Travelog for: Vladimir

Today I got to visit the capitol of Finland, Helsinki! Here I am looking at the possibly prettiest place to ghost around: St. John's Church. It's built in 1893 and designed in Neogothic style by the Swedish architect A. E. Molander. It's the biggest church in Helsinki!

It had snowed a lot during the night and it was very slippery when we took the buss to visit: Helsinki, the capitol of Finland! Here I am looking at the biggest church in Helsinki: St. John's Church. It's built in 1893 and designed in Neogothic style by the Swedish architect A. E. Molander. Looks lovely, they don't have many coloured churches here - at least not ones with coloured stone.

Here are some older building around the St. John's Church. Here you can read a short history of Helsinki. Oh yes, the last photo shows the Design Museum, which we didn't visit though...

We walked to the Esplanade Park which is very pretty and eventfull in the summer. On the other end of the park is the Havis Amanda fountain statue which is washed by university students as the prelude to the city's May Day (Vappu) celebrations.

...and after Havis Amanda we crossed the road to get to the Market Square. It was very quiet there today, it won't be in the summer! This is also the place where big ferries leave to Stockholm (Sweden) and Tallinn (Estonia) - and small ferries to Suomenlinna Sea Fortress. 

There was that tall interesting statue apparently dedicated to a former Russian emperor. Behind it you can see the related Uspenski Orthodox Cathedral .

There's also the Presidential Palace where for example  the Independence Day Ball is held. Two guys were guarding it inside the fence... 

Here's probably the most wellknown sight in Helsinki: The Cathedral. There are about 42 steps there... That little reindeer we met close by - he was guarding the green telephone booth. It's most likely the only green (or otherwise colorfull) telephone booth in the whole country. Everyone has a cellphone nowadays that even uncolored phone booths are very rare.

And then - back towards the city center... (phew, does this walking ever end?!)

This is the main street (Mannerheimintie - "Mannerheim's street") in Helsinki city center. It's a very long street as you probably can imagine. The statue of the Three Smiths was designed by Felix Nylund. The guys who posed for it were a brick layer, stone cutter - and the designer. On eof them has the face of a poet Arvid Mörne (my host whispered that she had never hear of him).

Then I saw the Main Railway Station. Those statues holding the roundish lamps are very lively in the tv commercials - it's really funny  The company that runs the trains is called VR - short for Valtion Rautatiet which simply means "state railways". You can get straight to Russia by train too!

Next to the railway station is the Main Post Office and next to that the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma. There are all sorts of weird exhibitions in Kiasma.

Next to Kiasma is the statue of Mannerheim, a former president and
Field Marshal. On the other side of the street you can see the Parliament and a bit further away the National Museum of Finland.

Did you notice that the buildings are all made of stone?

Phew! Finally we could rest! We sat in Wayne's Coffee and waited for other postcrossers to show up - we attended a "Post-xmas-party-meetup"  They had a "Pre-xmas-party-meetup" last year too. The Finnish postcrossers like to meet to chat a lot, have almost as much coffee and write even more postcards! I was scared that I would get lost under all the postcards so Roo took me in her pouch  That was a safe place to look and listen.

PS. The duck is their official "meetup-duck"!

Today I had a chance to see the Old Town of Porvoo! We started at the oldest bridge. Next to it was a cannon from the World War 2. I'm glad it's not in use anymore. In the third pic I'm looking at the Castle Hill where used to be a castle hundreds of years ago. Now there are just woods and castle moats. My host says it's a great place to play Robin Hood in! For me it might be a good place to haunt too...

The red shore houses by the river are the most wellknown sight of Porvoo. They used to be ware houses - and some still are as well as some are living quarters. They were painted red first time in 18th century to honor visiting King Gustav III.

This year the town is more excited about the coming festives: it's been 200 years since the Porvoo diet. At first I wondered why people would celebrate food or losing wight but apparently this diet was something the Russian emperor Alexander I gathered. Bunch of important people talking and Finland ending up as "nation among nations". They say that that decision was a turning point and made it possible for Finland to become independent later.

We walked the streets in the Old Town and saw this little toyshop (they sell only wooden, fabric and tin toys, nothing of plastic). They had a snowman ice skating in one window and a Moomin house in another! I wanted to go and play with them but there was no way in 

In the summer these streets (and all the streets next to them) are full of tourists. I'm glad I got to see them in the calmer winter 

There are quite a few second hand shops in Porvoo but only one that sells only children's clothes & stuff. This is it. Very small but full of good quality, second hand clothes etc. My host likes to visit 2nd hand shops as they're eco-friendly - and cheaper too.

In freezing cold -15C I went to the sightseeing tower to get an overall look on this town. The views were cool, almost too cool literally... There you can see the church, the river that flows thru the town to the Baltic Sea, and even the local skiing slope! And the previously mentioned red shore houses from a different angle.

Like we hadn't frozen our butts yet, we walked further away on the hill. My host wanted to show me a different view on the Old Town. There's the Castle Hill and the churches or Cathedral and the Small Church to be exact. The red one next to the Cathedral is the small church.

The small wooden bridge is the oldest in Porvoo. It was the only way people could get to Porvoo in the old days. It's also part of King's Road which is the oldest highway in Finland - leading from Turku (west coast) to Vyborg in Russia.

We finally got to the car and drove to the church to see the surroundings. The (dark) yellow building in the first pic is the Bishop's House, built in 1759. This is where Tsar Alexander I opened the previously mentioned Porvoo Diet and there was also held an imperial ball. The house was used as a high school untill 1850. Now it's in private use.

In the third picture is the red-pink "Poet's House". The town rents it for an artist for a certain period of time, with lesser money. It's a honor to get to live there.

The map is a map of the church yard. The Small Church is right next to the cathedral. In the last photo is a monument on the church yard. It's a monument for the independence and people who fought for it.

Sweet Valentine's Day!

In Finland it's called Ystävänpäivä which means Friend's Day. So here you send  a card or give chocolate or a cute fluffy thing to your friends. Some couples remember each other too.

Since we haven't been to see any sights lately we've been entertaining ourselves - us tv's I mean. At the moment that means me, Ewan E. Ewok, Roo, Alfie Langer and Gary Boldie. Here we're playing Moomin Memo/Pairs, partly because Finland is wellknown for Moomins and their creator used to spend her summers on an island nearby - partly because it's fun! This time I won!

Here are some of the characters in Finnish
Muumipeikko (Moomintroll)
Muumimamma (Moominmamma)
Muumipappa (Moominpappa)
Niiskuneiti (Snorkmaiden)
Pikku Myy (Little My)
Haisuli (Stinky)
Hattivatti (Hattifattener)
Nipsu (Sniff)
Mörkö (Groke)
Hemuli (Hemulen)
Nuuskamuikkunen (Snufkin)
Vilijonkka (Fillyjonk)

You can read about them in here for example.