travel
One of the largest parts of the ERASMUS+ exchange for the team was the opportunity to travel to new places throughout our studies. Being on mainland Europe allowed the team to travel cheaply by swapping flights and trains for cheap (and very long) busses and ferries. We’ve outlined some of our favourite travels below.
tallinn, estonia
The first excursion the team went on was a two-day trip to Tallin, the capital of Estonia. Despite being one of the most digitally advanced cities – having previously been listed in the top 10 digital cities and being one of the few cities to implement digital voting – what really grabbed the team about Tallinn was its old town centre. We got the opportunity to explore some of the local history such as Kiek in de Kök, a 15th century defence tower, which is connected to the bastion tunnels, a series of underground tunnels which were used as air raid shelters in the second world war. We also got a little taste of home in a wee Scottish pub in the city centre, where we may or may have not spent most of the day in.
riga, latvia
While in Estonia, we took the opportunity to visit Riga in the nearby country of Latvia. Much like in Tallinn we loved the historic city centre, and much like in Tallinn we ended up spending far too much time in medieval themed pubs. In between sightseeing we visited the Cosmos Illusion Museum, a small museum in the centre of the old town, which was jam packed with trippy illusions and Instagram worthy photos. Afterwards, we got some dinner at one of the many modern and very cheap (relative to Finland) restaurants in the old town centre.
stockholm, sweden
As there was an overnight ferry from Turku to Stockholm, we decided to take a one-day whistle-stop tour around Stockholm while friends from home were visiting. Being creatures of habit, we decided to first spend some time exploring the city’s old town centre, Gamla Stan. The old town centre is where Stockholm was founded in 1512 and is one of the oldest and largest medieval city centres in Europe. After exploring we did a bit of ice skating (or controlled crashing) at Kungsträdgården, just outside of Gamla Stan. Then, to finish the tour we visited the incredible Vasa Museum. The Vasa was a warship which sank in 1628 on its maiden voyage and spent 333 years on the seabed before being salvaged and held in the Vasa Museum. If you’re looking for something to do in Stockholm, the Vasa Museum is a must.
lapland, finland
The final trip which some of the team members went on was a week trip with the ERASMUS Student Network (ESN) to Lapland in the north of Finland. This was an amazing experience, and it had to be to compensate for the 18 hour one way bus journey there. However, the bus journey wasn’t too bad since we got to play with huskies at Santa’s village on the way there, so we cant complain really. We stayed in Kilpisjärvi for the duration of the trip and got to the option to take part in many different activities over our stay. Some of the main highlights were doing a late-night snowshoeing scavenger hunt, visiting the beautiful city of Tromsø in Norway, and running straight from a sauna into the arctic ocean in the arctic circle. Visiting Lapland was truly a once in a lifetime experience and was a perfect, and very Finnish, way to end our exchange in Finland.
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