Niin, en puhu kreikkaa, mutta mulla on kreikkalaista kämppistä täällä …

On Sunday there was a ‘meeting’ of from laboratory people on Suomenlinna, whereas it was not too clear if it should be some picnic trip or just to see Suomenlinna. Anyway, I left a bit earlier, went through ‘beautiful’ Pasila towards the city center. In Kaisaniemenpuisto there were still some preparations done for that free concert in the evening.

I continued then through Kruununhaka to the harbour and from there to the orthodox church. When I arrived there I still had quite some time until we all met at the ferry, thus I stood up there watching the city.

But there were such a lot of german tourists, almost disgusting. And even if they’ve been alone, no chance of silence. They just keep talking to their video camera then. I guess that’s the new japanese

Finally we all made it to the ferry (more or less on time) even though our timing and the ferries was not aligned too well. But in the end we got to the island.
(Trying to talk finnish outside on that ferries is worse than speaking on the phone, I suppose)

On Suomenlinna I actually havn’t taken any photos, but it was like last year, what a surprise but they a lot more walls are being renewed.
One of the professors of the Lab was already on the island with his family. From the stony coast on the west part of the southern island, we watched some sailboat race on the horizon - well, or let’s say we were guessing if that might be a race at all - while he was offering some wine to everybody.

On the way back from the harbour, I remembered another place, where I saw 2 days ago in Tennispalatsi art museum, that there might be some items to be seen outside below a bridge. hm, I somehow didn’t get the overall idea of this very installation.

Arriving at home, eating something, preparing to leave again. M.’s bike was small but still faster than walking. And I havn’t had taken my running shoes with me. I thought about then buying some there, but I didn’t. The old ones have seen something like 2000km of roads and paths, thus it might be a good idea anyway. But hey, on the way back my backpack was exactly 15kg, even without new runningshoes. :)

I went south, towards Kalasatama, Kulosaari to go back along Herttoniemi, to Viikki, Vanhakaupunki and then ‘home’.

I’ve never been on the other side of that part of vantaa river/baltic sea, just once in wintertime when one could walk just over there.
In case you noticed why there is sometimes pictures without any obvious meaning but a radardome-like sphere on some roof: that’s the institute of physics of HY.

These places are all ‘within’ Helsinki, that’s not somewhere outside on the countryside.

In Herttoniemi I had to get north somehow, which was not as easy as supposed, but finally I made my way to the paths I already knew from running there.

Near to the ski jumping area, some dozens of dandelions.

• As usual, some more pictures can be found in the gallery
• And a link back to the overview post for these holidays

I decided to go to Espoo on Saturday, to visit Kasia, another student from the EILC course 2006 in Oulu who is again living in Finland. After a few phonecalls and text messages we ended up meeting at the main train station of Espoo, maybe not the nicest place to go. It’s amazing how that part of Espoo looks like, in some ways similar to Pasila, but Pasila is just a part of Helsinki, but that station is supposed to be the main station.
That’s btw the Helsinki mainstation:

Anyway, we ate some cake in some baari while sitting in the sun. When I wrote text messages, I usually did that in finnish, not knowing that Kasia actually hasn’t (yet) learned too much of that after the language course in Oulu. Maybe another reason for misunderstandings, maybe …

Since she had to get back home, I returned to Helsinki. Just to run around, buy some food, … The following two pictures show a nice tunnel in Helsinki, from the University towards the next metro station. In Kaisaniemenpuisto there was also one end of a construction site for a service tunnel below the whole center, maybe to supply the stores without having to use the streets.

Since it was nice weather and also Saturday the esplanade was quite lively and full.

I decided to buy some bread and continue towards Kaivopuisto to enjoy the weather.

Blueberry-liquorice …. it’s a pity that there is just a few liquorice sorts to be bought in normal stores in germany …

I havn’t bought beer, but I guess everybody else in the park:

Near to the sailing harbour area west of Kaivopuisto there was a little boat in the water I already knew from the day before: this was part of an art project also displayed in Tennispalatsi Art Museum. The black baloons connected to it were not to be seen in the air, though.

