The three faces of Helsinki.

No, Helsinki is not a post-apocalyptic city as some of my blog posts might suggest. 

For me, the city has three very different faces : the first one is the one described in the guide books. Beautiful, ultra clean, homogenous, rich, filled with history, lively and so on. You will find there fancy dining, design shops, historical buildings and international atmosphere. People dress up before going there.

The second one is where most people live, residential districts that have been carefully designed for a functional living. Often with very little inspiration. It is clean, the shops systematically to a national-wide chain, the local restaurant usually not attractive, there are a lot of green space. The style and architecture of these neighbourhoods are characteristic of the time of building and thus give a ready-made atmosphere. The main attraction is a local shopping mall, convenient for the harsh winter time. They are designed to offer standardize services that can keep you busy all day long making sure you spend money on the way. Everything belongs to national or international chains and very few shops are unique. Welcome to an uninspiring environment full of security guards. This kind of neighbourhood is actually what many people like, noiseless, convenient and safe. Urban planners seem to appreciate them, the shopping mall concept means that there is very little in the street for the police to deal with. Less cost.

The third one is my favourite. Non-functional, kind of abandoned places. Old industrial districts that wait for their new life. Where some creative happening seems to happen easily. Places undergoing metamorphosis, full of their past, pondering about the future. Graffiti artists might snake in, urban gardener might set there a few boxes, beginning designers or artists might have a chance to get some room there. And relax, there you are not constantly filmed by surveillance camera.

The winter is coming back, the temperature close to freezing and the light extremely vivid in the long lasting sunset. I wandered around Hernesaari in south Helsinki because the area is undergoing deep changes. A third of it is occupied by the icebreaker shipyard of Aker Artic (if somebody would take me for a tour there...), another third is occupied by unused sailboats and yachts and the last third is becoming fancy: park, café, sauna-spa complex. Welcome for a little tour.

 Disturbing, istn't it?

Fancy café, the wood walls are actually burned on the surface.

 

Is Helsinki the new Berlin?

And the summer is not over! Kalasatama is still full of people, graffiti artists, a group of Africans making music video and a small crowd at Ihana Kahvila. Let's enjoy a cup of coffee! 06.09.2014

http://ihanakahvila.fi/

Saturday walk

Another walk between Arabianranta and Kalasatama to see what has changed since the winter.The place looks happy and lively in the summer, no more gloomy dark sceneries in the icy wind. It actualy became a recommendable place. A lot of mess has been cleaned and the rusting boats have rusted a bit more.

Any good reason not to build one's summer cottage on a boat and tour around the baltic during the summer season? Probably none thought this man posing proudly on his floating mökki.

The flea market at Suvilahti is still a major hipster event in the city. 12.07.2014

Sompasauna

While extremly tiny flat saunas are getting the norm for Helsinki new flats, the sauna culture might be loosing something. Tiny sauna means you won't be able to offer it to the whole family or to a bunch o friends visiting. Having the sauna in the flat prevent you to go in larger public ones, making it less social. And what about the perfect combination of sensation to alternate hot steam and cold bath in the sea?

Maybe it is with this in mind that the Sompasauna was put up in Kalasatama. A public, free, non-bookable, mixed sauna. Wood-fired and right by the sea with one of the finest urban landscapes in sight: Katajanokka and its fleet of icebreakers.

Where is it and how to use it:
http://www.sompasauna.fi/?page_id=263

Kungsleden, Abisko-Nikkaluokta

Departure from Absiko with food for nine days, tent and warm sleeping bags. Florian and I packed all that stuff in our pulkas, and pulled them for 100 km to arrive to Nikkaluokta, nine days later. This stretch follows the Kungsleden, "the King's trail" in the mountains of northern Sweden. A well-marked trail, made safe by the presence of shelters about every 15 km. The landscapes are absolutely breathtaking, starting from typical low-altitude Lappish landscapes with fells and forest of dwarf birches to end up with more Alpine landscapes, with higher mountains, loads of snow. What makes it so particular is that we didn't see a road for nine days, neither a concrete buildings. No mobile phone coverage for most of it too. This was a dive in a universe of snow and frost, everything happening with the pace of skiers, meeting fellow hikers, and camping under bright stars. Mostly our only reference points were the rock giants always watching our slow skiing, teaching us humbleness. 1-9 March 2014

 

Archipelago of Helsinki

Bad winter we had. But not so bad actually. A visit to some island sauna, a good night in a tent and a ski trip in the archipelago. Every time, the ice looks different. A slow metamorphosis along the winter best admire form the top of Käärmenluoto. 15.02.2014

Vallila in the fog.

 Vallila is a district with many faces. Puuvallila is made of beautiful wooden family house, all painted in different tone. Walking there just making you feel good, it is about the magical aura of wood. There is the large block around a single yard, like mine built in 1923. The central yard gives to the about hundred flats a feeling of community, something which is getting rare. All that was built for the workers that were leaving in the area. Today industry is gone, however a distinct proletarian feeling stays and some newcomers are giving preparing the Resurrection of Vallila. We can find now many artists’ workshops, designer studios, a coffee roasting factory and so on. A wind of change is coming.

On top of that, the locomotive and train car factory (Pasilan konepaja) area has not changed much since a century. Beautiful brick buildings, which are presently underused. Last Sunday, I paid a visit to them. Well it was a bit gloomy with the melting snow, the fog and the total absence of human beings. But still nice to feel the stories and the history of the place.

Ah and I forgot to say what I like best about Vallila : the Meira spice factory and Kulta Katrina coffee roasting factory. Depending on where the wind blows, you can smell somewhere in the neighbourhood the smell of fresh roasted coffee. And when I come back from work on my bike on noisy and stinky Sturenkatu, I am sometimes welcomed home by a powerful cinnamon smell, like if Vallila was a korvapuusti paradise.

16.02.21014

But don't take me wrong, Vallila has also very merry faces.