Vinayak Hegde

Soumenlinna (literally Finland’s Castle in Finnish) or Sveborg (Fortress of Svea in Sweden) is a UNESCO World Heritage site built on an a group of islands south-east of Helsinki in the Baltic sea. It is accessible by the water ferries that ply across the sea from Helsinki. The ramparts of the forts are star-shaped and consists of many fortifications made of large mounds of sand. (called Skansen in Swedish – literally meanings fortifications or fort walls).

The fortress itself is inhabited and there are a number of cafes and restaurants to cater to the gaggle of picnicking Helsinkians (Not Helsinkers !! however tempted you are to use that word !!). The fortress also has Finland’s smallest official beach just a few metres across (see below). Suomenlinna was used during the Second World War as one of Helsinki’s air surveillance centres and served as a garrison until 1972. Today it houses the Finnish Naval War Academy. It also houses the Helsinki open prison. A substantial part of the repairs to the walls, ramparts and buildings are carried out by convicts.

Interestingly, Soumenlinna was built by a Swedish King (when Finland was still a part of Sweden 250 years ago) to guard against Russia whose increasing maritime power in the Gulf of Finland made the Swedes uneasy. Soumenlinna contains a shipbuilding yard that is now defunct. The Soumenlinna Church was built originally in Greek Orthodox Style with five onion domes. Later it was converted into Lutheran Church (Most Finnish are Lutheran Christians). Today, the main dome of the church doubles up as a lighthouse. The light in the Lighthouse signals the morse code for the letter ‘H’ (for Helsinki) and is one of the first landmark for vessels approaching Helsinki.

Sibelius Monument

The Sibelius Monument (more info) is one of the must-see places in Helsinki. It is an interesting Abstract Art sculpture made by Eila Hiltunen to commemorate Jean Sibelius – A celebrated Finnish composer whose work was instrumental in the formation of the Finnish Identity. The Finlandia Concert Hall built by Alvar Alto is named after a one of his most famous compositions. The sculpture itself is made of acid-proof stainless steel pipes that are welded together individually to form the distinctive abstract shape.

The Helsinki Harbour

The Helsinki harbour is beautiful by night. The photo below (of a bridge and the power station) was taken while going to a Madonna concert that night.

Finland and Russia have a troubled past though relations are very cordial right now. Finland was a part of Russia for more than 100 years before it was annexed by Swedish Empire. Finland was attacked by Russia during World War II and some symbols of Russia in Helsinki (see photo below – the two-headed eagle in the Helsinki Harbour) still remind of this uneasy past. Russian Ships were docked in the harbour and heavily guarded when I visited it.

The Olympic Stadium

The Olympic Stadium in Helsinki (and the tall tower beside the stadium) are iconic. The stadium was built for hosting the 1940 Olympics which was canceled due to World War II but hosted the 1952 Olympics. The tall tower beside the stadium offers great views of the entire city. The Finnish football team was practicing when I visited it. On the board inside the stadium,there are quite a few recognizable names amongst those who have set records here – Marion Jones, Justin Gatlin (both Sprinters), Moses Kiptanui and Haile Gebrselassie (both have held several long distance running records). Outside the stadium, there is a statue of the “Flying Finn” – Paavo Nurmi – who has won 12 Olympic medals and is considered one of the greatest track and field athletes of all time.

Helsinki Cathedral

The Helsinki cathedral (or St. Nicholas’ Church) is the distinctive landmark in Helsinki with it’s green domes and and bright white exterior. It looks stunning standing on a top of a hill with stairs leading to it and is considered as the unofficial symbol of the Helsinki city.

Helsinki – The Capital of Finland and it’s most cosmopolitan city was the next stop on my trip through Finland. I arrived at Helsinki via train from Tampere. The train station is distinctive and clad in Finnish granite. The big entrance to the station features two pairs statues of either side holding the globes in their hands and is featured on almost all Finnish travel brochures. Helsinki is flanked in the north-east and north-west by Vantaa and Espoo and though they are different cities, they are practically suburban areas of Helsinki. Espoo also is the headquarters of Nokia. You have to combine Tata + Birla + Reliance in India to understand the importance of Nokia to Finland as it seemed that every 3rd person in Finland was employed with Nokia (atleast in the cities I travelled).

In Helsinki, my couchsurfing host was studying and working to become a nuclear scientist. It was interesting having conversations about physics, linux and other geek stuff with him. I would stay in Helsinki for 3 days eventually mostly walking around the city and taking pictures and talking to the locals. Helsinki is a pretty small city and it is possible to cover all the interesting places on foot and that is exactly what I did. It helped that most of the time I had a good company from local couchsurfers.

