Our friendship school project with the Hungarian school Baktáy Ervin Gimnázium has been going on this autumn, too. From September 7th to 14th we had guests from our partner school in Dunaharaszti. Two teachers and nine students came to visit us. In preparation for the visit, we had acquainted ourselves in advance with UNESCO's Finnish World Heritage Sites. We had also collected money in order to be able to present them to our visitors.
In September we then travelled across Finland from Ii to Helsinki and back by bus. The trip was mostly just sitting on the bus, but everything went well with good company and humour, and we got nice memories from the trip.
We, in our turn, will be going to Hungary as their guests in September
1999 and we will continue with the theme of World Heritage. At the same time,
however, we will be looking for ways of expanding our co-operation to other
subject matters as well as achieving co-operation between different subjects in
our schools. Here is a short account of our trip.
On Wednesday morning October 9th at 6.45 all the travellers gathered together in the school yard where the bus was already waiting for us. We packed our lunch boxes and luggage in the bus and headed south. Our driver told us pretty soon that our schedule was too tight. We wouldn't get to Petäjävesi before the afternoon although we had said we would be there as early as 11 o'clock. All the guests and hosts were very tired. It might be that we had stayed up too late on the two previous nights.
We called Petäjävesi and made sure that the people there would come to meet us and guide us despite our being late. In the first part of the trip our guests wondered where the famous tens of thousands of Finnish lakes were. Well, finally we saw some of them and the scenery before we arrived at the church in Petäjävesi was truly magnificent.
We arrived in Petäjävesi at noon. We already knew something about
our destination because our group had presented the destination in many
languages (German, English, Finnish) to our guests. Our bus stopped near a
bridge. The weather was excellent, birds were singing and the sun was shining
(which was rare this summer). As we stepped out of the bus we were met with a
heavenly beautiful sight: a flowing stream with an old wooden church standing by
it made us all interested. Everybody took photos of that wonderful view.
We stretched our limbs and went to the church yard. On the river bank
there was a church boat built in the traditional way. In the old days large
groups of people, even the whole village, would arrive at the church in these.
On the right side of the church there was an old graveyard. The oldest tomb
stones were from the early 19th century. After admiring the peaceful atmosphere
and view of the graveyard, we met our friendly guide. When she had shown us
around, she gave us some information but we already knew it because we had
already found out about World Heritage Sites in Finland.
Then we went inside the church. The guide asked us to sit on the narrow wooden benches. She gave us a comprehensive and interesting account of the church's past and we understood everything even though the guide spoke English for our visitors' sake. After the "lecture" we were allowed to walk inside the church freely, and that was interesting. We remember the visit to the secret corridor located between the inner and outer walls. However, only the bravest of us ventured into that corridor. The most interested of us got a unique chance to visit the belfry and the old cellar. From the belfry we saw unforgettable country scenery.
We asked our guide and a representative of the municipality of Petäjävesi
(he was friendly enough to turn up there for us) about the history and future of
the church and bought some souvenirs, e.g. bells made of the old shingle roof of
the church. Then we headed for Helsinki and Suomenlinna.
After leaving Petäjävesi we stopped to have lunch prepared by our skilful school cooks. The picnic on the grass of the resting place was a very pleasant experience, too.
In the evening we took rooms at a hotel in Helsinki and went out on the town for a while to look at the wonders of Helsinki. We had already seen the most important sights through the bus windows, when we showed the city to our quests with the help of our skilful driver.
The morning broke windy and grey. After breakfast (which some of missed because they had thought they would be awakened in the morning) we rushed on our way. Our teachers had misinterpreted the Suomenlinna ferry schedule and so we had time to take a marketplace tour of Kauppatori. In fact, they had not told us at the guide centre of Suomenlinna that the ferries leave from two different places. Well, The attendant on the ferry was handsome, which pleased the female members of our group.
In Suomenlinna the guide was waiting for us. She showed us the sights in pouring rain and wind. Among other things, we saw a dry dock and heard storied many interesting stories of the past. For instance, we found out why Finnish men should be more polite and let the women go first. We hadn't prepared for rain and we envied the guide's umbrella.
The guide and a part of the group escaped the rain in the museum and the others persisted and kept on touring the sights outside. Our guests got a good look at Finnish "summer". In the museum we saw, among other things, a 200-year-old tent bed, which had belonged to an ancient soldier. We also acquainted ourselves with guns from the time of the Finnish War. The rest of the time we spent drying up and sitting at a café. Augustin Ehrensvärd's accomplishment made a beautiful impression and many questions on our minds. How, for example, did they manage to get the French to pay for the whole thing?
Late again, we set off towards Rauma. We came to Old Rauma an hour too late, so first went to have lunch in Vanha Kellari and this meant we missed a few museums - what a pity!
After a delicious Finnish meal our guide took us to see the beautiful Pyhä
Risti church. In the church yard he told us about the history of Old Rauma and
the church. Once again, we noticed that we could follow "guide English"
quite well.
Old Rauma is the most representative, harmonious, life-like and also
the largest town area from the middle ages in the Nordic countries. People still
live, work, play and do business there. The population is about 600. The oldest
houses in the almost 30-hectare wood town area from the early 18th century. The
narrow and winding streets still remind us of the middle ages. The church in the
Franciscan monastery was built in the name of the Holy Cross in the late 15th
century. The church was beautiful and reminded us of a medieval stone church.
The inner walls of the church were lined with paintings from the 16th century.
When we were going to acquaint ourselves with the wood town area, we crossed the Rauma "river" flowing by the church. our guide told us that the river is important to the people of Rauma despite the fact that it is small. As we were from the Ii river and our guests from the Danube, we had trouble regarding the stream as a river. Next we were led to see the sailors' house, Kirsti. Unfortunately, we couldn't get in because were late in our schedule. The boys got so frustrated that they even went stealing apples.
Our journey continues along Kituränni, the narrowest street
in Finland. We were thinking that there were narrow streets in Ii Hamina, too,
but then again, it's not really a town. We ended up in the fish market where no
fish was ever sold, we heard. Wonder how it got its name? Marl, a magnificent
museum showing what the home of a shipping family from the turn of the century
looked like, was located beside the fish market. Unfortunately, it was closed.
The last thing they showed us was the UNESCO World Heritage stone plate. At this stage, however, the girls paid more attention to whistling local boys. After the down pour at Suomenlinna the weather was kind to us in Rauma and our guests and we got nice memories of Rauma.
The drive home from Rauma was exhausting. Our brave driver brought us home through the rain and snow. We were already in the school yard before morning and the next school day with its joys was waiting for the keen students.
Translated by Mervi Kesti (9e), Johanna Alaraasakka (9c), Jussi Kaisto
(9d), Petja Siltaoja (9d), Tiina Järvenpää (9d) and Tanja Piri
(9e)