Uspenski Cathedral, a photo from Southern Finland, South

Photographer's Note

my impressions of Helsinki:
For a capital city, Helsinki isn’t that large. There are two nice churches to visit and some great art museums, but surprisingly, little else. This is mainly because Helsinki is a fairly new city… the Russians made this the capital because the old capital was too close to the Swedish boarder and figured it should be moved closer to Moscow. A day was enough to cover the interesting parts of town. It would take more to do the museums properly.

Unlike every other country I’ve passed through, the Finns aren’t bitter against the Russians. In fact, they think they were treated quite well under the Soviet rule. Perhaps it’s because the Finnish are woodsy people, while the Russians were after the cities.

my personal experience (with characters previously met during my travels, see the Sauntering 2000- travelogue for details)
Anyway, I didn’t expect to make it up here, but the boat was affordable from Estonia. As promised, I made my phone call to one of the older ladies, Tuula. She quickly found me in the city and got me orientated; however, it didn’t seem like I had many options of a place to stay. I was planning on calling the other woman, Tiiti, the bear hunter artist/ice swimmer, to see and spend the night on her island.

She made some phone calls and unfortunately, Tiiti’s car was in the shop and it would be difficult get there; however, her daughter would be glad to have a guest. “You can probably sleep in the kitchen in a sleeping bag,” Tuula told me.

“As long as I’m not causing any inconvenience, I’d love to see more of Finnish life” I replied, and off I went to Salo.

kurtyang04, orme, digiken, Homerhomer, Uhu heeft deze opmerking als nuttig gemarkeerd

Critiques | Translate

kurtyang04 (478) 2004-09-01 20:13

Dan, I enjoy the note with the photo very much. I really wish I can go to visit Finland someday. The tone is great and composition is nice with good detail. Overally impact is fine.

orme (7219) 2004-09-02 1:00

Great shot, Dan. The Cathedral is very impressive and your choice of B/W helps to add to the atmosphere of the place. I like the tight framing. Good note.

digiken (105) 2004-09-02 16:14

I like the angles, the crop, the contrast, and the color tone. It gives the church a massive, gritty feel. For me it helps to evoke a Soviet feeling (reminds me of the music from Sting's song "Russians" -- I can't help but whistle it now...).

Uhu (8609) 2006-10-18 17:27

Well... I don't know, maybe you meant something else, but you wrote: "they were treated quite well under the Soviet rule. Perhaps it’s because the Finnish are woodsy people, while the Russians were after the cities. "
Finland was no under Soviet rule at all, it was a lot of economic connections after WW II, but it never was "people's democracy", it was a neighbour country, it's all...
Maybe Finns are not bitter just because they are wise enough to understand that history is history, and present and future is more important than any past clashes. Otherwise all Europe would be like a bunch of spiders in a can.
My humble opinion. Cheers to everyone.