CSBSJU Finland+Denmark

Guest writer Ava Adair. Today we all woke up and took the public transit train system to the Oodi Library in the town center. This library was unlike anything we’ve ever seen, and very diffrent from standard American public facilites. It seemed to have every practical thing in there offered to Finns for free. We had a tour of the library, learned the history behind how it was built and designed. After the library tour and some group photo taking, We split ways with the rest of the group. Our group decided to wonder around the central town area near the train station and major shopping malls. We visited a real grocery store and it was so clean and well designed (think of a very nice whole foods but better). We picked out some fun snacks to try and made our way to a big 4 level womens shopping center. We all browsed, found some things then decided to check out the Stockmans next door. It was huge and seemed to have every major brand and some European ones as well. We continued our day with lunch at roberts coffee cafe, this is a big chain here and can be similar to a starbucks. After this, our group decided it was the perfect day to take the ferry over to Suomenlinna fortress. While on the 15 min ferry ride, there were many curious seagulls that were taunting us and others, it was funny and a little scary in the moment. When we got to the island it was perfect weather, not to hot or cold with a breeze. We started walking around with no plan, and came across a couple diffrent stores. We came across a big hill that gave us the perfect lookout over the sea and island. We decided to take a break and grab some drinks and a little snack at the local cafe on the island and relax for a bit. After we took the ferry back to Helsinki, sitting in the covered area this time. It was around dinnertime when we arrived back, we found a great tuscan style resturant to eat our final dinner at in Helsinki. We ended this amazing day with a sauna visit in our hotel.