Helsinki - capital of Finland

After the capital of Sweden, it was time to visit the capital of Finland (again)! Before starting, a few information about Helsinki:

- (of course) capital of Finland
- 584.420 inhabitants (largest city)
- located in the southern part of Finland directly at the Baltic Sea
- Helsinki metropolitan area generates approximately one third of Finland's GDP
- main sight: Helsinki Cathedrale

We booked a 4-bedroom in the famous Omena hotel (=Apple Hotel), which is very popular (and cheap) in the Nordic countries. After arriving with the train...oh wait...one thing: I have no idea how we did it, but we got out the wrong station. The name of the station was 'Pasila Böle':

 

Yeah, but anyway, actually we made it to Helsinki main station. We stayed at the popular 'Omena'-Hostel (stands for Apple), which offers no reception (I guess this is one reason why it is so cheap), a lot of RED interior and a quite central location. First stop was the fancy street 'Norra Esplanaden' which leads to Helsinki harbour. It is one if not THE most expensive street in Helsinki. Next to it there is the Espanadi Park - a green oasis in the middle of the capital. After arriving at the harbour we made our way to the Uspenski Cathedrale.

What came next? Of course the most popular sight in Helsinki: the famous Helsinki Cathedrale! I guess you all have seen this big white building on pictures before which is located on the upmost point in the city.

Our next target was the 'Rock Church' - yes, you understand right: a church built into a big rock. Before we reached the church, we were approximately 5-7 kilometres on the wrong way. But with the help of some nice Finnish supporter, we finally found it after 1,5/2 hours. How should I describe the rock church? Imagine a rock in the middle of densely populated neigbourhood and inside a little, but impressive Lutheran church. At least for myself I can say, I have never ever seen such a church before. Even if the interior is not typical for a church, you can feel a mystical atmosphere in there. But because words can't describe it very good, please just have a look at the following picture of the interior of the church.

One of the most impressive landscapes in the Helsinki area is Suomenlinna. It is an UNESCO World Heritage site which former name was 'Sveaborg' (=Fortress of Svea). The meaning of 'Suomenlinna' is Castle of Finland, this renaming in 1918 had patriotic and nationalistic reasons. Swedish speaking people, of course, still use the former name. The Swedish crown commenced the construction of the fortress in 1748 as protection against Russian expansionism. Today, in peaceful Finland, the island is for sure no more used as a fortress. It is a tourist attraction - a great one! You can just take a 'waterbus' (a little ship) which runs there once every hour for app. 3€. The transportation to the island takes about 15 minutes while passing a lot of smaller islands on the way there. Arrived at Suomenlinna (btw: we had beautiful weather!!!) the first stop was an old church.

We made our way forward, seeing a lot of little fortresses and vaults, sometimes quite creepy and mystical. Furthermore there were some old military monuments and weapons, like cannonballs. Between those attractions, the landscape was enriched with green fields, trees, rocks and little hills :-) At one of the highest parts, it is possible to have a wonderful view at the sea: wind was blowing, sun shining, sea swooshing - what a moment!

But Suomenlinna is not just a tourist attraction - for some people it is their home. Nowadays there are about 900 permanent inhabitants on the islands, and 350 people work there all year round. So, it is not just an attraction, but also a living community! There is a minimum-security penal labor colony in Suomenlinna, whose inmates work on the maintenance and reconstruction of the fortifications. Only volunteer inmates who pledge non-use of controlled substances are accepted to the labour colony.

