Hamlet in Helsinki

Sincerely: I am glad to take you with me as I learn about the earth city Helsinki.

[hamletinhelsinki]

Lux Helsinki lights display near Helsinki Cathedral (via Vimeo)

(With great excitement) This week we had the annual festival of winter lights here in Helsinki, LuxHelsinki. It was too dark for my human host to get a good photo of me out there, but we managed to get video of this amazing example of the light art work on display this year. (With optimism) It was at least slightly warmer than novaria when we were out walking around tonight.

[hamletinhelsinki]

(With great cheer) Merry Christmas from Finland! I hope you are having as much fun ad good food as we are here.

[hamletinhelsinki]

(With lingering skepticism) My human host finally convinced me to come and see an earth movie. She took me to see something called ‘Spectre’ which she described as earths version of the Blasto movies. The lead role is played by a human called ‘Daniel Craig’ so I was not sure how much I can buy him as the hero, what with him not having proper tentacles and all. It was pretty good, though I think the main villain’s lacky would have been better played by a yagh. It was still alright and the theater was quite nice and comfortable. (With impatience) There is still no word on when a Blasto movie will be coming here, but I hold out hope that it will come soon. 

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(Merrily) Hello and Merry Christmas! Apparently here and in many other countries it is a tradition to bake thematically shaped dough into ‘cookies’ and decorate them with sugar made into paste and variously colored balls and other shapes. These cookies are of the American variety and were made by my host and some of her friends. Apparently, this holiday has associations with highly decorated evergreen trees that people bring inside. They are my hosts favorite cookie to decorate, she says, because they are easy to make look pretty. I have to admit it is a fun and delicious tradition to have. 

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(With gastronomic satisfaction) The sapas on Juuri’s menu is the best way to get a broad sense of the palate of Finnish flavors. The dishes had lots of local elements included in each little dish including white fish, venison, roe, and elk mixed with fruits veggies and grains such as buckwheat, gooseberries, onion, rye, artichokes and beets. I can’t recommend it enough and must see what I can do about exporting some of this to Dekuuna.

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(Delightfully)This evening we visited a fancy restaurant located here in Helsinki. It is included in something called the Michelin Guide, which my human host tells me means the food is considered very very good. It is called Juuri and serves what my host called, "New Nordic cuisine." I can highly recommend the house menu as it allows you to try many many different tastes in a single menu. I will add more on that later, but I was also able to try some interesting drinks on the menu there as well. The first was something called "orange wine". My host has explained that it is a special form of white wine that isn't commonly made. It was quite good, and lived up to its name in color. We also sampled a Finnish made Napue Gin, made by Kyrö Distillery.

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(With great concentration) My host has set me up with a book she purchased while we were at the kirjamessut a while back. It’s a childs word book made in both Finnish and in Swedish. I have decided to try and study the language some myself without having a translation upgrade. Already having a good understanding of the Earth language English, I have noted many similarities between it and the Swedish language as well as that there appear to be almost no similarities between it and the Finnish language. I have started with winter words and things that appear at night since the nights are getting longer and the weather is quickly getting colder. ‘Tähdet ovat taivalla’ 'Stjärnä är på himlen’ 'Stars are in the sky’ 'Dekunna kelluu joukossa tähteä’ 'Dekunna flyter bland stjärnorna’ 'Dekunna floats among the stars’

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(With great interest) Today my host showed me a little bit of the history of Helsinki. Tuomio kirkko or Helsinki Cathedral is one of the more well known sites here in Helsinki. It was built between 1830 and 1852. It was designed by the famous architect Carl Ludwig Engel who also designed many of the buildings in the area of Senate square. It is a beautiful example of neoclassical architecture (according to my human host, I just think it looks nice) but was built on the the site of an earlier 18th century church made of wood and dedicated to the Swedish Queen Ulrika Eleonora. While the church is rather visible, it is easy to overlook the round stone monument to the old church which has been laid into the stonework in Senate Square located beside the church. My human host found a picture of the old church from before the church destroyed and before most of Helsinki had been built. It seems that Helsinki has gone through many changes in the past few centuries. I am not sure I will know my way around when I figure out this time travel trick....Maybe there is something in the citadel archives that could help with this...I should put in a request, they take forever to get back to you on anything.

[hamletinhelsinki]

(Happily) Trevlig Svenska Dagen! November 6th this year was a day to celebrate the Swedish language and Swedish influenced culture here in Finland. Only about 5 percent of people born in Finland speak Swedish as their native language. There are some areas where it is the primary language, mostly located on the southern and western coasts, but there are not very many. For a long while, long ago, Finland was part of Sweden’s empire before it became part of the Russian empire and then finally, in 1917, an independent state, so Sweden, it’s language and it’s culture, have had quite some influence on Finland and it’s culture. Here in Helsinki there was a ceremony at the city hall, or Stadshuset, It was quite nice and quite fancy with flowers and singing and honors.

