Turku – Åbo

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have booked  cheap train tickets to Turku. It is a well know fact that Turku was the historical capital of Finland.  But then, the tsar Alexander I  moved the capital to what is today the city of Helsinki. All for the cause of being closer to Russia, and govern.

Turku is the home of one of the biggest archipelagos in the world. Thousand of island, scattered around the city of Turku. My Latvian EVS friend,Ilze, gave me a tour of the historical capital of Finland. Even today the city thrives on culture and heritage.

We started by visiting the vibrant city center, then continued walking along the quay of the river Aura.

Quay of Aura river

 

Somewhere along the river there was an orange ferry that goes sideways. From the ferry you could see the panorama of the city. As we walked towards Turunlinna, we came across Silakkamarkkinat, this time in Turku!  Going through all the stands is a wonderful experience. There were stands with goods from Holland and the UK and some bread from Greece.

UK stand

 

Oh the variety of cheddar cheese, mmmm!

Since it was quite cold, and snowy ,we in a hurry to Turunlinna. But, hark! We saw a gigantic flower coming out from the bay. A big chamomile peeking from the snow, breaking all the winter grimness into smithereens.

 

FLOWER POWER

 

It was a long walk to Turunlinna (linna – castle). The castle is among the oldest castles in Finland. A big castle fortified by huge walls, very grim and spooky. Just my type of castle. The downside was that you had to pay in order to explore the entrails of the castle. Sucks big time!

 

Turunlinna

There was a lovely ravintola(restaurant) in the vicinity of the castle. Nothing special, but very traditional. Not so expensive as well.

So the tour in Turku is over. Next up PARTAY! We were invited to an acquittance’ s house party, a Finnish Swede. Since Turku is in Western Finland, there were a load of Swedish speaking folks. Our host who threw the party was one of them.

It’s always lovely to speak with people about their life in Finland, and their current lifestyle . I learned a lot of this about Finnish Swedes and their situation in Finland. Most of them are bilingual, but it is understandable if they are uni lingual. There are cities in Western Finland ( Kristinestad, Närpes, Nykårleby etc.) that are exclusively Swedish speaking, hence inhabited by Finnish Swedes. The autonomous islands of  Åland (Ahvenanmaa)are one example just off the coast of Turku.. Our host prepared some lovely delicacies.

My gramercies go to his kindness.  Tack Kim!

And our night went on and on and on.. .

I just love Finns, they know how to have fun. Maybe too much fun 😀

During my last day in Turku, Ilze suggested that we should visit one of the islands in the Turku Archipelago. So we went to the island of Kakskerta.  It is way off from the city center. A very beautiful island, just one  of  many islands in the Turku Archipelago.

Kakskerta

 

 

So this is how I rounded up my visit to the historical capital of Finland.

Want to see the world’s biggest Archipelago?
Visit Turku!

 

Trains in Finland

Trains in Finland are flawless. I’m writing this post on the go. Living in such a big country like Finland requires fast transportation, and the the most reliable mean of transportation is the train (juna – train.)

The company that governs the Finnish railroads is called VR.
On that website you can book your trips all across Finland (n.b e-banking is required!)

I have used the autumn cheap ticket offer by VR, and booked my trip to Turku,for only 20€ (both ways).

Keep your eyes peeled at  the special offers on the  website! There might be some cheap tickets available.  It’s an unique opportunity to travel around Finland. Try to book these types of tickets beforehand because train transportation in Finland is quite costly.

Most of the train commuting on Finnish railroads are InterCity trains, highly modern and comfortable trains that commute around Finnish cities. Also, there are other types of trains, so called ‘Pendolino’. These trains don’t stop in every station and are much faster. And more expensive,that is.

This is how InterCity trains look like on the inside.
Maximum comfortability, internet connection and above all PUNCTUALITY.

Gotta love trains in Finland.

Have you ever travelled by train in Finland?

HYVÄÄ MATKA!

Maalaismarkkinat & Silakkamarkkinat

Moikka good people! A wonderful sunny weekend.

Last weekend  was markkinat weekend!  Couple of markets had hit the town of Helsinki, with various goodies. First one was situated in Hakaniemi, the so called ‘Maalaismarkkinat’ i.e Rural Market.

