Images from the Finnish Capital
…now that it has been colder than normally in October/November.
These Helsinki icons at the Central Railway Station were created by Emil Wickström and there are two others just outside of the photo on the left. The statues are called lyhdynkannattajat (carriers of the lanterns).
During the past years VR railway company has used them as animation figures in their advertising. The green hats are also part of their advertising campaign.
…and now we know what is their secret. Kampaamo = ladies’ hairdressing saloon.
During the past years the west coast team has been far behind the top teams.
Virta vei iceBREAK 2008 koskimelontatapahtumassa.
A moment of disappointment from iceBREAK 2008 white water kayaking competition.
Yeah, I’ve now changed the concept from one photo a day to atleast one a day 
I remembered the Finnish valokuvatorstai (Photography Thursday) only after I had already posted today’s image. This week’s theme was virta (=stream, current, flow, power, …).
Finnish band Leningrad Cowboys performing with a Russian air force choir. Photo from the Helsinki International Airshow 2009.
Back in 1993 Leningrad Cowboys and the (Russian) Red Army Choir attracted 70 000 people to Total Balalaika Show concert in one of the most memorable events in Helsinki’s history. Right after the collapse of Soviet Union it felt unbelievable that the Russian army would have any kind of co-operation with their total opposites.
During the cold war Finns had fears that one day we would be forced to see the Red Army at the Senate’s Square but in 1993 Finns rushed there to see them.
You can read more about the band and its relationship with Russian military choirs from my earlier entry.
It’s a city daily photo blog theme day so click here to view thumbnails for all participants
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.
I see quite often people coming to this blog after they have searched for Siiri Nordin so here’s another photo of her from the same gig as the original photo.
The concert was part of last year’s car-free day and tomorrow on Tuesday Helsinkians have a chance to leave their cars home and use the good public transportation network that we have here.
Blues musician Pepe Ahlqvist has been performing for almost 40 years.
Statue of legendary olympian Paavo Nurmi, winner of 9 golds in long distance running, near the Olympic Stadium where the final and Finland’s group games were played.
While the football games at UEFA WOMEN’S EURO 2009 were enjoyable, the schedule was really strange. Finnish sports fans had to make difficult decisions between the most important events of the Finnish sports year and a lot less established women’s football.
Men’s football doesn’t have to care about other sports but if women’s football wants to have new friends, it really shouldn’t be competing with events that are already highly valued by the locals.
After many colorful matches, Women’s European Championships in football ended today in Helsinki. In the final game Germany organized the fireworks and spectators and England were watching. Despite the eight goals, the final wasn’t as exciting as the Norway-Sweden and Germany-Norway games I saw earlier.
Finnish women’s football has been booming for a few years and in this tournament they had a spectacular start. I’ll always remember the moment when the team came to celebrate with the crowd at the Olympic Stadium after their second win that meant that they had also won their group. A rare moment in Finnish team sports history. They also had a once in a lifetime chance to reach the final game thanks to a very favourable selection of quarter final and semi-final opponents. Unfortunately they were beaten by England in a very close quarter final.
Big events like this are not organized in Finland very often but still it seems that a lot of people prefer to stay at home watching tv instead of seeing something unique on location.
SM-Liiga (Finnish ice hockey league) starts on Thursday September 10th but Antti Raanta from Rauman Lukko was spotted walking impatiently many weeks ago in central Helsinki.
