Architecture in Helsinki

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Well, I made it! It was a long night of travelling, through Riga, Latvia and arriving in the morning in Helsinki. The time changed two more hours between Dublin and Helsinki so I lost the whole night. I arrived at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport to a warm welcome by friends of friends, Anne and Esa Suutala who were very kind to pick me up and deliver me to my new home. We first stopped at their apartment which overlooks the city and had coffee (kahvi) and breakfast (aamiainen). They gave me some brochures and maps about Espoo and Helsinki and did some quick research on mobile phones for me. After Anne dropped me off at my apartment (well... room), my first destination was to get said mobile phone. This is a necessity in Finland as there are few home phones and they're used for many purposes such as buying bus fare and doing laundry. I had a day and a half to get settled and unpacked before I met Richard at the train station. He had a long break from work for Christmas and decided to come explore Helsinki with me for a few days. We tried to see all the main sites but we kept sleeping in and missing the mornings. It's hard to get used to the low sun especially when your room faces North.

04.01: We explored the new WeeGee museum in Tapiola which houses several museums including a museum for Finnish contemporary art, a horology museum, and a children's toy museum. We saw the first two and were amazed at the quantity of Finnish artists. The main gallery was huge! After this we searched for a finnish restaurant to no avail and finally ended up at an italian/spanish place near my house. The food was great, the service was terrible.

05.01: The next day we ventured into Helsinki*. Our first stop was to Temppeliaukio church designed by Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen in 1968. It's an amazing building build right into the landscape. They used the rock they took out of the site to build the walls up and allowed the water to seep through. There are drains around the perimeter of the room which let the water that enters the walls run out and into the ground. The building is topped by a copper dome surrounded by glazing to make it float above the room. We later went to the finnish art museum, Kiasma (designed by Steven Holl). The exhibit was entitled Landscape. It was a good exhibit, but the building was really the highlight. Also, the bookstore was amazing, so many good books to go back and peruse. We then walked around downtown window shopping in the direction of Helsinki Cathedral which was all lit up when we arrived. It was definitely a sight to see.

06.01: We took the bus into the city again and started walking. We went north past the Finnish Parliament building, Alvar Aalto's Finlandia hall, and the Olympic Stadium. I'll have to return and visit each of those buildings again. We finally arrived at our destination: Sea Life Aquarium! My first aquarium! It was really cool, they had sharks and sting rays and octopus and all the animals found in the Baltic Sea. After that we walked back to the city centre and had a skate on the new rink downtown. It was very busy due to the fact that it's one of the few rinks in the city open. The weather's been so warm that nothing's freezing and there is still no snow! We warmed up later by having our first Finnish food. Richard had the Karelian stew and I had reindeer stew! It was very hearty and delicious, topped with bright red lingonberries. yummm...

07.01: Richard headed back to Dublin to get back to work, I started thinking about school work. The weather is still warmish but grey and drizzly.

*Helsinki is a city of about 750 000. Outside the city proper are smaller cities which are connected by public transit but are their own municipalities. I live in one of these cities, Espoo. The trip to Helsinki is quick, 20 minutes from my street to downtown. My school is in Otaniemi which is part of Espoo but two busses from my home, about 25 minutes per trip.

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Comments

[Heather]

Hello from Rudy
Reindeer stew hey? hmmm...not so sure about it, but if you say so. ;) I love the blog and sight seeing through you. I can't wait to read more. I'll keep you posted about Calgary, but I'm sure it won't be as exciting as your adventures. Good luck with school!!! Heather

[Tom]

Bahaha
I love the finnish...just for the fact that there is a menu item called "pimp my reindeer." if the 21th century progressive culinary milestones of humankind were to be traced...this would indeed be one of them.