Suomenlinna Island/Sveaborg

This afternoon we went to Suomenlinna Islands which are only about a mile, if that much, from Helsinki. We took the public ferry. As you can see it was a gorgeous day.




Only one other nation in the world has more islands than Finland does. That is Canada. About 20,000 islands of the 180,000 make up an archipelago southeast of Finland. Only about 455 of the islands are inhabited.


The Swedes had controlled Finland for a long time. In the early 19th century Russia took control. Nikolas I built this church on the island. He took over the fortress built by a Swedish king. All of the cannon date back to about 1850. The church used to look very Russian with cupola on all of the spires. Following the Russian revolution, the building was dedicated as a Lutheran church and in 1928 the outside was remodeled getting rid of all of the cupola.

My attempt at photographing the church as it used to be was not very successful. The above drawing shows a church that has Russia copula on the spires.

We saw people walking around who were dressed so inappropriately for a day on the island. When we saw the church we immediately knew that there had been a wedding earlier. There were several groups of people dressed for a wedding. Later we saw the bride and groom. I took this picture surreptiously from far away under a tree.

Of course, my favorite pictures are the ones with Earl in them. I have totally given up on my hair. It is very humid and it gets damp and sticks to my head or curls. But Earl just says, "Who cares?" Well, I do for one. :)

The island visit reminded me so much of going to see a fortress on the Black Sea with Leanna. But it did not have all of the places in the harbor for us to have lunch as it did when we went together, Leanna. We decided that the fortress was a ten year old child's paradise. There were so many places to climb and explore.

Suomenlinna is a group of three islands that are connected by bridges. The suggested walk is from the one end of the first island to the King's Gate at the tip of the third island.

We have seen a lot of second hand stores in our neighborhood. This one has some great green cowboy boots in the window. PS The very next day the green boots were gone. I felt a bit disappointed as if I wished that I had gone in to try them on before they disappeared.

On our walk to the harbor we passed a guard outside a building. It was not the president's residence. However, we passed the president's palace and there were no guards there. Seemed a bit strange.

And of course, I think it is prime time for mushrooms.

By the way, the price for the mushrooms is for a quart of mushrooms. And a Euro is about $1.50.

We were trying to avoid the crowds leaving the island so we took the ferry back to the city quite early. It was only then that we discovered that we had explored only 2 out of the 3 islands. We will have to go back another day to see the lighthouse.

Ps. Suomenlinna is Seavborg in Swedish. Definitely a more approachable language.

Shopping Day in Helsinki

Both of us are still dealing with waking in the middle of the night and struggling to stay awake during the day. While I slept this morning, Earl went out and explored. This afternoon the two of us went to the shopping area of the city.

Helsinki is a city with about 500,000 people. Metropolitan Helsinki is about 1 million. The entire country has only about 5 million residents. We feel so lucky to have an apartment that is close to the center of the city. There is so much that is within easy walking distance.

For example, this is one of Helsinki's train stations close by.

Trams are part of the public transportation system in Helsinki. There are overhead cables everywhere. So far the weather has been so lovely that we have not been tempted to try the trams or buses. We'll see how that goes when we venture out to attend Church on Sunday. We might decide after one day that it is too far to walk even in pleasant weather.

On our trip to the grocery store at Stockmann, we came across an open air market. Earl had seen it earlier in the day but it was locked up. Both of us enjoyed strolling among the booths and looking at the various foods for sale to eat or to take home.

Yes, that happy farmer is yours truly. I couldn't resist. If in doubt check out the flip flops.

Picking wild mushrooms is still a popular activity in Finland. After seeing these mushrooms at the open market, I saw a woman at the grocery store pushing a cart loaded with cases of mushrooms. I was surprised to learn that many of the mushrooms come from Estonia.

One of the first stalls that we stopped at was this one where meat was being cooked and served with mashed potatoes and some type of red chutney. I wondered if it was lingonberry but didn't ask. Earl did ask about the meat and found out that it was bear. Suddenly my stomach felt a little queezy and my appetite disappeared. I hadn't realized that the mere mention of a "food" would cause me to react so physically.

At this tent the women were cooking and serving fish or meat with huge servings of vegetables. The frying vegetables looked so tempting. They were so colorful and everything smelled good. This time the meat was elk. Am I just a coward? I rather think so. I was not tempted. And Earl said he was not hungry enough to eat a big plate of vegetables with salmon or trout.

Not only did the sign attract me, but I was very interested in the way that the dispensers for the mustard and ketchup were hanging. Felix seems to be a big brand in canned foods and condiments.

We did not buy anything at the food exhibit. Including chocolate. I really like the concept of a Chocolate room. Everyone should have one.

