Bundesgymnasium Rein

Finland-Austria Hiking Project

It's been a few months, but we finally got the material from Helsinki and would like to present our hiking project with students from 6a and 5a as well as twenty Finnish students to you all:) The exchange took place in September this year. Here are several diary entries about the project week:

15.9. The Austrian students arrived at Helsinki-Vantaa airport. Most if not all the Finnish students were there to greet the Austrians. Everyone immediately departed for home, many of us going by train at the same time. We had the rest of the day some time off.

16.9. We started the day by going to the school, dividing into groups, starting the work on the social media videos and getting informed about the hiking trip. We also ordered pizza for everyone. After lunch we went to the Helsinki city center where we divided into groups in which we toured the sights of Helsinki. After that we met up at Oodi and hung out there. Afterwards we had free time. 

Beautiful Helsinki                                   Lunchtime!                                         Ready for the Hike

17.9. Family day. We had the whole day off. Everyone did something different, but most people met up in the evening to play football and basketball.

18.9. We met early in the morning at Oulunkylä train station, from there we took a coach to Repovesi National Park. The bus journey lasted 2.5 hours and the bus was filled with excitement and music. After arriving we were divided into groups which took two different routes to the camp. One group took the route where they had to pull themselves over the lake on a ferry while the other group took a route involving a bridge and many stairs. After some breaks and a long trip that was 10km we finally arrived at the camp. We immediately had to put up our tents, which went well. We got tortillas for dinner, then some of us went for a little extra hiking trip to one of Finland’s best climbing cliffs, Olhavavuori. We got to look at the very beautiful sunset from the top of the cliff. We even had a moment of silence for the scenery. While many people came to the extra hiking trip, some people stayed at the camp, where we had a tent sauna and a lake with a bridge. The most amazing moment was when we saw the northern lights, even though most of us didn’t know we would see them. One of the last things we did before we went to sleep was that we grilled sausages.

19.8. We all woke up at different times, some having slept better than others. We had porridge for breakfast. At some point we had to pull down the tents and pack our things, because we had to make the bus in time. This day’s hike was much shorter, with optional routes for those who wanted to see more of Repovesi. At the parking lot we played group games and ate food from the nearby kiosk. We had gotten to the parking lot very early to make sure we could make the bus, but the bus was delayed. Thankfully we could play kirkonrotta and eat more at the kiosk, while we were waiting for the bus to arrive. After a bus journey filled with exhaustion and music, we came back to a very rainy Oulunkylä railway station. Then we went home. 

Icy Lakes and Finnish Sauna                               Repovesi National Park                              Northern Lights     

20.9. Some of us met at school at 8:15 o’clock because some of the hosts had to study for upcoming tests. At 9:30 the rest of the students showed up. We made a short tour of the school. After that we had to do some work for the presentations and then we put up the tents to dry. After school we had a lot of free time.

21.9. We came and went to another typical lesson, but after that we packed up the dried tents. Then we got to work finishing the projects. 

© Austrian and Finnish students who participated in the project

If you'd like to watch the "making of" video, here's the link to it.