HAKANIEMEN MAALAISMARKKINAT

I had no idea that this is happening in Hakaniemi. I just saw the big crowd rushing to Hakaniemi. The selection of goodies varied from clothing ( warm winer clothes, shoes, mittens etc.) to pastries, berries,honey and loads of tyrni juice ( i.e seabuckthorn, it goes wonderful in the morning,with a glass full of oats.) Also, many  souvenirs from all across Finland.

It was pretty crowded, since it happens only on Sunday, the first Sunday of each month. It was really good to see how much variety Finland can offer.

Goods and groceries can vary from region to region.

 

A close up view to the entrance of the Rural Market.

 

One of my favorite things in the market was Lappi Hunaja.

Coming straight from the cold lands of Lapland. A simple stand full of all kinds of honey.  You could also give it a taste. My personal favorite was the Artic Honey.

Lappi – Hunaja stand

Look out for Maalaismarkkinat, because it might be soon in your town in Finland! Check http://www.markkina.net for further information.

My journey continued to the usual stroll at Kauppatori, since the weather was lovely. And guess what? Another market!

This time it is the  ‘Silakkamarkkinat’or ‘Helsinki Baltic Herring Fair.  The Herring Fair is an annual event that takes places in the Helsinki bay area.

There were many booths that offered herring and goodies from their part of Finland.  Kotka, Seinajoki, Lappeenranta and many others, even  Åland Islands ( Ahvenmaa.) You name it!

Atmosphere at Silakkamarkkinat

There were a lot of outdoor places to eat, offering fresh pullas, lohikeitto( salmon soup), lihapiirakka and other national dishes. Yummy for the tummy! The Helsinki Baltic Herring Fair is still open! It will be  open for the whole following week.

Go swiftly and see the riches that the Baltic has to offer.

Helsinkians view of Finland

Helsinkians view of Finland ( courtesy of whatsupfinland.org)

Just found this image while surfing on the verkko ( i.e netti – internet).  I have lived only 4 months in Helsinki and I already have this ‘metropolitan’ snub – nose mindset. 😀   It is appalling how true this is!!!

I have a lot of volunteer pals in the North, and it never crossed my mind to go and visit.  Why? I am from Helsinfors, bitch! 😀
Guilty as charged!

FINNISH FOR BEGINNERS

Finnish for beginners:

järki = reason, sense, intelligence
järjestää = organize
järjestelmä = organization
järjestelmällinen = organized
järjestelmällistyttää = organizationalize
epäjärjestelmällistyttää = unorganizationalize
epäjärjestelmällistyttämätön = having unreflectional attention to antiunorganizationalize
epäjärjestelmällistyttämättömyys = unreflectional attention to antiunorganizationalize

epäjärjestelmällistyttämättomyydellä = with unreflectional attention to antiunorganizationalize
epäjärjestelmällistyttämättömyydellään = with his unreflectional attention to antiunorganizationalize
epäjärjestelmällistyttämättömyydelläänkö? = is it with his unreflectional attention to antiunorganizationalize?
epäjärjestelmällistyttämättömyydelläänköhän? = I wonder if it is possible, with his unreflectional attention to antiunorganizationalize?
epäjärjestelmällistyttämättömyydelläänköhänkään? = I wonder if it is possible, even with his unreflectional attention to antiunorganizationalize?

I don’t want to rain on your parade, but this is it! 🙂  Due to the agglutinative nature of Finnish, you usually get elongated words like this. By agglutinative I mean that words are formed by adding affixes to the base of the word.

e.g epä – un or not     epäkunossa – not working ( kuno is the basis)

Agglutinative languages always function in this manner.  Turkish is another example. As written above, in both Turkish & Finnish, a word can be a full sentence.

As soon as you get the hang  of the affixes, you will see the bigger picture. The affix addition goes almost mechanically, with a certain hierarchy.

But of course, it shouldn’t be taken lightly.

Challenge accepted, bring it on Finnish!

Kiasma – Museum of contemporary art

Once upon a blue moon,   that is every first Friday of the month, Kiasma is free of charge. So, why not go and give it a chance? I, myself am not a  avid fan of contemporary art.  But, since it was free admission, it won’t kill me. Kiasma is close to the Musiikkitalo and the Finnish Parliament. When you come across the big statue of a man on a horse, you are on the spot!

KIASMA

You might assume there were  loads of people there.  I mean,  heaps of people!  The first thing you see when you enter: A POLICE CAR.