This is just a sample of the way that lettuce is package for sale at the grocery department in the Stockman department store. They are wrapped in the same way that we wrap flowers for sale. I am used to Romaine lettuce being one of the less expensive ones at the store when you buy it in a package of three heads. The only Romaine lettuce for sale were very young tender heads that were very small and very costly.

Before leaving the United States I went to the local grocery store and bought a 15 ounce jar of creamy peanut butter. I cost around $2.50. I am not a huge fan of peanut butter but I have found that if I have a piece of toast with peanut butter and jam in the morning, I can go for a long time without eating again. When I started to pack, I became really concerned with weight of my suitcases and the peanut butter is still in Provo, Utah. When I saw the cost of a small jar of peanut butter, I really regretted that decision. We paid over four Euros for a tiny jar. Oh well. Some day we will be able to go shopping without feeling shocked.

Home again to number 6 Liisankatu, Apartment 4.

Struggling with Jet Lag

Fortunately no one expected me to get off the airplane and attend a conference or any other event. I appreciated being able to fall asleep for several hours before waking up and going out to shop and explore. Last night I did not sleep too badly. I woke up at five in the morning and fell back to sleep for a few more hours. Hopefully it won't be long before my body decides which is daytime and what hours are night.

This is the street that we live on. The two official languages of Finland are Finnish and Swedish. Also recognized are several Sami languages spoken in Lapland part of northern Finland. The sign below shows the name of the street in Finnish and below is the name in Swedish. Needless to say, the Swedish name feels more familiar to me. All of the street signs are posted on the corners of buildings. Sometimes they are very difficult to read unless I am right underneath the sign. Definitely the signs create a problems for these "old" eyes.

At about 11:30 this morning, one of Earl's colleagues came by the apartment and walked with us to the university. Markku is interested in the National Parks of the United States. The area in which Earl will be teaching includes the cultural aspects of North America. Markku will be going to California in October to visit four parks. He is going to visit Yosemite and Death Valley. Hmmm. I think we drove past Death Valley last Wednesay. It feels as if that was a very long time ago.

This is a picture of Earl on one of the sidewalks between our apartment building and the buildings where he will be teaching and have an office. The rounded stones are just about impossible to walk on.

On the major streets that we walked on last night, the surface is concrete and includes a lane for pedestrians and one for bikers. It didn't take long to discover that it is wise to be cautious when approaching a corner. Bikers can come around the corner in their lane very quickly.

Below is a sign outside of a restaurant near Earl's office. The restaurant had several rustic wooden signs outside. Although I wondered what the interior was like we did not look inside. If you look closely you will see that the soup of the day contains reindeer meat.


When we arrived at our apartment yesterday we discovered that FRY was already posted to the mail slot in the door. At his office, his name was already beside the door. Markku joked that it was missing Earl's office hours. Why hadn't he taken care of that? In fact, Markku was one of the two people who very kindly picked us up at the airport yesterday.

On the door is an interesting black and white poster of a Husky sitting on the saddle of a motorcycle in a winter lanscape. I wonder if that was the choice of the previous Bicentennial Chair.

After a short reception this afternoon, we wandered around the area where we live for awhile. Chocolate cake was served at the get-together and everyone said that Frazer is the name to remember for anything chocolate. It certainly was delicious.

We walked along the area where large cruise ships were anchored and than further along the quay to the area where smaller boats/yachts were bobbing gently in the water.

There was an open air market at the harbor. The first stall we saw was this fruit stand. All that they were selling were berries. I recognized the strawberries and small blueberries but nothing else. The young man working at the stall invited me to try the Lingonberries but warned me that they were tart. They are small red berries that are usually made into a jam or jelly. The man told me that when I had reindeer it should be served with mashed potatoes and lingonberry jam. He told me what two other berries were but I didn't understand what he said. They looked like small purple or green grapes.

The price of the fruit kept me from being tempted to buy. However, when I figured out that the lingonberries were 4 Euros or about 6 American dollars for a liter/quart, I realized that the price was not bad at all. I have been known to pay about $3.00 for only 4ounces of blueberries occaionally.

Next to the area of the university where Earl is situated there is a large square, (the Helsinki Senate Square). On three sides of it are solid yellow buildings. On the fourth side is a large Lutheran Cathedral. I am standing in front of the Old Senate building. It no longer houses the senate for the national government of Finland. Instead the president and his cabinet have offices there.

In the years before it was possible to visit Russia easily, Helsinki was frequently the location for shooting movies that took place in Moscow. Most notably is the movie Reds with Warren Beatty. Markku said that he and his wife saw the movie in the United States when it came out. They had no problem spotting some of their students in the crowd scenes in the square.

Tsar Alexander II still stands in the center of the square. In the mid nineteenth century Russia conquered Finland. Rather than impose their language and culture on the Finnish, the Tsar encouraged them to speak their language and worship their religion. (Today about 85% of the population is affilliated with the Lutheran church.) He built the cathedral that stands on one side of the square. At this time Swedish was becoming a prominent language in Finland. The Russian ruler was concerned about Sweden taking over the country. Because of this he promoted the use of the Finnish language.

