Images from other Helsinki landmarks taken on cold November days

After a recent increase in time spent wandering about Helsinki, I finally managed to squeeze in visits to some of the last official landmarks (as noted by the Lonely Planet and my occasional local guides, anyway).

Most notable landmark I continued to miss for the first 3.5 months of my Finland stay: the Orthodox Cathedral. Rather pathetically, I managed to somehow not find it even though it sits high on a hill a mere four blocks from where I work. Yes, apparently I really am that clueless.

The cathedral boasts an imposing deep-red brick external facade which unfortunately means that most visitors who end up seeing the inside of the cathedral are cruelly disappointed. Or at least, I was. On the inside the cathedral is rather dark, drab, heavy and overly-ornate with dark paintings and cluttered decorations surrounding a small square internal area. Worth a visit for the outside, though.



Another landmark was even closer -- a mere two blocks from my home and yet routinely ignored by me for weeks. Temppeliaukio Church was build about 45 years ago directly into rock, with the walls rising above the rock line to let light into the church from all directions. I thought this church beautiful and am looking forward to maybe hearing music played there sometime. The relatively low ceiling (compared to cathedrals, anyway), excellent light and contrast between traditional materials (rock) and modern (the copper strands composing the ceiling) were fabulous. Unfortunately, my picture (below) can in no way do it any justice - you're better off checking out the pictures on the websiteinstead.



Another landmark missed until quite recently - the Olympic tower. Though perhaps not that impressive to other Chicago-ites used to peering up at the Sears Tower, the 72m of the Olympic Tower do offer nice views of Helsinki. Plus, at 2 euros, it's considerably cheaper to access than the Sears Tower or other similar landmarks.







One last thing worth noting -- the houses on what is apparently the most expensive street in Helsinki. While somewhat more colorful than the other row-houses that seem to make up 95% of residences here, I think this street's status primarily comes from proximity to the ocean. The house on the end is just across the street from the water. Not that exciting in November, but during the four weeks of summer it is probably quite nice.

Finnish and Swedish

Despite what one might think, Finnish is not the official language of Finland. It is one of the two official languages - the other is Swedish.

Apparently a small but vocal (and wealthy and politically influential) Swedish minority in Finland continues to maintain the importance of speaking Swedish in Finland. Learning Swedish in school is mandatory, and it appears that most or all official signage gets displayed in both languages.

Street signs are a good example - all are shown with Finnish on top and Swedish immediately below. For the native English-speaking expat, this can actually be a good thing. Oftentimes the Swedish version has roots closer to familiar English words and can also be shorter overall, though this isn't true nearly often enough given the difficulty of the long street names...



And other street names only show minor differences between the languages...

Viva Malta!

One of the benefits of joining an international office (even temporarily) is that you get to go along on their office outings, which are...a little more exotic than the (every nice) outings for a traditional US office. This year, the Nordic offices all banded together to go to...MALTA!

Below, some scenes of the harbor from the capital city of Valetta...





While peering over one of the stone walls, we caught a regatta kicking off.



Malta has some beautiful churches...



And also some rather unorthodox ones...


Though pretty, there actually wasn't much to see or do in Malta other than wander around the capital and maybe sit on the beach. I got the distinct impression that most visitors come to hang out in nightclubs, which seems like rather a long way to go for a cocktail and to hang out with some foreign tourists.

Of course, not everyone comes to stay for even a night. While exploring Valetta we managed a few calm minutes...



...before one of the cruise ships regurgitated its contents onto the city for a few hours.



Below, something that hasn't seen much use in modern times, but which I think could be aimed at a cruise ship or two with few ill effects...



And of course, there are always some familiar signs of home.

Walking tour, part 2

Though I love to walk/run around the small bay near my house (Töölönlahti), I hadn't spent much time walking around the actual seashore yet. And of course, Helsinki is surrounded by water:


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Plenty of paths cross the seashore for Helsinki residents to use during the warmer months (or for the hardier of residents to use all year round, if they have spikes on their shoes to dig into the inevitable ice). The first stop on the seashore tour: the Sibelius monument.


Jean Sibelius is the best-known Finnish composer, with his name gracing pretty much anything that is both Finnish and music-related. His monument, below, caused some controversy.



Some people apparently felt that the monument did not clearly convey Sibelius' genius, or perhaps at the very least, that the set of organ pipes was actually a monument to a man. They commissioned the artist to create a mask of his face to sit alongside the monument to clarify the matter for all those unused to seeing monuments to people that were not actually pictures of those people. Though I am from the Washington DC area, it has never occurred to me to check if there is a similar little statue of Washington sitting alongside his monument, which doesn't really resemble him as a person either.



That was pretty much it for the monuments on the seashore, but there was plenty more beauty to be seen.

Walking tour, part 1

A friend came to visit for a few days and managed to see more of Helsinki in about twelve hours of walking than I had seen in the six weeks before she arrived.

Shamed, I started hoofing my way around the city, alone and with friends, to catch up. Below is one of the main streets in Helsinki, notably NOT during Saturday afternoon when all streets in the city center are crowded with people gleefully shopping away the last week's worth of salary.



First stop: the Lutheran Cathedral, also thought of as the center of Helsinki. Location: approximately 1.5 blocks from where I work.


There are some nice statues in front...




Including one which shows that Finns do in fact have a sense of humor...

Crazy Days!

Stockmann's, the main department store where everyone in Helsinki seems to shop, goes out of its way to prove that a Price Club/Costco outlet in Finland would make a killing.

Twice a year they host "Crazy Days" for Wed-Sat, where literally all of Helsinki turns out to shop at Stockmann's and try to save a few euros.

Rather than mark down things in the store (though there is some of that as well), they instead truck in large quantities of lesser brand names and sell them off big pallets on their ground floors (sound familiar to any Costco shoppers?) To help stir people into a frenzy, they also advertise bargain-basement travel deals and other attractive sales, fill the store full of friendly and unrattled salespeople, and blanket the store with the signature bright yellow of Crazy Days: signs, bags, clerk aprons -- it's all done up in Big Birds' signature sunshine color.



I walked past on the first day they were open at 8:30am, thirty minutes after Crazy Days started, and literally saw a stream of people flooding out of the store with their yellow bags. These were the smart ones who tried to avoid the crowds. I wasn't able to get a good picture because trying to extend my arms away from my body during the busy times wasn't an option, so I could only snap a few pictures near closing time.

The Fish Market

As you can tell from the five-week gap in blog posts, I have gotten quite lazy recently. What follows now is the first of many attempts to catch up.



One sunny weekend (several weeks ago, when the sun was still strong enough to create days qualifying as "sunny" here in Helsinki) I wandered down the street where I work and discovered a crowd clustered around a gaggle of fishing boats in the harbor. Apparently, for a week or two, these boats stop in Helsinki to sell their wares...



Though it was quite scenic and fun, the products they were all trying so hard to unload were completely unidentifiable to a native English speaker. The only fish I can identify in Finnish are salmon (lohi) and tuna (tonnikala) so the smorgasbord of tiny fish in every possible kind of sauce (well, color of sauce) was a seemingly hopeless case.



Despite many attractive eating opportunities (small mystery fried fish, anyone?) I settled for a salmon pastry and a Belgian waffle for breakfast instead.

And of course, what self-respecting fish market would be complete without a kickin' band of Finnish folk singers? Still not sure if looking like a cross between Eric Clapton, John Denver, and Steven King was an actual requirement for the band...