Hidden Gem: West Side Hotel
Next to the Citymarket in Länsikeskus, there is an accommodation called West Side Hotel. Its entrance is so hidden along the busy Nuijamaankatu that you might not notice the hotel while driving by. We took a look to see what kind of inn it is and who stays there.
Serena Kluijfhout, a South African exchange student, has been living at West Side Hotel for four months straight. She studies psychology at the University of Malta and came to Finland through the Erasmus exchange program.
“I’m from Cape Town and have been living in Malta for over a year now. I wanted to go somewhere exotic for my exchange, and Finland certainly is,” says the 19-year-old Kluijfhout. She finds it difficult to adapt to the cold and darkness and is looking forward to the end of the semester so she can return to the warmth of Malta.
“Despite the cold, Turku is a wonderful place to visit because it’s much cleaner and all the infrastructure works well compared to my home country,” Kluijfhout emphasizes. She plans to visit Lapland with other exchange students before leaving Finland. Earlier in the fall, she also took a ferry trip to Stockholm.
“As an exchange student, it’s easy to get to know a foreign country because activities are organized for students. I’ve also made many new friends,” she rejoices.
Kluijfhout’s hotel room is the cheapest type in the hotel. Marek Madzejewski, a Polish shipyard worker, stays alone in a slightly better room paid for by his employer. Madzejewski works for the German company Wiegand, which specializes in water slides.
“I’ve stayed at this hotel for various periods over about four years while we’ve been building water slides for the Icon of the Seas at Meyer Turku shipyard. I like this hotel because I know the staff well, and the reception is always warm,” Madzejewski says. He tries to visit his home in Poland as often as possible, about once a month. Turku is the perfect location because the trip home takes only about three hours in total.
“I fly from Turku to Gdansk, which is just an hour’s drive from home. Sometimes flights to Poland are cheaper than a taxi ride from the hotel to Turku airport,” he marvels. In Poland, Madzejewski is building a house for his family in a small village in the middle of a forest because he doesn’t care for the noise of the city. He has two young daughters, and the whole family visited him in Finland last summer.
“We visited Moomin World in Naantali and many restaurants in Turku. I like Finland’s weather a lot, and the winter cold doesn’t bother me. The heat of Southern Europe is too much for me,” he says. His next job will take him to Italy for a longer period, but he plans to return to Finland and the familiar hotel probably by March.
