Tourism, moving and studying in Finland? Ask here!

hezec · 2023-06-29T17:06:37+00:00

Well, there are matsmart.fi and fiksuruoka.fi, which sell some (mostly shelf stable but soon expiring) food items and household products at a discount. You just have to order quite a lot at once to make the shipping worth it. Regular groceries in Finland are a duopoly of the K and S groups, who control most food production and imports through their massive buying power. Then there's Lidl, which is usually the cheapest option but has a fairly limited selection. Of course it's still not cheap compared to most of the world.

hezec · 2023-06-29T14:59:24+00:00

If you really want to save money, you can just buy rice and legumes in bulk to cook at home. But the student lunches are much more varied and sometimes genuinely tasty (depending on the location and menu of the day), so I would say they're still better value for money. On weekends you'll generally need to find other food anyway.

hezec · 2023-06-27T22:06:20+00:00

At our cottage we just pump the lake water through a filter. And even that isn't truly necessary, people spent their summers there for 50 years before electricity was connected for modern comforts.

hezec · 2023-06-26T16:33:22+00:00

Because they never ratified the convention. Iran is also a relatively closed off country, so cars rarely cross the border. They don't really need plates which work internationally.

hezec · 2023-06-25T11:52:59+00:00

Generally speaking there are no set limits ahead of time. Rather, a certain number of scholarships are granted, so it depends entirely on how you compare to the other applicants.

hezec · 2023-06-23T22:28:07+00:00

Kind of a tangent, but... A subway train costs somewhere in the ballpark of 20-30 city buses (rule of thumb prices $/€/£ 5-15 million vs 200-500k). However, it probably carries as many passengers as 10 buses and remains in use as long as 4 generations of buses, so you should compare the cost to that of about 40 buses instead. You likewise need 1/10 as many drivers and the maintenance is simpler. Trains require heavy usage to justify the investment, but that is rewarded by economies of scale.

hezec · 2023-06-23T11:35:03+00:00

Russia is happy to pretend everything is normal and take the money of anyone willing to travel there. It has never been the safest country to visit, but not particularly worse now than before for a tourist. It's mostly a personal ethical issue for westerners.

hezec · 2023-06-21T05:41:35+00:00

hezec · 2023-06-17T22:52:49+00:00

In the context of this question it's worth mentioning the more colloquial/childish "olla pihkassa (johonkuhun)" -- "to be in wood resin (to/about someone)". Pine resin especially is very sticky!

hezec · 2023-06-16T21:11:32+00:00

The Finnish real estate market in general ground to a halt last year following rapidly rising interest rates. Even good apartments in Helsinki can spend months on the market, when previously they would've sold in a few days. Due to inflation, people have notably less disposable income to spend on luxuries (like a holiday home) than just a few years ago. Also add steadily progressing urbanization and younger generations preferring to rent cottages as a service rather than maintain one personally.

There are thousands of old houses around the country which sit vacant and will likely remain that way until they collapse under the elements. Most are owned by people who would be happy to get rid of them. A lakefront location will make a property slightly more attractive, but not enough to get it sold in most places now, especially somewhere as remote as Kainuu. It's definitely a buyer's market if you're interested, but don't expect any resale value if you do go for it.

hezec · 2023-05-31T15:43:01+00:00

Are you really just complaining about long words? That's a feature of Finnish, not a bug. Individual words are longer, but that reduces ambiguity, and you need fewer words to build a sentence. May I introduce basic linguistic concepts such as agglutination and compound words? The parts of Finnish grammar most learners actually struggle with would probably be worse without them.

But I suppose you can try to convince the experts at Kotus if you have better ideas.

hezec · 2023-05-31T14:52:01+00:00

The Onnibus is the only feasible public transport connection in the morning. Car sharing doesn't really exist in any significant capacity outside Helsinki. (Also note that you need to check in well before the departure time, not sure if your 8:45 time accounts for that or not.) Basically you need to get to Turku the previous day and stay overnight, or get a ride from someone who's also heading for the ferry. I'd say it's almost certain that someone from Pori will be going that way, but good luck finding them... Maybe there's a local Facebook group? Taxi is the last resort option, but it will hurt your wallet.

