Your main shopping place!

Now if your a shopaholic, this post is for you.

I tried a few shopping malls but found hansakortteli was the best mall in Turku, this has everything from your lowkey shops to your high-end designer shops.

Hansakortteli is right in the heart of the city centre so it is very easy to find, every single bus you can think of goes here so you cannot get lost, you can even walk there if you're as far as Varissuo.

The mall itself is very pretty and warm inside, there are coffee shops, food courts, fast food and seating areas.

Finnish design - Virtual Class

I did not think i would be very interested in this lecture, but i was proven VERY wrong! This lecture was a great insight to some more Finnish culture and Finnish design! 

We learnt about many Finnish designers such as 
-Alvar Allto 
- Fero Saarinen
- Reima Pietila 
- Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen 

These various designers have designed buildings all over the world such as 
- Helsinki
- Denmark
-Sweden
-USA
-Germany 
-Croatia 
-Estonia 
These certain designers have built many things ranging from buildings, statues and even furniture. 

The teacher also told us some of her favourite designers and some who she got her inspiration from. 
Some of the designers we were told about were professors in schools or universities which i found interesting, did they quit their jobs to become designers? were they professors in design? So many questions.

This topic is very new to me and although i did not understand most of it, it was very intriguing and i would love to learn more about design. 

I didn't seem to notice a lot of female designers in this lecture, mostly men. I genuinely thought it would be mostly women, i was wrong. 

Again i will definitely been looking more into Finnish design in my own time as i enjoyed this lecture a lot.

Littoistenjärvi Lake

Everybody was talking about this lake (Littoistenjärvi) 

The lake is situated in Varissuo, it's a little bit of a walk (around 40 minutes).
The lake is not very active during the winter unless it is frozen over, then you can go ice fishing. You are however able to go ice swimming here and there is also a sauna (due to my time being cut short i was not able to experience ice swimming).

The lake itself is absolutely stunning, if you go on a sunny day the sun hits the lake perfectly making amazing reflections of the buildings surrounding.

If you are an eager photographer like me, this is a perfect spot to take some pictures!

The Turku Sign

Okay so, usually when we travel it's essential to find the city 'sign' right? Just like Amsterdam and LA.

Well, Turku has one of its own (very small) sign and I will tell you how to find it here!

It took me ages to find this sign as it really isn't that big, its actually quite small, on its own small patch of grass.

To find this you must walk along the River Aura and cross over the bridge, the sign is right by the Cathedral, just in front of it on the other side of the river.

Honestly, if you're in Turku, go take a picture, if you don't - were you ever really there?

The sign is actually cute and lit up at night, you also get a nice view of the park and cathedral.

They wasn't wrong about the weather!

Honestly, pack your warmest clothes! It really is as cold as they say, in fact, the cold hurts sometimes.

When researching about Finland the first thing I read was about the weather and that it can hit conditions up to -20 degrees! Yeah, -20!

I was instantly shocked by how cold it can be, so I proceeded to find the warmest clothes that I could possibly find. Yeah, I know it can be cold but I was excited to live in the snow, we don't get much snow in Manchester, and it's pretty so I was happy about that.

Now when I arrived in Helsinki at around 1AM it really was not that cold, in fact, I thought I was lied to on the internet about the weather. When I arrived in Turku it was the same, really not that cold.
The next day, the same and still no snow in sight!

When I got speaking to some locals they told me that I had come on a 'good' year as the weather was being crazy, they said usually in January it would be -20 / -25 and they were facing a warm winter. I was pretty gutted about that.

However, in the upcoming days, the snow started forming and it looked absolutely beautiful! I was buzzing about it (that my friends is a Mancunian word, it basically means happy).

Here are some pictures of the snow.

The River Aura

Now one of the things that I spotted, was the beautiful River Aura.
This river runs throughout Turku and neighbouring suburbs and is one of my favourite beauty spots.

The river is even more beautiful during sunset, there is something about the bright sun hitting the freezing cold water that just got to me.
Most nights I went to the lit-up bridge to watch the sun hit the water.

Now, it's even better when you head more up to Martti, the river gets wider, there are more boats and there is a ferry which takes you from one side of the river to the other (it's free by the way, so if you ever take a longer stroll, take the ferry across the water and walk back up on the other side back into the town centre.)

There are many boats running along the river, some are party boats, some are restaurants, some are bars and some are just sat there abandoned.

Honestly, try and get to the river as much as you can as it is so different on different days depending on the weather.

Here are some of the many pictures that I captured.

Welcome!

Hello to all reading! My name is Rhea, I'm 23 years old and I'm here to tell you everything I learned about Finland! from weather, shopping, beauty spots, islands and much more.

I am originally from Manchester, United Kingdom and study at Manchester Metropolitan University. I am currently in the second year of my degree. 

once I have finished my degree I would like to go into youth offending and youth mental health.

I studied a few months here at Turku University of Applied Sciences (social services). 

Just a bit about me
I adore photography, I enjoy writing blogs, I create videos and I'm currently teaching myself animation, travelling is my favourite thing to do even though I am terrified of flying (makes no sense, right?).

Here is a picture of myself.