Open Air Music

For those of you who have been to Helsinki's city center during the summer, you have certainly enjoyed classical music performances in Aleksanterinkatu.

Every day (days and evenings), groups from 3 to 6 artists settle in the middle of the street and perform freely AND perfectly Vivaldi, Bach and other famous artists compositions.

Many of these performers are not just simple amateurs but often real professionals, working during the year in the opera (many come from Russia) and then come to Finland for the summer.

You can have here an overview :

This is Hollywood !

There are sometimes positive aspects in living in not such a huge capital as, for example, London or Paris.

Of course, you may feel less claustrophobic, maybe nature in more present and not so far from where you live, but another good point is that it's more likely that you will meet famous people in the street.
Well ... by famous celebrities I may not mean "worldwide international renowned" artists but often national singers, writers, hockey players, TV presenters and so on.

They often hang in the area between the railway station and the harbor (nearby the main shopping street Aleksanterinkatu), around Kamppi (new huge shopping Center), in Punavuori (like Iso Roobertinkatu street) or in the cool bars of Kallio.


But the richest don't always live downtown. They may have their own house in Espoo (suburb of Helsinki) or Kulosaari with a garden facing the see.

What is sure is that when international artists come downtown for a week-end performance, they often take their hotel in the city center (Rolling Stones were in Hotel Kamp when they came in August so if you were waiting at the good place and at the good time you might have seen them) and spend the day in the shopping area of Helsinki.

So keep your eyes opened!

Missing back home

Are you missing some nice snacks from back home? If you live in Helsinki you can find for example Walkers-scrisps, Maltesers and nice chocolate cakes from Benford's in Aikatalo / WTC -house.

Hi thou!!

You might know that in English language "thou" is used to be a second person singular pronoun. However, English language has become so polite that thou has progressively disappeared. Instead, "other people" are always called "you" whether there was one or many of them.

The case is very different in Finnish language. Finnish language is very straight forward and does not use much polite expressions. People say what they mean and that's it. For example, the word "please" does not have any translation in Finnish, because it just does not exist. Because of the use of very straight language, foreigners may feel that Finns are impolite, but the politness for Finns means more behavior than words. Being kind to people, not bothering them, respecting others, not letting people down and keeping your promises is a Finnish way to be polite.

But let's go back to words. In Finland, using "you" when talking to one single person is very rare. It only exists in very formal situations which we don't have so much. Sometimes phone sellers may call you "you" instead of "thou". Or if you speak with someone that you do not know, or if this person is very old and important you may consider to say you instead of thou. Often middle age people may even get angry if you call them "you" instead of "thou" and they would tell you "I am not that old!!".

What may seem even more surprising is that using she or he is also getting more and more rare. For your information, she is "hän" and he is "hän", thus there are no difference between men and women when you call them. But Finns do not call people so often s/he anymore. Instead of saying "there s/he comes!" they say "There it comes". Finns use "hän" form only in very formal situations. Oh, and also when they talk about their lovely pets (no kidding!!). When a English speaker says "A friend of mine is taking care of my dog. She takes good care of it", a Finn says "A friend of mine is taking care of my dog. It takes good care of him".

Today's Chef Menu

This is what you may find in your plate if you decide to go to a finnish Restaurant:

Chef's Menu

Starters

Forest mushroom salad

Finnish deer carpaccio with cranberry-herb salad

Crispy vendace served with grannys pickled cucumbers and dill sour cream

Reindeer tongue with Red onion marmalade and goat cheese

Raspberry marinated arctic char with vodka-mustard sauce

Smoked baltic herring pâté with yoghurt carrots

Crayfish - cottage cheese filled cabbage leaves, with melted dill butter

Terrine of reindeer liver with jelly made of berries

Cream of chantarelles

Grilled salsify and rosehip jam

Paste of wild duck and morels with sea buckthorn berry compote


Meat dishes

Fillet of reindeer marinated in Finnish brandy and Juniper potatoes

Sautéed reindeer with mashed potatoes and blackcurrant jam

Smoked elk, pearl barley cake, horn chanterelle and finnish brandy jus

Fillet of elk and Lappish potato and celery purée: Winter vegetable bake and cranberry sauce

Fillet of beef, potato gratin, traditionally braised turnip and beetroot, home-made mustard sauce

Flambéed bear meatballs, mashed potatoes, sautéed ceps, cranberries and creamy game sauce

Tender fore loin of lamb, root vegetables and potato in tasty lamb broth

Lamb fillet, grey chantarelle stock and potato pancake

Finnish duck and crowberry sauce with honeymushrooms and gratinated parsnip

Rosé fried breast of wild duck with spicy poultry sauce

Pan Fried Snow Grouse breast and confit leg, potato gratin, with rowanberry sauce

Fish dishes

Fried pike-perch, carrot sauce and swede cake

Pike perch stuffed with lobster mousse served with caper and lobster sauce and dill potatoes

Salmon baked with tar syrup, barley pancake and root vegetables, sharp onion sauce

Char grilled trout, sautéed salsify and onion, cream cheese sauce with garden angelica

Smoked whitefish, horn chanterelles, pearl barley and herb sauce

Glow-fried whitefish with calmari vinaigrette

Desserts

Lappish farm cheese in cinnamon cream, Cloudberry jam and spelt wheat-nut bread

Cranberry ice cream, warm white chocolate sauce and honey cloudberry compote

Blueberry mousse, raspberry soup and vanilla & oat cookie

Rhubarb soup with vanilla cream

Flambéed Barley pancakes with wild berry jam and home-made angelica ice-cream


Hyvää Ruokahalua
(Enjoy your meal)

Finnish news in english

You can't speak a word of finnish language and you want to get informed about the latest news from Finland?

