University of Helsinki

I had a great year here, so great, that I finaly decided to stay here :-)

I would finally comment on the approach of university administration that it does not consider on any possible conflict regarding the issue of transfer of credits at the end of terms.Also I suffered from too burocratical stuff such as extending of my resident permission and obtaining public transportation card. All those problems could be prevented from occuring if the university administration had dealed with them on behalf of their prospective students before.

In Helsinki, you have the Vanha Café that is linked with the student union of the university. The ESN student meet there every tuesday night. Then you have the irish pub Molly Malone near from the railway station, great live music! you have too the restaurant-bar and disco Copacabana for those who like latin music. By the sea as well you have a nice café called Ursula, in the Kaivo puisto. there are some events like Sankta Lucia parade the 13th of december, during christmas the lights of Aleksanterikatu. An important event for students is the Vappu on the 1st of may, after having party the students go for a picnic in the Kaivopuisto. For the discos I like Kaarle12 and Ostrobothnia. There are museums and Ateneum(art modern) and Kiasma are worth to be seen.

Helsinki is a very good city for a foreign student. It is the capital and at the same time not too big, you don't get lost. So for people wanting to live in the city and having the nature nearby that is the place to go. The winter is cold but you find easily things to do to enjoy it! Finnish people at the ESN network did a really great job to organise events and to make us feel at home.

In my point of view the best place for foreigners is Molly Malone - an Irish pub close to the central railway station, a place where lots of foreigners are gathering especially on Thursday and Saturday nights. Good international live music. The personal quote of the pub is "In Molly Malone there are no strangers. Just friends you haven't met yet".

It was located nearby a train station called Kannelmaki and it was slightly out of the city. Eventough I liked to live in a forest-surrounded town and flat, including great facilities, it was not a created area for student life.