We had also a quite typical Finnish weather phenomenon in Helsinki. Beautiful weather (as you can see on the previous pictures), walk in a park, next to a lake. See the next picture:

 

Not even 5 minutes later, it looked like the next picture (no photoshop, no fake!):

 

Welcome to Finland! By the way, another 5 minutes later, it was like on the first picture again: sunny, almost no clouds, of course no rain and snow anymore - crazy! :-D

For another nice view, I can recommend the Olympic stadium in Helsinki. Pay 2,50€, go 60 metres up, see whole Helsinki and be astonished! You have two possibilities to go up to the top: elevator or stairs. Well, for me that means: 1 alternative = elevator! But I guess there might be also some (crazy) people going up using the stairs. On top I found a sticker that said 'Mannheim' with an eagle on it. Mannheim is not even 20km away from my home town, so I even had some sentimental feelings looking over the whole capital! :-)

On of the last stops was the shopping mile, including a Christmas shop. Have I mentioned that I am a big Christmas fan? Well, I AM! You will see more enthusiastic pictures and stories in the next post (Lapland post!). The Christmas shop was great, like a exploded Christmas package :-D You can even feel in Helsinki (more than 1000 km from Lapland away, where Santa Claus is living) that Finland is the mothership of Christmas feelings, hihi ;-)

Helsinki was a really nice trip - it is (for me) the 'Cosy Capital', because unlike other capitals, it is smaller, not so much overcrowded, not dirty or too loud - you feel homelike and adapted pretty soon!

Pori-Turku-Ferry Craziness-Stockholm-Again Ferry Craziness-Turku-Pori

One trip almost every Erasmus student is doing during his time here in Pori, is going to neighboring country Sweden to see the capital Stockholm. I am not an exchange student, but nevertheless, I did the same :-D In the last weekend of October, 9 Erasmus students and I decided to go to Stockholm by ferry, because normally it is the most popular and cheapest way to get there. The journey started on Thursday afternoon with the bus to Turku harbour - nice ride, nothing special. At the harbour, first I was very impressed about the size of our ferry. It was a very big ship, the Europa of Silja Line, here is a picture of it:

Then on the ferry, crowds of people, not always 'standard', means: dressed crazy (or maybe it has been costumes, I do not know), kind of tipsy movements, loud and sometimes scaring ;-) Yeah, the ferry was a adventure for itself! Happily we had our cabines right above engine room, so we REALLY had the 'seaman-feeling', the whole night it was vibrating and loud. And for the loud atmosphere we also got some help from our drunken Russion neighbours on our corridor. What a feeling! Okay, I guess, everybody can realize than I am ironic now... But well, we survived! :-D

After arriving in Stockholm in the early morning (it was around 6 o'clock), we made our way to the city center to store our bags in the trainstation. First, we had a nice breakfast with super-big muffins. Then the sightseeing started: Royal Palace - Old Town - Cathedrals/Churches - Museums and so on. Stockholm is really a ferrytale city: a lot of water, green area, old buildings, narrow alleys, a lot of café and restaurants - NICE! In addition we had sunny weather and mild temperature, what more could we ask for? Another thing which being quite impressive was the unbelievable cleanliness of the city - even the area near the trainstation was shining! Less enjoyable were the prizes: Finland seems after Stockholm quite affordable. But hey, it was a vacation, so of course, we allowed ourselves some nice things! :-D Delicious food - funny souveniers and some drinks.

 

Maybe the most impressive attraction we saw, has been the Vasa Museum. Here a short extract from the Wikipedia quote: 'The Vasa Museum (Swedish: Vasamuseet) is a maritime museum in Stockholm, Sweden. Located on the island of Djurgården, the museum displays the only almost fully intact 17th century ship that has ever been salvaged, the 64-gun warship Vasa that sank on her maiden voyage in 1628. The Vasa Museum opened in 1990 and, according to the official web site, is the most visited museum in Scandinavia.' First I thought: 'What a strange building. Is that a museum?' Inside it is really overwhelming! The ship is so big and normally you are not used to have a big ship inside a building. The restauration of the ship, obviously, went out great, like it has never been on the sea bottom for so many years. The light is dimmed and in that way, it emphazises the magical atmosphere! In the entrance ticket included was a short, guided tour: our guide was funny in a way that he seems very serious and pationate about really everything and you could realize that he told some of the story like 1.000-times.