At a lot of places the following advertisements was to be seen. Normal advertisement, but some stuff over it, all in all telling: on 2.6.2008 we’ll publish good news. I always though that it’s weird that nobody yet removed that cloths at any place, but then, at the train station, finally somebody obviously did it

I didn’t know that the statue on the right has been actually done by the father of Tove Jansson with her actually being the model for it.

I decided to go back home by foot, passing also by the kaisaniemen puiston sand-area where Mailman kylässä was and now YleX was preparing some concert on Sunday there.

• As usual, some more pictures can be found in the gallery
• The next day: The last full day in Helsinki
• And a link back to the overview post for these holidays

In einer WG in Heidelberg, wo Türken und Kirgiesen wohnen. Kein Tisch in der Küche, kein Tisch im Wohnzimmer. Dafür so Aluplatten, und funktioniert auch. Wenn auch irgendwie erstmal gewöhnungsbedürftig.

Geburtstagshimbeerkäsekuchenessenderweise mit Simaflaschensprengmeister an Neckarsperrwerkfußgängerbrücke.

Since you have a lot of sandy pathways in Helsinki the shoes were looking quite white all the time …

Sirpa was too tired the day before, but since she’s again at work on Mustasaari, she offered me to come there. Persons knowing persons working on Mustasaari get some discounts, e.g. they get to the island for free. But still a strange feeling if everybody around is paying for the trip and you just tell them: niin, mä tunnen sirpaa, ja hän sanoi … .
The ship leaves from a place a bit north of Hietaniemenranta/Hietsu, where I was already the day before. But that friday I also had time while waiting for the ship to relax a bit myself on the beach.

So we met for lunch on Mustasaari. She actually did some postcards of Mustasaari which are now there to be sold, almost the first thing I’ve seen on the island.
I’ve been already on Mustasaari one year ago, that time we did a little canoeing trip.
After eating lunch, I explorer the island a bit, this time the sun was shining, and Sirpa had to get back to work. As far as I remember we were talking only finnish.
Also this year, the sheep havn’t been there yet, but there have been some papers with interesting questions on them, even though I was maybe able to answer one of them … and it’s not been just 2, but even more than those I took photos of: 1 2 3.
The following one asks how many tree seeds are planted onto areas where new trees are planted on average:

in the background, the cable factory.

Some people obviously went to the island to sit on the beach and paint, why not:

And a panorama towards the south:

Inside Helsinki the temperatures that day were almost too high to walk around fast, but on Mustasaari it was just right

This place looked a bit different than on that rainy day last year:

When I finished my walk around the island (actually it’s 2 islands), I came back to eat the second part of lunch, the famous and big pulla you can get there with a coffee. To illustrate the size, I put my cellphone in front - it would maybe have been even more impressive if I’d put it in the back of it:

After having saved Sirpa from almost another hour of work, I went back to the town, along Hietsu again, where some kite-surf-whatever-guy tried to surf with a kite, but actually had no luck and was thus carried from one side of Hietsu to the other, without ever being on the surfboard and maybe thus entertaining quite a bunch of watching people on the shore.
For this afternoon I planned to go to the tennispalatsi art museum, a place one shouldn’t definately miss in Helsinki.

As already mentioned, quite warm inside the city, a lot of people sitting around and drinking something outside.

In Tennispalatsi there was an exhibition of final works of art students like last year the same time, but also an exposition of pictures of Anton Corbijn. Somehow the name was new to me, but some of the pictures were not, surprisingly. He portraied mainly musicians and made a few music videos.
Interesting exhibition and also a really nice and informative video installation accompaning it.

Around Kamppi the streets where quite crowded … at least for finnish relations, but somehow the panorama program also likes to take the pictures with less pictures on it

In the evening Jari told me about some friends of him planning to grill in a yard in Kumpula. Before I went there I slept half an hour in the evening, just to be able to do anything more at all
The pihajuhlat was actually in a yard of a small red wooden house in Kumpula, towards olympiakylä, the old olympia village. And when they built up some more music equipment than expected I asked what this is at all - the owner of the house was actually “Joona”, singer of Posteljoona & ystävät and a moderator at YleX.

