10.2.2007: Tampere tour
Finmun week got a freezing but a happy start at Tampere on saturday as 20+ delegates and the FinMUN crew headed towards the former industrial capital of Finland. Because of technical problems the busses arrived late to the reception of the Peace association 100th anniversary, but some delegates got to meet the minister of foreign affairs Mr. Tuomioja even when his speech was already ended before their arrival. What only few people got to witness thou, was the the minister got "attacked" twice during the reception; first with a glass of white wine (gladly it wasn't red wine) and the second time with a rack of jackets! Since of the character of the reception and the peaceful nature of Finnish people, the attackers got away with their apologies and a napkin to clean away the white wine.
Later on the delegates walked through the city centre in small groups in search of a warm drink, the finnish maiden and the painting "weeping boat" ("purren valitus" by Akseli Gallen-Kallela) of the Finnish national epic Kalevala. Due to the cold weather the teams all finished that leg of the race ahead of schedule, arriving to the restaurant 20 minutes earlier than expected. This odd phenomenon of keeping the schedule followed throughout the whole trip, which surprised both the organizing committee and the local UN association members! The restaurant offered us a great dinner, and in addition we got to hear the soundcheck, with two songs that made us almost make new arrangements with the evening program. Even though the music sounded great, the night study tour of Tampere's cultural locations needed to start from Doris. After taking over that popular night club, FinMUN felt that one more night club would need to be taken by storm. Cafe Europe, which had been approved earlier during the walk, was the next target. I think we left there an unforgettable impression, men bragging with their capacity to drink and women taking over the dance floor.
