Tales from the North

As I am travelling to Finland again it is probably the right time to write something about my previous travel. If I’d wait any longer the new experiences could ruin my memories and end up being a big hodgepodge where Turku is the capital of Sweden and Tallinn is in Russia – in a manner of speaking. Therefore: more September memories from the North.

We travelled a lot in Finland and visited some neighbouring countries. It is cheap and easy to cross the Baltic and sometimes even lavishly luxurious as I’ve personally experienced. Apparently the liner companies really need a lot of publicity to keep their ships floating so they hand out a lot of reduction voucher. Logically, this is not always a welcome gift. So, what do the digitalized Finns do with it? Right, they sell it on the internet. Poor students as we are – there’s the old stock theme from my previous blog again – are happy to be able to buy those. So we ended up on a Viking line-cruise to Sweden, Stockholm. There was a compulsory dinner included in the trip and of course I thought this was very, very annoying. Because the dinner, served as a buffet, is so exuberant, you have to roll to your cabin after eating and as the boats has 11 decks; it's a very long roll. They serve some strange fusion style foods, they are supposed to be Mediterranean or oriental but it is definitely fusion, but also some traditional Swedish and Finnish foods including a huge variety of salmon (cured, salted, sauced etc….). The dinner is very nice but a challenge to your stomach. After rolling down to our cabin we slept well and blessed the ships many floors. The ship actually was floating amusement park, annex casino annex bar. Fortunately the party did not penetrate the ship that deeply and we could sleep quietly.

Another boat trip on a more modest ship brought us to Tallinn. It was a one day cruise where the short visit to the capital of Estonia is mainly an excuse to buy cheap alcohol, cheap food and eat well in restaurants. The most important must see in Tallinn is actually the city itself. As everywhere else in the world, Estonia is no exception, the ancient parts of the city are accompanied or even replaced by skyscrapers, flat buildings and blankly ugly concrete and steel structures. But in Tallinn, they managed to preserve the old city centre and even a substantial part of the city walls. This is highly remarkable in the war thorn Baltic. It feels like the history is still alive. Although the Estonians are giving history a hand and certainly a lot if it will be fictiory. But hey, if it’s a nice place to walk and if the food is delicious and cheap I’m already happy!

Despite its 80000 lakes boat trips are not convenient way of travelling in Finland. Maybe a canoe would be worth considering but the distance would soon spoil the fun. The train is a safer and less exhausting option. It also allows you to admire the Finnish landscape, and it made me wonder about the link between the country and the music. Somehow, listening Finnish music while travelling trough Finland: it suddenly all fitted. Without getting metaphysical, I still got the idea that there is a strong connection between the country and its music and you can really experience it. Maybe if we just travel enough, we’ll be able to physically associated different landscapes with foreign influences and vice versa.

The train and the music took us to Kajaani. A lovely small city with a cute church and a hilarious castle. Probably the Kajaanilaiset¹ wanted to know whether the castle was bewitched because the built a bridge out of it! I wonder whether it also weighs as much as a duck. The most striking feature of Kajaani was the uncitiness of the place. Apart from the city lake, there are lovely forests around. You would think that you are somewhere in the middle of the Belgian Walloon provinces. For many Belgians who never visited Germany, Austria or Switzerland, that area is still the pinnacle of wild and untamed nature. Being in Kajaani, I understood once again (cfr. my previous Finland post) why Finns claim that the Belgian countryside is no country side. It does appear, after all, more urbanised then their cities.

From Kajaani we went to Oulu. A city near to the sea which houses a harbour, a funny policeman statue and a university. This university is the strangest one of a kind. (I’ll certainly continue the comparative research). Somehow it is strange, modern and cold. Even the bright colours that would drive any visiting chameleon crazy could not conceal the fact that is has been a factory before. And not even a nice early 19^th century factory but a factory factory. A bit like a toddler would draw one. But anyway, the inside of the industrial shell is cosy. Almost homey and very international minded. The flocks of foreign exchange students might have increased the feeling but I’m very sure they won’t remove the multilingual sings and notices when the flocks of exchange students settle down and master their survival Finnish. But what about the cosiness, you might ask. Well. The lovely cafeteria’s make you feel at home. There are second hand sofas and a stunning array of different coffee cups (also second hand). The coffee is not produced by futuristic machines but made and served in a lovely coffeepot. There is even a bookshelf wíth books and an enormous scarf in basket, the knitting needles still attached to it, wool by its side, waiting for any enthusiastic knitter to continue Penelope’s task. Everybody in the Ghent University know that the coat hooks are relics from a distant past and the putting your coat there equals involuntary charity. But our local Oulu-friend assured us that everybody is still using the coat hooks in Oulu. This hominess must have dazzled me so much I didn’t even notice the bad smell Oulu is infamous for. And our Finnish and Iraqi hosts made us feel at home and welcome as well.

Onwards, Onwards! Despite the good care of our hosts we couldn’t stay in Oulu for there were other cities to visit; like Turku. Turku is Finlands ex-capital, until the Russian tsar decided that it was a too perverted western place to be the capital of the duchy of Finland and crowned Helsinki the new capital. It is Finlands oldest – and for a long time only – city and somehow breathes history. This has several reasons. First of all: (almost) being a historian myself I’m very sensitive to the subject. Secondly, our friends and hostess in Turku were also history students, yes indeed, all of them. Thirdly, there is an amazing archaeological museum, an open air traditional crafts museum and… even a castle! (This castle isn’t bewitched, though). This sounds like a place I’d love. And yes, I do. The castle is a lovely place and appears to be perfect spot to teach history, living historywise. I secretly envied the young guide who was guiding a group of young fair maidens and noble squires. And guess what, inside the castle there is, yes indeed, yet another museum. This historical overload makes historians hungry. What happens is there are four hungry historians (and a linguist, not history history, but somehow close enough ) and there is a historical restaurant in the city? Indeed, they eat there. The restaurant is called Harald, and claims to be a Viking restaurant. Sound good, so far. The food was quite good but somehow it didn’t taste perfect. I wasn’t convince by the fairytales accompanying the course in the menu… I really doubt fierce Harald and Helga with the red braids ate potatoes on regular basis. Unless of course the Vikings did discover America ánd the potatoes, ánd had had a deep frying pan. Maybe I’m to critical but a least I’ll always remember the lovely desert: tar ice-cream. ( I shall not nag about the chocolate pie, crème brulée and ice-cream being represented as Viking food). The ice-cream and tar are a strange combination. Certainly to a Belgian who is used to start his day with a sugary breakfast. My brain agreed with me this time because it seems as if the taste of the tar and the taste of ice-cream were registered in two completely different areas of my brain. It certainly strengthens my association of the smell and taste of tar with Finland. Which is a very good thing of course.The previous night in Oulu our hostess served us some lovely Iraqi food but in Turku we were delighted by traditional delicacy: mushrooms. And the talent of a vegetarian maitre de cuisine who managed to cooked for five people and take three different diets into account! She definitely deserves a very high chefs hat.

The last city in Finland were we spend a lot of time was Helsinki. It is the place I am flying to at this very moment. I’ll skip this city for now and maybe write something about it after my third visit. It’s good to have something to write home about. And something to look forward to in your case.

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1 i.e. the inhabitants of Kajaani