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!