Quote: (07-31-2012 11:03 AM)Aer Wrote:
Any knowledge of the country outside of Helsinki? This may be a far flung place, but I know some of you guys have been to all corners of the world.
I have been visiting the city annually for decades so I might be able to help you with this one. Oulu is the sixth largest city in Finland with some 150,000 persons living there. You might want to check tips for similar size cities from this forum.
There's not really anything special about the city, it is just one of those university cities with relative long distances to anything interesting or to other cities. Foreign tourists are very rare game in Oulu so you are stuck with Finns and locals.
Oulu has a reputation of being the center of technology in Finland so many of the students there are having their masters in the field of.... technology. Hopefully you already know this means mostly male students. The city is near the edge of the reindeer country and the University of Oulu arranges Sámi classes so you might be seeing some of them during your time.
I cannot really say anything special about the bars and clubs there since I only use the city as a passage point towards the Wilderness, i.e. Rovaniemi. Better to ask about them from the locals and the student organization when you arrive there.
I do not know what kind of climate you are accustomed to but what I wrote about the weather in my Helsinki datasheet applies to Oulu as well; prepare or perish. The favourite pastime during the winter is skiing so learning some skills would be nice for your future.
Questions?