And a Hug Around the Neck

Caveat: Pipo is Finnish for beanie, not Spanish, like I said. Honest mistake. Pipo understands Spanish. And Finnish. And English. And lord knows what else.  That dog could work as a playmate for the UN.

So I do a fair amount of writing in my head as I wander along, and then I finally sit down and write. This has served me well at work for years, as it means I don't have to be at my desk to work. I don't know how well that serves everyone else at work, as it means I'm wandering around pestering them at their desks, but who knows, perhaps everyone is enjoying the peace and quiet.

But I wonder as I wander and this evening on my way back from having a really nice, and super inexpensive dinner at this little cafe place called Boheem in the Kalamata area of Tallinn, I found myself thinking of, since I don't actually have lots to say about today's topic, just inserting the lyrics to The Wind Beneath My Wings. This then got me thinking about whether people wonder about there being any potential subtext within the blog. The answer to that one is "not that I am aware of".

And now for some Bette Midler...

Actually, I would never do that to you. Probably not. Unfortunately though I seem to have done it to myself as I now have that song running through my head. Luckily I have you all to  keep me company for a bit, so perhaps it will pass. If not, then tomorrow's Day of Music in Tallinn, which is essentially Doors Open but for music with about 140 free concerts, should likely wipe it right out.

With my luck someone will sing it. In Estonian.

Speaking of luck, there are times when I think streets adjust themselves to meet my needs. Walking home this evening I was coming from a new direction along streets I did not know. I had looked at the map briefly, and knew I was walking in about the right direction, but wasn't totally sure. So I decided that I would turn left at the next street I came to as that seemed to make the most sense in terms of where I thought I was. Well, the next street was mine.

See. Luck. Noah and Jake will be surprised to hear this tale I am sure. I'd told them when we were in London that I was just naturally good at this sort of wandering around and never getting lost sort of thing, and then proceeded to screw everything up. Apparently I got my mojo back.

Stay tuned for a blog post titled "Jinxed It!"

So I'm going on about Tallinn but I still wanted to say and show a bit more of Helsinki.

My last post was kinda the wrapper around my visit to Finland. You got some beginning, some middle, and some end. The other thing that happened in the middle though was me going to Suomenlinna.

But before that. Something that I will tell you about in my next post happened here in Tallinn that reminded me of something I wanted say about Helsinki but forgot to. One time when Maarit and I were out walking Pipo Maarit told me about a really cool thing they've got going on a few times a year called "Restaurant Days". These are days when anybody can open a restaurant anywhere, post the menu and prices online, sell alcohol with the meals they're offering; you know, be a restaurant. There about four or so of them a year and they apparently are quite popular. People open them in their homes, their stores, dental offices, who knows. But they open up.

How cool is that? I'm hoping Toronto can steal it.

Right, back to Suomenlinna.

Suomenlinna means Sea Fortress, and used to be precisely what it said it was. Placed on a series of four islands about fifteen minutes by ferry from the main harbour in Helsinki, Suomenlinna was started in 1748 by a military dude named August Ehrensvard. At this point Finland was a part of the Kingdom of Sweden, and Ehrensvard got the plum job of protecting it. So up goes the fortress. Originally name Sveborg, which incidently means the same thing, just in Swedish, Suomenlinna functions as a naval base in the Russo-Swedish War of 1788 and does a lovely job of doing what it supposed to, but then in 1808 during the Finnish War it is surrendered to the Russians, and from that point on becomes a Russian naval base. That lasts about 100 years. Now, the sucky part about the story so far is the Finland was winning the war against Russia. No one seems to be clear on why the fellow running Sveborg at the time surrendered. He could have kicked butt. However, he surrendered, became incredibly unpopular with his people, as they all knew they could win, and the Russians got Finland. It gets turned into a prison, gets the heck bombed out of it during a couple of world wars, eventually mostly stops being a military run area, and makes it onto the UNESCO World Heritage site list in 1991.

Check.

There are about 800 people living on Suomenlinna today. There's a school, day care, health care facilities, places to live, places to shop, to eat. Imagine Fort York having been put on the Toronto Islands and you'll get the idea.

It is apparently one of the most favourite places to go for a picnic in the summer time. And I can see why, it's really quite picturesque, and peaceful.

