Tampere is the second largest municipal area in Finland, and I had booked bus tickets to go here ages ago when I was planning my trip but it kind of snuck up on me! I didn’t even have a brainstorm list of things I wanted to see while I was there (just for a day), and couldn’t really remember why I’d wanted to go in the first place. But when I looked it up, I immediately realized – they had TONS of textile factories! It was also kind of freeing to not have this laundry list of things I was super attached to getting to see; I sort of winged it based on some random internet searches on the bus on the way there. One thing I knew I did want to see was the Pyynikki Observation Tower, because I’d read that it had amazing views. Tampere is located in between two big lakes, so I wanted to be able to see the lakes on either side of me from a bird’s eye view. It was a bit of a hike up to the observation tower, because the tower itself is not crazy tall, and gets some of its vantage from being on a high point. It was heavily wooded and quite muggy, but I’m glad I made the trek because the clouds cleared pretty much right when I arrived at the tower and I got to see a great view! The internet and guide books also raved about how the café at the tower has the best donuts ever, so I obviously had to try one. It was still warm, and very sugary and delicious!
After that, I walked down the hill and then scouted out what I wanted to do next. I don’t have wifi or data while I’m on this trip, but I downloaded offline maps for all of the places I was going, and I had photos and screenshots of recommended things to see. I decided that I’d head to the Amuri Museum of Workers’ Housing. This might sound like a super random thing to have a museum of, but there were a ton of factory workers in Tampere from the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s (and later). It seems like Tampere was a huge centre of industrialization in Finland, and it was really cool to see this museum. It’s a preserved block of original housing, and they set it up chronologically so that the first set of rooms you get to visit simulates the earliest time period, and it progresses throughout the timeline of the housing block. All of the explanations were in English as well as Finnish, and they had these amazing fictional accounts of each room and its occupants that really painted the picture for each room. There were three different vintage sewing machines, a knitting machine (which you can see below!), and a mocked up haberdashery that had threads on display.
After that, I was really hungry so I got a bunch of food (too much food, I often overestimate when I’m hungry how much I can actually fit in my stomach) and had a picnic in the City Park. I decided I’d go check out the Spy Museum and on my way I passed by the old Finlayson factory. Finlayson is still an active Finnish textile manufacturer, although this factory has been turned into shops and restaurants. (There was a big sign that said “FABRIC” and I got really excited, but when I got closer realized that it was strangely the name of a bar. I may be the only one around who was disappointed by this.)
You know when there’s something you’re sort of ambivalent about doing, and then as soon as there’s just one small obstacle you’re like, OK NOT DOING IT! ? Anyone? Well, I didn’t realize I was that ambivalent about the spy museum until I was trying to find it and couldn’t easily find the entrance and then just decided I didn’t want to go at all, haha. Instead, I walked across the bridge and ended up sitting by the Tammerkoski channel and read for a bit in the sun. I also had a pint of blueberries I’d bought for lunch but didn’t eat, and despite being full and having only eaten 15 minutes ago decided I needed to snack on them and then got uncomfortably full. Good job, me. After that, I headed toward Vapriikki, which bills itself as a “museum centre”. You may wonder what makes a museum centre different from a museum. Well. I’d read in my guidebook that they host eclectic rotating exhibits, including things like bicycles in the past, so I was intrigued. I didn’t actually look up what the current exhibit before I went was, but it turned out to be Marilyn Monroe and that was awesome! The reason it’s a museum CENTRE is actually because there are many museums inside the one building! Currently there are 9 permanent exhibitions, and 5 temporary ones. I didn’t even have time to check all of them out, but the ones I did hit up were The Finnish Museum of Games (all KINDS of video games and computer games and you can play them all!) and Media Museum Rupriikki (some photos of this below – covered all kinds of communication devices), in addition to the Marilyn exhibit. I was intrigued to see the Postal Museum and the Doll Museum, but I just didn’t have time and was kind of hitting museum overload/my feet were tired of standing. (Other exhibits include the New Hockey of Fame Finland, and a Natural History Museum.)
The Marilyn exhibit was super awesome. I had a couple favourite parts. The first is the display below that included the pink shirt. I know a lot of celebrities would only wear an outfit once in public, but Marilyn wore things TONS of times, and I really appreciated that you could tell from this shirt that was on display because it had visible discolouration under the arms! (This might be a weird thing to like.) The second thing was that they had pattern pieces from one of her movie dresses on display, as well as the actual dress! It was super cool to see the pieces and the accompanying notes, as well as the dress itself.
In the Media Museum, they had this video calling device – the manufacturers tried desperately to get people to buy it, but it just wouldn’t stick and was discontinued. Pretty funny to look back on now! As well, they had a display of very early phones and modern-day cell phones. My grandfather was always an early adopter of new technology, and I remember when I was very little that he had one of the clunky briefcase phones.
Up next: the Tampere Cathedral! This was pretty nearby to Vapriikki, and it was surprisingly deserted inside. I really loved their stained glass, which unfortunately you can’t really see in the photos because it was very bright out, but it had really cool colours. You can see them better here. I’m such a stained glass junkie; if I buy my own house I would love if it had a small stained glass window or if I could add a little bit.
The last thing I wanted to see was the Hatanpään Arboretum, which I managed to squeeze in before my bus back to Helsinki. It was a really lovely walk along the lakeshore in a very wooded area and was SO quiet considering how close it was to the rest of the city and main roads. The last picture is of what is apparently called the Hatanpään Mansion. I wasn’t really clear on what it was (museum? private home?) but it was a nice building! Not going to lie though, my feet were sooo tired after this. I think I walked close to 14km during the day, and I was very glad to sit down on the bus for a couple hours.
Tomorrow I’m heading to Savonlinna to see Puccini’s Madama Butterfly in a CASTLE. I’m staying there overnight, so I’m hoping to sleep in a bit on Tuesday morning. I am getting a bit worn down by my constant tramping around cities on foot.