A special one too. Quite soft, and very nice!

It was entirely made of wool, hand – knitted.  No touching!  There was a specimen near the car of the materials so you could feel it.  So fluffy I could die!

Walking around the interior, surfing through the crowd the next exhibition was the fashion outlet of a young man called Mert Otsamo.  I’ve heard that he is quite a thing here in Finland.
Three girls were posing whilst wearing his creations. It was interactive in the sense that everyone could sketch the girls and then give the sketches and hang them on the windows.  Most of the sketches were actually incredibly good!

Mert Otsamo

Then we went to the next floor to explore the rest of the installations, there were quite a lot.  The stairways were quite stylish, with no stairs. lol

Just see the next image and you will get the idea.

Stairway to Kiasma.

 As you go through the staircases, from the lobby you could someone taking portraits of people with dough in their heads. (?!)  I just stood there and was stoked. It was the funniest thing ever!

The queue was long, people were waiting to take a photo with a huge piece of dough on top of their head. It was a show  by a Danish performance and visual artist  named Søren Dahlgaard. The name of the event is ‘Dough Portraits’. Basically the people just gave you a plastic bag for your head and smack a huge lump of dough on top of your head. 😀  People just stood there giggling.

Dough Portraits

Up next were the replicas of the signs and requisites made by the people during the Occupy Wall St. happenings. A series of interesting signs were on display.  A form of art by its self. The idea was introduced  by the artist Sebastian Errazuris.  The main mechanism behind this was to ‘invite’ his crafts, chairs and signs alike into one’s home. He wanted the rich collectors to embrace the idea and support the common people during the crisis. A double edge knife.   Cunning!

Occupy Wall St. sign

I entered the next room. What did I see? Bunch of beds stacked next to each other. People just having a break from the long walk in Kiasma. Lying down, watching the projection  of kids playing with pillows and jumping up and down before bed time. It was really relaxing.  The name of this installation was ‘Dormitorium’ by Tuomas Aleksandar Laitinen.

Dormitorium

In the following room I encountered my biggest addiction: SUGAR!  The items were scattered all across the room.  The concept of this exhibition was the sugar rush that we have in the 21c. Loads of sugar mixed with popular Disney culture. The outcome?  Follow me closely:

A GIGANTIC BELLY!

I love candy? NOT

I finally stumbled upon something that would satisfy my strange appetite.ake I went to a room full with strange dollies. Pretty dollies.  Ones I would put next to my bed and stare at all night long. Nevermind, carry on…

The exhibition was called ‘Aeric’ by Silvia B, a combination of street culture with a twist of horror movies together with excellent high fashion couture. Something you don’t get to see nowadays.

Look very closely!

Keep your eyes peeled, because looks can be deceiving!  A lesson well learned from this exhibition.

There was a lot where that came from, but I won’t spoil the fun for you. Seeing is believing. 😉 DIY!

Don’t forget to visit to visit the Kiasma shop.  They have materials from most of the exhibitions and adorable merch. It is a place worth visiting.

Kiasma convinced me otherwise, I start to like the contemporary and the stench of the 21c.  I will definitely come back to Kiasma at some point during my stay in Finland.

ARS LONGA – VITA BREVIS!

The Chapel of Silence

Ever seen the orange building on the corner of the Kamppi shopping mall area, i.e Kamppi? Wonder what that is?

That is  Kamppi chapel,  which is available for the public ,starting from June 1 2012.

KAMPPI CHAPEL

 

Designed by architects  Kimmo Lintula, Niko Sirola and Mikko Summanen, the Kamppi Chapel is intended to be a place where people can have their moment of silence and reflect on themselves. It is entirely cast from wood, shaped in a circular motion, sound proof, with no disturbance by the outside hustle and bustle of old Helsinki.

Helsinki, as old as he is never grows tired, but his residents do. The Kamppi Chapel is just the place where they can rest their bones ( pun intended?! o.o )

sitting arrangement inside the Kamppi Chapel

 

The building is very eye – catching and quite queer. It is… silent.  Familiar much? SILENCE IS A SOUND TOO.

From what I have heard masses will be scheduled soon.  The Kamppi Chapel will be used for religious purposes.

Take cover from the noise in this wooden sanctuary.
Silence?  Trust me, you will need it.

