The departure time from Vaala was not very convenient this time. We had to leave school at 3:00 to be on time at the airport.

We decided to stay together at school for the last few hours and went there after the pizza party earlier Friday evening. Some used the time to play billiards or ping pong, others played chess, and then there were some who decided to use the instruments that were there and create a band. Everyone had a good time. 

The bus arrived at 2:40 and it was time to say goodbye to the Finnish students. The Icelandic and Norwegian groups went to the airport. The first flight for the Norwegian group was at 6:00 but they had to take four flights to get home to Brønnøysund. Everything went well and they came home in the afternoon.

The trip to Iceland was a bit longer. First they needed to wait at the airport in Oulu until 9:00. They landed in Helsinki around 10, where they waited for their next flight to Iceland at 15:05.  The flight landed around 15:45 Icelandic time (there are three hours time difference) and then all headed straight to the bus. The bus stopped at KFC in Selfoss where they ate. The last stop was for a few minutes at Kirkjubæjarklaustur. They Icelandich group turned up at home a little after midnight.

We are all very happy with the trip to Finland and how everything went well. And we all have good memories from the trips this school year.

We are all very happy with the trip to Finland and how everything went well. And we all have good memories from the trips this school year.

Today was the last day in Vaala. We met at school at 08:45 and went by bus to the Metsälamminkangas Wind Power Plant and got to know how it is working.

After the visit to the power plant, we went back to school and we finished our eco villages. Each group made one Power Point slide with the most important information about their villages and the groups presented them to the other students. After each presentation other groups applauded and Mikko used decibel meter to measure which group got the highest score. Group 1 got the biggest applause and had headwrap from Rokua Geopark.

After the presentations we had some free time but before dinner all of the students met at school, and we walked together to Finlandiano Pizzeria and had our farewell dinner there.

Now we are all at school waiting for the bus to Oulu. The bus is supposed to leave at 3 am. Ahead is a very long travel day.

We woke up after a good night’s rest at Nallikari, we got breakfast from the bistro in Nallikari then we gathered our things for departure and got into the bus to head over to the presentation on how the hydro powerplants deal with having to release fishes into the rivers.

After the lovely presentation on breeding and relishing fishes we got back into the bus to head over to the hydro powerplant Pyhäkoski. We split into two groups and got a little behind the scenes on how hydro powerplants work in general, while the other group took a short walk around a “village”. After about 30 minutes the groups switched.

The next stop was Halpa-Halli to get some lunch to fuel up for a presentation at the school Utajärvi on industrial areas and energy supply systems.

After our program for the day was done we had to drive back to Vaala which we did and on the bus we sat in our groups and began discussing ideas and thought about Eco-villages.

Written by Almar, Aron and Sævar

The bus headed for Oulo 08:52 with everybody onboard. The weather was sunny, but a little bit windy. We arrived at Oulu after one and a half hour with bus.

Mikko was in charge of the guiding this day. The first thing we did was visiting Pohjois-Pohjanmaan Museo, there two guides informed us about the cultural history of Oulu from the stone age until modern times. In the end we were offered a candy made with tar. The taste was very special.

After visiting the museum, we went for a lunch buffet in restaurant Hilikku.

From the restaurant we took the bus for a visit in Merikoski, where Mikko and another guide from Oulun Energy showed us and told us about the fish way in Oulo river, alongside the hydro power dam.

Then we took the bus again to visit the Rusko recycle centre. Two workers came in the bus and informed us about their method with recycling and how they were able to produce biogas from organic waste. Before we left, we had the opportunity to walk outside and smell the interesting odor and have a look at a car with a modified engine so that the car could use biogas instead of gasoline.

Finally, we had same time to look around the city center on our own, before we all went for some bowling before bedtime.

Today we met at school at 9 o’clock. The headmaster welcomed the guests, and we got some presentations about renewable energy. We also saw some videos from the trip to Brønnøysund last fall.

The program for the next days was introduced and students got to know that the main assignments for the group work in this visit is to make eco villages. The guests got introduction of the school before they ate lunch.

After lunch we went to Frisbee golf with snowshoes, which was really refreshing after a long travel day yesterday. We got back to school about 15:00 and went either to our host families or to other activities with our hosts. 

