FINLAND
Who knows Finland?
Maybe less than 20% of people in India know that there exists a country called Finland. But everyone knows NOKIA!!
Nokia Corporation is the world's largest manufacturer of mobile phones (as of June 2006), with a global market share of approximately 34%. It produces mobile phones for every major market and protocol, including GSM, CDMA and WCDMA. Nokia's headquarters are in Espoo, a neighboring city of Helsinki, Finland, but it has R&D, manufacturing, and sales representation sites in many countries throughout the world.
Finland was discovered by a Swedish King and was under Swedish rule for about 700 years. Later in the beginning of the 19th century it was under Russia, as an autonomous Grand Duchy till 1917. Then they forced out the Germans in 1944-45 and became totally free. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Finland freed itself from the last restrictions imposed on it by the Paris peace treaties of 1947.
Finland is a country of thousands of lakes and islands; 187,888 lakes (larger than 500 m˛) and 179,584 islands to be precise.
Our trip to Helsinki, the capital of Finland was for 3 days. We took a flight from Copenhagen to Helsinki, Vantaa airport. We reached Helsinki in the evening at 8.30 p.m. on 22/07/06. We had 3 days for sight seeing.
On the first day, we first went to the Tourist office and collected some information. We went to Helsinki´s popular Market square first and then to Porvoo on the same day. And we purchased Helsinki card for the next 2 days.
The flea market is just 2-3 min by walk from the tourist office. Just opposite the market is the City Hall. The market Square has Helsinki´s most famous flea market. The booths here sell traditional foods, reindeer skin warm clothes, handicrafts and souvenirs. We also saw the Old Market Hall (built in 19th century) and then went to the bus station. The bus station is in Kamppi. Kamppi is the brand new travel and shopping centre with dozens of shops and restaurants (completed in Mar 2006). The shopping centre building is big and looks good with it´s impressive structure. It is known to have been completed in just one and half year. It also has underground bus station and metro. From the bus station, we took a bus to Porvoo city. It was a 1 hour journey by bus. One can also travel by boat, but bus is the fastest way to reach there. Porvoo is the second oldest city in Finland. There is the Porvoo river in the city. In Porvoo, the old Porvoo (on the north of bridge at Mannerheiminkatu) is more popular for its old wooden colourful houses from medieval period. So it is also known as “old wooden town”. On the west bank of the river, there is a modern wooden city with colourful houses. Initially, we mistook these colourful houses on west bank as the old part of the city. But on enquiring, we realized that we were wrong. We located the tourist office and collected a map of the old Porvoo. The shore houses (red in colour) look beautiful. Further ahead, we saw the Porvoo Cathedral, which was under renovation. This building had been destroyed many times since it´s construction in 14th century. We walked along the cobbled streets back to the south, where we had started. We followed the walking path given in the map, so we could see the important points without wasting time to search for them.
After spending around 2 hours, we took a bus back to Helsinki.
In the evening, we went to the Central Railway station area. It is a big square with Atenum Art museum at one side and National Theatre building on the opposite side. And the railway station building on one side and a commercial building on the opposite side. Later we met our Indian friends for dinner.
The next day, we began our day with the Guided city tour arranged with Helsinki card. It began from Esplanade Park, taking us to the Senate Square. The square is very popular and is dominated by four buildings designed and constructed in 19th century. The Helsinki Cathedral, the Government Palace, the main building of the University of Helsinki and Helsinki University library. Helsinki Cathedral looks very impressive and is said to be the most photographed building in the city. And it is the most dominant in the square because of its tall white structure. It does not have a very traditional look like the other cathedrals. It has a modern look/ structure like that of a parliament building.
Then we were shown the Uspenski Orthodox Cathedral. We saw it from the bus only. Then we were taken to the Temppeliaukio church also called the “rock church”. We visited it from inside. This church is the most unique church, we have seen till date. It has been quarried out of the natural bedrock and has a round top. (Usually churches are tall structures but this church is short). The interior walls of the church are created naturally by the rock and have a nearly flat dome.