One way to do so is to watch the daily video-streaming news broadcasted at 9:00 am by YLE (week days only).

Link -> HERE

So stay connected !

The Fortress of Suomenlinna as a "World Heritage" site

A good way to discover and understand a country's history and cultural inheritance is to check out its properties listed to the UNESCO World Heritage.

The purpose of the "United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization" cultural branch is to promote and preserve geographical sites that are considered to have a universal value: national parcs, medieval villages, prehistorical caves etc...

Concerning Finland, seven sites have been registered to the World Heritage List:

* Fortress of Suomenlinna (registered in 1991)
* Old Rauma (registered in 1991)
* Petäjävesi Old Church (registered in 1994)
* Verla Groundwood and Board Mill (registered in 1996)
* Bronze Age Burial Site of Sammallahdenmäki (registered in 1999)
* Kvarken Archipelago / High Coast (registered in 2000, 2006)
* Struve Geodetic Arc (registered in 2005)

and six have applied for later registration :

* The Carvings from historic time at the island of Gaddtarmen (Hauensuoli)
* The large Stone Age ruin of Kastelli at Pattijoki
* The Rock paintings of Astuvansalmi at Ristiina
* The Holy place of worship of Ukonsaari by the Sami people at Inari
* Paimio Hospital (formerly Paimio Sanatorium)
* Saimaa-Pielinen Lake System


You will have today an overview of the Fortress of Suomenlinna.



This place has been constructed about 250 years ago, at the time when Finland was part of the Swedish Empire to protect from Russia.
The fortress spreads on six islands, linked to each others, just in front of Helsinki's harbour. About 900 people live there permanently and the main island activity is based on tourism.

You can visit the island for free every day, and go there from Helsinki Market square by boat

The island holds of course the fortress but also museums, restaurants, cafés and avant-gardist artists galleries.
Many fins go there during the summer; they often come for a picnic, enjoy the sun and the see view.

Pissis-girls like Fruitcake-boys

In Finland there is a great variety of different "youth cultures". Probably the reason might be that Finland is not a class society. Finland is the country where the income differences between rich and poor people are the smallest in the world. Thus people are relatively equal and there are not so clear social classes as for example in England or in France.

However at least young Finns seem to like to place themselves in to a class/group. The group they pick may determinate their hair colour, clothes, over all style, the music they listen and of course the people they hang with. Helsingin Sanomat (12th Aug), the biggest Finnish daily newspaper, and the journalist Katriina Pajari presented most common youth groups.

The groups are not described in this blog, but to find out how they look like click the link of each group. The link leads in to the one of the most popular Finnish website, IRC-gallery, there especially young people show their pictures and post comments on each others. Then click the nicknames and you can check their pictures.

Emo (emotional hardcore)
Fruittari (fruitcake, stylish boys)
Gootti (Gothic)
Hevari (heavy music)
Hiphoppari (Hip hop music)
Lolita (Japanese baby doll style)
Peikkis (troll hair people)
Pissis (blond stylish girls, their webpage)
Skeittari (skaters)
Skini (skinheads)

Hot or not?

If you ever plan to come to Finland, come this week! The weather is nice and warm.

Here is 5 days forecast for Helsinki (fmi.fi)



And when it is nice and hot weather the place to go in Helsinki is Hietaniemi beach. On the way you can pass the graves of old Finnish presidents. And don't forget to take peanuts, those squarrels in the Hietaniemi cemetery would love to have some peanuts.

Don't mess with me you stupid donkey!!

Many foreigners think that we have polarbears in Finland, but no, we don't have. Instead in Helsinki we have camels and donkeys. Oh yes!! Those camel guys are very dangerous. If you are a donkey better not to mess with them.

Don't worry, in Finland camels and donkeys only live in zoo. In Helsinki there is a Zoo called Korkeasaari which is a very beautyful high island in the sea just next to Helsinki. You can go there by boat from Kauppatori or take a metro (to Herttoniemi or Kulosaari) and then bus 11. Korkeasaari is a place worth of visiting, not only because of the animals, but the landscape is also very nice. However last week something very sad happened that was not for children's eyes:

Finland, the country of Nokia

What do you know about Finland? Not much, it is the country of Nokia and it's cold. Who would not know Nokia's mobile phones? The thing is that Nokia is not only a big multinational mobile phone company.

Nokia is a little town next to Tampere (the second biggest city in Finland) in south west Finland. So when someone tells you that s/he is "from Nokia", it is not a joke. The reason why the company Nokia is called Nokia is because the it was founded in the town called Nokia.

Nokia is known as a high tech company, but it is also something else...well at least it used to be. For many Finns first "Nokia experience" refers to Nokia rubber boots that children were forced to wear when it was raining. Well actually these boots are nice for children (or for anyone) because you can jump in the water as much as you want without getting your socks wet.

Believe it or not, but Nokia's Hai rubber boots are back. You can see them in all colours in the streets of Helsinki in a rainy day. It feels like singing in the rain with Nokia's Hai boots: