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26 July 2011

Ilosaarirock Festival

Days 56-59: Friday, 15 July 2011 - Monday, 18 July 2011

We left for Ilosaari on Friday. In the morning, Petri and Pekka each had work, so Lisle and I got some much-needed rest, one couch for each of us. We then got up, slowly made some breakfast and tried to figure out the washing machine. In the mid-afternoon, we finally left to get some food and supplies at the nearby supermarket. We were hungry but tight-budgeted, yet we semi-splurged on some waffles at a cafe in the shopping center, which turned out to be some amazing waffles!


The train to Joensuu took about 4 hours with one transfer along the way. I traveled with Petri, Pekka, Sami, and Olli who met us at the station in Joensuu. I was able to use Petri's brother's student ID to get a discount fare. The train was mostly full, so we first rode in the restaurant car for the first leg, and then snuck into some empty seats for the second part, and then we stayed in the "animal/pet room" after transferring to the second train . Along the way, a random older man walks up to us and says "excuse me"… we think something is wrong but he then proceeds to simply ask for one of our beers. Haha.


We arrived in Joensuu, the major city in eastern Finland. We're now only 100 km from Russia, but more importantly, we were a 20-minute walk from the campsite. It was nearly 9pm, and we stopped by the supermarket, where I frantically bought some food right before the store closed. We then walked through the town to the campsite, where we set up our tents.

I was soon introduced to all the friends at our campsite - Ville, Juhanna, Tuomas, Juho, Sami, Mikko, Cole, and even more each day. There was a little boat in a sand pit that we climbed up on. Many more drinks were had, and dancing and craziness ensued.