Day 10: Cruise to Porvoo

Today was the FUSYE scholars' last day in Helsinki (except for those who are living in Helsinki with their host families), so to commemorate this fantastic and brilliant week, we took a cruise to Porvoo, a city approximately 50 km away from Helsinki. Although it takes about an hour to drive there via bus, we were told that the cruise would take 3.5 hours. 

The boat's name is "J.L. Runeberg" (pronounced Runa-berry with rolled R's!), and it had two levels (an upper and lower deck), a cafe and restaurant. 

In front of the boat. Yay for rainy days!

Some FUSYE scholars (not all) before the ship sailed off! The rambunctious kid in the front is Mari's (YFU coordinator) seven year old son, Kasper.

Because there was barely any room inside the ship, us FUSYE scholars sat outside on the deck, where we piled blankets on top of benches and huddled together under a canopy of umbrellas.  All the Finns stared at us incredulously, probably wondering why these crazy Americans were laughing and shouting outside in the rain. 

Huddled under umbrellas and blankets in the rain.

After two hours, our fingers grew numb and we desperately needed warmth that soggy blankets could not provide. Cautiously, we descended onto the lower deck where the cafe was to order hot chocolate. While the line itself only moved a couple of inches every 10 minutes, I could finally feel heat permeating throughout my body.  Because the boat was so crowded and filled to the brim with people, I had to say "Anteeksi," pronounced "Ahn-tahk-see" or "Ahn-tehk-see" every few seconds (which means excuse me or sorry). But yay for pronouncing it correctly! Luckily, we found some extra seats inside the boat and stayed there for the rest of the time, too scarred to venture out into the viciously windy deck.

Before I knew it, the ship was docking at the Porvoo port. We found our tour guide and headed for the restaurant we would have lunch in.

In Porvoo

The tour guide first showed us around the medieval parts of Porvoo, where the old church was. The city itself is the second oldest city in Finland, and 33% of the population speaks Swedish, despite the fact that this city is off the eastern coast of Finland, far away from Sweden. However, the large population of Swedish speaking Finns does make sense when considering the fact that Swedes founded and developed the town.

After visits to the medieval town square, the tour guide allowed us to walk around the idyllic Porvoo. The other FUSYE scholars and I explored the quaint little shops that lined the main street. Many of the items were specially hand-crafted! The store in the picture below was one of my favorite shops-- they sold unique Finnish tea and hand-made jams and honey butter. As soon as I walked through the door, I was embraced by a delightful aroma of ambrosial sweetness that was almost impossible to put into words.

Cutest and best-smelling store EVER. Look at the little jams!

Buildings in Porvoo

Old steps

We returned to Helsinki by bus, and I my host mother picked me up from the YFU office at 6 PM. Sanni also returned earlier from work today, so we took her home as well. 

After dinner, my host family surprised me with wonderful and touching gifts! Because they all knew of my love for classical music, they gave me a CD package entitled "Finlandia,"which is all of Jean Sibelius' greatest works compiled into two CDs. Sanni also gave me an  "ystävä kirja," which is like a friendship book, where friends can write little messages to each other and fill out questions like "What is your favorite color?" and "What is your dream job?" The questions were all in Finnish, so I'm glad to learn some more basic phrases.

Friend book! The white hippo is known as "Muumi," and he is a Finnish national treasure. I am not even kidding. 

Then we went to visit Sanni's friend, Wilma (pronounced Veel-ma). They had originally planned to watch a horror movie, but ultimately we decided upon Dear John!! The movie was in English and had Finnish subtitles, and I was so proud of myself for understanding and being able to pronounce some of the Finnish words! Day by day, I'm accumulating more Finnish words and incorporating some of these phrases into daily conversation. Sanni said that if I was a year exchange student, my Finnish would have been amazing.

Today was also my last full day with my temporary host family, the Toppari's, so I was a bit sad :(

Tomorrow, I will be meeting my permanent host family, the Wendelins, who will take me to their home in Rauma.