After a quick trip to Seinäjoki I headed south to the city I spent my year abroad in, Tampere to celebrate Thanksgiving with Susanna and Kristina! I think they were more excited than I was, I took full advantage of Friendsgiving and the office potluck since I knew I was going to be spending Thanksgiving in Finland and probably wasn’t going to be able to enjoy all of the deliciousness. We weren’t able to find most of the ingredients so we settled on their second favorite, chicken pot pie and Mum’s roasted sweet potatoes (2 of the easiest things in the world to make by the way!)
Since I’ve been there last a new hotel was built in the center of Tampere, up at the top, on the 24th floor is this awesome bar with floor to ceiling windows and a terrace (that unfortunately was closed) the view of the city is so incredible.
It was so awesome finally introducing Kristina to Susanna, they are both such a huge part of my life. It’s always so funny when exchange students meet each other because they automatically have this huge connection, especially with both of them having lived with my family it was like they have known each other their entire lives. I don’t talk about it a lot but the Rotary Youth Exchange program was honestly the best decision I have ever made, that year not only changed me immensely and opened my eyes up to the world it introduced me to so many incredible people and has continued to introduce me to inspiring and amazing young adults that travel to the states every year. I love that my family jumped in 100% when I went abroad by hosting, we have hosted students from Ecuador, Georgia, Finland, Japan, Slovakia, Belgium, Turkey, and now Zanzibar! It’s such a cool program to be apart of and I love all of my siblings from all over the world, plus it makes travel a whole hell of a lot easier, if you plan it right you never need to pay for accommodations, just plan to pack an entire suitcase full of brownie mix and Reeses cups!
My visit to Tampere was far too short, I did get to see some of my favorite places though, namely a great little cafe, Cafe Europa, where I spent roughly 75% of my year (and my money) while living there!
We walked around a lot, right now the sun sets in Finland about 3:00 pm but they do such a great job lighting up the cities, they are so pretty. I was so sad to leave but excited to head to Helsinki to see Mikku!
It was dark when I got there and IÂ hopped right in Mikku’s car so I didn’t get any pictures of downtown Helsinki unfortunately. But we did get up on my last morning and explore Lauttasaari, which is absolutely gorgeous!
Mikku’s boyfriend came with us (against his will I think) and we found a perfect rock to balance the camera on to take a selfie! It was a gorgeous morning, the sun finally showed itself for the first time during my trip, of course on my last day!
I had an amazing Thanksgiving in Finland, it was so great to see everyone and get away from everything for a while. I came back with a fresh perspective on a lot! But more on that later. I hope you all have a lovely week, I’d love to hear if you traveled for the holiday what you did so drop me a note down below!
