My Backyard

My first weekend, in Helsinki, I decided to take a walk around my neighborhood. I technically live in Helsinki proper, but it is more like a suburb. It's called Koskela and is a 25 min bus ride from downtown Helsinki.

I had seen some paths near my dorm and thought I'd wander along them to see where they would take me. I soon discovered that I practically live in a forest and didn't even know it. Alongside every road is a walking and biking path. But then, if you follow one of the paths that leads away from the road, you'll discover that this additional path also follows the road but just gives you a more scenic route. So, you can either decide to walk near traffic (in case you're walking to catch your bus) or escape into the forest at any given moment. It is amazing. The fact that there is a pedestrian and biking path along each side of every road is unheard of where I'm from.

Making this discovery was great. If I want to go on a hike in the US, I usually have to make plans, get directions, and then drive to wherever I want to hike. Here, I can simply walk out my front door. Or hop on a bus and get off wherever I see a path that looks cool.

Birch trees are plentiful in Finland, which is very comforting to me, because it reminds me of summers spent in the Boundary Waters, Minnesota. They are my favorite trees.

I soon happened upon a blueberry patch, which also was very reminiscent of my summers in Minnesota. During these summers, there were several occasions when I would go blueberry picking with my aunts, who are better known as 'professional blueberry pickers'. It's hilarious and embarrassing how much more they could pick in 1 hour than I could.

I then saw a patch of red berries right next to the blueberry patch. Lingonberries? I have no idea.

And finally, there are tons of these trees with red berries on them. Very beautiful.

My first days in Helsinki

I arrived in Helsinki on Monday August 25th, 2008, after 3 days of travelling. I started in Dayton, Ohio and stopped in NYC and Düsseldorf, Germany. It was an exhausting journey. I then spent the following 3 days in a Fulbright grantee orientation session. It was a great introduction to the city.

One of the first things I encountered was the Rautatientori, otherwise known as the main railway station. Aside from the local and long-distance trains that come in at this point, there are also tram lines, busses and the underground metro that one can catch in the nearby vicinity. There is definitely no lack of public transportation in this city.






During the first day of the Fulbright Orientation, we visited the Ateneum, which houses the largest collection of art in Finland, including many Finnish masterpieces. I became aware of two painters I'd never heard of and who are really amazing: Hugo Simberg and Akseli Gallen-Kallela. Turns out, Simberg was a student of Gallen-Kallela.








We also visited the Helsinki Cathedral (left). Judging from the looks of it, I initially thought it was affiliated with either the Russian Orthodox or Roman-Catholic church. Nope. Most Finns are associated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, so this is the Lutheran Cathedral of Helsinki.




After one of several fancy receptions that the Finnish Fulbright Commission put on for us, the Fulbright grantees decided to carry on at nearby Hesperia Park. This park is one of many examples of the way in which Finland incorporates nature into city life. More on that in a later blog. The body of water is Töölönlahti (Töölö Bay), which really seems to be more like a lake than a bay. There are walking paths surrounding it and up on a nearby hill stands an amusement park, Linnanmäki, that I assume is probably open for no more than 4 months a year. It is run by the Children's Day Foundation and donates several million euros to child welfare organizations every year! I don't want to make any uneducated assumptions about the amusement park industry in the US, but I have a hunch that there are few parks that are run by an organization whose sole purpose is to improve the quality of life for all people.