The autumn school will take place on 18-22 November, 2013, in Porvoo, Finland. Porvoo is located 50 km or an hour east of Helsinki. It is the second oldest town of Finland, and is known for its well-preserved wooden buildings. On the other hand, given how cold, dark and quiet it is in November, both the old town and the more modern part from the 1970s are equally spooky.

Venue

The lectures of the autumn school will be held in the auditorium of the WSOY building (address: Mannerheiminkatu 20, FI-06100 Porvoo).

See page Locations in Porvoo for coordinates of all events of the school.

Travel

Arrival from Helsinki airport. There is a bus connection to Porvoo from Helsinki airport every 1-2 hours. The bus trip takes about an hour, and usually includes an easy transfer from an airport shuttle to an express bus. See the Matkahuolto web site for time tables: http://www.matkahuolto.info/lippu/en . Enter Helsinki-Vantaa as place of departure and Porvoo as destination. Click "Search Timetable", and then specify your terminal in the place of departure. (There should be no need to buy the ticket in advance or make a reservation even if the system may offer that option.) The ticket is about EUR 14 one way. A student discount may apply.

A taxi trip from the airport takes about 45 minutes and costs about EUR 90.

Arrival from Helsinki (Kamppi) bus terminal. There are several buses an hour. The trip takes about an hour. For fastest connections, use the motorway buses (only Mon-Fri, "moottoritie", EUR 12) or express buses ("pikavuoro", EUR 15). Student discounts may apply.

Arrival from Helsinki train station. Walk 0,4 km to Kamppi bus terminal, see above.

Arrival from other places in Helsinki. Buses to Porvoo pass, e.g., the Kumpula Campus (motorway buses, via Ooppera, Sturenkatu, Kumpula and Viikki) or Itäkeskus (most express buses, via Ooppera, Sturenkatu, Itäväylä). See Matkahuolto site at http://www.matkahuolto.info/lippu/en for schedules (but note that times for bus stops on the way are rough estimates, and during rush hours buses can be 10-15 minutes late).

Dates of arrival and departure. We expect participants from abroad to arrive on Sunday, Nov 17, because the program starts on Monday morning. We plan to finish early on Friday afternoon so you can take an evening flight home.

Hotels

The registration does not include accommodation. However, if you have applied for a Prosecco grant, your hotel may be organized and covered by the autumn school. Therefore:

• Participants without Prosecco grants are supposed to reserve and pay their own accommodations.
• If you have applied for a Prosecco grant that covers accommodation, wait for the grant decision. The organizers will make hotel reservations and payments on behalf of grant recipients.

UPDATE: Hotel Seurahovi is now fully booked. Hotel Sparre (see below) is located close to Seurahovi. Gasthaus Werneri and Porvoo Hostel (see below) are more economical options and also within walking distance. At the time of writing (Oct 28), Sparre has spare rooms for EUR 110 (double) or EUR 90 (single).

(NOW OUTDATED: We have reserved a block of rooms in Hotel Seurahovi (actually, we reserved the whole hotel). The rooms are available for participants of the autumn school on a first come, first served basis until Oct 17th. Use email or phone to make your reservation in our block (contact information below), and mention "University of Helsinki". (Since we booked the whole hotel, their web-based booking system tells they are fully booked.)

Single rooms in the block are EUR 78/night, double rooms EUR 92/night. The prices include breakfast and WLAN. After Oct 17th, the prices will likely be about EUR 30-40 more.)

Contact information for the hotel:

Hotelli-Ravintola Seurahovi
Rauhankatu 27 – Fredsgatan, FI-06100 Porvoo – Borgå, FINLAND
Tel: +358 (0)19 54 761, Fax. +358 (0)19 524 9329
Email: info@seurahovi.fi
Web: www.seurahovi.fi

Options for accommodation in Porvoo

The following hotels are located in the center of Porvoo:

• Hotel Seurahovi, http://www.hotelseurahovi.com/
• Hotel Sparre, http://www.avainhotellit.fi/sparre/en

Accommodation in the old town, 0.5 km from center:

• Ida-Maria B&B, http://ida-maria.fi/?lang=en
• Hotel Pariisin Ville, http://www.pariisinville.fi/en_index.php
• Hotel Onni, http://www.hotelonni.fi/e.html

Economy accommodation within 1 km from the center:

• Gasthaus Werneri, http://www.werneri.net/index_eng/index.htm
• Porvoo Hostel, http://www.porvoohostel.fi/english.html

For more options, see http://www.visitporvoo.fi/en/sleep/sleep .

Photo: Porvoo old town in winter. (c) City of Porvoo