After another day of excessive sightseeing, the ferry was waiting for us around 19.00 at Stockholm harbour. This cruise was even weirder than the first one, because it was time for Halloween! Some men dressed up as 'professional' women, some girls as bunnies and a couple (my favorite!) dresses as Beetlejuice and his wife - very nice!! :-D Unfortunately we had our cabin right above the concerthall of the ferry. So, imagine: staying or lying in the cabin was like sleeping (or try at least) in the middle of the concert stage! What a feeling! Therefore some of us decided to go to the concerthall until the early morning to see the rock band playing, because it would have made no difference - staying in front of the stage or in the room --> same volume! ;-) To sum up the time on the ferry: weird, but funny, a lot of drunken people, loud --> different, but interesting! When we arrived in Turku on Sunday morning, we immidiately took the first bus available to get to Pori. Then sleeeeeeeeep! But in a nutshell: a unforgettable trip!

Naantali - or the beautiful Moomin Island

There are so many places in Finland that show nature in the most beautiful way possible...for example the small island Naantali! This little town is one of the main attractions in whole Finland and is located app. 14 km west of Turku. The biggest part of the Naantali area is located on small, separated islands - most of it beautiful farmland and forest, just like a Finnish fairytale!

 

At that special day, we had even the perfect weather to visit Naantali: the sun was shining at its brightest, blue sky and mild temperature! The picture above shows a typical view of Naantali: blue water, an island part with green forest and reeds moved by the fresh wind - a scenario just like on a perefect holiday postcard! :-D 

As already mentioned about Reposaari, so is Naantali a place of silent and quiet atmosphere as well. In this way you can enjoy the beauty of nature in Naantali in an even more intensive way. But to be clear, Naantali is not quiet, silent and pretty lonely all the year... In summer, the Moomin World opens his doors to worldwide visitors! First for all who do not know Moomins, here is a extract from the Wikipedia quote: 'The Moomins (Finnish: Muumit)(Swedish: Mumintroll) are the central characters in a series of books and a comic strip by Swedish-Finn illustrator and writer Tove Jansson, originally published in Swedish by Schildts in Finland. They are a family of trolls who are white and roundish, with large snouts that make them resemble hippopotamuses. The carefree and adventurous family live in their house in Moominvalley, in the forests of Finland, though in the past their temporary residences have included a lighthouse and a theatre. They have many adventures along with their various friends.' Today you can find Moomins themes everywhere: on clothes, cups, toys, candies, papers...the list has no end. Moomins are really, really popular here in Finland. There is no stay in Finland (no matter how long it is) without getting in touch with the Moomins. But the popularity of Moomins also affects the price of Moomins articles: it is really expensive! There are e.g. cups (and they are rather small) whoch costs about 15 euros or even more. And now, I introduce you the world famous Moomins:

Well, now, to come back to Naantali: on one of the islands there is the Moomin World. This theme park is completely based on those Moomin stories by Tove Jansson. The park consists of different Moomin houses, playgrounds, a stage and some cafés. The most popular building is the blueberry-coloured Moomin house which is, of course, open to all visitors. Unfortunately, the park was closed when we visited it, but still we could walk through the whole area, but without visiting the interior of the buildings or seeing any shows. Nevertheless we got a good impression of the 'magic of Moomin World'! And for me (in Germany Moomins are not well-known, if even at all) it was quite new and funny to see such kind of theme park. The Finns really must love Moomins - they even give them a whole island for themselves ;-) But to be honest: for children (and I guess for some adults) it must been one of the best days in life to visit their 'popular friends', the Moomins! To wrap it up: Naantali and Moomin World were great, like a journey to a magical place in the westcoast of Finland!

Tampere, tadaa!

Next stop, Tampere! Tampere is one of the biggest cities in Finland. In general you have this ranking:

- Helsinki (565186)

- Espoo (235809)

- Tampere (206480)

- Vantaa (190625)

- Turku (175284)

- Oulu (130526)

That are the 6 biggest cities in Finland, all the others have less than 100000 inhabitants.

We went to Tampere by car, which took us about 1h15min. One of the first things you see when entering Tampere by car is the amusement park situated directly at one of the big lakes (=Sarkanniemi Amusement Park). When arriving at the parking place, we started our tour on the 'mainstreet' of Tampere, Hämeenkatu. There are most of the shops, big malls, some of the main attractions and nice restaurants! One of the oldest churches in Finland, the 'Old Church' is located on Hämeenkatu, Finns call it 'Vanha kirkko'. 

