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!
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