Last day in Raasepori

I thought I'd add the last photos from Raasepori in a separate post. This was on Sunday 8th of May. We had a lovely walk in the park, coffee in old town and ice-cream in the park... It was a perfect summer day!

Finnish squirrels fighting over nuts:)

Park alley.

In the park the Anemone Nemorosas were b(l)ooming!

Hmm, this dock could use a little maintenance.. Charming though!

Summer is coming!

Summer is coming! pt II.

Docks in nearby the town center. Church in the background.

A doll left outside the café:)

Café in Old Town.

Delish quiche and coffee! The quiche was good, the coffee not so good..

The cafe's second hand shop.

The Old Town quaters.

A random sign on a wall.

Someone's sticky photo at the train platform.
Don't know if this is a declaration of affection or what..?

Miniexcursion to Raasepori

Arriving in Raasepori I was supposed to get off the train at a very small station... Well, the train stopped but as I couldn't see any "station-like" buildings and no-one else moved to get out, I didn't realize I had to get off the train! I realized when I saw my fiend's blonde hair through the window but the train was already moving... I got off the train ten minutes later and my friend came to get me by car:)

Actually I probably should be politically correct and call the town "Raseborg" in Swedish, and they've also had a consolidation of municipalities. In the town called Tammisaari they also have the last Swedish speaking brigade in Finland, the Uusimaa Brigade. My friend can see the young men running around in their practise and doing push-ups from her balcony!:):) That's not too bad!! :P

We had planned an active weekend: we were going horseback riding on Icelandic horses. It was a three hour ride in a place nearby  called Mustio with two other girls. Here's the link to the stable Hestbakki (note: they will be moving soon to another town!) My horse was called Fjalar, which is an old mythological Norse name. I'm not very experienced when it comes to horses. I'd love to learn a bit more about horses and riding and have this as a real hobby... Here are photos from that trip, horse photos taken with my mobile phone...

We rode on fields..

..forest paths...

..and saw old farm buildings.

Two types of horse power!:)

Afterwards we had lunch in Fiskars, a very lovely place (no English Wiki available)!

We saw the exhibitions in Fiskars.

Fiskars exhibit pt II.

At the duck pond.

Welcome to my friend's house!:) (in the stairway)

Finnish nature in spring, just before the summer.

An old mental hospital and Anemone Nemorosa before going to sleep.

Entry to the mental hospital, apparently built in the 1930's.

Detail of water tower.

Kupittaa railway station (en route to Raasepori)

Here are a few photos I took at the Kupittaa railway station. Since I arrived early and had some time on my hands I thought it would be fun to try to see the station in detail, in a way I hadn't seen it before.

Coolness!

I'm writing this from, I don't know how high, but I'm still above the clouds! Going to Stockholm with Norwegian - they're the first to have free Wi-Fi! Very cool:)

"Mommy, is the train coming soon?"

I arrived at Kupittaa train station (Turku) a bit early and I had time to take some shots. As the other passengers arrived, I saw something interesting. This is, I believe, my first documentary/action serial photo shoot and it turned out very well! What do you think? 


More photos from Raasepori coming up soon:)

"Is it here yet?" pt. I

"Is it here yet?" pt. II

"I'm waaaiitiiing"

"Mommy, look, the train's here!"

Detour on the way home

I usually feel very inspired after a photo evening. 
A "photo evening" is a monthly occasion that we have with my local photo club, Pictura. Last night we went first to the Turku Dome church that had a modern art exhibition and f.e. works by Andy Warhol! If you're in Turku you should definitely see this exhibition - it's also free of charge!


We also had Lotta Djupsund tell us about her art studies and works, and it was very nice. Afterwards on the way home I took a small detour to the local cemetery in the Student Village where I live, and found a surprise. As you can read in the right column, I'm also a part-time researcher and my topic is 19th century Fenno-Swedish literature. One of the famous Fenno-Swedish book publishers apparently has his grave in this very cemetery! I absolutely had to take a picture. Let's see what it looked like in the evening light.

Anonymous grave with a rusty cross.

