The Strike of Finnair Pilots…

..leaves many on the ground starting from today. Finnair and the pilots have not been able to agree about conditions relating to the outsourcing of pilots.

Finnair is one of the oldest and safest airlines in the world and a pioneer in non-stop flights from Europe to Japanese and Chinese major cities. Today its “operations focus on transporting passengers between Europe and Asia, via Helsinki.”

I hope an agreement can be found quickly that allows Finnair to be a successful airline also in the future. Having one in Finland is crucial as we don’t have any quick land connections to any major foreign cities.

The plane in the photo is a DC-3 that Finnair hasn’t used since 1967.

Steamboat Kirvesniemi…

…at South Harbour.

3T – The Tourist Tram…

…as it is often called. It circles around in central Helsinki and passes many attractions.

Tram 3B has about the same route but it goes to the other direction. Irregular users of the trams don’t remember the difference and they might use rules like 3B = back home or the Finnish equivalent 3T = takas kotiin. And once they are about to board a tram they don’t remember anymore whether it was back home or takas kotiin.

Jees Helsinki Jees has tried to make some sense of the 3T/3B tram routes.

Itä-Pasila

The green tower is a local landmark that belongs to Elisa telecommunication company.

Sailing

Playing Chicken

The men were working on the track but decided to make room for the train.

CDP Theme Day 2009 / August: Night

A night at Helsinki-Vantaa airport. This is not a recent shot as during the summer it really doesn’t get dark in Helsinki.

It’s now exactly one year from the day when this blog went public and since then I’ve posted a photo every single day.

I started with a too ambitious project Helsinki Olympics Today because the 1952 and cancelled 1940 olympics have left a big mark on the smallest city that has ever hosted the Olympic summer games and in August 2008 Beijing olympics were held.

Have a look at my favourite images from 2008 and first half of 2009.

This is a City Daily Photo Blog theme day post so click here to view thumbnails for all participants.

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.

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.

Viking Gabriella

Taken from a moving ferry that is on its way from Suomenlinna sea fortress to market square.