At the Cemetary

Zoo Lion vs. Crow

A lion hunting a crow at Korkeasaari zoo.

Click here to see a serie of photos from the chase.

Hietsu Beach Still Crowded in September

I expected to see an empty beach in September but it was really crowded! In addition to these branta leucopsis I also saw several homo sapiens. Most of the primates were walking but there were also two swimmers.

Autumn is Here

While most of Helsinki is still green, there are already some colorful spots like here in Hietaniemi cemetary. It is also clearly getting colder.

Musiikkitalo Construction Site, September 2009

In previous post in this series I wished there would be an intersting twist in this story and now atleast there is something different: the public had a chance to visit the construction site in early September.

Click here to see photos of the construction site from other months.

Carrying the Weight of the World

Kohottava voima (Lifting power) by Matti Haupt.

Helsinki City Art Musem has an excellent website about statues and monuments in Helsinki. Especially their map of statues has been very valuable for this blog as I can quickly find information about a statue that I’ve shot. So far I’ve found info about every single statue just by its location on the map.

The Trust in The Finnish Parliament is Currently Very Thin

For many years Finland was the world’s least corrupt country in the widely referenced Transparency International’s reports but now our politicians are making sure the ranking is going to drop.

This year the Finnish media has revealed many election campaign funding scandals and it seems that a lot is still to come. Most recently some politicians had received funding from public money that they personally were able to control. Companies have also supported candidates in ways that are not very acceptable in a society where, in theory, transparency is valued. You can only wonder the motives of a company that supported very generously many politicians before it went bankrupt.

(Och) samma på svenska

Yesterday’s photo in Swedish.

(Och) Samma på svenska is Swedish and means “(and) the same in Swedish language.” You’ll hear that pretty often in bilingual Finland.

While speaking Finnish it can be used to say “and then there is the same in Swedish that we just heard in Finnish.” but you can hear it in many different occasions like emphasizing that I just said something important that you should have understood.

Inside a Telephone Booth

Thanks to mobile phones, it’s been many many years since I’ve made a phone call from a phone booth in Finland. I don’t remember making a call since 2006 and I wasn’t in Finland but in Buenos Aires.

I found this booth from Seurasaari outdoor museum but there was no phone inside. I guess it’s a museum piece just like the other old buildings in the area.

Two-Headed Veal

This two-headed veal from the 1930′s is one of the best known museum items in Finland. When the veal was “lost” a year ago, there was a lot of publicity about its fate at Natural History Musem. How can they lose their best-known item while the museum was closed for renovation?

While it was “lost”, I started to think that this is really more of a freakshow item than real natural history. On the other hand seeing something like that might help children to deal with disabilities and abnormalities much better.

Later the veal was “found” and it was placed in a dark corner of a temporary exhibition. I got the feeling that the museum didn’t want to keep it on display anymore.

No matter what you think of it, the veal has such a significance in Finnish culture that it really should be displayed on some important museum.