In between grilling a calendar of a famous finnish band with two letters (is there more than one?) was being used for practising air-pistol shooting.
I also met there 2 girls who I might have already had met on Mustasaari, one of them was also working there and the other one on the same boat going there as me. Of course I didn’t realize that *g*
And I talked with a finn that evening and localized his hometown correctly by his accent, yeah! (Tampere)

Due to a lack of any backstage area, the greehouse had to be used for this purpose.

There was also another band, from Germany as far as I understood. The singer said ‘I love you’ to the audience, like some singers do, but actually she said it in finnish, and thus getting some confused looking finnish looks back. Jari then also explained right away that finnish people usually say that very rarely, but that I knew already.

In the end the it got a bit more chaotic and everybody who wanted could join and sing/rap something:

And a bit offtopic: I still like ‘posti’ more than this ‘itella’: The latter seems to be a bit counterintuitive. Who the hell got this idea anyway ?

• As usual, some more pictures can be found in the gallery
• the next day, in Espoo and Helsinki
• And a link back to the overview post for these holidays

(29.05.2008) Almost the same view from M.’s room as from ‘my’ room on VAK1:

That thursday I had some plans which had to be revised than again. So I first went to Ruoholahti, changing to the Metro in Sörnäinen. To see what is currently shown in the museums in the cable factory, and to walk around there, somehow it’s an interesting part of town, even though I wouldn’t really call it beautiful. It’s some former harbour area with some old factories and a power plant and in between there is this museum, some appartement blocks, some new restaurants and shops. Next to it there is a big cementary and north of that is then the biggest sand beach of Helsinki next to the center.
There were some advertisements on the streets to see, saying: ‘winning is not most important, but the fact that sweden is out’. There was actually another version of this, in swedish, probably making fun of finnish ’sisu’, as far as I understood it. well, I should’ve taken a photo.

In the background of the picture above you can see another island of Helsinki with a few houses, in the foreground there was a restaurant.
The picture below is taken from in between two parts of a big glass house for a few companies, right next to the old cable factory. In the background the western harbour of Helsinki.

And again the same building, but from the side, facing the harbour.

From there I then continued a bit north to Hietsu, the sand beach. Already quite a lot of people there, even though not many in the water yet.

I had to be in the center around noon to meet Maria. She had some work to do for university, but we met for lunch at the train station, since I didn’t yet know where the Hämeläis osakunta was. It was nice to meet again, but definately too short. But she had the possibility to speak some german, phil didn’t speak any the month before *g*. well, we spoke some kind of mixture, sometimes.
After that back to the town, book shops, ice cream, cathedral.

And then to the Ateneum, to see the Pekka Halonen (more pictures) exhibition. First I wanted to go there with Sirpa, but she was too tired from work, but so we met the following day on Mustasaari, which was maybe even nicer. So I went there to watch the pictures for about 2 hours, before there was a free guided tour at 6 o’clock in finnish. It was really interesting, because I didn’t know much about Pekka Halosen background, and quite a number of pictures was showing his brother, or other relatives, which was not clear by just looking at the name and the date of the painting. Nevertheless it was quite exhausting, but during the tour I was able to concentrate on the descriptions rather than on the pictures, since I already went through it before.

picture above: In the middle there is the railway station with that tower, on the right of it the national theater and in front of those there is the main square for the busses that leave eastbound to other parts of Helsinki. On the very left of the panorama there is the Ateneum, the museum where I went to see the Pekka Halonen exhibition.

picture below: A picture I somehow took quite often during the year I lived there (behind that strange building is the dormitory), that was on the way from the Arabia kauppakeskus where I usually went to buy food back home. (see e.g. here and there)

In the evening I went along my old running track to Herttoniemi, but this time by bike. There is a ski jumping area and running tracks covered with saw dust.

A point on my track where I used to stop to stretch is seen below. The land in front near to the water is ‘taken care of’ by some cattle, which you might see there sometimes.

