| About Sam | I was born in Surrey, grew up in Berkshire and was a boarder at Monmouth. I currently divide my time between homes in Sussex and Pembrokeshire and University in Leeds, where I’m in my second year studying Geography. I’m rather partial to coffee, flying, music, performing arts, photography, politics, theatre, travelling and wine. |
I took home a box of work in the Easter holidays. That box came back to Leeds last Monday......untouched! You will be pleased to know, however, my precious four weeks off were not wasted. The highlight for me was a field trip to Helsinki, Finland. As part of the Geography course at Leeds University, students in the second year are given the opportunity to take a module that includes a field trip element. I jumped at the chance and in no time, was told to fill in a form to state my preference of destination: Montpellier, Trieste or Helsinki. I chose Helsinki because I would probably have no other reason to visit. France and Italy are popular holiday destinations, but Finland isn't really. I wanted to explore somewhere I'd never been; to broaden my horizons. So, at the end of March, 24 Geography students departed the UK for a week long trip to Finland. Finland is a bizarre place – although it is quite a large country by European standards, not very many people live there. Helsinki itself has one of the smallest populations of any capital city in the world.
 | | Helsinki Cathedral |
Office blocks have inbuilt saunas, people live in apartments rather than houses, inhabitants enjoy reindeer soup and the taxes are sky high. In fact, the taxes are so high, the government doesn't know what to do with all the money. Helsinki has an underground system, an extensive bus network, boats and regular trains. They are even planning an extension to the under utilised underground and a new light rail system! Leeds, with a vastly larger population, can't even manage a decent bus service. However, just like Leeds, the nightlife in Helsinki is superb. We sampled clubs, bars and restaurants. We even found a place that served half litres of Koff (the local brew) for just one Euro. On the Saturday night, we watched a game of Ice Hockey at the Hartwell Areena (the venue for Eurovision this year). It was a good laugh – quite why they needed to stop play every half a minute however, was beyond me. During the days, we toured key development sites and visited various authorities to give us a better idea of the land use, development and transport features of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area (HMA). Interestingly, the HMA is split up into three different cities: Helsinki, Vantaa and Espoo. Vantaa and Espoo are more like suburbs than cities, but they like to claim independence from Helsinki and its odd political propaganda. Overall, I would recommend Helsinki highly. It is a great place to spend a week. I'm told Estonia's capital, Tallinn makes a great day trip too. |
