Turku Warnings Or Dangers

If you visit island called Houtskär and want to go local pub, you should be careful. There is crazy local guy called Anders. He tried to smash my and my friends head with piece of wood. He don't like foreigners! Maybe he is retarded or something.. ;)

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If you are in danger on islands, or elsewhere far from the city, you may call the Resque helicopter to take you to safe by calliin to nro 112. The call does not cost anything to you. But if you are not in real danger, that fact could be very expensive to you.

The frontier guard has a Puma helicopter and an airoplane.

As we strolled through the little stalls of the market along the river Aura, we stopped from time to time to try the different bits of food offered at some places. Our friend Bridget looked at some plate containing what she thought to be flaked almonds...and ate a mouthful of it... Once swallowed, she realized it was actually garlic... But too late ;-) We tried everything possible to hide the smell, but nothing helped :-)

Don't try to drive by an old car, because then policeman stops you soon and asks papers. If you are from far, it takes long time for these policemen to make desicion, if your country belongs to the Geneve agreement countries, and your car driving license is valid.

Vappu/Vappen (31st of April/1st of May) is the official student celebration day all over the country and the best way to experience it is to get together with the Finnish students. You can’t ignore this ultimate drinking feast even if you wanted to. The whole country goes crazy!!

Practically everybody is out wearing overalls and traditional, white student caps. The action kicks off on the 30th of April (a couple of days earlier for some :->) with a traditional rowing competition on the River Aura

At 18.00 it is time to move on to the Art Museum Hill (Finnish-speaking students) and Vårdberget (Swedish-speaking students) where the spring is welcomed with official speeches and the white student caps are put on.

At 19.00 all students gather down by the River Aura to crown the statue of Lilja with a student cap...and everyone open their champagne bottles!
After Lilja Vappu/Vappen continues in less official forms all around the town.

The next morning IF your body still can take it (LOL) all the students head towards Vartiovuori/Vårberget in order to take part in the traditional picnic.

All my best VAPPU were in Turku during my student years. Wild, wild parties...on the picture me and my best friend Kati!

The doormen don't often ask for I.D but have a nasty habit of smelling breath and then knocking you back ,so bring some chewing gum. They also don't like people running down the road or giving each other piggy backs which cost us entrance to at least 2 bars.

In the center on the town ripple from Naantali to Kaarina (St. Karin) is a beautiful area just on the seaside. There is a sea gulf in natural state, only a sauna building stays there. Unfortunately this area belongs to Naval Basis of Turku, and everybody without a special license is very soon thrown away from there by military police with dogs. You may be put to a police jail, if you cannot tell who you are. If you are a foreigner, situation will be worser. But here you'll get easily some extreme experience. Enjoy the nature!

Take care of petards when you are at Aura river at the moment of New year meeting because many people are launch petards and not always safety control is assured.