Lost Posts: TdS day 4

The view of Olavinlinna being spoilt by some cyclist: Kesä10 - Lost Postcards

  

Neljas Päivää: Savonlinnassa (vielä 16km pyöräily)

Day 4 (a so-called 'rest day') in which we:

Saimaa steamboat

• Washed some clothes and left them to dry in the blazing sun
• Freewheeled down the hill into town
• Had an icecream
• Took a tour of Olavinlinna (Olaf's Castle) where the opera festival is held (and heard singers practicing as we go)
• Almost broke my neck trying to walk up/down uneven stone spiral staircases in cycling shoes
• Had a fancy lunch on a shady terrace and another icecream
• Sat in the park while eating an icecream
• Took a steamboat cruise

Culture corner

Tapio Wirkkala: Utima Thule, 1967. via.

I suppose we are overdue an Architecture Corner - but not much going on that front so we'll have to cast our net a bit wider. Although only as far as Espoo it seems...

This week we visited EMMA (Espoo Museum of Modern Art) at WeeGee for an exhibition of the work of Finnish sculptor and product designer Tapio Wirkkala (1915-1985). He trod a strange path between sometimes figurative, sometimes abstract works and apparently unwilling to differentiate between his product work and sculptures. Much of his work - certainly his best known pieces - are in carved plywood (for which he used extremely high-quality birch plywood to his own specifications). 'Ultima Thule' (pictured above) which shares it's name with the Iittala glassware he also designed, is one of the centrepieces of the exhibition, although I actually liked the roughness of his studio doors more made from simple pieces of standard timber (unfortunately I couldn't find a picture on the web and we couldn't take photos). You can read more about him here and here.

Also in Espoo last night were RinneRadio (a jazz via hip-hop, electronica, straight fusion, dark dub, ambient, and Saami yoik singing experience since the late eighties) and Circo Aereo performing 'Ruostetta iholla' (rust on the skin). Featuring a RR backed choreographed acrobatic act with scaffolding, posture balls, planks, tyres, a trampoline and a suspended hoop... you can find video of their other shows on YouTube, but here is Ommatidi from RinneRadio.

Kalevalan päivä

Defence of the Sampo, by Akseli Gallen-Kallela

Today (as has been pointed out) is Kalevala day - the day of Finnish Culture.  The 'New' Kalevala is 160 years old this year (the original version will be 175 next year), and this epic poem compiled by Elias Lönnrot of Finnish and Karelian folklore creates a mythic past inextricably linked with the rise of Finnish identity and culture; and for inspiration for Tolkien's lord of the Rings.

Although pretty archaic, impenetrable, and rarely read by the average modern Finn (check here for a sample), elements from it do crop up in modern day life. Sampo - the magic mill - becomes a bank; Otava -  the constellation Ursa Major - becomes a publishing company; while several of the character names are still in use today. Even closer to home, in today's Hesari was an article about the latest comic book version of the Kalevala - whose gods, heroes and spirits were recreated out of the last construction recession, when drawn by unemployed architect Gene Kurkijärvi, and finally published this year.

If only my cartoon drawing skills were as good.

Sunnuntai paisti (redux)

sometimes it's not stressful to have a lot on your plate...

Well we got my Sunday roast this time (the full works: roast beef with red wine and mustard gravy, yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes and parsnips, cauliflower, sprouts and carrots with white sauce) for my birthday weekend after all. Not that I really needed it after Ravintola Kuurna last night (which I recommend to anyone in Helsinki by the way) ...but anyway. 

'This seems very complicated food' said Hiiri. 'Not really' I thought. 'But what am I going to eat next Sunday if your not here to cook?' asked Hiiri.  Next weekend Konna and I are off to Vieromakki mökki for Bore's birthday, so no strange British cooking for her next week.

I also have my level 1 Finnish exam on Tuesday. Already. So I should be revising the local cases (inesiivi, illatiivi, ellatiivi, adessiivi, allatiivi, ablatiivi), verb types, vowel harmony and consonant gradation (hard to soft: eg. kukka - kukat; katu - kadulla; kenka - kengat; etc) and about twenty other things. Instead I'm going to this award winning film. Well I do need to balance out going to see this one (organised by SAFA-hesari) on Friday after all.

Urheilu: It's not the winning that counts, it's beating Sweden...

shadow runner

Finns tend to love their sport - and not just wife-carrying, ski-jumping, and mölkky world championships either. Motorsport aside (which seems to produce an inordinate number of Finnish world champion rally and F1 drivers - that may have something to do with the empty gravel roads, and the 'survival of the fittest' rules for motorway driving here, but more on that another time) the main yardstick for success here seems to be 'did we do better than Sweden?', be it at ice hockey (most importantly) or even athletics at a pinch.

Don't bother to mention that UK got 19 olympic golds to Finland's 1 (shooting), they will only point out our 60+ million population against their 5 million; and that Sweden (pop. 9m) got none... actually maybe there should be some sort of handicapping system by size of population in the future... or at least add wife-carrying and mölkky as olympic sports.

So this Friday and Saturday was the annual Suomi / Ruotsi (Finland / Sweden) athletics match, and we were lucky enough to get free tickets for the Olympic stadium on Saturday (thanks Bore's boss!) to watch with 30,000 others various fit young things in blue and white try to run, jump and throw better than those in yellow and blue. Who won? Let's call it a draw...

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The evening also reminded me of trips to Crystal Palace athletics with my Dad & family in the 90's and the Grand Prix Finals in 2006; and with Sweden’s Carolina Klüft and Finland’s Sari Keskitalo reminding me of ex-speed skater Irina Privalova winning 100m & 400m, coming 2nd in 200m and competing in weak 4x100 & 4x400 teams for the winning rest-of-Europe team in '94 World Cup... I'm sure Dad would have loved to have seen this one too, especially with Helsinki's much more intimate layout, with the stands much closer the track; he always loved athletics having gone to White City as a youngster, and Rome olympics in 1960, and I have vivid memories of a summer holiday in Devon or Cornwall spent listening alternately to olympics results and Dire Straits on the car stereo.  I wish I could be going with him to London 2012, but thats not to be; so for his memory, as well as some vestige of British pride, I hope Boris & co doesn't make too much of a hash of it.

Mölkky

Rustic Mölkky 

[image from Wikimedia commons]

Drop in at just about any Finnish mökki over the summer and you are more than likely to interrupt one or more of the following activities: the grilling of makara, sauna, and mölkky.

According to Wikipedia, Mölkky was invented in Finland in 1996, and has been very successful here. Although described on American websites as a 'Finnish tossing game', it's certainly a good way to while away the long summer days in a more social way and can be played (and even benefits) from the uneven and varied terrain you find in the average yard. Just be careful not to lose your mölkky (the throwing 'stick') in the forest or lake...

The world championships are held in Lahti each year, this year's being the 11th.  

These days you can even buy mini, indoor versions for the long, dark days of winter (but mind the glasswear!), and of course to add to the burgeoning list of Suomi souvenir gifts to inflict on your friends and family...  happy birthday Robert!