I love my guests...

Kristiina in Athens
For me Finland was always a special place. I don't know how became, i know that i love this country a lot. My music, the music that i am listening into (heavy metal) comes from there somehow... Here in Greece we refer to Suomi as the Metallomana (the country that gives birth to all heavy metal bands). Seventeen months ago had the chance to visit this place. Everything that i believed about this country was true and and i was very lucky to spend my ten days there with people that really love their country. I couchsurfed of course (with 3 different hosts) and i had the change to travel with my best friends ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75N8vd7pkFU ). The cities we visited there were Kouvola, Helsinki, Rovaniemi, Oulu. During my stay there i made new friends. They say... (you know they), that Finnish people are cold and distant. They say... that they never say hello to you, they never hug... That is wrong! I didn't face that at all. It has to do with the people i think. For me was a really nice experience and i was so excited when Kristiina accepted my reverse CS request to stay in my place. Hosting Kristiina confirmed once again that the love that i have for the Finnish ones is not "invalid". She was here the same period with Luke and Kate my guests from Canada and they had a good time. Unfortunatelly she stayed only three days in my place and we didn't have the chance to share some of our passions like:
or:
the proper one...

Kristiina's profile was very complete for a person without any CS experience and she was also verified. She will be around (in Greece) for a while and i hope to meet her again.

Turku (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈturku] ( listen); Swedish: Åbo [ˈoːbu] ( listen)) is a city on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River,[6][7] in the region of Finland Proper. It is believed to have been first settled around the end of the 13th century, making it the oldest city in Finland. It quickly became the most important city in Finland, a status it retained for hundreds of years. After Finland became part of the Russian Empire (1809), and the capital of the Grand Duchy of Finland was moved to Helsinki (1812), Turku continued to be the most populous city in Finland, until the end of the 1840s. Today it remains a regional capital and an important business and cultural center.
Because of its long history it has been the site of many important events, and has extensively influenced Finnish history. Along with Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia, Turku was designated the European Capital of Culture for 2011. In 1996 it was declared the official Christmas City of Finland.[8]
Due to its location, Turku is a notable commercial and passenger seaport with over three million passengers travelling through the Port of Turku each year to Stockholm and Mariehamn.[6]
As of 31 January 2011, Turku’s population was 177,430, making it the fifth largest city in Finland.[2] As of 31 August 2008 there were 303,492 inhabitants living in the Turku sub-region, ranking it as the third largest urban area in Finland after the Greater Helsinki area and Tampere sub-region. The city is officially bilingual as 5.2 percent of its population identify Swedish as a mother-tongue.[3]

Turku has a long history as Finland's largest city and occasionally as the administrative center of the country, but has, over the last two centuries, lost both titles to Helsinki. To this day, the city's identity stems from its status as the oldest city in Finland[9] and the country's first capital. Originally, the word "Finland" referred only to the area around Turku (hence the title, "Finland Proper" for the region).

Although archaeological findings in the area date back to the Stone Age, the town of Turku was founded in late 13th century.[10] The Cathedral of Turku was consecrated in 1300, and together with Turku Castle and the Dominican monastery (founded in 1249), established the city as the most important location in medieval Finland.[citation needed]
During the Middle Ages, Turku was the seat of the Bishop of Turku (a title later upgraded to Archbishop of Turku), covering the then eastern half of the Kingdom of Sweden (most of the present-day Finland) until the 17th century. Even if Turku had no official capital status, both the short-lived institutions of Dukes and Governors-General of Finland usually had their Finnish residences there. In the aftermath of the War against Sigismund, the town was the site of the Åbo bloodbath. In 1640, the first university in Finland, The Royal Academy of Turku, was founded in Turku. Turku was also the meeting place for the States of Finland in 1676.
After the Finnish War, which ended when Sweden ceded Finland to Imperial Russia at the Treaty of Fredrikshamn in 1809, Turku became briefly the official capital, but soon lost the status to Helsinki, as Emperor Alexander I felt that Turku was too far from Russia and too aligned with Sweden to serve as the capital of the Grand Duchy of Finland.[citation needed] The change officially took place in 1812. The government offices that remained in Turku were finally moved to the new capital after the Great Fire of Turku, which almost completely destroyed the city in 1827.[citation needed] After the fire, a new and safer city plan was drawn up by German architect Carl Ludvig Engel, who had also designed the new capital, Helsinki. Turku remained the largest city in Finland for another twenty years.
In 1918, a new university, the Åbo Akademi – the only Swedish language university in Finland – was founded in Turku. Two years later, the Finnish language University of Turku was founded alongside it. These two universities are the second and third to be founded in Finland, both by private donations.
In the 20th century Turku was called "Finland's gateway to the West" by historians such as Jarmo Virmavirta. The city enjoyed good connections with other Western European countries and cities, especially since the 1940s with Stockholm across the Gulf of Bothnia. In the 1960s, Turku became the first Western city to sign a twinning agreement with Leningrad in the Soviet Union, leading to greater inter-cultural exchange and providing a new meaning to the city's 'gateway' function. After the fall of Communism in Russia, many prominent Soviets came to Turku to study Western business practices[citation needed], among them Vladimir Putin, then Leningrad's deputy mayor.[11]

