My name is Nor Hayati Nadzli, and for those who know me well, they would know that I have always wanted to go to Finland, the birth place of NOKIA. My uncle and family moved to Tampere Finland in 1998, and since then I have always hoped that one day I would be able to pay them, and Finland a visit. Unfortunately for me, my dream costs A FORTUNE! And I know the only way for it to be fulfilled is for me to come up with my own money (or rob a bank. Hehehe). The urge to visit Finland increased drastically after my uncle and his family came back to Malaysia for holiday in March 2009. That is when I started my “Finland Fund”. From RM 100 to RM 300 a month, I was finally able to save up to RM 1000 a month by doing some freelancing. Not to forget the restriction from any desire of new clothes, new bags, and FANCY foods! I was truly challenged.
My piggy bank for Finland Fund, April 2009.
The Planning :
After two years of hard work, I finally I managed to save enough money for my FIRST trip to Europe (yay!),and I found myself a traveling buddy (double yay!). The plan was for us to fly to Tampere Finland from London and stopped by Paris on our way back from Helsinki to London. Flights confirmed, reservations made, the day finally arrived. We depart from Malaysia to London on 12th March 2011, stayed at London for four days before depart to Tampere Finland on 16th March 2011.
The Arrival:
We arrived at Tampere Airport at 5.30pm and it was 0ºC outside (temperature of a freezer). It is crucial that you keep yourself warm when travelling during winter season (noted!). I had to put on five layers of clothing, a long john, and my trusty wool muffler to keep my nose from freezing. Bizarre! Experiencing the extreme cold weather made me appreciate the warm and humid weather of Malaysia even more.
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| The frozen lakes. Finland has more than 180,000 lakes, more lakes than any other country in the world. |
The Walkable Cities:
As the country is established as the safest cities and towns in the world, walking is very common in Finland. We can see people walking almost everywhere, students walking to school, employees walking to their office, pet owners walking their dog, mothers pushing baby prams and folks walking with and without the aid of ski stick. In Tampere, we travel to town by bus with a return ticket that costs €2.50. The small town can easily be accessed by walking. We walked more than 10km a day, at first it is quite a challenge for me as I have never walked that far in a single journey but I picked myself up after an 80 year old woman walked PAST ME(embrassed!). This walking culture is very good in terms of health. I was impressed that I hardly notice any overweight person and the old folks were still able to walk around, strong and steady even in the very cold weather.
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| Wow! stylo granny walks in style. you have it granny! |
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| Collapse! |
We went to Pyynikki tower which located on west of the Tampere city. The tower setting is easily accessed with just 15 minutes of walking from the town. Pynnikki also has an outdoor theatre and a small restaurant that caters us with delicious doughnuts on the ground floor.
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| Me enjoying the spectacular view of Tampere from Pyynikki Tower. |
The Cottage :
Finland is best known for its great outdoor activities and winter sports are one of them. We went to Sappee, one of the famous holiday destinations in Tampere. We rent a cottage for 3 days and 2 nights at €540. The cute, cozy, and fully furnished cottage has a living room, kitchen, 1 bedroom with 2 single beds, an attic with 3 single beds, a toilet, and a bath room with built-in sauna. To! Die! For!
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| The interior of our cottage + Aida watching Finnish cartoon on tv. |
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| from left to right : entrance, living room + fire place, kitchen + dining, attic, sauna, room for two.
The Winter Sports:
This is my first experience of ski and I fell plenty of times during the training. Ouch! The worst would be when I hit the fence of a ski lift. MAJOR KNOCK DOWN! I was skiing down the slope when I ran out of control and crashed the fence causing it to fall onto an 8 year old boy. Woops! I was very lucky though that the boy was not hurt by the accident, but I was undeniably shocked, I almost gave up! But thinking that this might be my only chance to ski, I got up and reclaimed myself! After numerous falls, I was finally able to control my balance and manage to ski and make a stop without falling. It was the best experience ever!
The Retail Therapy:
There is nothing much we can shop in Finland since the goods are very expensive. However we still need to do some shopping and spend the Euro’s so we went to the Kauppahali (Indoor Market) and bought 3 pieces of fresh smoke salmon for €39. RM 167.70 for 3 pieces of fish is extremely expansive; I can get another leather jacket in London with this price. Despite the unreasonable price, the smoke salmon is very fresh, juicy and addictive!
I love shopping for souvenirs because I think giving souvenirs is one way to share my travel experiences with families and friends back in Malaysia. I wish I can buy more Finland's souvenirs but everything is way too expansive ;(
The Public Transportation:
In Finland getting around by public transportation is easy as the trains and busses are well integrated. We travel from Tampere to Espoo by a cosy double decker coaches that cost us only €25 for a single journey. In Espoo and Helsinki we bought a daily ticket at €9 from R-Kiosky (something like 7e). This daily ticket can be use for bus, city train, tram and ferry. The public transportations also cater for the disabled by providing spaces for wheel chair and baby pram. As the cities and places in the country are easily accessed by public transportations, the numbers of people driving cars are very few. Maybe these are one of the factors that put Finland on top of the list for most environmental friendly country in the world.
So who said money cannot buy you happiness? It really can! My trip to Finland is a life achievement for me because I have proved myself to others that with hard work everybody can afford to travel and fulfill their dreams. All you need is to have the determination to work your savings toward your target amount and dateline, work extra (extra) hard, forget about the unnecessary desired stuffs, pay your PTPTN (you are not going anywhere if you are blacklisted), and pray HARDER.
Thank you for reading ;)
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