May 6 I got
up about 9.00 and had c.f.’s for brekkie again. [I think they must have thought I was a
bit strange insisting on having cereal every morning – but I hadn’t had any for
so long and that’s what I prefer.]
Riikka had a riding event all day so they left about 9.30. And so did I.
I caught the bus to Helsinki, which cost 6.50 marks I think. After arriving at
the terminal, I walked back some of the way to take some pictures of some
statues, Finlandia Hall, the National Museum which looks suspiciously like a
church to me but that’s what it says on the maps, and Parliament House.
Friday’s Daily Mirror was available at the station for 7 marks, so I
bought a copy. A waste of money, really. And if I wear my money belt, that’s
also a waist of money.
Winnie the Pooh in Finland is Nulle Puh, Little Pooh Bear.
I
went down the Esplanade, looking around in shop windows and I waited around
Eteläsatana (South Harbour?) for the 12.10 motor boat to Suomenlinna, which
used to be called Viapori. Sveaborg in Swedish. This is a very interesting
place, and its name means “Finland’s Fortress”. So it is a fortress, built
between 1748 and 1780 something under the direction of Augustin Ehrensvärd, but
he died in 1772.
The
length of the walls built on the six islands is eight kilometres, and within
its bastions and entrenchments there was room for 1200 cannon. The main idea
for it was to protect the whole eastern part of the country because Sweden lost
all its eastern frontier provinces and fortifications in two wars in the early
eighteenth century. (Sweden and Finland were one state at the time.)(Until
1808/09)(when Finland came under Russian rule until it claimed independence
after the Revolution.)
The walls follow the topography of the islands and are not in the shape
of a regular polygon, which was usually the case for such fortifications at
that time. Within the walls was an actual city – at one time the second-largest
in Finland – in times of war it could hold up to ten thousand men.
The 225 year long military era of the fortress ended in 1972/3 and since
then it has become a place of tourism and recreation – people bring their dogs
over for walkies. There are three museums and a submarine, but only one of
these was open at this time of May – the Ehrensvärd Museum, which was also one
of these places that was quite interesting. That’s all I’m writing on
Suomenlinna.
 |
| Suomenlinna from the air |
I
took the ferry back to the mainland – both ways cost 6 marks each. I bought a
meat thing and a fish thing in a café on the esplanade, 19.50mks and they were
quite nice. Then more wandering around looking in shop windows and taking
pictures if carvings on buildings. They have a lot of carvings on buildings,
Finns do. I bought a Sunday Telegraph for 7.50mks at the station and missed the
4.25 bus back to Espoo, so I had to wait for the 5.15 bus.
Back home my hosts arrived just after I did, so we went to dinner at a
restaurant on top of one of the water towers, which I think was in/near
Tapiola. On the way, with Riikka driving the big vehicle, we saw a squirrel
running along a power line.
For dinner we had reindeer steak which was real yummy, with cloudberry
jam, and also some small red berries which are very bitter and eaten in Lapland
a lot (you can get them in Sweden too, if you’re mad enough). The cloudberry
jam, I’ve been told, was sweeter than it usually is. Dessert was eggy waffles
with more cloudberry jam and ice cream. Altogether, a pleasant meal.
Back home I wrote a bit (catching up on Moscow), had a shower and went
to bed while Riika and Taina made me a regulation Youth Hostels Association
sleeping sheet. I’ll be sleeping in a flower bed. [Because the sheet had a floral
design.]
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