Helsinki

School: TaiK

Map

Getting there

Plane

The city's airport is Helsinki-Vantaa. There are very few low-cost airlines who still serve the city, and those few are sometimes so expensive that it's often more affordable to fly with regular airlines (such as Finnair). They are:

From the airport, take the bus 615T, which takes you to the central station in about 35 minutes (it also stops at Sörnäinen and Hakaniemi). It costs €3.60 for normal people and €1.60 for students with a travel card. Alternatively, you can take the Finnair bus, which costs €5.20 for everyone.

Ryanair flies to Tampere (from London, Milan, Dublin, Frankfurt and Bremen), which is about 2:30 and €25 away from Helsinki by bus.

Boat

There are boats that take you to Stockholm or Tallin (Estonia):

Housing

The very un-Finnish housing service for students will not give you a decent flat. So don't count on them – unless you know someone who works for them or can pressure them to give you priority, or someone who is moving out and can leave the flat to you.

Transportation

Bureaucracy

There is an annoying procedure you need to go through when you move to Helsinki. You have to go through it not so much because it's compulsory, but because you need it to get the student discount on the transportation card. Note: if you are non-EU citizens, obtaining residence visa from your home country will make it much easier for you than the EU citizens!

  1. Registration (Bulevardi)
  2. Registration of residence (Malmi)
  3. Finnish social security number (Bulevardi)
  4. Student discount for travel (Central station)

Registration

First, you have to register for residence in Bulevardi. You need a passport and your 'permanent' address. Don't tell them you're staying for less than a year.

Registration of residence

Then you have to go to the Police station in Malmi (take the train). Reserve some time and €40 for this. You will get your receipt at home some weeks later.

Finnish social security number

Go back to Bulevardi to get your Finnish social security number.

Student discount for travel

Go to the HKL service point (underneath the Central Station) with your student card (or Tokyo receipt), your Finnish social security number, and your travel card. They will flag your travel card so that you'll get a 50% discount every time you recharge it.

Eating

Student cafeterias

Student cafeterias offer meals of questionable quality for the dirt-cheap student-discounted price of around €2.30. There are three of them in school (see the map):

  • Kipsari
  • Meccala, a.k.a. 5th floor
  • Katri Antell, a.k.a. May (enter from Iittala shopping area or through Designium)

There are other student cafeterias around the city, some of them reportedly of much better quality.

Restaurants

Sport centres

University of Helsinki has four sport centres throughout the city and TaiK students are welcome to use them. The fee costs 19€/month, 29€/3months, 45€/6month, and 68€ for a year. You can play squash, badminton, basketball, join yoga classes, or go to the gym in different campuses.

City guide

City centre

Arabia

Sörnainen

Hakaniemi/Kallio

Pasila

Tölöo

Itäkeskus

last updated 10 months ago # edit history

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