OULU: THE WONDERS OF THE NORTH. (Oulu)

Member Name: purplegirl1989

Product:	Oulu
Date:	11/06/09 (13 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: sunset, fresh, green place, nature, people, market, scenery, shops, beach, camping.

Disadvantages: Mosquitos!

Oulu (Pronounced OH-lu) is the largest city in Northern Finland and has developed from being known as the tar producing town to a city of business and education. However, I'm not going to give you the facts, just look up Oulu on Google for that knowledge ;)

My experience of Oulu was unfortunately very short but is one of the most memorable experiences of my life. We arrived via train from Tampere, taking 5 hours which flew by with the beautiful scenery of the Finnish countryside to look at. However, it is clear that Oulu is not adapted as well as cities such as Helsinki to cope with tourists as we were rather confused stepping out of the train station to find the centre (which was only a few minutes walk away.) We were looking for Nallikari camping centre but soon discovered it was quite a way if we were to walk with our bags and so a rather helpful local helped us with getting a taxi.

We had booked to stay in a cabin which was actually wonderful with its own outdoor porch and with basic facilities such as a microwave. It also had a building block a minute away with actual kitchens which was handy as well as the shower blocks. You could also pitch a tent or upgrade to a holiday home. The staff were great and we rented bikes for a reasonable price and cycled into the city, which was about 25 mins away. That seems to be the main use of transport in Oulu especially, bikes.

The actual city is small but very nice. In Finnish style it has an old market square with the well known 'Fat Policeman statue' which was built to actually mock the local police force. Oulu also has all the usual Finnish high street shops you'd expect but the best way to see it is definitely by bike, to cycle around the parks and by the river.

My favourite part though was the evenings when we walked to the beach and walked out to the rocks where we sat and saw the most spectacular sunsets that I'm sure exist. Words can't actually describe that scenery. It also caters for the kids with a cute little park actually on the sand.

Even though I spent such a short time here, I would recommend it 100%. Fantastic place.

Summary: Truely a magical place.