Quite near to the old church is the 'Harald restaurant', a kind of viking restaurant. It is mainly a spot for tourists, including us! The interior is totally out of rustic wood: the tables, the doors, the walls/ceiling, the bar, the steps, just everything. The interior was filled with viking symbols just as viking helmets, ship statues, animal furs, ship tools, viking weapons and so on. The meal was delicious, I'll recommend it at any time! Here are some pictures of it.

Another attraction is the St. John's Church or just 'Tampere Cathedrale', a stone-built church which is about 100 years old and equipped with a lot of paintings in its interior, for example the fresco 'Garden of Death' by Hugo Simberg. The next church who was on our plan was the Alexander Church next to the 'Metso'-library. It's location is in the middle of a nice little park with a lot of green fields and trees. From that point you have already a good view to the Näsinneula Tower, which is an observation tower with a great view over the Näsijärvi Lake. It is the tallest free-standing structure in Finland and the tallest observation tower in all the nordic countries. It is nearly 170 metres high and located in the amusement park. On the very top there is a restaurant - a very expensive one, I can tell. We just saw the menu in front of the entry, but in the end we decided to go to Harald's viking restaurant, so that we have some money left! ;-D Right below the restaurant floor is the observation desk, which costs about 8€, so we decided to do that. And it was really beautiful! The views up there are really amazing and breath-taking - we even had so much luck that the clouds went beside, so that our view improved! Here are some examples!

 

Before going for Tampere my nice neighbours Linh and Marko gave me a hint: MUNKIS! :-D What are munkis? Munkis look like doughnuts: round, sugary and fatty. But there is one thing which makes them different from 'normal' doughnuts. It is the spice cardamom, a spice that reminds you of christmas! Great! Tastes good and gives you a feeling of christmas celebration at the same time - perefect! And I think they are making a big business in selling munkis. The little café where they serve munkis is located in the Pyynikki Tower in a nice little forest at the northern shore between the big lakes. The interior is small or more precisely: tiny! The furniture is ordinary, quite old and it is just too little space for all guests, so that many of them have to sit outside on a bank - and it is very hard to find the way up to the tower. So, in total not the best conditions for a prosperous business... But still, there were all the time at least 5 people waiting to be served. The magic must be in the munkis! So, my next idea: start a munki business in Germany! I will let you know if I succeed in it! :-D

 

 

What can I say in general about Finish 'large cities': well, large related to the city size means in Finland I would say more than 100000 inhabitants. As I mentioned in the beginning of this post, there are about 6 cities that earn this predicate. Compared to other big cities in Europe you do not get lost in Finnish cities - after maybe one day you already start to get familiar and know approximately where you can find the right way. Cities are not that crowded and messy, and not to forget the amount of green area, which is really impressive.

A (even) more lonely place in Finland :-D

There is one place near Pori, called Reposaari which could be called 'desert island', if you asked me. It is a part of the Pori region and at the Kokemäenjoki rivers mouth. Reposaari is connected with the mainland by three bridges and it is mainly used as a harbour and for industrial factories. Another thing which you can see quite often are very big wind engines covering almost all the way to the end of the island.

When finally reaching - let's say - the 'center' of Reposaari, there were maybe a couple different streets, not even a dozen I think. The houses have the old, typical Finnish style: made of wood, rather small, with a ladder directly fixed at the frontside and colorful. There are some boats in the water, right now they are covered and protected for the upcoming winter. On the opposite side you can hike through a little forest, which is abundantly covered with vegetation and a little lake - beautiful! On top of the island there is a very, very small white church in the Norwegian style. If you take the road between the church and the forest, there is the rocky, but flat seaside. Next to you again the large wind engines and a view to big machines working on 'industrial islands'.

