Art Exhibition

Saturday morning I had breakfast with the two Finnish girls before we went in to the city centre to look at some local art work. When we arrived at the "art square" (many art shops, galleries etc. are placed very close to eachother, next to the river) we noticed that the market square was much more crowded than on a regular Saturday, and then we remembered:

Last weekeend offered an ice-sculptureing-competition and the yearly ice-swimming-championship!

Sadly, we didn't have all the time in the world AND it was very cold, so we took a quick look at the different activities before we went in seperate directions. They had practice and I had homework.. But I can tell you this much, the last thing I would do would be jumping in that icy, freezing water!

...The ice swimming took place in an artificial hole in the frozen lake in the centre of Joensuu and I noticed a whole lot of bubbles in the water. When I asked the Finnish girls why they used that bubble-making-equipment, they told me that without it the surface of the water would freeze to ice in a matter of seconds (or minutes..) creating an ice-surface as sharp as a knife - which of course could make life threatening damage to the swimmers.

I don't have any pictures from that day, but the day after, Sunday, I spent an hour at the ice-art-exhibition together with some of my Erasmus friends. Beautiful!!! I especially admired the children's work..