View towards Viikki:

And I found another bird-watching tower on the Herttoniemi side, a tower with a spiral staircase

• As usual, some more pictures can be found in the gallery
• The next day: meeting Sirpa on Mustasaari, Tennispalatsi and grilling in the evening
• And a link back to the overview post for these holidays

Eilen oli kämpiksen syntymäpäivä, siksi hän halusi ottaa jotain kakkua mukaan labraan. Me laitettiin juustokakkua ja korvapuusteja (hän on puoli ruotsalaista, sen takia korvapuusteja *g*)

Iltapäivänä laitoin jo ruisleipää:

Ja pullaakin. Mutta se tehtiin vain koska meillä oli vielä hiivataikinaa eiliselta koska alussa en oo uskonut että taikina korvapuusteille oli ok (tavallisesti se toimii paremmin), sitten aloin jo laittaa toista taikinaa, mutta onneksi ensimmäinen oli jo toimiva, emme olleet odottaneet tarpeeksi. Siksi taikina jäi jääkaappiin yöksi ja tänään aamuna laitoin pullaa.

The first whole day in Helsinki I got up relatively early and went to the city centre. Main station, Mannerheimintie, Kamppi. At the Kamppi square I was of course stopped at some point by those ’spammers’, people wanting to collect some money for amnesty international, greenpeace, … well, theoretically good points. So I listened for example what that woman from amnesty had to say. I got what she was saying, reasons for why I should pay some money for certain projects, but because she spoke so fast, I thought that it cannot be that I understood anything. So I asked if she could talk a bit slower - so she did and I realized that I’d already understood right what she was trying to tell me

Of course I had to go to the senate square, too, get some icecream and sit on the stairs to watch all that busy tourists running around. And I finally managed to look at the cathedral from inside, just at that moment where a whole bunch of german tourists also entered the church. Somehow you experience then some kind of ’shortening reaction’, just wanting to get out of there Surprisingly a lot of them obviously think that nobody understands them. like last year in Hämeenlinna. If they’d knew how many finns actually speak german *g*

On Kauppatori I found some nice old postcards, showing the harbour area around that market around 1900. And this sign, obviously not everybody in Sipoo is so happy about Helsinki’s expansion plans. (means: get away your fingers from sipoo)

On the esplanade there was a small concert, sounded like some children stuff, even though most of the people watching it were absolutely no children any more … anyway, it was warm, and all the benches there were full.
The spanish sculptures are now away, unfortunately.

On Kauppatori I then also met Jari, the ‘teacher’ from the conversation course I attended during the second semester. He was at that time in the center searching for a job. So we met to eat some pulla and coffee there.

DNA has some funny ads in the busses. This one says: don’t talk to the driver when driving. (however cheap it might be) - however you might speak to customers of that company. On another day on another bus I found another one, explaining why there might be people on the bus not speaking so much, that’s then just because they have the wrong phone company. Well, regarding how silent finnish busses are sometimes on the inside, … okei, I guess that ads did their job, but i’m anyway already a customer *g*

In the evening I met a friend from the laboratory I was working in last summer. We went for a walk along my old running track and ate really nice chocolate cake (that one from the backside of the fazer chocolate ) Somehow a nice feeling to be back there.

Later that evening, being back home, I was somehow so excited about everything that there was no way thinking that I might already go to bed. I then tried the Kalakukko bought in Mikkeli, wrote some postcards and then finally went throwing them to the postbox, thus I cannot say the next morning: ah, let’s keep them here, they are just too crazy to send to people back home. That evening somehow felt like you imagine being on some really good drugs without side effects except sleeplessness.

so I arrived at that post box a bit after midnight …

… and also passed by my old flat …

and checked out how the new student flats near to the street look like now. When I lived there they were just building them.

I took a picture from a close position already some time ago: klick. but there it was wintertime and not already in the middle of the night

• As usual, some more pictures can be found in the gallery - this time actually almost all of them found their way to the blog.
• The next day: Another sunny and warm day in Helsinki
• And a link back to the overview post for these holidays