"Graf tillhörande kejserlige academie boktryckaren
Magister J.C. Frenckell dess fru och arwingar"
'Grave of the imperial master printer, Master of Arts J.C.F. his wife and descendants'

My roots are in Kurikka, Southern Ostrobothnia

Kurikka is a small town in Southern Ostrobothnia. Nowadays it has about 14.000 inhabitants, but that's because there's recently been a consolidation of municipalities: the nearby town of Jurva became a part of Kurikka in 2009. As a result of this they changed the "old" Kurikka coats of arms to a much more boring one (click here to see the changes). This feels strange to me, but in time I'm sure I'll get used to it (no offense to the people of Jurva;)

What else about Kurikka? Well, the town has a small local news paper, Kurikka-lehti. Wikipedia gloats about the fact that Kurikka has the most Mensa members in the whole world! But of course that should be seen in proportion to the amount of people in Kurikka;) Although I do remember that Kurikka also has a higher murder rate than New York, when you also put that into propotion, but I can't find that in Wikipedia.. ;)

So, this is the home town of my mother, her siblings and her parents. I've also lived in Kurikka and I went to the local junior high school and high school there 1994-1997. (My father's side comes from Kauhajoki, also in Southern Ostrobothnia. Kauhajoki made global headlines after a school shooting in 2008).

The Easter traditions in Ostrobothnia are somewhat peculiar and often the Easter festivities end up in the national news. Here are some things that differ from the "national" Easter festivities.

Traditions live strong in Ostrobothnia and one of the most important one is (for the children) to dress up as witches and go around "trick or treating" on Easter Saturday (in other parts of Finland the children do this on Palm Sunday). They are dressed up in colorful clothes, traditionally as "little old ladies" with head scarves, long skirts, and their faces are painted "ugly" with freckles, blackened teeth and an excessive amount of rouge:) Nowadays halloween costumes and other masquerade accessories (that is, children dressed up as cats, bunnies and other Easter related creatures) are common.

The children go from door to door and when someone opens the door (usually the familiar neighbors) , they say a blessing for the house to chase away all evil spirits. They offer a decorated branch/twig of willow or birch in return for a treat, usually candy or money. This is my "poetic" translation of the blessing the children say at the door (there probably are other versions, this is the one I've been taught):

"Virvon varvon, tuoreeks terveeks, tulevaks vuodeks. Vitsa sulle, palkka mulle."

I whisk, I whip (whisking the twigs back and forth by the doorway:), briskness and health to you, for the year at hand. A branch of spring for you, a treat for me.

Unfortunately I didn't get to greet any mini-witches on Saturday!:( Mom had gotten candy for them, too, but I guess mom doesn't have children living in the nearby houses (most of the neighbors are elderly). Since we didn't get any colorful branches from children, my sister wanted to make new ones for mom. And so we did:)

On Saturday evening the main attraction in Southern Ostrobothnia are the Easter bonfires. The bonfires are an old pagan rite - the Christian holidays are, as you probably know, often related to old pagan rites, because the heads of church wanted to replace the pagan beliefs and traditions with Christian ones. The purpose of the Easter bonfires is to chase evil spirits away, but, in the old days (in the 17th century) some of persons accused of witchcraft were burnt in bonfires. According to a Finnish study about Finnish witch hunt, 2000 people were accused of witchcraft.

Me and my mom have a tradition to drive around in the villages to see the different bonfires. Unfortunately there aren't that many bonfires anymore, for example the one in my mother's home village hasn't been lit in many years. But we still take a drive - it's also a drive down memory lane...

Here are a few of the photos from my Easter in Kurikka.

This red house is my grandparent's old house. They sold it when my grandfather died:(
In the background, on the hill, lookout tower of Loukajanvuori.

Our transport:)

Most likely a haunted house in my mom's home village... :/

Detail of the old house.

Detail 2 of the old house.

Easter bonfire in the village Tuiskula.

Pre-Easter in Helsinki

I had such a lovely time with my dear friend, Saija, who I stayed with for a couple of nights in Helsinki. I'm glad I went there already on Tuesday - that way we had Tuesday evening and all of Wednesday to wander around and experience Helsinki. 

So, on Tuesday we had drinks and dinner at a very nostalgic Finnish restaurant called Sävel - very nice atmosphere and they serve the most amazing aioli with their burgers - yummy! On Wednesday we took off to the Finnish Museum of Photography (my first time there!) at Kaapelitehdas, followed by shopping, amazing sushi at Sushi n' Roll (in Eira), cake eating at Kakkugalleria, and last, Saija's Danish language course with Danish smørrebrød... Great stuff!:)

Here are a few of my favorite shots from that part of my Easter Holiday - the rest (from my home town and Ostrobothnia) will come in another blog post.

Kupittaa railway station in Turku

Kaapelitehdas in Helsinki

Kaapelitehdas murial: "Let us be your mental dentist"

Kaapelitehdas murial: "Love & Anarchy"

Amazing sushi!!

Happy!:)

*Burp* "Arigato" for the good lunch!

Windowshopping!:) The boutique of the famous Minna Parikka, shoe designer.

No blog is complete without cake!