Jyväskylä

Can you say this name out loud?
My last city I will visit here in Finland before going back to Helsinki; Jyväskylä. I learned about this place when we went on the ESN trip to Norway back in September. As we drove by the city, I thought I would like to visit this place if possible, and I wrote down the name and here I am. I arrived in the evening on 6th of January and I was caught up in some kind of snowstorm it seemed. I knew the weather was bad, but not this bad. The first thing I thought about the place, was that it is a much bigger city than I imagined – it is very similar to Tampere (another Finnish city I visited in the beginning of December with 2 friends). Jyväskylä lays in Central Finland with approximately 143,000 inhabitants, it is the 7th biggest city of Finland. The city has been chartered in 1837. The period I stayed here, the weather was very unpredictable. When I arrived there was some kind of snowstorm, the next day was beautiful, sunny weather, and on the last day there was no wind but a lot of snow. The temperature differed between -11 and -20.

Nero stairs
A touristic part of Jyväskylä is the Nero stairs. After walking up the stairs, you have a beautiful view on the city and the lake. On top of the hill there is an observation tower. Unfortunately it is closed the month of January but the area consisted of a nice park where I took a walk instead. In the beam of the sun I could see the snow falling, really magical! I could see all of Jyväskylä's nature. The entire Jyväskylä area is really big and magnificant. The stairs are built in 1925 by engineer Oskar Nero and is locally known as the stairs of knowledge.

Museum of Central Finland
The Museum of Central Finland was quite interesting. It was about the history of the province Central Finland, including the city Jyväskylä. Same as the museum in Pori, it showed the development of Central Finland and Jyväskylä through its history. I could also read about the war (Great Wrath) that took place between Sweden and Russia in the 18th century and after that, and I read more about Finnish traditions and believes like the sauna.

Kirkkopuisto Church
On the edge of the center, there is a little park with the Kirkkopuisto Church. A nice little church and nicely furnished. The park served as the marketplace back in 1830s until 1930s, and later in 1880 the Church was built in the middle of the park. It was the first stone church in Central Finland.

Nature
Jyväskylä is one of the places with a lot of nature. I could choose to do basically every Finnish winter activity over there. Outside of the city there are a lot of lakes which are totally frozen in Winter. On those lakes people can go ice fishing, walking, sledging, ice skating, or on snowmobile. I signed up to go paragliding over the city and its nature - how incredible! Unfortunately, we couldn't get into the air after having tried 3 times. There was no wind and too much snow. I decided to definitely go back and do this another time because it is an unforgetable experience. At least I got to see how people spend their weekend in Jyväskylä in Winter times - it looked very peaceful.

Well, my Finland travels are finally come to an end. I'm back in Helsinki again for a few days and will leave soon to the final destinations of my solo travel. My adventure in Finland has almost ended. I have seen a lot of the country (no less than 14 cities), learned a lot about its history, culture, and met a lot of great people. I am happy I went on exchange to this beautiful and peaceful country, and I am proud of myself for travelling on my own to explore and discover more about what the country has to offer. I have learned a lot, I will always cherish it with me, and I will never forget this wonderful experience! Finland, until we meet again!

On the next page, a map of the route and places I have been to during my 1 week of solo travel through Finland.