Oh, I mentioned the world wars and that reminded me of something. The world wars are a very real thing here. They are a part of the social conscious, not just of those who lived through them, but of their children, and so on. I've never really thought about it much before to be honest. Living in Canada it is history that, while Canada was very much involved in, was somewhere else, and is now, history. Important, not to be forgotten history, but history nonetheless. Not so here. It's different. I can't explain how, but it is different here. Here being the UK, Finland, Estonia; places that got the heck bombed out of them, were occupied, that sort of thing. I'm going to stop as I realize I am starting to sound like an idiot as I really have no idea what I am talking about, but it is something that I was told. And I believe it, just based upon listening to my two hosts tell me about the history, the buildings, the restoration efforts. There are very visible reminders everywhere, and not just as statues and memorials. As buildings. As bits of buildings. Like I said, shutting up now.

I need to remember to only talk about things I know nothing about when I am at work.

Suomenlinna also has a number of museums on the islands, one of which I visited. Mostly though I just walked about enjoying the reasonably sunny day I was provided and thinking how cool it all looked.

Here's how cool it all looked.

This is an example of some of the wood houses on the island. These would originally have been residences, but are now shops, as they are close to the entrance and make for good places for cafes and the like.

This is Suomenlinna Church. It was built during the 1850's when Russia had a garrison on the island and was Russian Orthodox. If you're familiar with Orthodox architecture (and if you're not go back to my last entry and look at the pictures I took of the Orthodox Cathedral) you'll notice something is missing. Towers. Four of them are missing. That's because they got torn down in the 1920s as part of various activities associated with Finnish Independence.

Do you think Orthodox and Orthodontics have the same root? I will need to look that up.

Yes, they do. Orthos, from the greek, meaning "right, true, straight". Makes perfect sense. And all in under a minute. Oh, and "dox" basically means praise, and "odon" means tooth. And that's how we make words boys and girls.

This building is called Noah's Ark. Why? Because, it's a residence. It was built as a residence for soldiers their wives, and families, and it continues to be housing for residents of the islands today. I can't tell you whether they march in two by two everytime it starts to rain, but there you go.

These are, by the way, in no particular order.

And I also have little to say about them. Except for that last one. That's the tomb of Augustin Ehrensvard. Unlike the guy who came along much later on and surrendered to Russia, people were seriously impressed with Ehrensvard. And why shouldn't they be. He did a good job getting the fort built. The building of the fort brought huge amounts of employment opportunities into Helsinki, and basically got it's population, economy and lord knows what else way up there. Prior to the fort being there it really wasn't doing so hot. Small population. I mean tiny. Along comes fort construction and everything is booming.

Who said war wasn't good for something?

Right, only talk about things you know nothing about at work.

This is Piper's Park. It is rather picturesque. It is also the location where Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. How many you ask? A peck (or pek) is two imperial gallons.

Finally. That took more than one minute. Getting the size of a peck down was easy. Ask Google how many pickles in it though and you get lots of people giving you the basic math but no one actually willing to step up and over an answer. Until finally I found someone who said around 100. Of course, I then saw someone say 32. But I think they were just making that up. Obviously the average size of a pickle matters.

Oh, and yes, someone did point out that you can't pick something that is pickled, you can only pick the pepper and then pickle it. But, if Peter was at a super market and they were just lying about freely, then he could do it.

Now, an easier question to ask is how many apples in a bushel. Ask google that question and it will tell you 42-48 pounds, so roughly 126 medium apples, which would be good enough for fifteen 9 inch pies. A pek is a 1/4 of a bushel, and a pepper weighs what, 1/4 to 1/3 of an apple. So yeah, about 100.

Look, another hobbit hole. Haven't seen one of these since the east coast.

And if you're looking for someone to scream at for wasting your life with that whole pek thing, you can yell at this guy.

This is King's Gate. It's basically another harbour entrance directly into the walled fort, whereas the route I followed started outside of the walls.

And this is a memorial for the 1918 Prison Camp. I think.  Personally, I think it is incredibly elegant in it's simplicity.

Just wait till I tell you the story about the one I saw in Tallinn today.

Oh dear.

Getting Past the Perietal Lobe

Maarit asked me one evening what I would wish for if I had three wishes. Now, the last time I hear this question posed was with Noah and Jake. We were in Orebro, and the essentially the bulk of the time was working on finding the loophole on the "ixnay on more wishes" caveat. I think they may have nearly gotten it. This time though I was without my trusty debating team and on my own in Helsinki with my host. I did not have the witty repartee of my sons to aid me. I only had my own. I was at a loss. And I was at a loss because I, like I am wont to do from time to time, took this fairly safe and fun question and thought seriously about it. My answers do not ber (is that how you spell that?) repeating. They actually don't ber remembering, or at least I haven't done so.

