moving/living to Varkaus

natty · Post by **natty** » Fri May 30, 2008 12:01 pm

Hello everybody!!

I am hoping anyone (finnish or foreigner) can give me some advice or opinion about moving/living in Varkaus to start a family there.

How is the life there? are there many foreigners there?

all i heard about it is that its got very beautiful nature and a good place for children to grow up. I am hoping to visit this summer but sometimes just visiting for a few days does not guarantee you will get the full image of it. so if there are any other foreigners out there it would be nice to hear from them.

Thank you

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Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Fri May 30, 2008 12:36 pm

Well, moving to a place called "theft" ...could be worse, theres a "getting beaten up hill" next door

. Is there life there? Probably a lot of plant life and wild life, so if you are a plant that can sustain yourself on beauty, or otherwise wild enough to live in a struggling industrial towns withs all its joys and sorrows. The locals probably will welcome someone who comes instead of leaving. It s in the middle of Savo as you can get... actually as far as from Mikkeli, Joensuu, Kuopio and Jyväskylä. Summer doesn't enhance the beautiful modern architecture very common in almost all cities and towns in Finland, but fortunately hides it. But as far as visiting places, you should go there sometime around November to get your reality check.

interleukin · Post by **interleukin** » Fri May 30, 2008 12:45 pm

I am sure the nature up there is fantastic! Just consider how hard it will be to find a job if your Finnish skills are less that good, I hope you have a job lined up when you make your move there!

Good luck,
interleukin

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Fri May 30, 2008 12:56 pm

The city itself leaves a few wants though

mrjimsfc · Post by **mrjimsfc** » Fri May 30, 2008 4:07 pm

The smoke and fumes from the lumber/paper mill were truly awfull when I was there. You can't breathe and the acid smog ruins everything. To be fair though, I only ever noticed it during the coldest parts of the winter while riding my bike past the plant. The rest of the year was pretty good. The people were really neat and pleasant to be around. Most of the foreigners taught english at the local high school and middle school. there weren't very many. Good luck!

A_I · Post by **A_I** » Sat May 31, 2008 1:05 pm

Well, I spent 1 year there. As a whole I can say that life there is probably better than in let say Cabul. But it has positive sides, it is calm place, the acid smokes are only on some days (3-4 days per month) if do not live exactly in front of factory. Another good point is that there is no need in transportation, I was living in one end of the town and my University was in another end and I needed to walk just 15 minutes

. There not much foreigners. Then you can find there Finns who has no idea about English language and so on. But still I would say it depends what do you want from life

Varkaus is a good place to read books for example.

Thats what I feel about it. But anyway there was people (foreigners) who is having fun there. so...

Op999 · Post by **Op999** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 12:19 am

I've been there quite a few times. We only go there to visit a couple of friends during the summer. But, overall, I'm not really a fan. Too slow for my taste.

Karhunkoski · Post by **Karhunkoski** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 6:40 am

Wasn't it Varkaus where the whites randomly pulled out every tenth red male and shot them, during the civil war? Or are we not meant to mention that?

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 7:20 am

Only one in ten? Heck, where I come from they shot them all.

Tiwaz · Post by **Tiwaz** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 8:06 am

200 executed out of 1200 captured, so closer to 20% of reds executed.

Karhunkoski · Post by **Karhunkoski** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 9:23 am

This caused dozens of Reds to be executed in Varkaus (see photo below), after the town had been conquered on February 21.

In describing the events in Varkaus, a Civil Guardist wrote the following in his diary (in Uola 252):

Suddenly we saw that the Reds raised a white flag, and we started walking towards the factory building. That's when the Reds opened fire; at least 58 Whites fell to the ground. That's why we took few prisoners after the conquest; nearly everyone was shot.
Varkaus had been the last Red stronghold in the Whites' rear. It is estimated that the Whites executed over 200 prisoners, or some 10.2% of the city's male population, in only a few weeks (Hannula 56).

http://www.uta.fi/FAST/FIN/HIST/ss-vict.html

Also intersting reading, saying it wasn't so much of a "lottery":

http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Civil+ ... 5221157520

Sorry natty for hijacking you thread, I fear the only information I have about the place is 90 years out of date.

RA · Post by RA » Tue Jun 03, 2008 10:32 am

I lived there for about 3 years... it's small, there's the smell and it's pretty much everything you would expect a small town to be. The people are nice enough and they're pretty used to seeing foreigners there. Whether or not you'll like it there, really depends on you and also on what you'll be doing there. Jobs in such a small place a pretty hard to come by. The good news is you can always escape from Varkaus for a day out - Kuopio and Joensuu aren't too faraway.
Varkaus is sort of a special place for me. After my move to Finland and a couple of years in Helsinki, I took a bold move and went there, I was among the first batch of foreign students there and we were literally a site of attraction for the locals. Our batch were naturally very close to each other and we did a lot of stuff together. This remains so till today, which I think is pretty amazing. I also met my hubby there even though that's not his hometown... but that's other story. Nightlife in Varkaus was pretty lively then even though it's a small town and we'd all get through 5- 6 places in one evening. I don't know how it is these days. One thing about nightlife then was that in every single one of those 6 places, we'd see at least 2 huge fights go on. Very fiery, those Varkautelaisia. In the end, I left Varkaus as did most of those I knew there. Varkaus isn't very faraway from Kuopio and amazingly I haven't been back since I left.

moomintroll · Post by **moomintroll** » Wed Jun 04, 2008 11:33 pm

I spent Christmas '07 there, it's a nice small town but I can imagine it getting quite boring very quickly. The factory is the main feature of the town and it tends to choke the life out of everything when there isn't enough wind to blow the foul fumes away.

A_I · Post by **A_I** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 1:39 am

RA wrote:Nightlife in Varkaus was pretty lively then even though it's a small town and we'd all get through 5- 6 places in one evening. I don't know how it is these days.

Yeah thats a good thing there, you can visit all the possible nightclubs in one night (and everybody actually do that every time)

natty · Post by **natty** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 3:17 pm

Hey ,
I want to thank everyone for posting their opinions or stories about Varkaus!!!It's been interesting.
I hope there are more to come!!!
anyone living there already??

Thanks again

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