostel) – but my favourite café we visited was Café String. It’s like walking into a retro 50s diner when you see the red walls and black and white checkered linen floors – yet it’s so much more interesting and alluring than that. Once you enter the doors and look around, you begin to notice that all the furniture is not the same – there are many different sofas, chairs, coffee tables; and some are arranged in peculiar ways – for example they had chairs sitting right by the window, literally on top of the windowsill, so to even get up to sit on these particular chairs you had to climb onto the chairs or sofas which were situated right by the windowsill. It was an adventure in a sense, and I was completely in awe and excited about it.
Whilst we were sitting in there, as I looked around I noticed nearly all the people sitting and enjoying their fika were either groups students having meetings or study sessions, students on their own catching up with readings, middle aged men writing or working away on their laptops – I was in love with it all, and I decided there and then that when I arrive back home I will find my own unique café which will become my new additional study/work space (and place for fika of course!).

So now I’m back in Bergen, and while I was incredibly sad sitting at the airport in Stockholm, contemplating whether I should miss my flight and stay forever in Sweden, I knew I had to come back to Bergen and I have accepted that even though I’m not staying in Stockholm anymore (nor am I going back there before heading home – due to money and time), I’ll always have these amazing memories from this short but sweet trip; and I will continue to reminisce about them whenever I am enjoying a coffee and cake, or I’m visiting a new vintage store I’ve read about, or I see someone wearing a Monki/Weekday design piece of clothing, or I see a Helmut Newton photograph. I loved everything about Stockholm, and hopefully one day soon I can revisit again – whether it’s in another year or when I’m old and grey – but for now at least, I know that there is a part of my heart that’s been left in Stockholm and will always be there for Stockholm to keep...

It's a student's life

I have been meaning to write this post for some time now so some of the following events that I will recount actually happened a few weeks ago.

Anyways, a few weeks ago it was the mentor week for the new University of Bergen students - both the internationals on exchange and the Norwegian freshmen. Now mentor week back at my home university is really boring compared to here: we have a day at orientation where the new students are showed around the campus and get to know some of the other students in their faculty - there aren't really any parties (at least hosted by the mentors) because majority of the new students are still only 17 years old. However, in Norway most students begin university at 19 or 20 years old (or at the very earliest 18 years old) so they are legally allowed to drink, which makes the mentor week COMPLETELY different. The whole week was literally one big party, there was some event on every night and it always included a pub crawl. Every faculty had similar events but they made them more unique to that specific faculty. I was in the faculty of humanities, and this was my program for the week: Monday - quiz and concert (with a pre-party before the quiz), Tuesday - a sort of scavenger hunt around the campus followed by more drinking at the student club Kvarteret, Wednesday - "Olympics" and concert at other student club Hulen, Thursday - Pub crawl across the town and then clubbing at Luux, Friday - costume party at Bryggen nightclub.
I couldn't handle drinking every single night of the week (not because my liver couldn't take it - although I had ruined it on my Contiki tour when I was 18 - but more so because my budget wouldn't allow for it). If alcohol was cheap here, perhaps I would of gone a bit more crazy, but I just saved myself and my kroners for the pub crawl, and the other nights I didn't drink or maybe just had one Hansa (Norwegian beer). Even though I held back a little bit in the mentor (as did many of the international students I have spoken to about it), the Norwegians did not. In fact, a lot of the international students left around midnight whereas the Norwegians stayed and partied until the wee hours of the morning.

This was another culture shock as I had no idea the Norwegians drank so much, especially compared to the Europeans who have super cheap alcohol unlike in Norway where it costs about 200NOK (roughly $40) for a six pack of cider. I swear once I get back home, if any of my friends ever complain about the price of alcohol I will just glare at them and say "You don't know what expensive alcohol is".

