Boxing Days

These are not my shoes left in a box in England...

Okay the title sounds a few weeks late* (a bit like the updating of this blog), but anyway in a few days I am heading back to Blackwater/Hawley (whichever it is - even though GoogleMaps claims it is Frogmore!) for a few weeks of sorting through boxes.  Yes these are the boxes of 'precious' items (aka junk) that got packed up over three years ago, spent over a year in storage in London, got moved to a spare room in my mother's house and have survived various attempts at selecting useful/desired things to bring over here.

Do you like needles?

Marienhamn harbour at midnight, July 2006.

Ahvenamaa or Åland (as the locals prefer to call it, or rather them) is a bit of a historical geo-political oddity.  An archipelago of more than 6000 islands and skerries, although only 35 inhabited, it is inhabited around 26,ooo Swedish speaking people in an autonomous Finnish kunta (Commune). The Swedish Krona freely circulates (although the Euro is the official currency), they have their own flag and the Finnish defence forces are forbidden (it was made a demilitarised zone after the first world war).  Lying between Turku and Stockholm, handily for the locals all the big ferries stop at it's capital Marienhamn (Maarianhamina) albeit in the middle of the night, in order to take advantage of it being outside the EU-customs zone; but in the process adding an annoying couple of extra hours to the Helsinki-Stockholm journey time (unless you're just on the boat for the booze, fags and karaoke, in which case who cares). It has probably the best summer weather in Finland, (but the worst winter weather if you like skiing) and some beautiful archipelagic scenery. And, to get a bit closer to the point of this post, it's also reputed as a great place for cycling and camping holidays.

So as you might guess we are planning a cycling/camping holiday in Åland (I'm going to use the local names for everything from now on as I am writing in English and to annoy Konna who insists on using the Finnish versions), for a week this summer and as well as the usual logistical issues of transport, equipment, food, routes and accommodation to resolve (as we are not doing a pre-packaged deal) we also need to think about something I associate with visiting exotic destinations like Africa or the far east father than cartographical inksplashes in the Baltic. Vaccinations.

Now to get right up close and personal with the point of the post, Åland also is home to something other than a bunch of people with a long standing identity crisis (Finns, Swedes, Ålanders...). Ixodes ricinus ticks. Yum, look tasty don't they? Unfortunately as well as being as fugly as hell, and liking to latch on to wayfarers and do impressions of blood-filled coffee beans, punkki are tricky to remove.  Then you discover they potentially carry two even more unwanted guests: the bacterium Borrelia burghdor feri, which causes Lyme disease; and even worse, the virus for Tick Borne Encephalitis (TBE) in 1:200 to 1:1000 ticks.  Åland is considered endemic for TBE in Finland (although maybe not according to UK NaTHNaC), which is un-curable after contracting it, and it has a 1-2% fatality rate. For this reason the advice seems to be that at-risks groups (which include cyclists and campers you-know-where) should consider having the vaccination course. 

So that's three shots at €40 a shot; €120 each to add to what was supposed to be a cheap holiday. Money well spent? Well it's hard to judge the risks on this sort of thing (just ask Ben Goldacre if you don't believe me) - trying to put it in perspective even taking the worst case: say 1 in 200 x 2% x say 50% chance of getting bitten/latched onto by a tick in a week (that last is a complete guess by the way) = 1 in 20,000 chance of death.  Which compares to something like a 1 in 94,000 chance of dying cycling in the first place. [A direct comparison of those figures is statistically completely wrong, as different things were being measured in each case - so please don't imagine that means 5x more likely!!!] 

Maybe we will end up going to the punkkibussi after all, too much knowledge is a worrying thing for Konna at least ... or am I being complacent when we can fix it with a needle or three?

Kevät... ehkä

Jääpuikkoja, kuva Borelta

God, sometimes I am slow.  It was the spring equinox a few days ago, which would have been clever (ha-ha) to mention on the 'All things being equal' post. Really, sometimes I wonder if my brain is seizing up.

So now it is officially spring (kevät). Well there are more birds around, the Helsinki rabbit population is about to explode and some startled walkers did come across a mother bear and her cubs in the Nuuksio national park near here last week. But yesterday looking out the window was like being in a snow globe, it was -9°C last night, and I'm beginning to wonder if the snow will melt before Easter...

Anyway we're going on a cheapo 'cruise' to Stockholm tonight for some better 'spring' weather... hmmm, not sure that'll work out.

Wall (1W)

Tallinn city wall surrounding the old town

Most of Tallinn's medieval city wall still stands, inlcuding 26 defensive towers. Inside the protection of the wall one can also found his/her way to DM baar (= Depeche Mode)... hmm...

Old Town (2W)

Olde Hansa building in the centre of the old town of Tallinn

Tallinn the capital of Estonia is named after Taani Linnus (which means Danish Castle)... or is it? Some say it could also have come from tali-linna (winter castle or town) or perhaps from talu-linna (house/farmstead-castle/town... Hmm. Wherever the name comes from the place is worth while visiting as it is full of medieval buildings, romantic alleyways and personal signs.

