Around the Baltic Sea – travelling overland to an Erasmus+ course in Berlin

Blog post by Katri Seppälä, study coordinator at Helsingin aikuisopiston peruskoulu

Helsinki – Stockholm – Berlin – Warsaw – Tallinn – Helsinki

Off we go!

My journey started on a Thursday in May, when I took the ferry from Helsinki to our western neighbour, Sweden. In Stockholm, the weather was sunny and warm. I had plenty of time for lunch and to buy food for the overnight train journey. At the railway station there was an easy-to-use locker for luggage, so luckily I did not have to carry my backpack around the city. The SJ train left for Berlin at half past five. My seat was in a couchette compartment, which means that the seats turned into beds when it was time to sleep. The beds had pillows, blankets and sheets. There was also a shower in the corridor. The compartment had six places, and they were all taken during the journey. There was not much extra space, but everyone fitted in comfortably for the night, and it was very peaceful to sleep. After nine hours of deep sleep, I woke up refreshed to a Berlin morning. Waiting for me was the europass Teacher Academy course Leadership Excellence: A Soft Skills and Coaching Path.

The course begins

At the start of the course, we learnt about Berlin, its best-known sights and its history. We got lots of tips about museums and good places to eat around the city. We also got to know each other and presented our schools. The schedule for the presentations was tight. We were asked to prepare a talk, a video, a game or a maximum of six slides with short information about our country, city and school. We had five minutes at most. I had made slides for my presentation, but because of technical problems, I ended up making a short Mentimeter quiz about Finland, Helsinki, Helsingin aikuisopisto and our school. Through the fun questions, I also introduced Helsinki, the adult education centre and our school. In the end, I was happy with this approach, because the quiz got the other participants more involved than just watching slides.

Communication and time management

The actual course did not start until the second day. For part of the day, we practised each other’s names with different exercises that got us moving. Learning names was a good introduction to the topic of the next two days: communication. We talked about different leadership styles, crisis management and resolving conflicts. In addition to lectures, we worked with scenarios and role plays, which were a nice change from sitting still.

For me, the most useful part of the course was developing my own time management, which we only covered at the end of the course. We started by thinking about our work identity and the balance between different areas of life. We got some examples of tools for thinking about life balance, time management and setting our own goals. Even though much of the content was familiar, the course gave me a good moment and peace to remind myself of these things.

Sharing ideas and tools

At the end of the course, participants who wanted to could present an idea related to the course or a good tool or practice from their own workplace. I briefly presented the Finnish model of performance and development discussions and the materials we use for them. It turned out that none of the other participants had a similar model, and nothing like it was known in their countries. They had performance reviews, but those were more about assessing measurable results and finances, and they were not meant to be discussions. However, the topic raised a lot of interest, and I hope it gave the participants ideas for their work as managers. I had never imagined that the Finnish development discussion would be so unfamiliar to others.

Not all of the participants’ presentations were really connected to the course content. Unfortunately, neither these presentations nor the course itself gave me very much new information. The participants clearly had different expectations for a mobility course, and maybe someone from the Nordic countries takes goals and requirements more literally than others. Of course, this realisation can also be something I learnt from the course, and it can help me set more realistic expectations for future mobility periods.

Culture, museums and parks

Berlin is a big city in both population and area, so using public transport is almost a must. It was easy to buy a ticket for several days in an app, so I did not have to worry about buying single tickets or how long they were valid. The location of the course changed at the last minute from Friedrichshain to Charlottenburg, which was new to me. Luckily, I managed to move to accommodation closer to the course, because the two districts are quite far apart. Before the course started, I had time to relax after the journey by visiting Charlottenburg Palace and the park around it. There was plenty to walk around and see, and cosy corners for a picnic lunch. The tulips were in bloom and everything was spring green.

After the first course day, we met at Alexanderplatz, where a guide took us on a walking tour of the city, mainly in the Mitte district. We saw, for example, Museum Island and the area around the parliament building. Despite the strong wind and a little rain, most of us managed to finish the two-hour walk. All the time, we got tips about which places are worth coming back to and where and how to book tickets in advance.

I have been to Berlin before, but there is always something new to see. I have often walked past the Humboldt Forum museum, but I had never gone inside before. There were one-day and two-day tickets. If you have the time, I recommend the two-day ticket. I bought a one-day ticket and tried to see the whole museum in one day. I could not do it, and I missed almost half of it. The museum had many separate ethnographic exhibitions on several floors. I started in the entrance hall with an interactive exhibition that made me think about what family means. This gave an interesting perspective on the other exhibitions. Family was a theme that came up again and again. This was a very useful introduction to the end of the course, when we talked about the balance between different areas of life, where family can be very important. The exhibition also encouraged visitors to question narrow ideas of family and to think about what family means to them and who belongs to it.

Home through the Baltic countries

My journey home started on Saturday morning, when I took the train to Warsaw. I planned plenty of time for changes, because I had heard warnings about late or cancelled trains in Germany. However, the Polish train got me to Warsaw Central Station early. This was also where my next connection was going to leave from. The evening was warm and beautiful, and I had time to walk around Warsaw. Near the station, there were good places to buy more food for the journey. The station was a clean and peaceful place to wait for my connection, even on a Saturday evening.

After waiting a little over three hours, I got on a LuxExpress bus at a stop next to the station. The bus took me through Vilnius and Riga to Tallinn bus station. I had travelled this route before, so I knew more or less what to expect from a 16-hour bus journey. This time the bus company was new to me. The bus was cleaned along the way, so it stayed clean and fresh for the whole journey. The seats could be turned almost into a lying position, so I slept quite well on the way.

After sitting still for so long, walking from Tallinn bus station to the harbour on a beautiful spring Sunday was more tempting than taking the tram. The ferry took me on the last part of my journey around the Baltic Sea, back to Helsinki and home.

The journey could hardly have gone any better. I have travelled overland in Europe before, but this time I was especially surprised by how easy the journey home was. Of course, there can sometimes be unexpected problems along the way, but I warmly recommend looking into alternatives to flying!