Planning your arrival in Finland !!

At this moment, you should be planning for your travel to Finland. So, it is the time to know some of the important practical stuffs for your arrival.

1. What to bring and what not?

You can bring any non-prohibited stuffs. If you are bringing, hair gel, bath gel, hair oil or similar stuffs; keep it in Luggage; not in the hand carry. If you are carrying hard-disk or magnetic data devices; keep it in hand carry, not in the luggage. If you are bringing homemade food stuffs; seal pack them well. Foods, not packed properly can be confiscated in the Airport. Umbrella is allowed, on luggage only. Sealed packed Shaving Blade on luggage is allowed. You can visit the website of the concern airline to confirm what are allowed in hand luggage and what not. For example, if you are traveling with Finn Air, you can browse through http://www.finnair.com.
Check your items twice to include all of the mentioned stuffs from following check list:

• Passport
• Plane Ticket
• Travel Cheque (Recommended) or Bank Draft of 6000 Euro
• Cash 500 Euro maximum
  
• Your Documents including, Acceptance letter from University, previous academic degree certificates
• Your Luggage and Hand Carry

2. How much cash should I carry?

If you are traveling with Travel Cheque, maximum of 500 cash is more than enough since you can exchange the travel cheque anytime whereever and whenever required. But if you are traveling with Bank Draft, It will take minimum two weeks for Draft to be changed into cash. Once you arrive here there are so much things in which you need to spend immediately and by that time, your draft amount won't be ready. So, you should have minimum 700-1000 Euro in Cash or Travel Cheque. Your initial expenses includes following titles:

• Cost in Helsinki Airport for calling back to Nepal after immediately reaching in Finland; about 6-10 Euro
• Train or Bus ticket to your city if you are coming to other cities than Helsinki; the rate ranges from 30-100 Euro depending upon the distance. Please see http://www.vr.fi/eng/aikataulut/index.shtml to find out the rate of train ticket to your city. Bus fare is also on similar range.
• Deposit for Apartment, ranges from 60 to 250 Euro depending upon the city; if you have not paid earlier before coming to Finland.
• Rent of first month for the apartment, ranges from 180 to 300 Euro.
• Student Membership, Identity Card and Union charge: total 140 Euro; if you are coming to Master's Degree.
• Buying primary settlement stuffs like kitchenware, utensils, bedsheets; New are really expensive; you can buy them on Second hand stores: if you buy second hand stuffs you can buy all by maximum 20-40 euro.

3. How should I travel to my city?

Once you landed on the Helsinki, you need to go through the process of Immigration. Depending upon how much rush is there, it will take 1 to 3 hours in Immigration. Then, once you come out of Immigration; there is a information desk inside the airport. They speak very good English. You can ask them how to get to your city, train schedule, bus schedule and all of your travel queries. I recommend everyone to travel by train, it is faster, comfortable and much reliable.

There is local bus station just in front of the airport. You need to carry Route Number 615 from Airport to go to Train Station in Helsinki. The bus fare is little less than 5 Euro. This local bus will leave you just behind the train station. Once you come out of the bus, you can ask anyone there about train station, it is just in front of Bus Station.

If you arrive very late in Helsinki, you might not find train or bus to your city from Helsinki; in this case; you don't have any other alternative either to go to some hotel or lodging houses; but they are very expensive here. OR, if you have any known friend in Helsinki, you can ask him in advance for spending a night in his room.

There are shops or R-kioski in the Airport and Train Station; so you can buy some food stuffs and even SIM cards so that you can use your own mobile to call back to Nepal and give your mobile number to your family. If you have phone along with you, you can immediately buy prepaid SIM cards on those shops and make calls to your family in Nepal. I prefer Saunalathi SIMs for prepaid. But there are other alternatives as well like from ärrä could be another good alternative to call your family using your own phone. It will also help you to manage accommodation in Helsinki by calling your friends with your own phone.

The train ticket looks as below. Unfortunately, its only in Finnish.


Let's learn how to read this ticket since it is very important. The top line shows the traveling source city to Destination city; in this case, it is Kuopio-Lappeenranta. Then, on the body part, it is divided into two sections; Kuopio-Kouvola and Kouvola- Lappeenranta. It means, I need to change my train to reach destination to Lappeenranta. If you need not to change anywhere or your train goes direct to your city, there will not be such two sections. Then, let's explore the train details; first part contains the date of departure, in this case it states 'Pe 16.05.2008'; Pe is the Finnish shortcut for day of the week (If you want to know the Finnish notation of the weekdays, visit this link:http://finnishlanguage.blogspot.com/2008/08/days-and-month-in-finnish.html). Below the date of the travel; there is time, in this case it states 17.20-20.11. It means, the train leaves Kuopio (source city) at 17.20 and reaches Kouvola (intermediate destination) at 20.11. Then, it states 'Intercity', it is the type of the train and nothing to do special with us. Then, another section mentions '2 nro'; it means, your seat is allocated in second carriage of the train. Then it have mentioned 78 as the train number. And, finally, 33 is my seat number for Kuopio to Kouvola travel and 19 is my seat number for Kouvola to Lappeenranta travel.

Remember; Finnish trains are so punctual on timing. They leave and reach at the exact timing as mentioned on the ticket.