We've all been predicting snow in Helsinki since some point in October when the temperature was lovely and into the positive figures, such as one or two degrees celsius. But it didn't come, much to our dismay, as we all felt we should be getting at least a bit of fun stuff for putting up with the cold. However over the last week it has been tentively snowing with a few snow flakes here and there as I hear from friends around Europe and in the UK that their cities 'already have snow'. I heard early on Sunday morning whilst we were in the club from my ever so lovely best friend that 'Edinburgh has snow, so ha!'
Then, finally the snow day arrived and I honestly think the snow was clogging up in the sky because since the early hours of Sunday morning it has been snowing and hasn't stopped once. We went out on saturday night then by the time we came out of the club there was real snow falling from the sky, then by the time we woke up on Sunday morning (okay, afternoon) there was a good 15cm or so of snow on the ground. So being the intelligent university students that we are, we decided to go to the beach. Yes, the beach. We live about a five minute walk from the beach which isn't really a big deal in Helsinki given that it is a peninsula and surrounded by the sea. You don't need to walk for more than about 15 minutes before you hit the coast in some direction. Anyway, I digress. Like the idiots that we are we put on all of our snow protective gear and waded down to the beach. Wading is an appropriate word as it was Sunday so there weren't any snow clearers out and about meaning we literally had to wade across the snow on the footpaths and along the road to get anywhere. Getting to the beach was a complicated process as by this time the pretty snow fall was verging on being a blizzard, meaning we were getting hit in the face by the snow as we tried to walk in a vauge direction which we hoped would be the sea. Eventually we got there, took some photos and marvelled that the sand was iced over. This was an actual beach and in August we had sat out in the sun with drinks for the evening, now it has turned into a bizzard ice skating rink!
The sea and beach:
Yes, this is actually sand! You can see the snow being pushed along the beach by the wind:
I will point out here that my photos are actually in colour, they are not done in black and white. This is actually how dark and miserable Helsinki is at 2pm in the afternoon. Its totally dark here by 3.30pm and even in the 'day light' its not really light! Especially when its also snowing.
Then we waded to the tram stop to catch a tram (which are some how still running and still on time) to go to a cafe a few stops up the tiny peninsula we live on. However, Nittaya's geography skills combined with snow are not that good and we got stuck in a psychiatric hospitals grounds attempting to find the way out to the main road on the other side. We got in fine but at the other end it was a mixture of high walls and metal gates and fences so we were stuck. After trying to unsuccessfully trying to be inconspicuous and find a way out (its snowing, our footprints were showing our tracks!) we ended up having to climb over two metal fences out onto the other side. Then five minutes later we eventually reached our desitnation - a little wooden cottage by the sea decked out with fairy lights which seves mulled wine- Glögi- but I don't think it was alcoholic, although it was very nice! When we got home I read my emails from the ESN group - apparently there was a weather warning on Sunday afternoon warning people to stay indoors and not venture into open spaces (aka the beach) because the force of the snow in your face could be dangerous and make you get lost! Oh the irony...!
So with that, I move on to Monday (today) and we woke up and it was still snowing. Overnight, Helsinki had been transformed and there was at least a foot of snow everywhere and I couldn't see out of my window as it had a lovely covering of snow over the glass. Walking to university took me over half an hour today which is pretty much double the usual amount of time. I was amazed by how much snow there was for one, as I have never seen this much in my life, or if I have seen this much its been on holiday and I've never had to live with the pratical implications of trying to live my day to day life in the snow. Thus I was attempting to take photos without people noticing that I was taking photos because I felt like a bit of a fake local by doing so, and as though I was giving myself the status of a tourist- which I clearly am not! It was also really hard to walk on the snow as even though some of it had been cleared it wasn't to pavement level meaning the pavement had suddenly grown in height a few inches because the snow had just been flattened out rather than removed, so it was a bit like going on a mini mountaineering expedition except you didn't really know you'd hit a new terain until you almost lost your balance. How the Finnish women manage to do it in their stilletto heels is beyond me- I was struggling in well gripped boots! Now I look out of my window at 2 am and it is STILL snowing. We've been forcasted snow for every day until Friday, and considering my mum is coming that day, I dread to think how undercover Helsinki will be by then!
It really feels like Christmas now, which is annoying given that we've still got another 3 weeks of classes to go. Today everyone was in a really happy mood and so many people commented on it feeling like Christmas. The Germans have got it lucky as apparently St Nicholas night is on 6th December and thats the night they do 'the stocking on the bedroom door handle' thing as we do on 24th December. Except they use boots, but they also have the analogy that if you're bad you get coal. We had a girlie night in tonight with Martini and we were all sharing what happens at Christmas in our home countries (Italy, Austria and France plus the obvious German and UK) and I learnt that its only in the Anglo countries that we get presents on 25th December, everyone else gets them on 24th. In Austria the faries bring them. In Germany, they weren't quite sure who did! But they come on the afternoon of the 24th after the parents have spoken to 'him' and helped him decorate the Christmas tree. I left the conversation feeling that the UK was incredibly commericalised given that a lot of people have their decorations up by mid December. They were all saying 'I wouldn't have been able to sleep if I knew my presents were coming in the night' and I then had to explain that for the British kids, thats part of the whole excitement and fun surrounding Christmas!
On that note, I will finish. Other than to say that today I found an underground route under a lot of the roads which means I've cut out over half of my walk to university. Well, I still have to walk it but I can go through the shopping centres and metro stations which are all joined up rather than walking above ground, which is damn cold and snowy. It was an exciting find!