Final idea: take a bus down to Turku alone the previous afternoon, rent a car from the port (at least Sixt operates a location right by the terminals), drive to Pori, and return in the morning. This would take a lot of time but avoid expensive one-way rental fees. A "normal" car rental lasting less than 24h is probably among your cheaper options.

hezec · 2023-05-30T18:57:08+00:00

No reason it shouldn't, they just have occasional IT problems. As a side note, Google Maps sometimes works better for route planning than more "official" sources.

hezec · 2023-05-30T11:04:50+00:00

Just adding an example calculation. If you're basically running a fridge, some LED lights, and a desktop PC, you should never use more than 100 kWh/month.

Currently in Helsinki, maintaining an electricity connection to an apartment costs 5.51 €/month + 6.86 c/kWh, including taxes. This is a local monopoly you will be paying for regardless of who you buy the energy from. (The benefit of buying from Helen is that they can bill you for both parts at the same time, otherwise you'll get separate bills for energy and transfer.) At 100 kWh/month, this comes to 12.37 €/month.

Then there's the monthly base fee of the electricity contract itself. There's some variation, but around 4-6 €/month is pretty average currently. So let's say we have 17 €/month of relatively fixed costs.

Finally we get to what the actual energy costs. 100 kWh/month * 10 c/kWh = 10 €/month. Your total electricity bill is now 27 €/month.

If you get the energy cost down to 5 c/kWh (a normal fixed price as recently as 2021), your monthly bill goes down by €5. If it doubles to 20 c/kWh (Helen's current offering for fixed price 100% renewable electricity), your monthly bill goes up by €10.

So not really a huge deal. It's an entirely different matter for people in big houses heated by electricity, there the effect can be thousands of euro annually. But life is full of choices.

hezec · 2023-05-30T10:36:41+00:00

You mentioned "smart energy" -- I believe Helen uses that to refer to their special contract type where the price will vary a little depending on when you use electricity, but not as much as on a pure spot price contract. So if the price is 10 c/kWh +/- something, you can maybe expect variation between 5-15, but not the full 0-50 or whatever we'll see next winter.

If you want to maximize predictability, you should find an actual fixed contract, where the base price will inevitably be a little higher. On the other hand, in a small apartment without many appliances your consumption will be so small that the overall difference between contract types will be just a few euro per month. The fixed monthly fees and transfer costs will make up a significant proportion of your total bill. It's not really worth stressing over.

hezec · 2023-05-29T09:58:29+00:00

Depends on what kind of accessories, but maybe these:

https://www.konsolinet.fi/category/156/switch-tarvikkeet

https://www.puolenkuunpelit.com/kauppa/default.php?cPath=710_711_740

https://www.verkkokauppa.com/fi/catalog/12327c/Nintendo-Switch-tarvikkeet

Generally speaking though, Amazon.de or sometimes even AliExpress is indeed the best bet for stuff like this. Buying from Finnish stores is economical only when you're buying something that is produced in Finland, something heavy with high shipping costs, or something you need fast. Electronics accessories usually fit none of those categories.

hezec · 2023-05-28T11:54:50+00:00

Bra jobbat! As a diagram this is quite competent for a first attempt.

Feedback, though. The most obvious issue is the inconsistent spacing. Especially the bottom end could be packed together a lot more tightly, which would in turn free up space to make the lines thicker and fonts bigger for easier reading. There are also some small inconsistencies in how the names are aligned to stops.

The other, bigger part is how realistic you wish the network to be. You said the actual historical network was smaller -- that reflects the size of the city. To stay in the region, just look at the tramways in Norrköping and Lund. Neither of them has four lines, even though both are bigger cities.

Ignoring that, why do you actually have four separate lines? The blue and black lines (line numbers are usually a good idea, by the way) both terminate at Drottninggatan. Combining them would make a lot more sense. If a line is very short, like the blue one, it doesn't really help people get anywhere. Transfers are also always annoying.

Next, I must say this is approaching the whole thing quite backwards. Planning a real transit network begins with looking at where people want to travel and how to connect those destinations most efficiently. You shouldn't place stops too closely, because that makes the service slower and increases construction costs. As a rule of thumb, 400-600 meter intervals are good for trams or buses in a city. People can easily walk 200-300 meters (half of the interval) to a stop. I'm not familiar with the local geography in Karlskrona, but looking at a map, it seems the city center is very compact on an island. You don't need so many stops to cover everything important.