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(With great awe) I got to attend a great event here in Helsinki in honor of a great artist who comes from the neighboring nation of Estonia. Arvo Pärt is a composer of great classical music. My human host jokingly calls him the most famous under appreciated composer. Apparently his music is quite popular for use in movies made throughout earth cultures. Most recently his music was in Avengers: Age of Ultron and in the trailer for Gravity, which I am told were very seen by many people. After the concert I think I understand why people enjoy making use of his compositions. Human voices are really quite remarkable in their ability to express great feeling. (With continued interest) The location of the concert was also quite remarkable. Temppeliaukio Church is an interesting building which was built into a large rock outcrop located near the center of Helsinki. The lower part of the walls is made up out of excavated rock, with the top built up with rough stones that were taken out when they dug out the area for the church. The ceiling is also unusual, with a ring of windows around the outer edge, surrounding a shallow copper dome. Tuchanka has many locations that are at least in part subterranean, but I don’t think any of them are quite so nice as this. https://youtu.be/86PLoBQH6fM?t=1m45s

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(With fascination) Today my human host has shared with me another amazing bit of human magic: sparkling tea! The sugarplum flavored tea looks like it has a small universe floating in it, I can’t help but stare into it. (With wonder) It’s like the galactic map of a ship….OoooOOOooooo

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(With intense concentration) My human host recently found an interesting book about life in medieval Finland. The book is in Finnish and I am having to have her translate it for me but it is very interesting. The book "Matkaopas keskiajan Suomeen" or 'The Travel Guide to Medieval Finland' is written by Ilari Aalto and illustrated by Elina Helkala. It seems to have extensive information about life and travel in Finland around the year 1400. I have started taking extensive notes in the hopes that I can visit the places mentioned in the book and that I will figure out how to time travel like this writer proposes. (Thoughtfully) Perhaps I can see if such a book has been made about elcor history which I could give my host as a gift....

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(with interest) I visited the Vanha Kauppahalli today when my host decided to pick up some specialty meats from a kiosk here. It reminded me strongly of the shops in the wards. Each shop carries a specific sort of good such as meats, sweets, or breads, but are experts in what they sell. The building is also quite interesting, dating back to 1889. The brick facade of the building is very striking in its bright red and white. It is located just next to kauppatori where markets like the herring market happen and is also where you can catch the ferry to Suomenlinna!

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(Spookily) The ghosts were walking at Suomenlinna tonight! Suomenlinna is an island located very close to the city of Helsinki, which was easy to reach by the ferry, which is part of the regular public transportation of the city of Helsinki. Suomenlinna was built by the Swedish king beginning in 1748 as a defensive structure against the Russians. Until the Russians developed the city on the land and moved the capital to Helsinki, those living in Suomenlinna made a majority of the population of the city. For the first time in 200 years or so Helsinki decided to perform a ritual to rid people and the island of their sorrows and worries, by burning a goat shaped effigy called the Kekri. Near the bridge that connects the two main islands of Suomenlinna, a priest dressed all in white lit the goat and the papers with everyone’s worries and let fire take them all away. (With peaceful satisfaction) I included a note about the Reapers and I think I feel a little less afraid they will come back again. Besides the burning of the Kekri, there was plenty of food and spooky things to see. In the halls of Tenaille von Ferson and the Ehrensvärd Museum, we walked through time and saw the people as they lived in their fine halls, as they lived and died in Fortress during war, and even for a great feast in a large hall. (Wistfully) I wish we could time travel more often.

[hamletinhelsinki]

(Glowingly) my host knitted a sweater for me to wear since the weather is getting colder. She made by doing something called 'knitting.' I still say the ability to turn a long piece of string into clothing 'magic.' (Cozily) It's so warm.

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(Happily) I went for a walk with my host today which went by this interesting building. My host has told me that it is called 'Finlandia Talo' or 'The Finlandia House'. It was designed by the famous Finnish architect Alvar Aalto. Covered in black and white marble, it has a distinctive look that both sticks out and blends into its surroundings in Töölönlahti. I have become quite fond of the architecture here in Helsinki and look forward to learning more about it. The buildings in the Citadel are quite nice, but they do all look rather similar don't they?

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(With excitement) This week in the convention hall (messukeskus as it is called in Finland) was the book fair and the Food, Wine, and good life fair. I went with my host and got to see many books in Finnish and Swedish as well as mouth watering desserts, candies, cheeses, wines, and dishes from around the world. My host spotted Finnish-Estonian author Sofi Oksanen there signing copies of her books for her many fans. My host bought many books while we were there and has promised to teach me a little bit of Finnish and Swedish some time soon. She also got some things to make something called 'christmas cookies' in a couple of months as well as many types of cheeses, olives and food which I will be trying soon. There were so many types of candies and dishes I could not try, so I can hardly wait for it to come back next year so I can have even more. This had even more amazing food than the citadel!