Designed by a Finn (4W)

The view from KUMU courtyard towards the building

The view from KUMU top exhition floor towards the city of Tallinn (in bad weather!)

KUnstiMUseeum (KUMU) was a result of an open international architectural competition that was held in 93-94, in which architects from ten countries took part. The winner of the competition was the Finnish architect Pekka Vapaavuori. Construction started in 2002 and the Kumu Art Museum was opened to the visitors in February 2006.

The new museum site is located on four hectares in Tallinn, on the limestone bank of Lasnamägi next to Kadriorg Park. The building has seven floors (including technical floors) and the total area is 23 900 m². It is a modern multifunctional art building, which contains exhibition halls, a lecture hall offering diverse facilities, and an educational centre for young visitors and art lovers. The scale difference between the new building and the surrounding old villas (Russian type) is vast. You kind of wonder if the building should have been located outside Tallinn - but for the visitors like us the distance from the Vana Tallinn is walkable - even if it's raining cats & dogs (+ all sort of animals).

Network problems (3W)

Tram going towards Viru Keskus

Tallinn's public transportation system seems a fairly straightforward network of buses, trollybuses and trams, all of which use the same tickets. Still getting on a tram from Kumu wasn't that straightforward... there didn't seem to be any tram stops nearby...

Rotermanni Kvartal (6W)

One of the features at the Rotermanni Kvartal area, Tallinn

Rotermann Centre near the old town and Viru Keskus in Tallinn is the vibrant new 'architectural experiment' that includes restored and new buildings from various architects/designers, such as HG Architecs & KOKO Architects.

 

 

Note: It's worthwhile checking out the website as it offers lots of information on the buildings & architectural ideas for the area's development: www.rotermannikvartal.ee/eng/

Estonian sculptor Jaanisoo (5W)

Ms Estonia Memorial, Tallinn

Estonian sculptor Villu Jaanisoo designed the Ms Estonia memorial Katkennut Linja (= Broken Line) together with architect Jorma Mukula in 1996 for the memory of the 852 victims of 24 Septeber 1994 disaster.

Salt storage (7W)

Exhibition Boom/Room 2000-2008 at the Estonian Architectural Museum

Eesti Arhitektuurimuuseum in an old salt store near the harbour (1st floor exhibition hall pictured above) features Boom/Room exhibition until 3 November featuring most of the 'worth while mentioning' buildings built in Estonia during 2000-2008.

The bizarrely laid exhibition includes buildings for all sort of purposes, from living, working, shopping to education etc, and for purely showing off purposes like some of the large scale residential monstrosities. Exhibition gives a good overview of the economical growth that Estonia has seen in the past years - but shame the museum had no catalogue for the exhibition though.

New experiences, old ways

Smoke Sauna

Having visited Finland half a dozen times I've already experienced some of the more obvious (perhaps stereotyped) parts of Finnish culture and cuisine: like taking saunas and eating reindeer. But the start of this trip has given me the chance to try some new (to me) Finnish traditions.

We had been invited to visit at Konna's laid-back friend Taiska's family cottage - this worked quite well for us as it is on the route to Kesälahti from Helsinki - so we decided to stop over on the way. We were warned that T's mum had a reputation for providing a very generous spread, and we weren't disappointed. Included in the feast was roast elk (hirvipaisti), a bit like beef but richer, softer and almost crumbly, and which I found out later T's dad said he had a close relationship with, meaning he had hunted it himself.

T & family have been building additions and improvements every summer for years, the latest being a Kota (a sort of teepee shaped hut) but more importantly they have a savusauna (smoke sauna) which is 
the old way to heat a sauna using the smoke from the burning wood not 
just the heat for the stones and water. This gives a much 'softer' and more mellow sauna, less harsh löyly (steamy heat 
that comes from throwing water on the stove) particularly compared to 
modern electric stoves; the drawbacks are it takes a long time to heat 
(as all the heat is stored in the massive brick stove as it can't be 
burning while you use it), and smoke=soot so touch any surface and you 
get equally sooty. Not only was the sauna itself different, but for 
the first time this was taken by me with a group of Finnish males, 
including an enthusiastic and talkative rock singer, and a more 
phlegmatic T's dad; so none of that self conscious modesty needed ... 
To cap off this cultural social experience we also drank sahti (an
acquired taste - being a sort of prototype for beer with no hops and very strong) between sessions. I think I'll stick to the Lapin Kulta.  

The next day, after sleeping in an 18th century log out building 
(aitta), we went to the local town's Uotinpäivät (which is a fair that 
commemorates the Viking Olaf's involvement in the area) where amongst 
the stalls selling birch bark baskets, fake crocs, felt shoes, and 
lehtuja (fake crepes) I got the chance to hand grind some flour on T's 
Dad’s stall. And tomorrow we'll make sämpylä (something like bread rolls)...

[edited 18/8/08]