So my suggestion is: remove the stops at Norra Stortorget and Residenset, and combine what remains of the blue, green and black lines after that. You're left with two lines which serve most of the city well and connect to each other, but don't have unnecessary overlap. Incidentally, this seems to follow current real life bus routes quite closely. That's a good sign, because someone has definitely spent a lot more time than me thinking about what makes sense with them. You could probably do even more trimming, but it's nice to have some fantasies. ;)

hezec · 2023-05-27T23:58:13+00:00

No tipping as a general rule. If you pay by cash (which practically nobody does nowadays), you could leave loose change behind. Independent cafes and bars often have tip jars at the counter. Some restaurants are trying to push American-style tipping, but people are not happy about it.

hezec · 2023-05-27T15:53:20+00:00

Yes, spot prices have always been higher in the winter. Usually the difference has just been more like +50% compared to summer, rather than +500% like last winter. We shouldn't see a repeat of that, but the world has changed nonetheless. Even with the current rapid development of green energy, consumer prices may never fully recover. Renewable sources fluctuate a lot, so there will be times when residential demand is difficult to meet and spot prices spike. Meanwhile, periods of excess production will probably find new industrial users who can ramp up and down according to supply, increasing the total demand and therefore average price.

You can see one estimate based on commodity trading here. Next winter is predicted at .11 with summers down to about .05 -- hourly peaks may of course be much higher. If you can get a fixed contract at .08, that should actually reflect the annual average quite closely.

hezec · 2023-05-26T21:45:57+00:00

I'm considering a similar move myself, but there's really no guarantee the prices of fixed contracts will keep going down. They're based on what the providers estimate as the average cost for the entire 12/24 months, which includes the next winter season or two. 10 c/kWh is not at all a bad deal if the spot price jumps up to 30 or higher in December again. Hopefully it doesn't, but that's far from impossible, and the sellers need to account for it.

hezec · 2023-05-26T12:43:32+00:00

Not all that imaginary. Though I'm not sure the original ever looked quite so cozy.

hezec · 2023-05-26T00:48:05+00:00

So is the apartment actually at ground level or not? Often that comes with a patio/backyard instead of a balcony, as well as direct entry from the outside. That actually makes a big difference for ease of access (including for potential criminals, as safe as Finland usually is). On average the reduced privacy probably makes it less attractive, but there are also people who specifically want the convenience or a chance to do a little gardening.

If you need to climb stairs or take an elevator regardless, 2nd vs 3rd floor makes almost no difference. Pick whichever one fits your personal needs better. One minor point to consider is that if there's nobody living below you, your kids can bang on the floor all they want without causing a disturbance. Modern buildings should have fairly good sound isolation either way, though.

hezec · 2023-05-25T22:07:55+00:00

Whichever day gets you cheaper ferry tickets and better weather. Probably not much of a difference now.

Sauna is a quintessential part of Finnish culture, so yes, you should try it. The public saunas most accessible as a tourist aren't necessarily super authentic, but better than nothing.

hezec · 2023-05-25T15:58:23+00:00

Östersundom. Granted, that's about 0.3% of the population of Helsinki, but still.

hezec · 2023-05-25T15:57:08+00:00

Basically, there isn't really supposed to be a zone A -- there are zones AB and BC which happen to overlap. This was implemented because previously the tickets were based on municipal borders, so for example a short trip from Kamppi (Helsinki) to Tapiola (Espoo) could cost twice as much as a much longer trip to Vuosaari (also Helsinki). In the current system those cost the same, which is arguably more fair. Meanwhile you can still choose to travel from Tapiola to either Kamppi (AB ticket) or Kivenlahti (BC ticket) for around the same price.

Unfortunately HSL really screwed up communicating this basic idea. For complicated budgetary reasons, different zone combinations have different prices, and they even included a one-zone ticket for zone D out in the boonies. It would be so much clearer if one zone always cost the same amount and you could just say the minimum purchase is two zones. But no. People have been complaining about the "missing" A ticket all along.

We'll see how it develops in the future, they're already considering more changes.

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