I have been there threetimes - each time I saw almost no human beings there, even if the weather was quite good to go out. No cars, no grown ups/no kids, no dogs, no cats, no nothing...... And a silence that is even for Finland an exception! BUT there is one place in Reposaari which is actually alive: the Merimesta restaurant! It is at the peak of the island and it is a great place to eat fish and seafood in general!! I can recommend the buffet for 23€, where you can eat as much as you can. But of course it is not just the quantity that makes it so good, it is the delicious and exquisite taste of everything they offer! (and no, I am not working for their marketing department) ;-) 

 

Turku

On September 25 it was the time to go to Turku! Turku has about 175.000 inhabitants and we needed about 2h to go there by bus. It was (like ALMOST always) a very nice and quiet drive to Turku with some power-napping and a small breakfast. The first stop was the city center with a nice and bustling market. And I think we actually found one of the descendants of Elvis Presley on this market - let's have a look:

 

Turku Elvis

After the market we spend some time in a nice coffee house (again) had some coffees, buns and pieces of cake... Then we walked to the river side (Aura River) where we found a lot of boats and cafés with Swedish/German names, like Manuela, Rudolfina and so on. You can see the Swedish influence on (street-, café-) names quite often and it helped most of us to understand a little bit more and find some places even faster ;-) It was beautiful on the seaside and the weather started to get really good. Here are some impressions:

 

The next destination had been the TURKU CASTLE! It is largest surviving medieval building in Finland, even in whole Scandinavia. It stands as a national monument, on the banks of the Aura River, as it has done since the 14th century. Here are some pictures of the castle:

 

To sum up the history of the castle: Swedish conquerors started to built the castle at the end of the 13th century and it was first intended to be a military fortress. For the next 200 years, the castle served as a bastion and administrative centre in Eastland, as Finland was then known, during the Swedish period. The castle lost its status as an administrative centre in the 17th century after Per Brahe's period as governor-general of Finland came to an end. Many accidents have assailed the castle, especially numerous sieges. In 1614, when King Gustav II Adolf visited the castle, a tremendous fire destroyed the wooden structure of the main castle almost completely. After this the main castle was abandoned and used partly as a store, partly just stood empty. A new accident beset the castle in the summer of 1941 soon after the Continuation War had begun when an incendiary bomb hit the main castle. 

The renovation of the castle, which was begun before the Second World War and interrupted by Finland's two wars with the Soviet Union, was completed in 1987. The castle was handed over to its users completely restored on 12 October 1993. The building is owned and maintained by the Finnish state and is entrusted to the use of the city of Turku. The castle functions in its entirety as a historical museum as part of the Turku provincial museum. 

The museum was really great and kinda scary! There was a large dining room called the King's Hall, a collection of old, fancy clothes and toys (remember the little bike of Jigsaw ;-)). Several rooms showed some old statues, weapons, armours and war documents. The museum even had a little church - a beautiful one - with a lot of maritime signs, just as boats and sails. We spend quite a lot of time in this museum, because it had a lot to offer. Of course it was pretty exhausting seeing that much in just a few hours, but I really have to say: it was certainly worth it! I can truly recommend Turku Castle!

Another building we must not have missed was the Turku Cathedral! At the official page it is described as the following: the Turku Cathedral 'is the Mother Church of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, and the country's national shrine. It is the central church of the Archdiocese of Turku and the seat of the Archbishop of Finland, Kari Mäkinen. It is also regarded as one of the major records of Finnish architectural history.' Today the cathedral is the symbol of Turku and very popular (not only amongst tourists).

After the visit of the great cathedral the day was almost over... Before we went back to the bus station, we had a walk through the university neighborhood and the last destination was the Turku Art Museum up the hill. By the way: it was quite impressing that the center of Turku reminds at the famous streets of San Francisco - at least that is my opinion! You have those little hills and streets going up and down with them - and on top of one of them the museum is located. It was jsut a great look, and to prove it, here is another picture: 

Turku was great!

Rauma-Trip

In the last weeks I did among other things two trips - to Rauma and to Turku! 

