Kalevala Day…

…the day of the Finnish national epic and Finnish culture is celebrated today on February 28th. Their clothing has Kalevala and modern influences.

Although Väinämöinen is capable of singing other people into a swamp, he hasn’t melted all the ice and snow we have here right now. The photo is from a dragon boat race a few summers ago.

Elias Lönnrot compiled the epic based on folk poems he collected during his travels.

Read and hear more

• Kalevala at wikipedia
• A sang Kalevala poem. Everybody in Finland will recognize the melody. (the text in the video is not in Finnish)

Everything Prohibited…

…or what does this mean?

I hate to see how National Geographic is destroying their reputation with average photos and uninformative texts in their Photo of the Day. Today I had enough and criticized their cat on the snow and was not the only one. With their amazing archives they could make me want to see the photo first thing in the morning and after that they could sell me a lot of stuff.

Nobody is Drying Their Laundry…

…despite the lovely weather.

Have a look at photos taken right after the earthquake at her home by Christchurch Daily Photo blogger. She calls herself lucky but it is still quite a mess.

may not get power back for days……..amazed at the damage neighbours..have sustained……We are still getting aftershocks…..we don’t have power, running water or sewerage…..we have businesses and jobs to get back to.

It’s Skiing Holiday…

…in Southern Finland. It isn’t anything more than an one week winter vacation from school but many still use the old name hiihtoloma. When I was at school we skied a several kilometers long track on the last day before the vacation. We were free to go once we had finished the track.

In flat Finland skiing used to mean only cross country skiing and not downhill skiing that was just a hobby where “gravity does all the work.” The attitudes have changed after the success of Kalle Palander and Tanja Poutiainen in alpine skiing.

Aleksis Kivi Hasn’t Written Anything…

…lately. He wrote Seven Brothers that is one of the first novels written in Finnish. At the time civilized people were supposed to write in Swedish.

Today all the twits write in English so I’ve started to share interesting links, photos and thoughts on my twitter account mostly relating to travel, photography and Helsinki so have a look. Twitter helps me to find interesting information faster.

Snowy…

…branches.

Have a look at Christchurch City Daily Photo blogger’s personal account about the deadly earthquake.

we live just 2km from the epicentre. I was the most frightening thing I have ever experienced……..The afterhocks are awful, they are sharp and went on all of last night – probably every fifteen minutes

Topelius has Two Statues in Central Helsinki…

…because many didn’t like the the photographed competition winning Tale and Truth by Gunnar Finne. People started to raise money for more traditional Topelius and Children by Ville Vallgren. Only a few decades earlier Vallgren’s nude Havis Amanda at the other end of Esplanadi park was considered improper.

Both statues of the satusetä (=fairy tale man) Topelius were revealed in 1932 only a few blocks away from each other – Vallgren’s got first.

The figures of Tale and Truth have been facing the wrong directions after WW II. During the war the statue was moved to a safer location and an error was made when it was returned.

Fire Circus…

…walkea.

I’ve just returned from Lisbon so have a look at a gallery from the Portuguese capital .

Sparks at Sturenkatu…

…street.

Stairway to Hel…

…sinki.