beyond finnish forests and lakes, there is...

a place where something is about to come true...

an offshore fortress

the ferry was packed with people, and i cherished the ticket i got early this morning at the market square. my new friends were delighted, their smiles were bright as the sunshine above, while the morning summer heat was surely too convincing to have a fair weather for the rest of the day.

this time was suomelinna, they called it a fortress, a world heritage for the world, a place for getting a substantially tanned skin for the finns. getting to the other side of the gulf only took less than 15 minutes. the ferry ran slow, there was no need for hurry, like all the finns, time stood still in the north. we took a stroll around the shore, and took pictures of us wearing the nice white hat i got from the lowlands. they were amused by the impression it creates of wearing it.

suomelinna, i had it with clear blue sky. wild flowers colored my vision of the grass, and rocky cliff isolated one's dream from the reality. this place should have a lot of historical explanation, but the summer impeded all desire to delve into it. the brightness of the day only wanted a superficial encounter, it was not time to get too serious.

suomi gulf

first weekend in suomi land. the class i attend is a very interesting ones. the subject pleases my appetite, and most of all it offers me new things to learn about.

helsinki itself is a tranquil place in the north, filled with abundance of spaces and rooms spreading all over the city, which is in contrast to its sparse population. having myself squeezed in one of the most dense country for some time, i am surprised to find such a lot of space in this town. This can be seen from the design of the buildings which is mostly made in larger scale. compared to other old cities in europe, helsinki asks people to enlarge their comfort zone as broad as they want to. this contributes to the timid character of the finnish people, not to mention their-winter-morning-eye-glimpses.

but most importantly, i am glad my first weekend was not a waste. bright summer day supplemented with a stroll along the gulf, from katajanokka to the market square, and beyond its last frontier which brings me to the park and restaurants. those places were packed with good dresses and the smell of good times.

katajanokka

my lodge was arranged in katajanokka. the first glimpse of this area was the russian-style orthodox church that stood in the mouth of entrance to katajanokka. like other streets in helsinki, which was far less crowded, the roads were resembled to empty canal that dried out of water, no meaningful currents. when the first time i took the tram to this place, i was not expecting to find out that tram could possibly the core driving force of living vein of katajanokka. residents live in the four-storey buildings, designed with finnish touch. pedestrians mostly people who enjoyed jogging in the neighborhood every afternoon, or the travelers who stayed at the big lodge where i stayed.

katajanokka has a direct access to market square and to city centre within walking distance. and for that, the old russian church was sort of a gate in marking where was katajanokka and where was the other part of helsinki. if you happened to walk across the park closed to the church, you should keep yourself aware because an old lady might jump out of the marshy grass and asked for some coins. in fact, city planning of the city positioned some clusters of residents which eventually constructed the whole helsinki. katajanokka, one of them, which was located nearby the heart of the city and being one of the oldest clusters in town. that was why old buildings dominated the area and perpetuated the early 20 century atmosphere. there was a red-brick "kino", or cinema where i thought the building should have been more that just a movie theater. something surreal brought by the wind from baltic sea stayed there, intruded into the layers of those red bricks. perhaps memories of fishermen, or estonian trader harbored in helsinki somewhere in time.

tervetuola

the first day in suomi land was full of sunshine. last night i was greeted by a mix of tranquility in my surrounding. i took a shuttle bus from vantaa airport to helsinki, and bought my bus ticket on the bus-fresh from the driver's hand. his english was eloquently spoken but his expression said something more than just saying: welcome, you, foreigner.

encountering suomi land gave me new impression which was quite different from other european lands. the night was still young and left a slight purple and red above, a kind of nostalgic picture.

arrival in the bus station, the time was almost midnight. people talking in finnish were crossing the streets and running slowly to the big buildings around the square. i carried my luggage and tried to follow the direction from the information paper i printed from the internet. i was about to catch a tram.

few minutes passed on, the metal vehicle approached the place where i stood. it moved towards me that it got me a feeling of being alienated, i thought i should have known the form of this mean of transportation, but i was questioning myself whether i would find it familiar or completely strange and awkward. the summer night in helsinki was getting darker and i still felt unsettled with all these encounterings.

the lodge was nice, i could not ask for more, it has everything one could ask for a traveling. clean sheet and blanket has been placed neatly and for that it made my sleep last night more sound.

going north

sitting in this huge waiting room, i indulge myself with the scenery of blue sky and bright sunshine. what a lovely afternoon, planes come and go, with bustling sound across the runaway. inside, i am only with my travel backpack, and a thought about the place i will visit soon. i have only few information about the country and the city, all i know it is very beautiful in winter. cold and full of serenity. some people say cold is another kind of beauty anyway. there is still some time before boarding time, and i feel a certain unfamiliar feeling attached into the reality surround me. because some where in the seabed of my mind, there are vivid pictures of the hectic days behind me. it has been like an organized mess, full of hopping on and off from one platform to the other, from one cup of koffie verkeerd to another tea, from one companion of sunshine and late summer rain, from one old acquaintance to another instant exchange. there are so many random happening lately, and i hope this northward journey will help me to slow things down a while, so i can really feel where is where, what is what. i hope it will be an inspiring one, fiuhh...