Blogs from Turku, Southwest Finland, Finland, Europe

Day 14, Wednesday, 3rd August, 2011 Turku Naantali is regarded as a separate town to it’s close neighbouring city of Turku. Don’t suggest to any locals that it’s a satellite town or worse yet, a suburb, although the 20km distance between the two to an Australian, would suggest it. Turku is the local ‘big smoke’ and my birth town, into which we headed for a day of sight seeing. After trying to locate the house in which we lived when I was born, Assisted by a call to Australia to my parents for more information, we pulled up outside the address only to find that the original building has been replaced. (They just don’t seem to leave anything alone. I go away for only 37 years, and everything gets moved around. Clearly I’ll need to talk ... read more

- 9.5.2010 Ostimme sitten toisen veneen. Meillähän on jo vene, sen nimi on Merilokki ja se asuu Sardiniassa. Katsokaa vaikka www.travelblog.org/bloggers/Merilokki. Vaan kun on miehistön sinne niin pitkä matka lentää, ja asumme nykyään Turussa kauniin saariston lähellä, niin pitihän tännekin saada vene. Tällä kertaa moottorivene. Päätös mallista oli Juhan, Tupu tykkäsi tästä yksilöstä heti nähdessään. Isompi oli, mitä olis kuvitellut. Lare kyseli olisko meillä varaa huvijahtiin, mutta Henkka väänteli heti ratista silmät kiiluen, ja uhosi "menee julaa!". Kun kerran tähtäimessä oli veneily keväällä ja syksyllä, hinguimme Vapuksi Veteen. Uusi vene ristittiin Narskuksi. Vesilintulinjalla kun ollaan. 2003 asuimme kolme kuukautta Nürnbergissä, ja siellä joessa oli paljonkin punapäänarskuja. Ne olivat kivannäköisiä, muistuttivat mukavasta ajast... read more

At the second day of our trip we had any free time at afternoon and we decided to go anywhere beyond Turku. We made lighting decision where we would go and we eventually chose one of small and fast ferries whose wharfed close us. We travelled towards island that called Vepsä. This small rocky island is located about 20 kilometers from Turku and hidden amongst the other islands. Getting to Vepsä is possible only from water as well to the most of the small islands at the Finnish coast. Almost every islands are inhabitated and when we were sailed overthere we passed a lot of stylish wooden houses built just aside water. Vepsä - we spotted a map with legend but everything was written in Finnish language. We felt a bit as tourists whose got to ... read more

I might have been in Turku -(17 Aug) but I did not see a lot - wandered around aimlessly - bought a really cheap cotton shirt 70% off for only about 9E - $17 - and along the Aurojoki river (spp.?) and decided that a dinner cruise would kill 2 birds with one stone - food and travel. It was actually really good value from 7pm til 10pm - when it is finally getting dark after sunset at 9.30pm or so. Found a cruise boat going at 7pm and then came back to it after long walk along the river bank - Turku is pretty flat so cyclists everywhere, but on separate paths fortunately. day cruises for 1 1/2 hrs were 19E or so - this 3 hr one + dinner was 30E - sounds good ... read more

Die Tall Ships’ Races - dt. etwa „(Die) Großsegler-Rennen“; sind eine erstmals 1956 ausgetragene Langstreckenregatta für Großsegler und andere Segelschiffe mit großenteils jungen Besatzungen (16 bis 25 Jahre). Bei der Regatta steht einerseits das Wettsegeln auf Zeit im Vordergrund, andererseits auch das Ziel der Völkerverständigung und des Austauschs zwischen jungen Menschen sowie die Förderung von „Sail Training“ (Segelausbildung zum Ziel der persönlichen - physischen und psychischen - Entwicklung und Charakterbildung) Die Regatta besteht in der Regel aus zwei Etappen (races: „Rennen“) über mehrere hundert Seemeilen, wobei die Teilnehmer auch an nur einer der Etappen teilnehmen können; sie können dann allerdings naturgemäß nicht für den Gesamtsieg über beide Etappen gewertet werden. Zwischen den beiden Etappen findet eine cruise in company (etwa: „Rei... read more