Dear people!

Today the Icelandic group woke up at 03:30 to get ready for breakfast that was at 04:00. After the breakfast we went to the airport at 05:00. Our flight to Helsinki was at 07:30 and we arrived at Helsinki Airport around 11:00 or 14:00 in Finnish time. Then 15:20 we boarded on the plane to Oulu.

We landed around 17: in Oulo and then we needed to wait for the Norwegian group. They were expected around 21:30. We went with taxis to Oulunbaari Maikkula restaurant where we got a buffet which was very good. After the meal we went back to the airport. 

The Norwegian group met 12:30 at the local airport in Brønnøysund there everybody seemed to be excited about the trip. The flights to Trondheim and further to Oslo went okey, even though the time was tight. There was hardly any time to eat or visit the bathroom.

We had to do a new check in of both luggage and us in Oslo. This was the most crucial part of the whole journey. It went quite well, and we arrived to Helsinki in time. The last flight was delayed, so we had a very quick dinner at Burger King together. We then met with our geologist, Bergljot. At the airport in Oulo, we met with the Icelandic group which have been waiting for us in 5 hours.

The last bit of the travel to Vaala with the bus went okey, and we arrived to Vaala about 00:30 in the night. Here we met with Riitta and the Finnish pupils. It was cold and clear weather.

Time goes on and now it’s the last semester of our collaborative project Geoheritage. This semester we work with global goal number 7, which deals with affordable and clean energy. The last visit in the project will be to Vaala in Finland in April and all participants are looking forward to meeting again.

Students in FAS started the semester by visiting the art museum in town. There is a co-Nordic exhibition about coexistence people and eider bird and utilization of eider down. This exhibition is in collaboration with Icelandic, Danish and Norwegian artists. The group got a tour and an introduction on the exhibition.  When we visited Norway last semester, we went to the island Vega where there is a long tradition of using down. When the exhibition leaves Höfn, it will next be staged on the island of Vega. It was therefore ideal to start the semester by viewing this exhibition and reminiscing about fun times in Norway.

Now, however, work begins to prepare the trip to Finland and in the next weeks we will learn a lot related to global goal 7 and the importance that as many people as possible know about all the global goals adjust their lifestyle to the goals.

We spent the night on the boat Nordlys that runs the regular traffic line Hurtigrutten. The weather wasn’t the best possible and five meters high waves made the boat swing a lot in the open sea. It was impossible to get any sleep at first, but luckily we soon went on our journey along the fjords so the rest of the night we slept like a log.

We woke up at 6 o’clock, packed our things and had some bread and juice for breakfast in our cabins. The boat arrived in Trondheim at 6.30, luckily in time so we caught the 7 o’clock bus to the airport.

The Icelandic group had no problems with check-in or security control, but the Finnish group didn’t even get that far.

The Finnish group tried first self-service check-in, but it failed. On the service desk the officials couldn’t find their names on the passenger list. It was a catastrophe! How could that be possible, because everything had been booked and paid via the travel agency half a year ago. And we also had got the tickets online. After many many phone calls and talks it was found out that something had happened when the whole group was rerouted on the way from Oslo to Trondheim. The official of the airline had forgotten to activate the return tickets of the Finnish group. The travel agency tried to do their best and one very friendly official was of great help.  There were no seats left from Trondheim to any bigger cities at the weekend so the only possibility was to order a charter bus from Trondheim to Vaala, Finland. The Finns never give up and decided to survive 1 200 kilometers and about 16 hours on the bus to get back home during the weekend.

The bus trip through Sweden via Åre and Haparanda went surprisingly fast with a few stops.  We had a late lunch buffet at Krokoms Wärdshus and some shorter breaks. On the way we could admire the scenery and just try to kill time by hanging on the net and listening to music. Nearly all the service stations were closed at night so it was difficult to find any place for toilet stops, but we survived. We arrived in Vaala at about six o’clock in the morning, tired but happy and grateful for the unforgettable Nordplus Junior-week in Norway.

Everything went according to plan for the Icelandic team. Now there were no delays and all schedules were met. It was a tired but extremely happy group that came back to Höfn around 22:30. The group appreciates the days together in Norway and looks forward to the next meeting in April in Vaala next year.