National Library of Finland & Kaisa – Talo

The last few days I’ve been ill, so I was bedridden most of the time.  As it is raining almost everyday and it is getting darker and darker, the best way to kill time is by reading. I’ve been meaning to get a library pass for sometime now.  I went across the National Library of Finland many times, but didn’t have the guts to go in.  The time has come! I just went for it. The old  entrance was closed,

The National Library of Finland ( old entrance )

meaning that the new entrance is the other way around, that is:

New Entrance Info

You just need to continue straight and take  your right ( Unionkatu). Basically, that is the right side of the Helsinki Cathedral. And there you have it ,The National Library of Finland.

Mind you, IMMENSE!

The new location is behind the Helsinki Cathedral, the back end of the it.

You get in from that brown door, and you have to leave your personal belongings in the lockers in the locker room on your right. From there, you continue straight to the staff service. You need to take a ticket from the ticket mashine ( in Finland there is a queue  ticket machine, almost in every public institution. You click on the button then receive your queue number  and wait for your turn.)

In order to acquire the library card you need to give your personal information to the person behind the counter( Don’t forget your I.D and  Finnish personal security number! )

After all the paperwork is done, you receive your HELKA card.  You can use this card in the National Library  as well as in Kaisa – Talo among others.

HELKA library card

The building is in an rotund shape consisted of few floors all full of books from different literary genres: from Archeology to Applied Science. Enough to satisfy everyone’s needs. Not mine  😀 😀

The interior of the National Library of Finland

I was browsing around, had a hard time to find what I wanted, so I used one of  computers and searched through the database of the National Library:

https://helka.linneanet.fi/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?LANGUAGE=English&DB=local&PAGE=First&init=1

Personally, I advise you to use this. Because the library is humongous! You can’t possibly find what you want.  After you have found your book, the page will give you more information about the location of the  book.

The books I have been searching for were not available in the National Library. Instead, most of them were located in the newly opened branch of Helsinki University library, called Kaisa Talo ( talo = house )

It has been only recently that the Kaisa Talo had been revealed to the public eye. The Kaisa House is located on the so called ‘Hirvi’ block on Fabianinkatu in the  heart and soul of Helsinki. The premises of Kaisa Talo were a project realized by  World Capital Design Helsinki 2012.

Kaisa Talo

The entrance to the Kaisa talo is through a flight of stairs on the right of the main building.

Main Entrance

As you go inside, you are awe – stricken by the white marble like interior . Simplicity and practicality. The top assets of  Finnish architecture and design.

The building was consisted by 7 floors and 3 basement floors ( K2 – K3 – K4 , supplementary collections.)

My field of interest was FLOOR 5 – Art Studies and Languages.

I was so stocked by the interior and the bookshelves that I forgot what I was looking for! For shame..

What else? The reading area, ah!  It was a pure pleasure to be there.  Just take a seat and relax, enjoy the rest of the day with some nice word porn.

Reading Area in Floor 5

As simple as that. It was really relaxing, and best of all QUIET.  Racing through the staircases trying to find what I want, every now and then I would spot some colourful decoration right next to the bookshelves.

Reading can be fun!

Time was closing in,  my feet hurt from pacing around the bookshelves.  It was about the time for me to leave that place once and for all.  JK 😀

From the exit, you could see the spiral – shape of all the floors of the Kaisa – Talo, ending in one big window. Geometric and alien, magic for the eyes!

view from the exit

One thing is certain, I will visit this place once again. This time, I will find what I am looking for ( hopefully .)  I still feel shaky, because I cannot use the lending automates nor all those technological newbies.  Tyhma poika!

Finland, thou technological marvel!

Do you have your library pass already?  If not, make haste and join in!  I strongly advise you to visit these libraries. Few of the many libraries in the Helsinki area.

Joining in is free, it only takes some of your time.

HYVÄÄ YÖTÄ!

You know when you’re Finnish when… #1

PASKA KESÄ = CRAPPY SUMMER

 

                Courtesy of youknowwhenyourfinnishwhen.

I found this awesome tumblr! I will share my personal favorites every now and then = )

WORD!

The Bluffer’s Guide to Finnglish

 

The Bluffer’s Guide to Finnglish

I was browsing through an interesting tumbler site, and came across to this very interesting newspaper article. Finnish, as every language is prone to loanwords. This is especially true, if you consider the Helsinki slang ( a concoction of Russian – Swedish – Finnish).

It is worth reading, check it!