But, now having had a few days with Maarit in Helsinki which were full of great conversations about pretty much everything, and having had just begun conversations with Kai, my host in Tallinn, Estonia, I now have an answer, or at least an answer for the first wish.

Genie, I want to have a didactic memory. Or maybe it's an eidetic memory. Looking at the two I can't be sure based on the sketchy definitions I've come across. Maybe it should be two wishes. Ah heck, Genie, I want to have as good a memory and observational skills as Sherlock Holmes, the Benedict Cumberbatch one, and I'll take a pass on the heroin addiction and being such a prick to everyone, but maybe get me playing the violin again while we're at it.

This travelling thing would be a whole lot simpler if I just remembered everything I saw and heard perfectly. It may even improve the quality of information and prose in the blog. Sadly though nothing sprang forth from the teapot I rubbed in lieu of a lamp, so for now you're all stuck with my current skillset. Perhaps I'll try again in Marrakech.

And yes, there are lots of interesting things to read in museums and on plaques in parks and all sorts of other good places, but that information can be looked at again, or found online, or tatooed on your back. Conversations happen once. Okay, that's not true, and as a parent I should know better. We spend lots of time seemingly having the same conversation over and over, with kids, with spouses, with co-workers. So I will caveat that and say, good conversations only happen once. You can't go back and recapture a discussion. It happens. Then it is gone, except for what is left in our relatively flawed memories that we try and coax out into the open from time to time, or have spring upon us as some mnemonic unwittingly triggers one.

Said differently, I'm really enjoying talking to people and learning things and I wish I could remember it all. I actually hear this little voice in my head every so often going "please, please, please try to remember this part" as either Maarit or now Kai, or  Noah and Jake, my cousins, Tanya and Simon, John and Helen, or anyone else who I've connected with along the way is talking. Perhaps if that little voice stopped interrupting I would remember more.

See, I decided to start with the digression right away this time and then just show somee pictures of Helsinki. Almost there.

Actually, I think we are there.

This is Maarit. She of the three wishes question, and my very lovely couch surfing host in Helsinki. Aside from chatting up a storm for a few days together, she was also kind enough to show me about bits of the city, share a few pints and meals, help me make sense of the public transit, and of course, gave me a comfortable couch to sleep on when I wasn't wandering the streets. Maarit teaches kids with different learning challenges, or "exception-abilities", which is a term I heard used at Noah's high school and which drives me totally batty. It's not a word people! Even with the hyphen. So yes, she works with some pretty difficult young children on a daily basis. This is likely what gave her the patience to talk with me.

This is her dog Pipo. Pronounce it like Peepo, which is, funnily enough, what Noah and Jake call my Dad.

Pipo is apparently the Spanish name for those beanie type hats. I will need to get one for my Dad. Peepo in his Pipo. Too bad Salvador Dali isn't alive to do the portrait.

Pipo, unlike my father, or at least I think so anyway, enjoys eviscerating his toys. And he does an excellent job of it. And then he wants you to play fetch with the carcass with him. Which also is fun, even if it doesn't travel too far.

Why my father is called Peepo is another story, which I may share, but I said I wouldn't digress.

Ah heck, it's short.

There was a cartoon the kids used to watch about a stuffed bear named Corduroy who, like all stuffed animals, came to life when the little girl who owned him left the room. So did all of the other animals. One of the other animals was this old one named Grumpa that they all called Pipo. Well, my Dad started as Grandpa, the ears of young Noah heard Grumpa (or perhaps it was my poor ennunciation), and then called him Peepo. This all happened at the Yorkdale Shopping Centre when we went to see Santa. We normally went to Dufferin Mall who have, in my opinion, the best Santa ever, but for some reason we were at Yorkdale, my father was with us, and Peepo was born.

This is me. I've gotten a few notes asking to see pictures of me more often, perhaps to prove that I have not been turned into an infinite number of monkeys with typewriters.

This is Helsinki Cathedral. It's at the top of the a steep, tall, staircase leading down to Senate Square. The square, Cathedral, and three other major buildings surronding the square were designed by Carl Ludwig Engel in the mid 1800's. If you're not familiar with Engel, just think of him as the Christopher Wren of Finland. Very prolific.

