Back to Tampere

In February it was back to Tampere for a weekend get together with the awesome Rotary exchange students in D1390. It was also a time to meet the newbies who had just arrived in January.

After traveling by bus two hours from Lahti I met up with the rest of the other exchange students from my district who were able to make it to the winter weekend. Alot of people couldn't come, but it was nice to see everyone who was there and I met too newbies from Australia too.
On the program was a walk across town to the puunikki torni to eat doughnuts, have lunch and wander around town, and play lazer tag.

After eating our delicious doughnuts, we climber the stairs or some took the elevator, to the top of the pyynikki torni which over looks Tampere. In the distance you can see another torni-tower and the city center is a bit to the right and down. Even though it wasn't a clear day, from all directions ontop the tower you could see quite far.

Here we are in front of the tower. It was a nice day to be in Tampere because it wasn't so cold and there wasn't as much snow as in Lahti. It's also kind of funny because the last time I was in Tampere was way back in August when we had a day trip here as part of our orientation the first week we were in Finland. It also happens that, I was there for my second time just one day early of 6 months since I had visited that last August.

After going up the tower we decided to go sledding. Each of us recieved a garabage bag and we were able to use those as sleds. Some people went down on top of the bags, others sat in the bags and went down. If you sat in the bag, it was sure to rip because of your feet and then you would have to go on top of it. Sledding was so much fun! I had lots of snow in my pants and up my shirt though afterwards so I ended up being a little bit wet, but luckily didn't get at all cold.

One of the cathedrals in Tampere as we walked back around town and back to the center.

Approaching the old Finlayson factory, which produces all sorts of different Finnish designs from prints on curtains to cups, etc. Just below that building we went into another one to play lazer tag.

Megazone (lazertag) is so much fun! We split into three different teams, and I was on the team with all four of us girls. We then went and played against each other. It was so much fun, but a bit hard because there were a bunch of little boys playing at the same time as us, and we didn't even have time to find our base by the time the game had started. Oh well, it worked out well.

Some buildings near the square. We had time to wander around and then have lunch where we wanted too. After visiting and getting to know some of the newbies more, it was time to go back to our own cities.

We all walked back across the river and then a few of us walked to the bus station while everyone else went to the train station. I went to take the bus back.
I forgot to check the times for return so I ended up missing a bus and having to wait an hour extra than anticipated. In the end, everyone else left which wasn't too bad. But then it turned out that the bus that came wasn't the right one so I had to wait another hour yet. In the end it worked out just fine though and I didn't mind the extra delay so much because I could at least just wait inside the mall which was just down the street.

The street map for Tampere nearby the bus station. It was such a fun day, but a long one too. I am really glad I made the trip and hope to one day go back to Tampere to see more of the city.