A young man, Jonathan Lundquist, told me today that in some ways Finnish is similar to Magyar, the language spoken in Hungary. Both languages have managed to survive despite being surrounded by more dominant languages.

Markku told us that we would be surprised when we saw the interior of the cathedral, but he would not tell us what he was refering to. When we went into the building this afternoon, we looked around very carefully but we could not see anything that was strikingly different.

The pews have gates on them as many of the old churches do in New England. However, they are not large enough to have brought hot bricks or some other means of heat to warm the people in the pew box. Rather than being build of a dark wood, they are light colored which is unusual.

Partly because of this the building is light and airy and relatively simple. A very beautiful cathedral. Rather than a traditional cross shape, the cathedral has a Greek cross plan.

We arrived this morning in Helsinki. It is now about 7:30 pm. I fell on the bed and fell asleep just after our kind hosts dropped us at the apartment and got us a bit oriented. i.e. where to throw out trash and recyclable items including compost.

We went out to check out our neighborhood and locate a grocery store around five pm. Almost as soon as we had left our building, it occurred to me that although I had brought a shopping bag, I had not brought the camera.

The weather is beautiful. In fact we have fans on in the apartment. It is definitely more humid than we are used to.

We are about a block from a yacht harbor and only a few blocks from a huge park.

The apartment reminds me a lot of the faculty apartment in Paris. It is an older building and not a modern apartment. It is two flights up with a number code to get into the main door. It is like Leanna's apartment in L'viv - two doors at the apartment door. One swings out and the other swings in. The toilet is down the hall by the front door, but it actually has a small sink to wash your hands; however, nowhere to hang a hand towel. The shower and laundry are just off the "vestibule." The washing machine is like most European ones and takes about two hours to wash a load. However, we apparently can use the washer and dryer at the same time without electrical problems. The dryer has no vent so it has a large reservoir to collect water that has to be emptied periodically. The apartment has a big kitchen, office, living room and dining room and two bedrooms. The more comfortable bedroom with the better closet is next to the busy street we live on, so we are going to use the other one that is in the rear of the building and more quiet.

At the grocery store we stood in line behind an empty stroller and we could hear a mother calliing to a child not far away. The mother showed up with a beautiful little three year old girl who was pushing a tiny shopping cart carrying all of their groceries. She did an excellent job of putting as many of the groceries as she could onto the conveyor belt by herself. Of course, I could not help but smile. And to my delight, the woman turned to us and talked to us in Finnish. So nice not to be recognized immediately as an American tourist, but probably as a grandmother.

That is about it for the moment. Tomorrow we will go to Earl's new office and the department building. Like many universities in large cities, there is no formal campus, just buildings scattered around the city.

I'll be sure to keep you posted on new discoveries.

USMC Jet Down

Several nights a week the jets from Miramar fly on night missions. They make it impossible to hear TV and frequently fly after ten at night. They are a part of living here so it felt like a personal loss when we learned that a USMC jet was reported missing. It went down over the Pacific Wednesday night and the crew were not rescued for 4 hours.

The picture taken from our back door does not really show you how low and how close the Marine jets fly to the house we rent.

Gemma

Gemma and her mother Kristi arrived on Saturday, August the 6th. It has been lots of fun having this very serious baby come to visit. Now that she smiles readily at me, I feel as if I have made a huge conquest.

Since her mother loves the beach and water, she has been very anxious for Gemma to fall in love with both. So far she seems to be quite happy with the pool. Today when we walked on the beach, Grandpa pushed the stroller on the sidewalk while Kristi and I walked along the sand. We have yet to find out what Gemma thinks about the taste of sand.

And yes. Gemma is wearing Turk's blue hoodie to protect her from the sun's rays.

Foggy Day

Most mornings we drive to La Jolla Shores and walk on the beach. Frequently it is foggy in the morning. Yesterday when we left the house, it was a sunshiny, glorious day. On our 10 to 15 minute to the beach we go over Interstate 5. As we approached the entrance, we could see a brown cloud hanging in the air. It seemed to rise from the ground and separate into two clouds. It almost look like smoke but we could smell nothing in the air. As we got closer to the freeway, I could see that the freeway below us was shrouded in fog. Going up over the mountain we encountered the most fog we have ever seen on the coast.

At the beach itself, we could see only a few surfers riding the waves like ghosts in the mist. We turned north and walked towards a mass of fog. There was no evidence that we were walking towards Scripps pier. Finally it came into sight but even next to it, we could not see where the pier ended in the ocean.

Before we left the sun was already starting to burn through the mist. We don't expect to see a day quite like this one again for a long time.