I am back after my two nights away from Helsinki! I took a bus to Turku on Wednesday, which is on the west coast of Finland. I really loved it there! It’s a port town and there are lots of museums and other cultural centres, and there was a lot of hustle and bustle from other visitors. I stayed overnight there because I was continuing on the next day, and I wanted to stay near the ferry terminal (which is at the west end of town, away from the main downtown area) because I didn’t want to have to get up insanely early to get down to the ferry terminal from downtown in the morning. I found this super cute hostel right by the ferry terminal; the reason it could be so close is because it’s also a boat! It’s called the MS Bore and she was built in 1960 in Sweden, but is now retired and is a hostel. My room was really cute and had a porthole and its own small bathroom.
I walked from the Turku bus station to MS Bore (3.6km) in hopes that even though I was early, I’d be able to drop off my stuff so I didn’t have to carry it around all day. It was quite warm out and my backpack was heavy because of having overnight things in it. Luckily they already had my room ready (and had a luggage room in the event that that it wasn’t ready) so I was able to settle in a bit. I realized as I was about to head out that in my ruthless purging of unnecessary items from my backpack, I hadn’t brought a smaller purse-like bag… Which made me disgruntled because I like to bring my Kindle for dinners and lunches so I don’t have to sit alone staring off into the distance. But I managed to squeeze it (minus case) into the inside pocket-y thing of my jean jacket, so I was ready to go! The first place I went was Turun linna (Turku Castle), which is the largest surviving medieval building in Finland and is close to the ferry terminal area. Building of it was started in 1280!
The building is huuuuuge. I think I did like 1000 stairs while exploring the castle, which is a big part of why my feet and legs were so tired at the end of the day. The restoration job is also really interesting. There was an exhibit at the end of the tour route showing the restoration process, because the castle was heavily damaged during a bombing in the summer of 1941. As someone who really likes seeing the process behind things, I loved reading about the decisions made during the restoration to combine aspects of the old with more modern elements. Looking at the photos of the damage from the bombing, it’s hard to believe that it’s the same place. They did such a thorough and amazing job, a lot of the rooms on the tour I found myself thinking “well, this would be a nice bedroom!” (haha!).
After I was done at the castle, I walked into town along the banks of the Aura River. There were lots of boats moored along both sides, and it felt very familiar since I already live in a port city. Fanni recommended I try a restaurant along the river called Tinta, and I was SO hungry because the castle took way longer than I thought it would (it was already 1pm!) so I headed straight there (another 2.6km walked). I got a piece of lemon meringue pie (not pictured because I ate it before my main dish arrived…), and then some really yummy pasta with chicken. It was nice to sit and watch people walk along the river, and to read my book a bit. I’ve been reading the Crazy Rich Asians series by Kevin Kwan – I finished the first one in a speed-reading fit the morning I left for my trip, because it had to be returned to the library – and I finished the second one while I was on this mini-trip. I highly recommend the series; it’s so funny and smart and has great characters, but is also just fun to read.
The thing about travelling alone is that you basically have to take lots of selfies or conscript random passers-by into taking photos of you (although let’s be honest, random people always take the worst photos and cut you off at the legs and don’t compose things in the way you see in your head). So I unashamedly took a selfie on my way across the bridge, heading to Turun tuomiokirkko (Turku Cathedral). It was dedicated as the main church of Turku in 1300, and was originally wooden but got rebuilt extensively after it was damaged in the Great Fire of Turku in 1827. They had a really beautiful pipe organ, which you can see below.
Next, I headed to the Sibelius Museum! Even though it’s named after the composer Jean Sibelius, it is really a general music museum and not one specifically about the composer. It started off as an archive collection of the Abo Akademi University, but was expanded into a separate building and ended up being named after Sibelius (with his permission – he was very honoured). I really liked the museum, although sometimes the labels on the exhibits didn’t have English translations so I couldn’t full appreciate the historical information about all the objects. One thing I loved in particular was that they had a harpsichord on display that actually had a sign saying that museum visitors were WELCOME to play it! So many times in museums you just see signs saying “Don’t Touch, Don’t Touch, Don’t Touch”, and it was really lovely to be able to play the instrument. I think too that it’s awesome for non-professional musicians to be encouraged to try out instruments like this, because while the piano is so accessible, most people would never have the chance to physically interact with a harpsichord and see how it feels in comparison.
There was a room devoted to Sibelius, and it had listening examples and details of his life, as well as photographs of him and selected musical manuscripts. Let me say this, I LOVE Sibelius, but it’s not like I’m a fangirl of him or obsessed, but this room made me cry! I felt kind of self-conscious because there was another couple in the room, and I was listening to this excerpt of his swan theme while reading about him talking about seeing 100 swans flying in the sky while he was on the grounds of his house (Ainola, hoping to go there before I leave Finland). And then the next part was one of very few remaining recordings of Sibelius conducting his own music while I read about the end of his life and I got all teary and had to move on quickly to the next part because I felt like saying to the couple “I’M NOT CRYING, YOU’RE CRYING” hahah.
After the Sibelius Museum, my camera died so I have no photos, but the next thing I was at was an art museum/gallery anyway, so I wouldn’t have felt posting photos of those things anyway. I checked out Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova, which is a combination of underground ruins of old Turku buildings in their original found locations, plus upstairs there’s a modern art section (including a Picasso and a Warhol!). I was glad I went, although I found the modern art portion was more my thing at the time. I think I was a bit history-overloaded and found that I wasn’t super interested in poring over lots of text about the history of Turku, although it was really awesome to see the ruins and think about the fact that they were in the exact location where the buildings had originally been.
