The first days of travel

1.4.2014 - how long had I waited for that day to come! Finally it was time for me to head off to a great adventure. On that Tuesday the plane took me from Helsinki to Zürich, from where I continued by train to a little town in Switzerland called Gunzwil. I stayed there a couple of days visiting a relative, enjoying the sunshine, mountains and animals - and trying to make some sense of the schweizerdeutsch the people around me were speaking. Luckily my relative spoke hochdeutsch with me and everybody also seemed to understand my German - after all my schwizerdütsch limited to a happy "Grüezi!"

An essential part of Swiss culture. This is right next to my relative's garden.

My journey to Freiburg continued on Thursday by bus. From Zürich to Freiburg only for 8 euros, not bad! And what's more, I also made friends on the way. A nice Ukrainian girl was looking for the same bus as me, and as we started chatting, we realized not only did we have the same major and dream job but also the same kind of sense of humour. So the 2-hour bus drive consisted of sharing study experiences,  talking about politics, travel experiences and dreams - all this in German of course! I'm so happy for such a good start linguistically, so far no English has been necessary.

At the bus station in Freiburg I had my Finnish friend Elina waiting for me, who kindly showed the way to my new home. And what a warm welcome did I have there! Only one of my three roommates (who are all Germans) was at home with his friend, but before I knew I was being offered a welcome schnapps and freshly cooked food. For some reason it didn't take me long to like these people. Only some hours later I found myself in a Freiburger club with Elina and her roommates. The club was in the 18th floor of a building so it had quite a nice view over the city.

My new roommate and his friend from Mainz made sure that I didn't get bored on Friday night either: a tour through some of the best/student-friendliest bars and restaurant was quite a nice way to spend my second night in Freiburg.

In addition to all that, during the first three days here, me and Elina have been jogging in the near surroundings, cooking together, trying to find a near-by flea market without success and just enjoying all the great things we have here.
This was a very shortened version of everything that has been going on, next time more pictures!