Vinayak Hegde

The next destination after Turku in Finland was the industrial city of Tampere. Tampere, Turku and Helsinki are almost equidistant from each other and are well connected by train network (with trains running every hour during the day). After I arrived in Tampere, I met my couchsurfing host MM at the train station who was hosting another guy who was hitchhiking around Europe. I was not carrying any guidebook for Scandinavia so we went to the tourist information center to pick up brochures and maps. Much of my stay in Tampere was unplanned and it turned out to be a good thing. MM gave me a tour of the city. The city centre is compact and can be traversed on foot.

The Old Tourist office	Tammerkoski Pedestrian Bridge

Tampere is the most populous inland city amongst the Nordic countries. It is located between two lakes, Näsijärvi and Pyhäjärvi. Once you look at the location it is easy to understand why. There is a difference in the water levels of the lakes (18 metres). The lakes are connected by the Tammerkoski rapids. For several hundred years, the rapids have powered the industries of Tampere and made it the “Manchester of the North”. Tampere is a city in transition now. Lot of the old industries such as Finlayson are been converted into malls, shopping centers, theaters and living quarters. It is strange to live in one of these living quarters as wall ceilings are fairly high as these housed heavy machinery earlier.

Another thing that Tampere is known for are the cartoon characters known as Mommins. The Moomins are the central characters in a series of books and a comic strip by Finnish illustrator and writer Tove Jansson. They are a family of trolls who are white and roundish and resemble hippopotamuses. The carefree and adventurous family live in their house in Moominvalley, in the forests of Finland. Other than the Nordic countries, they are extremely popular in Japan. In fact, several couples travel all the way fro Japan to Tampere to get married in the Moominvalley museum. Unfortunately due to lack of time, I could not go to the Moominvalley museum.

Something characteristic about Tampere is the Finnish dialect. There is a emphasis on the ‘L’, ‘M’, ‘N’ and ‘P’. To add to the fun there is the trilling ‘R’. It is fun just to try to talk in Finnish and try to pronounce the names. It is almost musical. What most people are unaware of is that Finnish belongs to the Finno-Ugric language family and is not related to Swedish, Norwegian or Danish – the language spoken in other Nordic Countries. It is related to Estonian which belongs to the same family of languages.

An post about Tampere would be incomplete without the mention of (in)famous Black Sausage (Mustamakkara). It is made by mixing pork, pig blood, crushed rye and flour, after which it is stuffed into the intestines of an animal like most sausages. There are several shops near the Tammerkoski that sell it. But I did not have have the courage to try it out. You can see how it looks like here.

Trip to Ruissalo

When I reached Turku, I realised that I was probably missing one of the best parts of Turku – The archipelago. The Turku Archipelago is connected by ferries and in some cases by bridges. Cycling around the archipelago is a popular activity for travelers. I had passed through the archipelago on the Saturday morning on the journey from Stockholm to Turku. After talking to TS, we decided that we will go to Ruissalo as it was one of the islands that was connected to the mainland with the help of the bridge. So we took the bus and reached the island. The sunset was fabulous and we saw several anglers who were fishing in the tranquility of the place. It had just rained and the soil was wet. On the way to the bus I saw a bunch of bluebell plants by the roadside. The photo of blue bells was taken in a hurry when rushing back for the last bus off the island. It is one of my favorite photos taken during the trip.

Aboa Vetus and Ars Nova

Aboa Vetus and Ars Nova was one of the most unique museums I have seen during this trip. During the medieval times Finland was a part of Sweden. Aboa Vetus (Latin: “Old Turku”) display portions of the city during those times. At the site of the museum, there was a huge find of bones (both human and animal) which is on display now. Aboa Vetus is located in the basement of the museum and the other section of the museum which showcases contemporary art is located on a higher level. Ars Nova (Latin: “New Art”) displays changing exhibitions of contemporary art. Ars Nova hosts the European Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary Art every alternate odd-numbered year. So in a single building you can see the excavated part of medieval Turku in Aboa Vetus as well as the contemporary art in Ars Nova. It is one of the most popular attractions of the region.

The Castle

The Turku castle was built in 1280 and has served as a bastion and administrative center in Finland. There are several floors in this medieval caste which were built successively during different eras. The lower floors were built in the middle ages and retain the medieval feel and are mostly unadorned. The higher floors were built during castle expansion in the renaissance period and are decorated in the style of that era. The Turku Castle had a large moat adjoining the Aura river during the middle ages to protect it against attacks but it no longer exists. The Castle serves as a backdrop for numerous medieval reenactments.

Turku Castle	Turku Castle Bailey
Medieval Graffiti	Castle Windows

The Cathedral and Night photography in Turku

The Turku Cathedral is in the center of the city and the attractive and high cathedral Steeple can be seen from around the city. The Turku Cathedral is one of the most important Churches in Finland and is considered a national shrine and symbol of Turku. It is more than 7 centuries old.

I was lugging around a tripod during this trip as I wanted to do some night photography so TS and I decided to venture out during the night to take some photos of the Cathedral and the Aura river nearby. There were quite a lot of people during the night as there was “Down by the Laituri” rock festival happening on the banks of the Aura river. So we set our tripods, moved from place to place and clicked

The Aura River at night	View from TS’s Home

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.