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.