Anyways, getting off that tangent and back to mentor week. When I asked some of the Norwegian students if they always drink this much and during the week, they told me it does not happen all the time but on specific occasions like mentor week or "russ/russetiden/russefeiring" which is a little similar to Australia's "leavers" except the Norway's is a lot more intense. Instead of celebrating their graduation after their exams (unlike us back in OZ), the Norwegians graduating from high school celebrate their graduation party BEFORE their exams, and it's not just for one week like leavers, no, theirs is for three weeks nonstop. When I was first told about this, I sat there in a state of shock "Are you crazy?!" - I would be unbelievably stressed out if I was partying and having the best time for three weeks only to be reminded I still had to do my exams which would determine whether I could go to university. I was to continue being shocked hearing more stories of this celebration as some of my Norwegian friends explained to me that some students save so much money just to fund their alcohol consumption of the three weeks, one friend in particular told me that she knew someone who spent 10,000NOK for the russefeiring... that's about $2000! Another friend told me that they have to do particular tasks so they can get ribbons (or badges?) to put on their hats - some of these tasks were quite easy and tame for instance skulling a pint of beer, but others were more extreme, for example I was told one task was to have sex in a tree. What didn't strike me as insanely shocking was the fact a task was to have sex in a tree, but the fact you had to have someone watching you do it - in order to get a ribbon for the task, you need to have a witness or witnesses who can vouch for you that you actually completed it. Crazy insane, that's all I can say. Yet I do not think badly at all of the Norwegians, in fact I find it incredibly interesting they have these events because it is not broadcasted to the world - so for us international students, especially me coming from the other side of the world, this is not what you expect when you meet the students of Norway.
My friends often reminisce about leavers and how it was the best time of their lives (I actually didn't go because I saved my money for my gap year trip around Europe, which the Contiki tour I did was the best time of MY life), yet I think if they had seen or known what the leavers was like in Norway they would be gutted about living in Australia and wished that we were more similar to here (except maybe not having the celebrations before the exams, but after) - I know when I was told about russefeiring and participated in the mentor I did think that Australian students are missing out on the crazy student life that we all idealise but just accept what we have available and tell ourselves that's good enough.

See this video for a peek at the russefeiring: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UlrImMgb9s

However the Norwegian students don't just party all the time, they are still studious as well. What amazed me the most was how at first (during mentor week) they seemed like they just wanted to party before the semester started, but when the offer was presented of something academic, all the Norwegian students rushed to participate/attend (unlike the exchange students). For example, during one of the nights during mentor week there was a presentation by Knut Jørgen Røed Ødegaard, who is a very well known Norwegian scientist. I think his presentation was called “The Universe” or something along those lines, but more to the point once this was announced to all us students drinking in Kvarteret, literally all the Norwegian students rushed down stairs to go watch it. I went as well, even though it was in Norwegian, but I could read the text and my friends helped translate it to me as well. It was really interesting, there were some facts I had known already about the universe but lots that I had no clue about or I hadn’t heard of before. What I loved the most though was how passionate the scientist, Knut, was when presenting his lecture. There’s nothing more I love than seeing people who are absolutely in love with their job/study and are so happy to share it with everyone else – that’s what I want to have in my future career. I also loved how in awe the students were, they listened to the whole lecture without moving/fidgeting/using their phones and when Knut asked if there were any questions, the students were more than willing to raise their hand. Furthermore these students I was with were not science students, in fact they were all from the faculty of humanities. If I was back home and there was a presentation organised similar to this, students of the same age studying in the faculty of humanities (or other faculties not associated with science) would not be willing to go unless it was something that really interested them. Yet these students really wanted to go and wanted to learn about something other than what they were studying. It was lovely to witness and to be a part of especially since I don’t get to experience this all that much back home.

The students here care so much about culture, politics and science; and this is shown by their vast amount of student organisations catering for it plus one of their main student clubs, Kvarteret, hosting lectures every week on one of these topics with well known lecturers/presenters/academics in the Norwegian society.

Of course I am going to miss the friends I have made here on my exchange, but I am also going to really miss their student club Kvarteret. It has been one of my favourite places to hang out, it has everything for students – a café with very good food at student prices, bars/pubs, concerts, films, lectures – everything that would interest a student; and it’s not exclusive to the University of Bergen students but ALL the university and college students who reside in Bergen. I wish there was something like this back home in Perth, but unfortunately at the moment there universities are individual in what they offer and do not have one place like this where all university and tafe students could come to hang out – just their own individual taverns at their campuses. Maybe one day soon there will be a place just like Kvarteret in Perth… if not at least I always had my experience of it here on exchange.