This time you get a diptych.

It's a lovely sounding organ, based upon the practice someone was doing that I got to listen in on for a few minutes. Sadly no Bach D minor.

This is from the top of the steps looking out over the square.

This is a better view, okay maybe just closer, so I'm saving you zooming, of what I'm pretty sure is the Government Palace.

This is Upsenski Cathedral, the largest Orthodox Cathedral in Western Europe. I've tried my best to make it look like the Bates' house, but it remains a lovely building despite my intentions.

No organ so instead you get this awesome altar/screen combo that dominates the space.

And it's essentially a square, so no long shots trying to show the whole place.

Perhaps this will become the standard for my Orthodox triptychs. We will all have to wait and see.

Honestly, the thing I did the most in Helsinki was walk. Outside. I didn't spend much time in museums, galleries, or the like. The exception is Suomenlinna, but I'll tell you about that another day. Tomorrow perhaps. And it's not that there aren't a plethora of museums, galleries, and such to go to. There are. And it's not like I'm not interested in such things as they relate to Finland, or as it is called there, Suomi. I am. Very. So I don't know. I just felt like walking, taking it easy, exploring, seeing what I saw without running after every scrap of information I could come up with. I even considered getting a Helsinki Card, which would have given me not only free access to loads of places, but also the incentive to scurry between them having already made the financial commitment.

I just walked, hung out with Maarit and Pipo, and had a really nice time doing so. Oh, and I took pictures, so that's pretty much what you're gonna get now.

I've seen this sort of thing in many cities. Toronto has a few. I don't know why people do it, and I haven't bother to look into it. Perhaps I will, but not now. Anyway, just lots of locks. Blame my Uncle Per.

Here is another view of Uspenski Cathedral.

It's not my fault it looks imposing, it's on a hill.

Helsinki has some great Art Nouveau Architecture, and if I've got my periods right, which quite possibly I do not, these are some of those buildings. In any case they're kinda nice.

This is Esplanade Park.

In 1808 most of Helsinki went up in smoke. Fire. Wood buildings. Bad. This apparently happens everywhere. Fire in Tonnwanda comes to mind.

Anyway, in 1812 they got a new city plan that made room for a promenade style park that would separate the new city from the remaining wood building community to the south. Bring in Wren. No, wrong century and country. Bring in Engel. Lovely, enduring design. Everyone goes to it. It's good to stroll along. Which is good given that it is a promenade.

There are a few statues in the park, and each of them has a QR code that you can scan to "hear the statue" talk. My phone was not up to the task so I have no idea what these statues say. I would suspect though that is more than "Please will someone wipe the seagull crap off my head" though, so if you're ever in Helsinki and want to scan a QR code thingy, then let me know.

This is the market down by the port near where the ferry I took from Stockholm came in. You know, in my last blog entry I had originally ended with pictures about the ferry trip, and then I cut them when I bothered to write some text, and at that time promised I'd get to them here. I'm not keeping that promise. No particular reason. It was a ferry/cruise boat. It takes about 18 hours to get from Stockholm to Helsinki. Many people take it there and back again on the weekend to essentially party for 32 hours, and buy tax free alcohol and cigarettes. It was fun. Met some neat people, enjoyed a few beer. If we're friends on Facebook then you know that part already. So ya, it got me to Helsinki.

And here's the market.

These are, I think she called them, Bait fish. Tossed in rye flour and fried in oil. Very tasty.

I have no idea if this was tasty, but it did look it.

Apparently Scandinavians are really big on mushrooms. I think I've mentioned the foraging aspect as well. Anyway, there was a market in Stockholm where the mushrooms were overwhelming there were so many, and I failed to get a picture. This picture is nowhere near as good as the other one, and how could it be as the other one does not exist, but yes, mushrooms. Revel in their glory.

While not the ship I came in on, this one is pretty darn close.

Perhaps that could have gone up front. Not wanting to end at the beginning, here are a few more pictures of the city.

This fellow is what greeted us when we disembarked from the ship.

And this piece I believe is called Links, and is in City Hall, where they offer free WiFi. Given it's location right in the old town and by the port I think I have spent more time in the Helsinki City Hall then I have in Toronto's.

And this is a final view of Helsinki taken from the ferry to Suomenlinna, which I will tell you all about another day.