Later, on the way, we were shown the Parliament building from the bus. We then stopped at the Sibelius Monument in Sibelius Park. It has been named after the famous composer Jean Sibelius. On the way back, we were shown the Opera House, art Museum and the National Museum of Finland. At the end of the tour we were brought back to the Esplanade park. It was 1 and half hour tour. After our lunch, we took a walk in the Senate Square, as we had seen it earlier only from the bus. After taking snaps, we took the ferry from the market square to the Suomenlinna Sea Fortress.
Suomenlinna is one of the world´s largest historical maritime fortresses. It was built, as a bastion, on six islands in the 1700´s, by a Swedish King and now it has been placed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, since 1991. This fortress is a living district and is home to some 850 people.
It took around 15 minutes to reach there.
After reaching there we took the map of the area and the brochure. We walked for around 2 hours in the fortress. There are many dark tunnels and secret passages in the fortress. There is an artillery museum of the 18th century and other museums about the fortresses history. There are different exits from the fortress to reach the market square.
The Suomenlinna Experience multivision shown in the Visitor Centre shows the construction of the maritime fortress, the sea battles for the fortification and life and sounds in the garrison town. It is quite an interesting show. After that we took a ferry back to the market square.
After relaxing for some time, we went took a metro to the Itakeskus shopping centre. After some shopping and dinner, we returned.
The third day, we first went to the Seurasaari. It is a recreational area and open museum island. It took us only 15 minutes by bus from the centre. There is a bridge connecting the island to the bus stop where we got down. The bus stop is on the main land of the city.
The natural surroundings of the island are beautiful and make the walk interesting. As usual we collected the map for area and followed the route in the map. The Open air museum has the traditional wooden houses with items used in the olden days and buildings of 17- 18th century, wooden windmills. There were also women dressed in the traditional Finnish dress. There is a church - Karuna Church in the area, built in 1685. It is one of the most popular churches in Helsinki for summer weddings. We enjoyed the walk in the area very much. During our walk in the area, we saw many squirrels running around. The squirrels there were quite brave. I was holding an apple in my hand to attract the squirrels and take pictures of them. 1-2 squirrels actually climbed on my leg to reach the apple in my hand. There were lot of children also, offering some food to them. The squirrels were not scared at all and would come near and eat the food there itself. It was fun watching them. After around 2 hours we returned to the city centre. We then went to the winter garden. The entrance part of the garden is beautiful than the garden itself. We spent only around 20 minutes as it is quite small. Later we went to the Uspenski Orthodox Cathedral, close to the Market Square. It is the largest Orthodox Church in western Europe. It has a typical Russian church structure, symbolizing the Russian impact in Finland. It was completed in 1868. It looks very beautiful with big golden cupolas and redbrick walls. It is very impressive from inside too. From here, we went to the Market square and took a ferry to the Korkesaari Island. It is just 15-20 min boat ride. It is a very popular zoo in Helsinki. It is a nice concept to make a zoo on an island. The natural surroundings add to the beauty. We saw some uncommon arctic species along with common animals like tigers, lions, leopards, horses, bears, etc... We were keen to see the snow leopard, but could not see it as it was inside its den. The bear is the national animal of Finland and they had a large area in the zoo, called the “Bear Castle.” It was fun watching the bears. Especially the bear cubs fighting and cuddling! The children there enjoyed a lot and screaming with joy seeing them. We also saw two humped camels. After spending 2 hours we returned to the city centre.
We like the city overall and especially the Seurasaari island and the Cathedrals very much. The next day we took a flight back to Denmark.
And did you know that Nokia is currently the world's largest camera manufacturer, as the sales of its camera-equipped mobile phones have exceeded those of any conventional camera manufacturer. J
According to the annual survey by the Berlin-based organization Transparency International (www.transparency.org), Finland is perceived to be the world's second least corrupt country in 2005. (The least corrupt is Iceland, New Zealand also is at number 2, followed by Denmark, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Australia, Austria, Netherlands......).
For pictures click on the links below:
AERIAL VIEWS AND ON THE WAY PHOTOS
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