Vallisaari

Hello people!

I'm back, and as you can see Julius and I are enjoying the Finnish summer.

You may remember my posts (here and here) from last year about what to do in Helsinki in the summer. Well, here's another thing you can do: Visit the island of Vallisaari. If you've been to Helsinki you've probably heard of Suomenlinna (Sveaborg). But just in case you haven't: it's a sea fortress located at the entrance to Helsinki harbour and it's so famous that it's become a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Here's a picture:

Anyway, that's enough about Suomenlinna, I'll make another post about that sometime in the future. But for now, back to Vallisaari or Skanslandet as it's know in Swedish. The name roughly translates as Fortification Island, and it's an island located next to Suomenlinna and as the name suggests it once formed part of the defence of Helsinki. In fact it was used by the Finnish Defence Forces until 2012. With the exception of a radar station in operation during the second world war it was only really used for weapons and munitions storage, though. In 2016 it was opened to the public and now you can get there by boat from the Market Square in the centre of Helsinki. Here's me getting on the boat:

And here I am enjoying the ride and the sunshine. The trip takes about 15-20 minutes and costs €10 for a return ticket. The boat stops at Suomenlinna on the way back so you can combine it with a visit to Suomenlinna if you want.

Vallisaari has two things going for it: it's nature and it's views.

Because it was off-limit to the public for a couple of hundred years, nature has been allowed to develop in a way that you won't find anywhere else in the capital region. For example the island is home to several rare species of insects and bats. The flora is interesting too, you can find Russian plants that must come with the fodder the Russian soldiers brought for their horses during the 19th century.

As you can see from the picture above, the island also has lakes. In fact the original name of the island was Träskön (Lake Island), and for hundreds of years it was used by sailors as a place to pick up fresh water.

Overall it's a very green and lush island, so it wasn't hard to find a nice and comfy spot in the shade where we could sit and rest our little legs.

And of course the island is full of old military constructions. I'm not quite sure what these concrete bunker-like things are. Probably some kind of storage buildings.

Because Vallisaari is located between Helsinki and the sea, you get some amazing views of both the city and the sea if you climb up to one the higher points on the islands. But climbing is hard work when you're as small as we are...

It's well worth it though. If you look to the north you can see the entire city centre as well as the Suomenlinna fortress.

And if you look to the south you're looking out over the Gulf of Finland and the islands south of Helsinki.

So, don't forget to bring you binoculars!

In the picture above I'm looking at the island of Santahamina which is still an active army base. I hope I don't get arrested for spying on them...

That'll be all for today, but come back next week and I'll tell you about my trip to Hanko.

I'm back, baby!

Hello people!

Have you missed me? I've sure missed you. You're probably wondering where I've been. Well it's been a rough couple of months. As you know I had some problems with Julius and in the end it got so bad that I had to send him to rehab. But he's back now and he's doing well. Here are some pictures to prove it.

It's been snowing here lately so we went out for a walk in the snow. At first Julius was a little confused by all the white powder but he soon got over it and started throwing snow around.

Some of it landed on me and it was really wet and cold... ugh. But I soon got my revenge.

There we go. Now he knows not to throw snow at me again.

Anyway, folks, that's all for today. I'll be back soon to tell you about our Christmas.

Cheerio!

The Tsar and I

Moikka moi!

Yesterday Julius and I went to Langinkoski. "Where on Earth is Langinkoski?", you ask. I didn't know either. Turns out it's just outside Kotka. "And where is Kotka, then?" Now, this one I knew, it's in southeastern Finland. "Okay then, but why on Earth would you want to go to there?" Well, I'll tell you, we went to see the imperial fishing lodge. Emperor Alexander III of Russia (who was also grand duke of Finland) had a small wooden fishing lodge built there. It looks like this:

No wonder that the Tsar chose this place. It's very beautiful and supposedly a very good fishing spot. Just look at the view from the porch:

Julius wanted to go in the water to look for the fish.

We went inside and had a look around. It was really quite small. But then again, even if they'd have made it bigger, it would still be small compared to the royal palaces in Saint Petersburg.

Oh look, the imperial chamber pot! I'm tempted to try it...

We went back outside to enjoy the view some more.