The Finnish name Turku originates from an Old East Slavic word, tǔrgǔ, meaning "market place".[12] The word turku still means "market place" in some idioms in Finnish. It should also be noted that the Swedish word for "market place" is torg. The word was likely borrowed to Swedish from Old East Slavic, but it was present already in Old Swedish.[13]
The Swedish name Åbo seems easy to explain, as it contains the words å ("river") and bo ("nest, dwelling") which could mean something like "the house by the river". Etymologists think this explanation is probably false, as the name is old and there are no other similar names.[14] There is however an old legal term called "åborätt" (meaning roughly "right to live at"), which gave citizens (called "åbo") the inheritable right to live at land owned by the crown.[15]
It has been suggested that the Finnish name Turku originally refers to the market place, while the Swedish name Åbo originally refers to the castle.

Located at the mouth of the Aura river in the southwestern corner of Finland, Turku covers an area of 245 square kilometres (95 sq mi) of land, spread over both banks of the river. The eastern side, where the Cathedral of Turku is located, is popularly referred to as täl pual jokke ("this side of the river"), while the western side is referred to as tois pual jokke ("the other side of the river"). The city centre is located close to the river mouth, on both sides of the river, though development has recently been expanding westward.[citation needed]
There are nine bridges over the Aura river in Turku. The first bridge in the city area, nowadays known as Pennisilta, was built in 1414, and has since been demolished.[citation needed] The oldest of the current bridges is Auransilta, which was constructed in 1904. The newest bridge is Teatterisilta ('theatre bridge'), a pedestrian-only bridge built in 1997. One of the best-known landmarks of Turku is the Föri, a small ferry that transports pedestrians and bicycles across the river without payment.
With a population of approximately 300,000[citation needed], the Turku Region (LAU 1) is the third largest urban region in Finland, after Greater Helsinki and the area around Tampere. The region includes, in addition to the city itself the following municipalities: Askainen, Kaarina, Lemu, Lieto, Masku, Merimasku, Mynämäki, Naantali, Nousiainen, Paimio, Piikkiö, Raisio, Rusko, Rymättylä, Sauvo, Vahto, and Velkua.
A more exclusive definition for the urban area is the city region of Turku with a population around 235,000 consisting of four major municipalities Kaarina, Raisio, Naantali and Turku.

The city is divided into 78 districts and nine wards that do not function as local government units. There are, however, some projects that are based on the district divisions, particularly in the eastern part of the city, where unemployment is rife in certain areas. The largest populated districts are Varissuo and Runosmäki. By area, however, Kakskerta and Paattinen, formed from former municipalities that were annexed to the city proper in the mid-20th century, constitute the largest districts.
As many of the small neighbouring municipalities from the north and south of the city were annexed during the mid-20th century, Turku is today shaped like an elongated pear. The city centre and most of the suburban areas lie in the middle, separated from the less densely populated northern rural areas by the Turku bypass, that forms part of European route E18. Islands such as Ruissalo, Hirvensalo and Kakskerta, forming the southern part of the city, are also sparsely populated and mostly contain summer residences, with the exception of some districts in Hirvensalo which are currently growing into upper-middle-class suburbs.