First let's tell something about Rauma: at the day I travelled to Rauma it was rainy and quite cold, but my group members and I were determined and motivated. We took the bus to the city, it takes about 1,5 hours to go to Rauma. First (due to the weather and the early time of the day) we stayed some time in a nice little café to indulge ourselves some sweet tooth :-D You can see two examples below:

After we had our trip to chocolate-land, we visited the two museums. The first one, the Marela house, was owned by Abraham Marelin, who was a tradesman and a shipowner in earlier years. Here are some information from the official homepage:

'The large granary is from the year 1830. The carriage shed next to it was built in the mid 18 hundreds. From the 1830’s is also the other roadside building, which originally had storage rooms, as well as the row of outbuildings, which consists of the stable, cowshed and woodshed. During a later renovation a bakery and workers’ quarters were added.'

'The present exterior of the main building is from the end of the 19^th century. It was then that the house got its splendid Neo Renaissance-siding. During the same time period renovations were made in other parts of the town as well, so that approximately two thirds of the houses got a new, fashionable look. Wealth was brought by the flourishing sailing ship trade era of the 1890’s.'
 

'During that time Marela was owned by one of the wealthiest tradesmen and shipowners of the town, Mr. Gabriel Granlund. The decorative tile stoves, the doors, the paintings on the ceilings, and the panelwork reveal the wealth and the museum furnishing the lifestyle of the old shipowner family. Wealthy townspeople, such as the Marela residents, were those who regularly supported lace makers with limited income by buying laces for their linens. Marela has operated as a museum since the beginning of the 1980’s.'

To wrap it up: you can see all the furniture of the old way of living, like very tiny children beds, an old toilet, a fancy dining room and much more. Furthermore there was a little part with old hand-weapons and basic war commodities. The whole interior was very fancy and posh, you could imagine that wealthy people must have lived there. Just have a look at some pictures:

 

The next museum was the Rauma museum, which was founded in 1891 on the initiative of private citizens. The museum is concentrated on local history and the culture the city represents.The three main topics which are on exhibition are the architectural environment, shipping and lace (the Rauma Museum did even have its own lace makers). The collections of the Rauma Museum consist of objects, photographs and archival material of over 100 000 units. Here is a picture (you can find the origional one on the museum's homepage): 

On the second floor there was an exhibition with photographs of some UNESCO World Heritages - all of them showed places in Germany. Good feeling to see some of the most beautiful cities of its own homecountry :-D One other German guy who was in our group and I were like 'Oh, I know this, it's near my hometown!', 'I have been there just this spring!' and 'Yeah, I have a friend in this city!' - yes, it was a very interesting museum, especially for us Germans ;-D

 

Those museums were both in the old part of the city, also called 'Old Rauma' - of course this part of the city was on our list! We informed ourselves before the trip and found out that this part of the city is the 'largest unified historical wooden town in the Nordic countries'. In opposite to most other 'older city parts'  nowadays, where tourist trips replaced the 'real' city life, in Rauma the old part today is still the heart of the town, where living, social life and business go hand in hand all year round. 

After that we walked to the harbour to see the old lookout  tower, called KIIKARTORNI. First again some official information about the tower: 'The original Kiikartorni was located in the harbour, close to the present maritime school. It was completed in 1892, at the peak of the Rauma sailing ship era. It offered information services to the harbour, the town, and those at sea.The tower was still giving weather reports in the 1940’s. It was torn down in 1956 as unnecessary. The current lookout tower at the shore of the Syväraumanlahti bay is an exact copy of the old tower in the harbour. The 18,6 metre high tower was built in 1992. The tower offers a beautiful view into the archipelago as well as a chance to observe the lively traffic of the boat harbour.' Here is a picture of the tower:

 Unfortunately...it was CLOSED that day :-(

But we made some nice little photosessions behind the tower on a lot of very big rocks. It was even not that easy, because of the rain which made the surface of the rocks very slippery. Nobody felt into the water or broke some bones - just to let you know! Here are two pictures of the group (we had to separate it, because there was not enough space for the whole group):

Yes, that was our Rauma-trip, it was rainy, but nice though! I would say it is the typically Finnish city someone expects coming to Finland! For sure, it is worth a visit!

Moika! :-D