After the break we went exploring in the area. We found a small orthodox chapel. It was locked so I had to take a selfie through the window.

And then we climbed the "imperial fishing rock". A big boulder by the side of the river that Alexander himself nominated as the best place for fishing. See if you can find me and Julius in the picture.

After that we ate our packed lunch on the imperial pier. To get to the lodge the imperial family would sail to Kotka on the imperial yacht Tsarevna and then they would be transported the last few kilometres by steamboat to this pier. From here they would have to walk the last 100 metres by foot. Poor sods.

The locals were so fond of Alexander III that they put up a memorial after his death. Not everyone seems to have agreed, though. The missing part in the middle is clearly the result of someone using the memorial for target practice.

Finally we went home. Here we are waiting for the bus.

Kiasma

Gooooood mooorning, Helsinki!

Last Friday I went to Kiasma which is the museum of contemporary art in Helsinki.
Personally I think contemporary art is mostly bullshit, but I guess it's healthy to challenge yourself from time to time, and admission is free on the first Friday of the month anyway, so at least I didn't waste any money.

Oh look, a vase with a teddybear (and Donald Trump) on it!

The building itself is kind of interesting.

I have no clue what this is supposed to be about. It's not even a painting, it's a tapestry...

Finally a familiar face!

I really, really want one of these for Christmas. Humans, are you listening?

Look, it comes complete with a shrine for your teddybear!

I wonder what this thing is for. Maybe that could be my Christmas present for Jevgeni.

Turns out contemporary art isn't as bad as I thought. Hope you enjoyed it.

More things to do in Helsinki in the summer

Hello!

We're back from Russia so it's time to tell you more about how we spend our time here in Helsinki.

Like I explained in my previous post you can take one of the yellow citybikes to get round the city, but, if like me, you are to lazy for that you can take the metro instead.
As you can see it's probably the world's most orange metro. Even the interior is completely orange. But did you know that it's also the northernmost metro system in the world? Tickets are quite expensive but I never pay anyway, tihi...

One thing you can always do in Helsinki even if the weather is bad, (which it is most of the year...), is to go second-hand shopping. I like second-hand shops. You never know what you're going to find. By the way, did you know that's how I got Julius?

When you're done with your shopping you might want to relax. For that you can go to the beach. Helsinki is surrounded by the sea so there are plenty of beaches and they all have wonderful views of the archipelago.

Julius doesn't like the beach. He thinks it's boring, he prefers to go skateboarding. I keep telling him to wear a helmet but, as usual, he doesn't listen. It's not like there is much to protect anyway.

Hope you're having a wonderful summer like we are!

Sauna

Moikka!
Mitä kuuluu? (What's up?)

Like I told you yesterday on Friday we went to the sauna. Like true Finns we go once a week. We don't have our own sauna but there's one in the building where we live, and we have reserved a timeslot every Friday evening from 6 pm to 7 pm. One hour is good for me. About 3 minutes is enough for Julius

It can be a good idea to have a sauna hat to protect your brain, but I don't know why Julius is wearing one...

Every now and then we go out to cool down and have some cold beer. I let Julius have a sip too. You have to teach them while they're young.

Then we go back in the sauna.

After the sauna you have to wash off the sweat. I try to wash Julius but sometimes he is not very cooperative...

And then things can end up like this...

Sometimes we splash around in the tub with lots of foam. Julius loves it.

That's it for today, folks!

Blueberries

Hej på er!

As promised I'll tell you about our berry picking trip. One of my favourite things to do in late summer is picking berries. The blueberries – well, they're really bilberries but we call them blueberries – are ripe now and in August we can start picking lingonberries.

We went to the forest which is on the way to the beach that I showed you yesterday, and started picking. Or well, I started picking, Julius, the little rascal, ran off almost immediately.

Me looking for Julius

I looked everywhere

I was worried sick and spent a long time looking for him. I finally found him in a small shelter that he'd built. There he was grinning and eating blueberries.

I'm starting to think he's not a real monkey but a changeling. Maybe the forest trolls switched my kid for this little bugger at birth. That happens, you know.

Next time I think I'll leave the kid at home. He's too much trouble.

When we came home we ate the blueberries with milk. Yum!

Tomorrow I think I'll show you some more pictures from Italy.

Till then!