The Church in the Rock

The Church in the Rock (Temppeliaukion kirkkois - “Temple Square Church” in Finnish) one of the offbeat and must-see locations in Helsinki. It lives up to it’s name and looks like a a rock cave from the outside. From the inside, the huge roof looks like an overturned saucer and the from above it looks like a crashed flying saucer. Due to this, It is colloquially called as the “UFO church”. It has a minimalistic architecture and has great acoustics so concerts are held inside the church frequently.

Töölönlahti and the National Parliament

Töölönlahti is a bay located norwest of the central station and is a jogger’s paradise. It is natural park that is surrounded by Finlandia Concert hall and the National Opera (see below for the photo of Hooks used to hang coats in the cold winters). Various ducks and birds abound in this rare natural reserve in the center of a thriving city. The National Parliament building is pretty massive and right next to the National Museum. The Parliament annex has metal sculptures of strawberry plants and magnolias (see below)

The National Museum of Finland

Somone from Schmap noticed the photo below and it has was included in the schmap guide for the iPhone. Ironically I did not visit the museum as there were more interesting things to do that day.

The next day at Tampere, I decided to take a tour and visit the different sights of the Tampere. In the morning I visited the distinctive Kaleva Church and the Tampere Cathedral. In the evening, I went to a traditional Finnish Sauna followed by a visit to the Viikinsaari island.

The Kaleva Church and Tampere Cathedral

The Kaleva church has several distinctive features. It is built in the shape of a fish and is extremely minimalistic as it does not have any ornamentation inside (even compared to the typical minimalistic Lutheran churches prevalent in Finland). It can be mistaken for a huge classroom or a concert hall if it were not for the large Organ that is present there. The church is huge and has a volume of about 36,000 cubic metres. Incidentally the guide who was conducting the tour was the daughter-in-law of the architect and she gave an insider’s view of the church. Another unusual feature of the church is the altar and the tall wooden sculpture behind it in the shape of a reed. The interior is mostly exposed concrete while the exterior is white tiled (like scales on fish’s body).

The Tampere cathedral was built in 1907 and is famous for it’s frescoes. The frescoes were painted by renowned symbolist Hugo Simberg. “The Garden of Death” and “The Wounded Angel” are two of the famous frescoes in the Tampere Cathedral. Hugo Simberg’s works depict dark and gloomy worlds. “The Wounded Angel” was voted as the most famous and recognizable painting in the whole of Finland recently. The most controversial of the frescoes is a red-winged serpent on the ceiling of the cathedral which symbolizes corruption and sin. The windows of the cathedral are adorned with beautiful and intricate stained glass paintings. All along the mezzanine floor of the church, you can find the paintings of the 12 apostles of Jesus.

The Wounded Angel	Garden of Death

Viikinsaari island

In the evening, Marek and I went to the Sauna and met some other CSers. We had a CS meeting in the sauna ! After the Sauna and a dip in the Näsijärvi Lake, I left for a trip to the Viikinsaari island on Pyhäjärvi lake. The island is popular with Tampere residents for picnics and weekend getaways. The forest on the island has several art installation in the form of theater props, photos and other artifacts. Angling, barbeque parties, kayaking and horseriding (on Icelandic horses) are popular activities on the island.There are several nature trails including around the island and the western part of the island is a nature reserve.

I did not have many plans in Tampere and had left it open-ended. When I was choosing hosts on CS I was looking for people who were interested in photography. Marek was a good photographer and offered to host me. I was lucky as Marek has two very talented friends – Alexsi and Tuomo who were good photographers too. In the evening, Marek and I went to TUT (Tampere University of Technology) campus where Alexsi was developing photos of their recent trip to Bulgaria and Slovenia. Alexsi was a film photographer and was manually developing the film himself . The film developing process itself is very laborious as you have to soak the film in water and then developer. Then made wet in fixer to fix the image. Finally the film is left to dry. After drying the developed film can be scanned into the computer. Quite a big difference from the digital photography that I am used to.

While Alexsi was developing the film, Marek called another friend, Tuomo who had just bought a couple of flashes and a reflector/diffuser combo (the round diffuser is seen in one of the images below). We moved to the TUT Campus to take some photos. First we shot some photos near a cliff nearby. As the natural light faded, we moved into the campus nearby which had bare concrete walls. Since I had never worked with external flashes, I was initially volunteered as the model. Some of the photos came out faurly stunning. Then we took turns being the cameraman, model and spotboys .The results were fantastic.

Me	Alexsi

The setup for the photo session is shown below with one flash getting triggered from above and one from the side onto the diffuser to cast soft light on the subject. We kept adjusting the intensity and the distance until we could perfect the light setup. The inspiration for this was the strobist blog. Do read it if you are interested in flash photography.