I was going to get a slice of pizza for supper after walking back to the hostel, but then the place I had seen earlier had strangely evaporated (obviously) and so after scouting out the location of where I’d board my ferry the next day, I ended up just eating granola for dinner in my room and falling asleep really early. The next morning I had to be at the Silja terminal for 7:15am to check into my “ferry”. I use quotation marks because it was actually a giant cruise ship. I got a deck ticket because it was waaayyy cheaper, and ended up sitting on the exterior deck for a while knitting. I’m working on a double-knitting project called the Paintbox Scarf (pattern by Lucy Neatby) and I find it so satisfying to work with two colours but not have to deal with managing two yarns “behind” the work. (This is moderately terrifying to me.) Plus, having the colour change so gradually makes me want to knit faster so I can see the new colours!
I stumbled across the sun deck after a little while, and it was perfect because there were really comfy lounging chairs and it was protected from the wind but still cooler than inside. And it had this VIEW!
When I arrived at Mariehamn in Aland, I went to pick up the rental bike that I’d reserved. It was a 7-speed women’s bike with a basket (photo a bit later), and I didn’t realize until after I’d left town that it had really squeaky brakes. I’m not sure if they were actually ineffective or not, but it definitely made me self-conscious every time I had to slow down. Look at me! I have a rental bike and I am a tourist! My plan was to bike 30km to my B&B on an island called Föglo. It was really warm, and I offloaded my most heavy things into the basket of the bike, but I still had to wear my backpack and I got really sweaty. Also, there was an insane headwind, which I was hoping would at least be at my tail the next day, but NO of course not, it was also in my face the next day as well. Full disclosure, I wore the exact same outfit (minus underwear, but including socks…) as the day before. Aland is really cyclist-friendly, and there are separate bike paths alongside pretty much all roads, including the highway, and if there isn’t one, there’s always a bike lane on both sides. I came across a drawbridge with an ice cream stand near it, so I took a break and ate pear ice cream. I noticed at McDonald’s yesterday that there are also pear milkshakes on offer there. Is pear the “green apple” of Finland? Because it sure did not actually taste like any pear I’ve ever eaten! The park near the ice cream place was so beautiful! When I went to get back on my bike, there were just about to open the drawbridge for three ships to pass through, so I got to watch! There were these two little boys who were equally excited about it, so we watched together. (I often find that the things I’m super excited about are similar to the things small children are excited about.)
My legs were pretty tired, especially after walking close to 15km the day before in Turku, but I made it to the ferry dock where I needed to take the ferry over to Föglo. The ferry didn’t come for 30 minutes, so I had time to sit. It’s a pretty substantial ferry, and can fit 18 wheelers and other cars on it. The ferry ride was about 25 minutes, and it was really nice to stand on the front and watch the nearby islands pass by. Side note: Aland has around 6500 islands, and is an autonomous Finnish territory, but is monolingual in SWEDISH. I found that Swedish is much more similar English, since it’s a Germanic language, and I could puzzle out written signs a bit more convincingly. I found the town of Degerby on Föglo kind of reminded me of Tancook Island – it was small and the houses were haphazard in a similar way.
The place I stayed is called Gästhem Enigheten, and it was built in 1625 as an inn, but in the interim has also been a courthouse. It was really sweet, and I liked that they kept so many historic details! In my room there was still a huge stove, and all the rooms still use skeleton keys. They had a full kitchen available to guests to use, and there was a grocery store nearby, so I got dinner foods and snacks (and a black current gin cooler) and made some pasta for myself. The next morning, breakfast didn’t start until 8am and I wanted to be on the 7:45am ferry to make sure I had enough time to cycle back to the main ferry in Mariehamn, so I got my own breakfast foods as well. I wish I could have stayed for breakfast, because their dining room looked really cute, but alas!
Here you can finally see my bike while I was waiting for the ferry from Föglo. She served me well, although I had a lot of issues with the seat. If I sat on the bike a bit too heavily, the seat sank down and I couldn’t get the mechanism to go any tighter, so I had to be gentle! As well, the seat was pretty uncomfortable and I had to fight to sit back on the seat far enough to get good leg motion. But it definitely could’ve been worse, and the ride back to town went by much quicker than the day before. It was cooler because it was earlier in the day, and then there’s that whole thing of the return journey always seeming shorter. As well, I was highly motivated by getting back to Mariehamn early enough to go swimming at Mariebad, an oceanside pool with a huge slide. I did get to fulfill my swimming dreams, and it helped with my general smelliness. Although it did make my hair very fluffy because I used shampoo at the pool (and there was no conditioner), plus I didn’t bring a towel because I had no room in my backpack, so I had to pat myself dry with paper towel. But I had one clean dress and pair of underwear left in my bag, so it was awesome to be able to get clean and feel like a new person before I had lunch in town and got on the ferry back to Turku.
The ferry ride was pretty uneventful, and then I took a public transit bus from the ferry terminal to the bus terminal and caught my bus back to Helsinki! And the Tour de France starts today! Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be any TV coverage here in Finland, and my true love commentator is Phil Liggett, but I have the app and am hoping to stay up to date! Today, Fanni and Timo and I are going to a craft beer festival and maybe a free concert as part of the Helsinki Chamber Music Festival, and might try to squeeze something else in. For now, I leave you with this speed monitoring sign from Aland, because I am an adult who giggles about the word fart.
