Exploring the beauty of Scandinavia

This post is about how we spent our days during "Quarantine". As we are still allowed to meet up with our friends up to 10 people we may have a few more options than other countries at the moment. This post could maybe inspire you and your friends with new ideas to utilize this time. The weather unfortunately has been fluctuating a lot the last few weeks. We have a few days really nice weather and then followed by rainy days. If the weather is good we spent the whole day outside. We go on to walks for e.g. in Ruissalo at the beach or do sports outside as we are a pretty big group of friends. Most of the time it is basketball in Varissou we do not have a hard time finding a court but we also have played tennis in Kaarina or Volleyball. Other activities we did were going outside and barbecuing at a lake and enjoying the weather. Also just grabbing a popsicle from a store or going to Hesburger, Burgerking getting food/ Ice cream and sitting in a park and talking. And most imp...

The corona pandemic was at the beginning just a big fun until it got serious. In the beginning many people made fun and the internet was booming about jokes and memes related to corona but meanwhile it is quite serious. Especially in countries like Italy, France, Sweden and Germany the whole thing has degenerated. Exit bans and mask duties were issued. The stand here in Finland/Turku it is luckily not so serious yet. Safety precautions have been taken like schools and universities have been closed and many are working from home. In supermarkets there are hand sanitizers at entrances and exits and a safe distance is maintained. Restaurants now only offer food for pick up or delivery. Bars, cinema and crowded places are closed, events are cancelled. Meetings with more than 10 people are prohibited. The boarders to Helsinki were closed for a while too. Many Exchange students have decided to fly home and even some have been obliged to leave. My roommate and I have decided to stay because t...

The teaching system was initially a big shock to me, as there is a big difference in the teaching approach between the German teaching system and the Turku university of applied sciences approach "Innopeda". In Germany at the university I study and most of the German Universities there is only the final exams at the end of the semester and during exam phase we do not have any lectures. Our attendance is not mandatory most of the professors do not really know their students as the classes are really big and the students are basically numbers we do not write our names anywhere e.g. even on exams we put our number. While at TUAS, participation in class, projects and group work (peer evaluation) make up a large part of the overall grade. The German approach is of course much more comfortable for the students as there is much less work to do, but the Innopeda approach wants to encourage students to show initiative and work independently, to develop critical thinking and innovative...

My roommate and me went together to Stockholm. The best way but not the fastest way to Sweden from Finland is by ferry. The fastest would be by plane, which is a bit more expensive. I would recommend everyone to go by ferry, the drive takes unfortunately about 10 hours but it is worth seeing it and especially with friends it can be an amazing time on board. There is a lot to do on the ferry there are bars, shops, gambling area and a club. We arrived pretty late to our hotel but still went our right away after our check-in to have a look at the city and eat something. We ate at Vapiano, which I can recommend to everyone because they have a lot of options and almost everything tastes good there in my opinion. And also, the waffles that are sold in every corner in centrum. There is even a Ben&Jerrys waffle store, which we tried out the wonder waffle I got costs 11€ but I am not sure if its worth it. I personally did not like the waffle it tasted kinda old to me but we went there pre...

Our last day we mostly spent in the car. But we stopped at a secret lagoon which is called Gamla Laugin. It is a hot spring in the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately not as secret as we thought. A few people were already there but it was still worth it. There is a small cabin to change close to the water. Our last big Sight was the Gullfoss waterfall which was amazing. But the weather was extremely windy and cold. The coldest we have experienced in Iceland. We drove back to Reykjavik and walked around town one last time. We sat down in a pizzeria and ate a pizza. We still had plenty of time till we had to leave for our plane back home so we were hanging around in cafes and walking through the streets until we met two young locals. We spent a few hours together by playing dart and hanging around getting to know some local facts about Reykjavik. Local youngsters feel a bit bored in Reykjavik as there is not much to do. But still I could not imagine leaving in Iceland although I am in ...

This beach is probably one of the most beautiful beaches I ever have seen and everyone that is visiting Iceland needs to go there. It is located on the south coast directly next to the ring road. You do not need a four-wheel drive vehicle for this, even if the actual parking lot is not asphalted. The distance from Reykjavik is just over 370 km. History of formation The reason why ice is washed up here at all is a glacier tongue of Breiðamerkurjökull. It is only a tiny offshoot of the huge Vatnajökull, which covers a large part of southeast Iceland. The ice calves here in the glacier lagoon Jökulsárlón, breaks away gradually and then drifts gently towards the sea. It can take several years from the breakup to the drifting away, that's how long it takes until the ice is drifted forward towards the river. The exact duration depends on the size of the iceberg and external influences such as temperature, wind etc. Logically, the density of the ice also plays a role. When the i...