Some Easter Break Exploring

The completion of my EPS team's midterm report and presentation meant one thing to me: time to travel. On Thursday morning, I hopped on an early morning bus to Tampere with a hostel reservation and a symphony ticket awaiting me.

I spent the day exploring Tampere, a down to earth city whose red brick buildings tell the story of the industrial textile milling center it used to be. The industrial buildings have been retrofitted into a network of unique museums, cafes, boutiques, and cinemas, making it a lovely place to wander around for an afternoon. Especially interesting was Vaprikki, a former engineering warehouse that now houses museum exhibits on almost anything you can think of--the Finnish Civil War, shoes, Catholic pilgrims, toys, ice hockey, the post service, Finnish inventions, rocks and minerals, and more.

Looking down the Tammerkoski Rapids in Tampere

This morning I took a train to Turku, most often remembered as Finland's oldest city. Upon my walk from the train station to the city's main square I realized that Good Friday is not a normal day to be out and about. Even still, the museums and most places to eat were open.

Turku's main square

Turku cathedral--a patchwork of bricks and stones dating back to the 1300s

The most notable thing about today, though, was the Good Friday service I attended. As a primarily Lutheran country, Catholic churches are few and far between in Finland. I found one in Turku though, St. Bridget and Blessed Hemming's Parish. If anyone is curious, the Passion in Finnish has lots of p's and k's and "yksi"s and "ainen"s . . . well, actually those are the sounds I associate most with the Finnish language. Needless to say, I didn't understand much more than "kittos" (thank you) during the priest's announcements. Lucky for me, the Catholic church is universal, and I knew exactly what was going on as a mumbled along with the script in front of me. I saw almost every ethnic group I could recognize in that service, what a truly universal church it is!

I took the train back to Tampere content with the day's adventure. The perfect conclusion? Some delicious Finnish food of course. :)