We were among those lucky people who could spend a whole week with our distant relatives in Finland. On the 7th of September a Finnair plane took off with nine students and two teachers from the Baktay Ervin Grammar School. We would like to thank our school and the two teachers, Mariann Bucskó and István Kovács for this fantastic possibility again.

On our arrival our Finnish friends were waiting for us at the Oulu Airport and after that everyone was taken home to his/her host family where he/she spent the following week. The next day we visited our twin school in Ii where we could obtain an insight into the life of the Finnish grammar school students. On Wednesday morning our bus left for Helsinki and on the way we could admire one of the Finnish World Heritage sites, the magnificent two hundred-year-old wooden church in Petäjävesi. We spent the afternoon sightseeing in the wonderfully clean Finnish capital. On Thursday morning we visited the vast fortress system of Suomenlinna and in the afternoon we walked around the ravishing streets of Old Rauma. These sights belong to Finnish World Heritage, too. We got back to Ii on Friday in the small hours. In the afternoon we went to a neighbouring archaeological site where we even bumped into Stone Age inhabitants.

We spent the weekend mostly in the circle of our host families who dreamed up several programmes to entertain us for instance sightseeing in Oulu, shopping, horse riding, visiting the Oulu horse race or the seaside, etc. The farewell party was held in a hunting lodge on Sunday afternoon. We were dancing and playing parlour games. At home our hosts were waiting for us with a delicious farewell dinner made of reindeer.

Next morning our hearts were full of sadness when we had to say goodbye and leave that marvellous country. The Finnish hospitality, kindness and devotion touched us, so all of us came home with a lot of unforgettable interesting personal experience and friendship from that beautiful distant country. It was worth going there.