Vinayak Hegde

After visiting Stockholm the next destination in my journey was Turku in Finland. I crossed over to Turku Finland overnight by the Galaxy Ship owned by the Silja Line. Sale of alcohol is tightly controlled in Sweden. SystemBolaget is a government owned monopoly and you can only buy alcohol from it’s retails stores. Alcohol is taxed heavily. But it is possible to get cheap booze on the ferry ships that ply between Sweden and Finland, even though both are a part of the EU (which has strict VAT rules). This is made possible as ferries which stop at the Åland Islands (part of Finland) are exempt from taxes. Hence most ferries stop at Mariehamm to avail of this benefit. More at Åland Islands The huge ferry ships are like mini – Las Vegas on water with several restaurants shopping malls and several floors of cabins for overnight stays. During the weekend and especially on Friday nights, there is a large contingent of party revelers on this ship. The ferry tickets are also pricier on Fridays and weekends. I traveled on a Friday so could see this firsthand.

Turku is a city in southwest finland. It was the capital of Finland from 1300s till 1812, when the Russians moved the capital to Helsinki. Today Turku (pop 175 000) is the third largest city in Finland after Helsinki and Tampere. Before independence in 1917, Finland was a part of the Swedish empire (from the 12th -19th Century) and thereafter the Russian Empire (1809 onwards). The traces of this can be seen in the culture in many places. From the stark and cold Russian statues in some of the parks to Swedish being the second official language of Finland. Government officials are expected to answers queries in Swedish and it is a requirement that they know the language. As Turku is close to the Sweden, there is a significant minority of Swedes living in Turku. [ Linus Torvalds was also from this minority community though he was born in Helsinki ]. I was staying with a Couchsurfing (CS) friend TS at Turku.

I found Turku to a very interesting and quirky city dominated by the Aura River which runs through the city centre and it’s medieval past symbolized by the majestic Turku cathedral and Castle. Some of the quirky things that I saw

Fibonacci sequence on Chimney of Turku Energia

If you look carefully at the picture below [Larger version with complete building] , there is a fibonacci sequence (1,1,2,3,5,11,.. – The next number is the sequence is generated by adding the last two numbers in the sequence) in neon signs on the Chimney of the Turku Energia building. I was not able to find out why.

Chilli Sauces

Saw this in the supermarket. Read from left to right – Original Death, Mega Death, Pure Death and Sudden Death. [Larger Version]. On the Cover it says “Feel Alive” and “World famous dangling skull included in box”

The Mermaid’s tail

There was this beautiful mermaid’s tail in the Aura river near the shipbuilding yard. Must have a story to it.

Hearts in the Aura

There were bright-red Hearts scattered in the Aura river.

If you liked this then you may also like to read

• Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova and Trip to Ruissalo
• Turku Castle and Cathedral
• The Sights of Tampere
• The Tampere Photosessions
• Tampere – Manchester of Finland