Johanneksen kirkko – St. John’s Church

Johanneksen kirkko, St. John’s Church, was built in the late 19th century and it is the biggest church of the capital.

Smart Moves at Helsinki Cup 2009

He doesn’t have a chance against four opponents or does he?

Helsinki Cup, one of the biggest junior football tournaments in the world, is currently being played in the Finnish capital.

Suvilahti

Production ended here in the late 1970s and after that Suvilahti has been used for different kinds of cultural activities. The industrial buildings are conserved.

City Horses

At Haltiala city dwellers have a chance to experience the countryside without leaving the city. These horses might belong to Tuomarinkartano manor or to one of the several stables that are in the area.

Click here to see my personal favourites from the photos that I’ve published here during the first half of 2009.

Two Different Styles…

…to cruise. Which one would you prefer?

I would prefer to be a visitor on the smaller boat but if I don’t think I would have much motivation to own and especially to maintain a boat like that.

Click here to see my personal favourites from the photos that I’ve published here during the first half of 2009.

Dog

No, this is not Finland’s national dog Finnish spitz (suomenpystykorva) but probably some kind of marker for parks that are meant for dogs. I’ve seen them in several places. The dogs can be unleashed as the area is fenced and sometimes there are separate parks for smaller and bigger dogs.

Click here to see my personal favourites from the photos that I’ve published here during the first half of 2009.

Taxi

New York City has yellow taxis, London has the black cabs and this is what we have in Helsinki. It does have a taxi sign but someone has also written hupi (fun) on the sign as well.

Actually Finnish taxis are nothing like in the photograph. Due to tax reasons the cars are usually much better than the average person would buy for herself and many Finns associate taxis with Mercedes.

Click here to see my personal favourites from the photos that I’ve published here during the first half of 2009.

Evening at Espa Park

When the sun is shining in the summer, parks in Helsinki can get pretty crowded. Esplanadi (Espa) park is one of the most popular especially among the younger people.

Click here to see my personal favourites from the photos that I’ve published here during the first half of 2009.

Church Boat and Seurasaari Bridge

Long time ago the church required people to maintain this kind of church boats (kirkkovene) so that they could easily go to a church in a land that has many lakes, islands and a long shoreline on the Baltic Sea.

Today the boats have more historical and recreational significance. One of the best known summer events of the country is Sulkavan soudut in South-Eastern Finland. About 8000 people take part in the world’s biggest rowing competition where they travel a distance of about 60 kilometers. In a boat like this it takes somethings like four hours and it will take much longer if you do it alone. This year the competition will be held on 9-12 July.

Click here to see my personal favourites from the photos that I’ve published here during the first half of 2009.

CDP Theme Day 2009 / July: Empty

Four minutes to midnight in Pasila. The sun has set for a few hours but the glow you can see in the windows is still from the sun.

This is a theme day post so Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

Finns are often asked how can we cope with our depressingly short winter days and I’m always tempted to answer with a question: “How can you cope with your depressingly short summer days?” From Helsinki it is still a long way to the arctic circle where the sun doesn’t set at all during the summer. In Finland you can enjoy midnight sun in the city of Rovaniemi or any place to the north of it.

Unfortunately this theme day came too soon as there is a huge temporary empty space in Helsinki right now but I have to show it to you later and similarly my midnight photo was supposed to contain something more interesting.

I’ve also made a collection for my 12 personal favourite images from this blog’s entries during the first half of year 2009.