Helena Melbinger & Anahita Shirbaz, Kotka/Finland, Summer 2022

At the beginning of the last school week, we started our journey to Finland, which was to be our new home for the next four and a half weeks. The morning after our arrival in Helsinki we continued our journey (with some small travelling issues) to the harbour city called Kotka. We got picked up by one of our supervisors, Vilma, and after a quick stop at our future working place with a cup of coffee and some delicious pastries in the museum’s coffee shop, she showed us around the city centre and dropped us off at our accommodation. The rest of the day we tried to get to know the city and purchased an abonnement for the city bikes that we used every day to get around the city and to get to our workplace. Thursday was our first day of work and the director and our other supervisor, Maarit, welcomed us and showed us around the Merikeskus Vellamo (Maritime Museum). The first days we got to know the remarkably interesting exhibitions, the fascinating tasks of our co-workers, and we discussed the program for the upcoming weeks. Our main tasks during the internship were to write a blog about our time in Finland, write about the festivals we visited from the eyes of a Costumer and to give them an overview of Austrian museums and their unusual programs, especially for children.
Not even a week after our arrival, the first big event came up. The Hamina Tattoo Festival in the neighbouring town Hamina. It usually takes place every two years but had to be cancelled in 2020 due to COVID-19. From the 11^th to the 16^th of July seven military bands (4 international and 3 Finnish ones) were part of this very famous music festival.

At first, we were a bit sceptical about this kind of music but even though we had never been big fans of military music we were thrilled when we listened to one of the bands for instance in a small garden concert or when we watched the big marching show that took place twice a day. Especially the Scottish pipes and drums and the Caribbean Marching band from Trinidad pleased us. At this festival we had to interview two interpreters and a young soldier who were responsible for the German marching band, and we also had the chance to get to know some of the German, Scottish and Caribbean band members and talk about their experiences.
The subsequent week was a lot calmer. We mostly worked on our main tasks and had some interviews and meetings with some very interesting people. Our supervisors Maarit and Vilma took us to a lot of places and introduced us to a lot of people. We also got to visit the newly opened Pavilion on the small island Varissaari. It is the sister exhibition of the “fateful Svensksund” exhibition that is staged byin the Vellamo Museum and deals with the ship battle of Svensksund that took place right next to the island about 250 years ago.
The rest of our time here revolved all around the Kotkan Meripäivät, one of the biggest festivals in Finland that took place from the 27.-30.7.2022. We had to prepare the costumes and were also allowed to participate in the big opening parade as two famous Finnish lighthouses, called Hanhipaasi and Utö. A lot of people already warned us about the immenseness of the festival, but it was still way bigger than we expected. Listening to concerts from famous Finnish artists, trying spicy sweets, going Bungee jumping, visiting the amusement park, shopping for souvenirs and eating food from various countries, it was all part of the Program.
Our free days and weekends we spent at the festivals, the beaches and harbours in Kotka, walking around the beautiful old town of Porvoo or being part of the crew on a sailing boat in Loviisa. We are very thankful for the magical time, experiences and friends we got to make in Finland and are more than happy about our decision and the opportunity to do our internship in Vellamo.