Bianca and I are back in Berlin. We had a very nice time in Helsinki visiting Tuska this year. For us, the approach how we traveled and stayed was kind of a preparation to our big trip to Japan in September this year.
So how to get there and where to stay?
This year’s Tuska took place from Friday, 01.07 (starting at 2pm) to Sunday, 03.07 (ending 9pm). In case you do not want to miss any live performance we recommend to arrive in Helsinki one day earlier.
In our case, we booked a flight via Air Berlin from Berlin Tegel to Helsinki on Thursday evening (boarding time around 4pm). Around 7pm we arrived in Helsinki (which is an hour ahead of Berlin). For a cheap flight you can check all the flight radars out there, e.g. Kayak.
As mentioned in one of our previous posts we used AirBnb for booking an apartment for the whole time being in Helsinki. It was much cheaper than booking an hotel and much closer to Tuska Festival ground.
Creating an account at AirBnb was pretty easy. Having a credit card linked to your account will allow you booking very fast. Our first experience was awesome. Super friendly hosts, a cosy apartment and a perfect location.
What stuff do I need to pack?
Well, this is an easy one. First of all you need fun! Second you need some stuff.
For our first trip using a backpack only, we took something with us for each day. Additionally (as it is a festival and we did not know how the ground would be surfaced) we packed one piece more of each.
If you check what people state with a lot of experience you do not need all this stuff. You might need some shirts that you will clean during your stay (which is what we’ve planned for Japan).
To pack all the stuff we used the ranger roll packing approach for our clothes.
Shoes
- 1 Sneakers
- 1 Boots
Trousers
- 1 Cargo trousers
- 1 Chino trousers
Shirts
- 3 Band-Shirts for the festival (1x Apathie, 2x Carach Angren)
- 3 Shirts for the other days
- 1 Shirt for the night
Sweaters and Jackets
- 1 Longsleeve
- 1 Pullover
- 1 Sweat-Jacket (branded with my company’s logo)
- 1 Thin jacket for the evening
- 1 Rain jacket
Towels
- 1 XL microfiber towel
- 1 L microfiber tower
Underwear and Accessory
- 6 Pair of socks
- 1 Pair of socks as slippers
- 6 Boxer-Shorts
Toiletries
- Shampoo, Conditioner and Showergel
- Shaving cream + Shaver
- Aftershave + Creme
- Toothbrush + Toothpaste
- Deo
- Brush
- Hygiene wipes
- Contact lenses
Utilities
- Sponge bag
- Compression sack for used clothes
- Belt
- Earplugs
- A compressed backpack
- A flight-bag
Electronics
- MacBook + Power Supply
- 2 HTC smartphones (private and company) +Power Supply
- Camera
How to carry all this stuff?
- 1 Deuter 50L + 10L Women
- 1 Orsprey Atmos 50L Men
- 1 Fjällräven Vintage Backpack
- 1 The North Face Surge Backpack
The approach with all the bags didn’t work out that well. We wanted to check what we can pack in our carry-on baggage in case the airline would lose our backpacks. So we had almost everything at least once in the carry-on bag.
So we will definitively change it for our next trip.
So that’s it so far. Stay tuned.
Sören
