Well if the frontdoor of the house is locked, you have to use some force to get in right? Or would I be doing it wrong?
That's the way if you want to play a variation of the said game, namely "which drunk tank is this?" - To do it right, you'll have to get somebody open the door for you. Extra points if the inviter doesn't recall calling you in on the morning.
Yeah but i though it would be a better sign of integration to speak finnish, at least understand it and know the basics, it's just a matter of respect for the country welcoming me.
I know I reply to an old post, but one thing I can tell you people is that even if you don't learn the whole language, learn the ways to pronounce things and that gets you far. Why? Because then you know what are the common mistakes people does in pronouncing something in English. For example I have huge difficulties with communicating with the girl next door who is from China and speaks very good English, but I can understand my wife next to perfectly and she's from USA. If I would know how Chinese people speaks, I could understand their English way better. As examples, Finns are awful with "th"-sound (like three, it comes out more often than not as tree) and Chinese people "r"-sounds are very bad. But once you know these things, your error correction level skyrockets.
I am planning a summer vacation and taking Helsinki into account. Can someone tell me how accessible St. Petersburg and Stockholm are from Helsinki and if I want to visit all 3 how long should I plan on spending in Europe?
I am planning a summer vacation and taking Helsinki into account. Can someone tell me how accessible St. Petersburg and Stockholm are from Helsinki and if I want to visit all 3 how long should I plan on spending in Europe?
Both Stockholm and St. Petersburg are very accessible from Helsinki.
There are several overnight ferry lines to Stockholm from Helsinki and naturally flights as well. Also, there is no special visa required for anybody who travels between Finland and Sweden, regardless of nationality. So getting to Stockholm is very easy and can be done in about 12 hours or less.
If we are to consider raw travel alone, getting to St. Petersburg isn't much more difficult. There is a ferry line with at least one tour a day and also a very speedy train line between Helsinki and St. Petersburg that will take less than 4 hours to reach from one city to another.
However, what comes to visas, the train and any flights will require a visa to enter Russia from Finland. The ferry line is an exempt, it's visa-free as long as the visitor stays in-country for less than 72 hours. It is of course recommendable to have your papers in order regardless when heading to Russia - it'll skip you a lot of on-site bureaucracy.
As stated, between Stockholm and Helsinki however the red tape is pretty much nonexistent. Save for the language spoken, it's practically like you haven't changed countries at all.
Of course there's a lot to see in all the cities so it's up to you how long you wish to stay, but if you take care of your papers beforehand, technically all three can be visited in less than a week.
You could also land a cheap flight ticket to Stockholm with Norwegian.com and then come back by ferry or by plane...but of course if you travel in group/etc. ferry will be the cheapest choice... people usually go there just boozing and buying tax free so sometimes the ferry trips can be wild.
Just passing by to say some words about my new life in Helsinki. Life's is treating us well in Finland, we moved in august 2012, people are way more relax and patient than in canada. I'm still working at the Vuosaari Harbour and we found a beautiful little house in Espoo's suburb (around 35 minutes from vuosaari). We slowly learning finish, even if i was surprised that a lot of people speak english. Weirdly the weather treated me badly at first (even if i was used to snow and cold in canada). I must admit it helped us a lot to move with 3 other families and we've benn welcomed by two families already living in Helsinki since 2009. Scandinavian way of life is a lot different that North America, even if the life is more expensive, but euro is almost the same as $US. I hoped to speak perfectly finnish by the end of the year 2013 (i'm not the best !). We found a school teaching in english, but the kids have around 6/7 hours by weeks of finnish classes. The drive to work and the drive home isn't that hard in fact, the traffic is annoying but actually i've seen worst.
Great to hear that ... luckily the days are already longer and you can see some sun shining too and the spring is near!
Kehä 1 has been super bad on somedays during the winter... especially in snowy days... one snowy day there were 15-20 trucks stucked (All foreign plates...about 90% of them with Estonian plates) and normal 5 minute drive took about 1 hour. You need good winter tyres here
Great to hear that ... luckily the days are already longer and you can see some sun shining too and the spring is near!
Kehä 1 has been super bad on somedays during the winter... especially in snowy days... one snowy day there were 15-20 trucks stucked (All foreign plates...about 90% of them with Estonian plates) and normal 5 minute drive took about 1 hour. You need good winter tyres here
So have you been to any hockey games here?
No i haven't yet. But i heard a lot of good thing about the Jokerit's fans lol. The war between HIFK and Jokerit looks huge actually! I've been super busy with custom papers, ID, driving licence and my job is taking me a lot. Plus me and my wife try to be as much as we can with the kids, it's been a big change for em. But they quickly understand that Big Mac was Big Mac in finland and how to pronounce Juustohampurilainen
No i haven't yet. But i heard a lot of good thing about the Jokerit's fans lol. The war between HIFK and Jokerit looks huge actually! I've been super busy with custom papers, ID, driving licence and my job is taking me a lot. Plus me and my wife try to be as much as we can with the kids, it's been a big change for em. But they quickly understand that Big Mac was Big Mac in finland and how to pronounce Juustohampurilainen
I think Jokerit ticket prices might be more family friendly. They've had some "family games" before.
