Gymnaestrada camp Day 9 - Going on an adventure or two

As it turned out, the permission to wake up and go to work an hour later than before was permanent, so we had to be out in time for the 9:40 ferry again. Our hostel was near the harbour and the walk wasn't long, however during our stay they seemed to be in the middle of some works with most likely rain water gutters, so there was something resembling a small moat surrounding the building. So on day 9, just about time, I tripped into it as we were on our way out, hit my right knee and got a lovely bruise to add to the carpet burn from the gymnastics day I already had on the same foot. Nevertheless, it didn't bother me much and we carried on to the boat and our workplaces.

Silja Symphony with a nicely-shaped cloud behind her funnel making her look bad. 

Corinthian

As a result of the switches I was put to Get Together Area this time. Before I could start work I had to go to the first aid point to have some cold spray put on my knee, which was still aching. The relatively small working area included several recycling stations, a stage and spectator's area, a bunch of porta-potties and temporary stalls and tents selling food and merchandise. Unlike in Töölö, there was a lot of people walking at all times, however there was also a lot of volunteers and the workload was very low. Get Together Area was where Sonja and Oskar had been working the whole time, therefore I didn't really get bored either. Most of the time was spent patrolling with Oskar, and at one point, seeing the nonexistent workload, we chose to go and visit the Olympic tower.

The show at Get Together Area during our lunch was great once again; however the first reason why I grabbed a camera was the music, once again Nightwish!

Southeast

West

Get Together Area

Töölö working area (plus two fields out of picture in lower left corner)

Got an unintended sneak peek of the closing ceremony

My favourite part of the whole city!

I have walked those areas so many times without ever even seeing a hint of swimming pools nearby. Guess I'll have to come back!

 After work we came to Suomenlinna where we gathered to hear the rules of an upcoming Suomenlinna orienteering game. We had to make pairs with people we had not really talked to that much during the camp. I was just about to start wondering who to pair with but before I got anywhere, Oskar had already signed us up as a pair, disregarding the rule. At first we were all given a certain amount of game money and then, during a set amount of time we had to run through different check points all over Suomenlinna where we either got some more money or had to pay. In some points there was also a voluntary extra task, which was taking a selfie with caps, glasses, beards or other similar objects found at the checkpoint. Briefly, it was all about luck, honesty and speed. My pleas for cold cream for my knee had to go unmet until after the game, which means that I was limping and dragging like an anchor most of the time, sometimes I had to lean, but I did try to run as much as I could and we made it to the finish point just in time.

At first, we got rich, filthy rich. And then, in the next checkpoint after the one where we took this picture, we were robbed of all our money. And then in the one after that we had to pay our rent with money we didn't have. We returned on time, but completely broke. 

After the orienteering we had our usual dinner and some time later an evening meeting where we were told about the schedules of the last two days. Oskar and I were quite impatient about the end of the planned day, because we had been plotting the whole day, and after the meetings were over we ran to the 9 o'clock ferry to get back to Helsinki. I can't remember anyone ever saying we weren't allowed to go to Helsinki at night, however it was definitely not encouraged, especially now that our hostel door had randomly stopped accepting the door code. We spent several long hours in Helsinki walking, looking around and chatting, ending up in many places we had never been to before. 

After arriving at Kauppatori, we headed straight to the south following the coast, which offered some lovely views

After a while we sat down, and just then Viking XPRS departed for Tallinn for the night

Viking XPRS and the Suomenlinna ferry

Some smaller boats passed by every now and then

I really wouldn't mind living here at all

Russian icebreaker Murmansk under construction

The cranes near the Hietalahti shipyard reminded me of Turku, my soon to be hometown.

When we finally returned to Suomenlinna with the 00:20 ferry and were about to disembark, we suddenly bumped into our French group, who had, as we found out, gone to Helsinki a few ferries after us. It was possibly the biggest laugh we had during the whole camp - walking back to the hostel in a large group, laughing really hard and trying to shush each other to be quiet. Since the front door was locked and still didn't respond to the code, we all climbed in through the window of the boys' room, because they always kept one open. It was dark and flashlights were used, which made me feel quite a lot like a burglar. Then me and the other girls just casually walked out of the guys' room as if nothing had happened and went to sleep.