Porvoo, Finland - 19th May 2008
By: Delenna
Elle has arrived safely to Porvoo, Finland! She will soon enjoy the fresh air and sights, just wait...
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Posted May 19, 2008, 7:33 am
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Porvoo, Finland - 20th May 2008
By: Delenna
Here I am, by the Baltic Sea! You can't see an open sea view as there's a lot of archipelago around. This is a very interesting part of the archipelago as the creator of Moomin spent her summers here, on one of the island. This has to be why Moominpappa loves the sea so much!
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Posted May 20, 2008, 7:58 pm Last edited May 20, 2008, 8:00 pm by Delenna
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Suomenlinna fortress, Finland - 21st May 2008
By: Delenna
Konnichiwa! Today I visited the Suomenlinna fortress in Helsinki. Suomenlinna is a sea fortress made up of a series of fortification works (on 8 small islands), so it is not a single fortress building. It's also a suburb of Helsinki so regular peopple live there in regular houses. They even have a kindergarden, a store, library - and a prison!
In the first photos I'm leaving the dock in Helsinki City and approaching Suomenlinna. You can also see the ferry we took (me, my host and a bunch of tv's). The views are amazing don't you think? Especially the ones we saw while walking on the wall. I'm glad the weather was this good!
I saw a few cannons and the subrarine named Vesikko that was used in the II World War. In the 3rd last photo there's the King’s Gate which is a symbol of Suomenlinna. It was built in 1753-54 as a parade gate for the fortress. It's really huge! You could see it better from further away, but we couldn't do it as further away meant the Baltic Sea!
In the 2nd last photo is the tomb of Augustin Ehrensvärd (1710-1772), founder of the fortress. And in the last photo I'm on my way back to Helsinki City! I loved this trip!
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Posted May 22, 2008, 7:51 am
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Helsinki, Finland - 22nd May 2008
By: Delenna
After the trip to Suomenlinna fortress I got to see some sights in "mainland Helsinki". Here's the Presidential Palace. Did you know that the president of Finland is a woman? She's the first female president in Finland!
Then there's the Uspenski Orthodox Cathedral. Looks very interesting! And that white, big church is The Cathedral. The Cathedral is also a very well known sight of Helsinki, I believe it's on almost every postcard there is from Helsinki!
I also met a reindeer, Santa Claus' little helper. And a couple that welcomed me to Finland - they were very quiet though, maybe they were very shy. The last picture is a regular street view on my way to the busstation. Ah, what a day...
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Posted May 22, 2008, 8:01 am
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Porvoo, Finland - 23rd May 2008
By: Delenna
May I introduce you: the Finnish sauna. It's a heated room where you throw water on hot stones to get the room even more heated (preferably 60-80 degrees Celcius) and humid if it's a good sauna. I was told it relaxes your muscles and opens your skin pores. People take a shower before going there - and after it. And in the middle. Every house has one here. In high houses there's one sauna in the basement/first floor and people make reservations for it. My host is thrilled that she has a sauna of their own. They go there every Friday, at least.
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Posted May 25, 2008, 11:34 am Last edited May 25, 2008, 11:35 am by Delenna
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Porvoo, Finland - 24th May 2008
By: Delenna
Today we held a birthday party for my host's daughter. She turned 4 and had this dog cake (my host made the design up herself). I helped with the whipped cream too!
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Posted May 25, 2008, 11:37 am
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Porvoo, Finland - 26th May 2008
By: Delenna
My host wanted me to accomplish a task while I'm visiting here so she taught me about recycling! First you put all the different trash into different boxes/trashcans. Here we're separating paper into a box and put batteries into another box. My host also puts cardboard into one place (did you know that you can fit several empty milk cardboard boxes into one empty milk cardboard box - saves space!) and glass into one. There's also a trashcan in every new apartment for separating biological waste (food) from the rest.
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Posted May 26, 2008, 7:31 am
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Porvoo, Finland - 26th May 2008
By: Delenna
When our boxes and cans are full we take the separated trash outside, into this garbage roof ('jätekatos' in Finnish). On the wall there's instructions what you can put in the containers and what not. There are different containers for different waste. Green in for paper, blue is for cardboard, brown is for biological and balck is for the rest that can't be put into the others. The colors are the same everywhere where they have this sort of containers. Hmmm... someone has stuffed a cardboard pizza box into the black one and not into the blue cardboard container! Hey, I'm learning already
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Posted May 26, 2008, 7:42 am Last edited May 26, 2008, 7:45 am by Delenna
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Porvoo, Finland - 26th May 2008
By: Delenna
This is another type of garbage container. They aren't that small really, they go all the way down in the ground. There you can take glass, metal and the waste you can't put anywhere else. There's also a smaller container on the side of one of these where you can put the batteries. At a certain time a big garbage truck comes and takes the waste from the containers and drives them into different places. As much as possible is re-used or actually re-made into things.
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Posted May 26, 2008, 7:53 am
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Porvoo, Finland - 26th May 2008
By: Delenna
One more stop in my lessons to learn about recycling: on the shore (which I visited some time ago) there's containers for accumulators (bigger "batteries"), paint cans, mixed waste and "closed waste". Hmm, I wonder what "closed waste" means... These are for the boatmen (and boat women may I add). They can leave their boat garbage here and don't have to go further looking for containers.
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Posted May 26, 2008, 7:59 am
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Porvoo, Finland - 28th May 2008
By: Delenna
Here I am looking at the Old Town of Porvoo. Porvoo is the second oldest city in Finland and the Old Town is its most welknown sight. There are many narrow gobble stone streets and a few not so narrow with many small shops. One shop sells toys made of wood, tin, fabrick - basically anything else but plastic toys. They have that Moomin house on the window and they change the view several times a year; during winter there's winter Moomin scene, during Easter it's Easter theme etc. In the last picture there's the old market square where they still have events every now and then.
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Posted May 29, 2008, 1:08 pm
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Porvoo, Finland - 28th May 2008
By: Delenna
We continued our walk towards the Porvoo River. There's the oldest bridge. Behind it you can see the Castle Hill - without a castle though. There used to be a castle/fortress hundreds of years ago, now you can only see a lot of trees and the castle moats. It's a great place to play Robin Hood my host told me!
In the second photo there are the old, red shore houses that used to be warehouses - and some still are but some are also living quarters. That boat makes one big contrast there don't you think. The third photo gives a glimpse to the Cathedral. The roof was burnt by arson 2 years ago and it's still being rebuilt!
We continued our walk back on another street. I saw the Finnish flag and some Finnish design!
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Posted May 29, 2008, 1:16 pm Last edited May 29, 2008, 1:17 pm by Delenna
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Porvoo, Finland - 28th May 2008
By: Delenna
We walked from the Old Town along the river line and here the River is again. There on the other side are the newer versions of the shore houses (they're close to each other, the old and the new, just on opposite shores) which are all regular houses. There are quite few boats on the river - and a few bar/restaurant/cafes. It's a popular place in the summer, people like to sit there and have a drink.
The park is the "Runeberg's Park". He is the national poet and his statue is in the middle of the park. On the other side of the park there's the busstation and the market place, the new one. They're the city center here.
Now I think I'd know mymay round this town
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Posted May 29, 2008, 1:28 pm
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Helsinki, Finland - 30th May 2008
By: Delenna
Here I am at the Helsinki Main Railway Station, starting my weekend holiday in Tampere!
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Posted Jun 1, 2008, 7:07 pm
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