Yeah Jokerit family games are called "perhepeli" in Finnish and children tickets cost about 5 euros only. They inform the perhepeli games in their facebook/twitter/homepage quite well.
Not sure does Vuosaari Harbour offer "Smartum kulttuuriseteli" for their employees for free... they can be used to pay tickets for example in Hartwall Areena plus other "culture" stuff.
Just passing by to say some words about my new life in Helsinki. Life's is treating us well in Finland, we moved in august 2012, people are way more relax and patient than in canada. I'm still working at the Vuosaari Harbour and we found a beautiful little house in Espoo's suburb (around 35 minutes from vuosaari). We slowly learning finish, even if i was surprised that a lot of people speak english. Weirdly the weather treated me badly at first (even if i was used to snow and cold in canada). I must admit it helped us a lot to move with 3 other families and we've benn welcomed by two families already living in Helsinki since 2009. Scandinavian way of life is a lot different that North America, even if the life is more expensive, but euro is almost the same as $US. I hoped to speak perfectly finnish by the end of the year 2013 (i'm not the best !). We found a school teaching in english, but the kids have around 6/7 hours by weeks of finnish classes. The drive to work and the drive home isn't that hard in fact, the traffic is annoying but actually i've seen worst.
So you live in Espoo now? Since my last message about 13 months ago, I found a full-time job and moved to Espoo as well.
Like I wrote earlier, you get very far with English here, I'd say vast majority of under-50, over-15 years old people talks understandable English. I face this daily due to having an American wife.
No i haven't yet. But i heard a lot of good thing about the Jokerit's fans lol. The war between HIFK and Jokerit looks huge actually! I've been super busy with custom papers, ID, driving licence and my job is taking me a lot. Plus me and my wife try to be as much as we can with the kids, it's been a big change for em. But they quickly understand that Big Mac was Big Mac in finland and how to pronounce Juustohampurilainen
I hope you enjoy your life in Finland. I can easily agree with your thoughts on Finns being more relaxed and patient than North Americans. I moved to Canada about 6 years ago, before that I lived about 8 years in the Helsinki/Espoo area. People on forums like these often seem to misrepresent the place and people, of course Finns are less outgoing than North Americans in general but like someone already mentioned, if YOU take the initiative, Finns are very curious and eager to talk.
It's the taking the initiative part that Finnish people struggle with, there is no "small talk" in Finnish. Here in Canada most people will greet you with the "how are you doing" which does not happen in Finland unless you really know the person, but it's not a sign of hostility, just a cultural and language difference. Like there were no "icebreakers" invented when they came up with the Finnish language.
Weather wise, the differences are not big, length of day might be. I live in Atlantic Canada (Saint John, NB) and it gets almost as cold here especially with wind chill, but there are more hours of sunlight during winter months and less sunlight during summer months.
Food wise, I think Finland wins that hands down. You can get basically anything in Finland that you can in Canada (except Kraft Dinner and Timmies) but who wants mac and cheese anyway! Just make it yourself. What you can't really get in Canada, without importing, is rye bread and the variety of dairy products. Finland easily has better cheeses, you can get decent cheddar there too but you just don't find the kind of cheeses in Canada that you would in Finland. Finnish brand of potato chips beat Lays or Ruffles any day, and last but not least....there is no SALMIAKKI in Canada. Boo!
It's a great place to live. People here in Canada often ask me if it's a lot different and I tell them not much. Then they ask me which one do I prefer, and I try to say I like both so I don't break their illusion, but all in all I've always preferred Finland in a lot of ways. Nothing wrong with Canada either, but there's something that the quality of basic education in Finland generally brings that I have not found here in Canada.
Few suggestions: If you like actually hot food, try the "New bamboo center" in Kamppi. There's also two amazing buffet style kebab places (well there are more but these are my preferences), Ravintola Ani in Lauttasaari and Kilim in Tapiola, Espoo. Bring the fam if they like to try "exotic" food and fill up on it. Something I have yet to find here....they have their "beef gyro's" here etc but it's just not the same.
Good luck, have fun and enjoy the beautiful summer.
Psychodad, might be expensive but this place seems to be having good ruis (rye) breads... their business is running in NYC... made by Finns and I guess the delivery would go to Canada sooner than deliveries from here.
Psychodad, might be expensive but this place seems to be having good ruis (rye) breads... their business is running in NYC... made by Finns and I guess the delivery would go to Canada sooner than deliveries from here.
Thank you! I sent an inquiry about whether they ship here or not, distance would not be that bad.
And yeah life without salmiakki is not worth living, luckily my mom sends me some every now and then. They do have Panda licorice here, which is a step in the right direction.
... luckily the days are already longer and you can see some sun shining too 
and the spring is near!
