Oulu

So, my solo travel finally begins. First stop, Oulu, the biggest city in Northern (Ostrobothnia) Finland. After having travelled 6 hours with the long distance VR train, I arrived in the 5th biggest city of Finland. The surroundings during the train journey were beautiful. It looked like I was in Lapland again with the beautiful snowy trees. I arrived at 14:30pm and it was already dark! The sun rises at about 10:30 and sets between 14:00 and 14:30. I went straight to my Airbnb apartment - which was very nice! I got settled, changed, and left the building to explore the centre and eat dinner. It was about -10 but because of the wind it felt like -20!! Oulu has approximately 200,000 inhabitants which is about 3 times smaller than Helsinki. It surprised me that Oulu looks very different than Helsinki. It has a different architectural style, it mainly has these massive blocks. But if you look good, you can see some unique buildings and the majority of nature it offers. Another thing that surprised me was the small centre Oulu has but quite a lot of people and traffic. I saw the whole centre basically in 1 hour. On the next page you can see some pictures of Oulu.

Oulu facts
Oulu was a trading place and lays at the River Oulujoki which flows into the Gulf of Bothnia. In Oulu people cycle through each type of weather, so also snow, and they have the best innovation: bicycle pomps throughout the city (image in the middle). It has a huge focus on science and technology, and there are many festivals held, including the world championship of playing air guitar.

Oulu Castle
Oulu Castle, or Uleåborg in Swedish (image 1 in the second row), was built in 1590 for the Swedish soldiers. In 1715, during the Great Northern War, wooden parts of the wooden castle were burned down. The castle was destructed as a whole in 1793 during a thunderstorm. The remaining is still visible and has a cafeteria since 1912 with a small historical exhibition. I think it looks very aesthetic, one of the few unique and Swedish designed buildings.

Nallikari beach and lighthouse
Nallikari beach is a 1 kilometer long beach just outside of Oulu. It was just a 15 minute drive outside of Oulu centre by bus. The whole beach was covered in snow and I couldn't even see the difference between beach, sea, and air! See image 1 below for the view I had. The lighthouse, image 3 in row 2, is a very touristic attraction. When I visited, I had a beautiful view on the sunrise, it looked very very beautiful (image 1 on next page). I even saw 2 people walking on the ice of the sea, imagine!

Toripolliisi and Kauppahalli
Also known as The Bobby Statue (image 2 in the first row) and the market hall (image 2 and 3 previous page). Inside the market hall, you can buy souvenirs, Finnish food, and eat at a cafe. It is very similar to the market hall in Helsinki. The Bobby Statue is designed in 1987 by Kaarlo Mikkonen, to honour the 'bobbies', aka the police, that patrolled the market place in the past and it has very big measures: 220x150x112cm.

Cathedral
Oulu's cathedral, in image 2 row 3, is an Evangelical Lutheran church. Unfortunately I couldn't go inside but if I look at images of the inside of the church, it looks very different from churches we are used to in the Netherlands. Seeing the outside was already very beautiful for me. Historically, the church was built in 1777 as a tribute to the king of

Sweden. Unfortunately it was burned down in the large fire of the city of Oulu in 1822; however, the church was restorated which was completed in 1832.

City hall
Regardless of the constructions going on at the city hall, I saw how the building architecturally was designed. I only saw it during the evening hours but that was still beautiful. And the Christmas tree was still up, see image 3 row 3. The building was designed as a restaurant and hotel by Swedish architect Johan Stenberg in 1885. The style is called neo-renaissance which was a common used Swedish style in the 19th century. The city has been located in this building since December 1920 and the municipal government since January 1931. Again, I wasn't able to go inside but pictures of the place indicate I should next time I would visit.

Lessons learned
The time flew by, I am sitting in the train to my next destination while I'm writing this and it feels like I arrived this morning in Oulu. Looking back, I was more comfortable traveling alone, also when eating at a restaurant. I see a lot of people looking at me when I walk with my heavy backpacks or when I sit alone somewhere but I can more easily ignore it. Sometimes it is annoying but to them it looks weird that a young girl travels or eats alone. I try ignoring it and focusing on other things, like enjoying the environment I'm in in that moment. I can just do what I want whenever I want which is just freedom and I love it!