Great weekend!

This weekend was perfect, I had time to meet my friends and also enjoy the perfect weather. Saturday was the international jazz day and we had a jazz parade here in Wroclaw. The parade was nice and relaxing, it was great to listen to good music, enjoy the atmosphere and good weather. I was not prepared for such a nice weather and I burned my nose in the spring sun. From now on I need to remember to be better prepared; water and sun cream will follow me everywhere!
Here are some pictures from the parade :)

On the way home I saw the jazz boat in the river

This Sunday the world record in the number of people playing guitars at the same time was done in Wroclaw. (They broke the record from last year from the same event that is organized here every year). We went to the city just before the record to see what is going on and enjoy the atmosphere. We didn't stay for the record itself as we needed to get to our place to prepare for the vappu party. Here are a couple of pictures from rynek before it was full of people with guitars :D

Saturday evening we had a nice barbecue in our back yard. It was great to be able to eat outside and just eat the grill food, it has been too long from the last time :D I also prepared this Finnish sima drink and some doughnuts. Here are some pictures about the outcome of my baking :P

I just wanted to have the balloons, a must for Vappu! :D

-Camilla

Vappu!

The 1. of May in Finland is called Vappu. For students the celebration will take about a week, not only the Vappu day. May Day is a public holiday that is the only carnival-style street festivity in the country. People young and old, particularly students, party outside, picnic and wear caps (graduation from high school) or other decorative clothing. University students are wearing their "uniforms" student boilersuit. Student boilersuits are not meant for work but for party, all the faculties in the University have different colors.

Me and my student cap just after graduation

History and use of the boilersuit: Student coveralls have become one of the most conspicuous academic traditions at some educational institutions, despite its short history. The use of overalls started in the Royal Institute of Technology in the late 1960s, and spread around Sweden and Finland during the 1970s. Apparently protective clothing was needed in excursions to companies, which soon led to use at parties as a way to identify students of different fields and organizations. The height of the use of the overall was reached in the late 1990s. Due to quick rise in popularity, most student organizations now offer the students a chance to purchase their own overalls during the freshman year. Since the 1990s, the custom has remained popular although perhaps in slight decline as the overalls are sometimes viewed to signal a lifestyle bordering on alcoholism and drunken misbehavior, up to the point where some pubs and clubs even choose to ban the use of overall uniforms. -Wikipedia

https://www.flickr.com/photos/villefi/
Boilersuits! Normally you can only wear the bottom and knot the upper part to your waist.

In my city in Finland in Tampere, there is a tradition that all the freshmen from Technical University are dipped to the rapids in the middle of the city.

People are having picnics, drinking and hopefully enjoying the beautiful weather :D If I could name any party from Poland that could be close to Vappu it is Juwenalia ;)

I already told you in the previous post what Finns are eating when it is Vappu but here are still a couple of more pictures to show how it is done!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/karviainen/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/simongotz/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/85910084@N02/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/decade_null/
Vappu

Can't wait for our own small Vappu party and the long weekend ahead! In Poland 3. of May is the day of Constitution so that it is a free day and as 2. of May is in the middle of two holidays it is free as well. There are so many concerts and festivals in Wroclaw wright now or during this long weekend that it is even hard to choose what to do :D This Wednesday we decided to go for Jazz nad Odra festival for a jam session, the festival is going on so maybe I will make another visit there ;) On Sunday there will be a Guinness record in the Rynek, task is to break the Guinness World Record in the number of people playing guitars together. I hope that the weather will be good for this small holiday! Have a great Vappu and weekend! :)
-Camilla
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Visiting Gdansk!

I spend the last weekend in Gdansk with my brother. It was great to see him in the middle of the semester and spend some time together. I have been in Gdansk also before so we didn't want to use our time for the "normal" sightseeing. Instead we went to see this beautiful garden as I was hoping we could see cherry blossom. Unfortunately there was not any, but it was still visible that the spring came to Gdansk before Finland.

Gdansk and Sopot are beautiful cities but it was also annoying. I heard way too much Finnish, Swedish, English... There was too many tourists. In Wroclaw I have used to hearing only Polish and sometimes some other languages but normally only Polish. Tourists don't annoy me in any other tourist destination, but for some reason I felt that they don't belong there (my beloved Poland!). It was weird walking in the streets and hearing so much Finnish, I can easily understand why there is so many Finns as the cheapest flight to Poland from Finland is to Gdansk. I could never live in Gdansk as I would get too annoyed.

I could recommend Gdansk for my readers from Finland, it is a beautiful city and cheap compared to Finland! Perfect for weekend trip, shopping and sightseeing!

Every time that I'm flying to Finland I fly from Gdansk. It is time taking as first I need to take the train to Gdansk (6-7 hours) and then fly. But in the end it is worth the trouble as it so much cheaper than any other connection. Thank you Wizzair!

I can not wait for summer and seeing my whole family again! :)

-Camilla

Spring is coming!

This week I finally feel that the spring is coming. Till now it felt more like a winter and just awful rain and wind. And now what I mean by winter is something completely else than winter in Finland. For most of the time it has been warmer than 0 degrees (not counting some nights or couple of days). I have been wearing my warmest winter coat for the whole time, even when it has been +7. Probably I lost the Finn inside of me and I get cold more easily :D It is true that I get cold easier but it could be also because of the fashion and fitting to the city view. When everybody else is wearing the warmest coat they own, I'm not even thinking about other options. It has been winter for me, even when the snow was really just wet slush. 
I missed real snow for some time but the best option would be no snow at all. I got used to having snow every year but now I feel that enough is enough. I don't miss it when I'm in Poland, for some reason I feel that it doesn't belong to Poland. Even when I know that couple of years ago all the winters were still full of snow. Maybe it is wrong to talk about the Poland as a whole cause now I mean Wroclaw. Wroclaw is the warmest city in Poland, but of course there is snow for example in the mountains. 
When I went to Finland for Christmas I was hoping there would be cold and snow but I don't miss it to be here. 2 weeks of "real" winter in one year is enough for me. Just waiting for the spring, wearing just light jacket, seeing more sun, flowers coming up and more people in the city. 

Last Wednesday was my spring day. Seeing flowers in the ground for the first time, these beautiful yellow crocuses in many parks felt amazing, spring is really here! I was meeting my friends and just enjoying coffee and our talks. Long walks in the city were nice as the sun was shining and it was even warm in the sun. Still I was most exited about ice cream in Polish lody naturalne (the queue was maybe for 20 mins, best ice cream in the city! During summer you could wait more than hour for this perfection). I haven't been there since the last summer and now finally the weather is so nice that I feel like eating ice cream :P Perfect start for the spring, next time I just need to remember to take my sunglasses! (all my days are not like this, Wednesday just happens to be free from the Uni :D)

-Camilla