Two Days in Finland (Part II)

More on our two-day adventure in this wintry country. Because Jeevan had already explored most of Helsinki while I was working last week, we decided on Sunday to go further afield. We considered Lapland and Estonia, but instead settled on the city of Tampere. We paid a pretty penny to take the train there, but it was worth it to see some of the Finnish countryside.


Amazingly, only about fifteen minutes outside of the city the ground was covered in snow. We were excited that even though we hadn't traveled to Lapland, we were still being rewarded with white groundcover.

We chose Tampere because in addition to being an easy day trip from Helsinki it is one of Finland's tech centers and a historically important city. The sites aren't bad either.


Our first destination was the Pyynikki Ridge with views of Tampere's two lakes . . .


a forest preserve with hiking trails . . .


and a tall observation tower.


Oh, and I almost forgot -- donuts!

Which brings me to the discussion of Finland's deceptive treats. Don't those donuts look good? Don't you want to just bite into one right now? Well, you would and you'd be mighty disappointed. That's because in addition to sugar and butter and flour and whatever else should be in a glazed donut, the Finns apparently add something that tastes like black licorice. Now, other than raisins, Annis (or whatever creates that flavor) might be about the worse thing to to happen to a tasty baked good. Why would any self-respecting baker do such a thing? This whole situation was particularly insulting because it came on the heels of our morning pastries (with caraway seeds?) and Jeevan's Hesburger Turkish Pepper Ice Cream Treat.

The lesson: inspect any Finnish baked good for small black specks of licorice flavor. Perhaps you think the lesson is that we shouldn't be eating so many sweets. You'd be wrong.

Our day continued with some impromptu ice hockey watching.


Finally, we took at step back into Tampere's Red past with a trip to the very pro-Lenin Lenin museum.

During the early 20th Century, Tampere's working class made the city the Red capital of Finland. In fact, Lenin spent several years in Finland (and some time in Tampere) while he was exiled from Russia. The museum did a fine job of glossing over cultural revolutions, the creation of the USSR and Stalinism. Nevertheless, some of the early photographs, maps and letters were quite interesting.

So, be you a nature-lover, hockey enthusiast or historian, the next time you're in Southern Finland, don't forget to visit Tampere!