Time really flies, it is Summer now. During the last summer, I went to Särkänniemi amusement park in Tampere together with Malaysian friend and his family here. No, I don’t try roller coaster there becuase the queue for roller coaster was very, very long. However, I had snapped some photos to share ( :| keep it for almost a year then only share them out).

This summer is the first summer for my wife and the first time for her to experience 18 hours length of the day in her life too. Yup, the sun is rises around 4am and sets around 11:00pm in Turku for Summer. The length of the day will start to become shorter and shorter after mid summer.

TechTags Plugin [ amusement park | Särkänniemi | Tamperella | Tampere ]

We left Tampere on 8th January 2006 in the morning. The weather outside still remained -5°C no snow and not windy. We took the local bus from Hostel Tampere to Tampere main railway station. From there, we started our journey to Helsinki. A week holiday in Helsinki, then, I have to say goodbye to my girlfriend. I miss her.

We still used train as our transportation. This time, we tried the other type of train to Helsinki. We took Express train from Turku to Tampere, now we were on board InterCity2 train. Why 2? Because it is double-deck train, we chose our seats at the upper level. It was great, we can see the winter scenery clearly. I bought our train tickets online and print it out on paper. We just need to show to the train conductor when we were on board. During the journey, passengers can buy coffee, tea or water or some snacks from a mobile minibar. You can pay your drink or snacks with cash even with credit card. They have all devices attached on the mobile minibar.

Train services in Europe is great. When you buy your ticket, you can choose your seat with PC plug attached or other. When you are using your mobile phone, you can go to mobile phone booth. There are a lot of facilities you can get on board. You can goto here to understand more about the train facilities in Europe (in this case is Finland). Don’t miss the new night car video! Travel in Europe with train is a good idea.

TechTags Plugin [ Pendolino | central square | InterCity | InterCity2 | Express train | Night and car-sleeper trains | Long distance trains | trains in europe | travel by train in Europe ]

At the underground of Finlayson is the Spy museum which exhibits the methods, equipment spy used to steal information during 19th century. We went there for a visit. The ticket is 7€ per person. I forgot to tell the ticket for the Vapriikki Museum Centre, it is 9€ per person. After visited the Spy museum, we came out from the Finlayson area and cross the Satakunnansilta bridge. Then we just walked along the river bank until we arrived at Kehräsaari. It was an old industrial milieu however nowadays it is the biggest shopping area in Tampere. Yup, we have windows shopping there. Later on, we walked back to hostel because we were tired. Further more, the next day morning we will leave for Helsinki by train. We need to pack our baggage.

During our trip in Tampere, we ordered our breakfast at hostel counter. A breakfast is cost 4.50€ per person included coffee/tea/cocoa, a bagel with ham and cheese, juice, yogurt, muesli, cookies and biscuits. It sounds great, right? For lunch, we have it at McDonald. We don’t have our dinner at restaurant outside. We just bought some food from the supermarket and we made our dinner at hostel. There is a kitchen with all cooking stuffs at hostel. You can use it to prepare your meals and clean it after that. It was a totally different experience to both of us because this was the first time we stay at hostel not hotel for our first trip in Finland.

TechTags Plugin [ spy museum | Kehräsaari | McDonald | Finlayson ]

The Keskustori (Central Square) is the heart of the city. The Central Square located at the opposite of the Tampere Bus Station. It is a big and wide avenue for the public. There is the TT theatre and also the Old town Hall built in the Renaissance style. Besides, there is a wooden church which is the oldest building in the city centre. In front of the wooden church, there was a big and tall pine tree decorated with small lights bulbs. Don’t forget the Christmas just over only. At the Central Square we can saw the Hämeensilta bridge clearly. This bridge was built in the year 1929 and it is decorated by four statues. From the Keskutori, we walked ahead to the Finlayson area.

Finlayson is the place where the cotton mill founded by the Scotsman James Finlayson in the year 1820. It was one of Tampere’s most significant industrial enterprises during that time. During 19th century, Finlayson area was a city within a city with its own school, hospital and old people’s house. One remarkable history record at here was the first electric light bulb in the Northern Europe lit in the old textile mill Plevna in the 1882. When we arrived there, we were a bit confused to this historical area. We saw a lot advertisement sign boards. Yup, the Finlayson area today is the house of a number of IT companies, restaurants, shops and museums.

The first electric bulb in Nordic countries


Tampere City Bust Station;there is an electric panel telling you what time your bus will arive

An old wooden church at Central Square

TechTags Plugin [ central square | old wooden church | Hämeensilta bridge | Finlayson | first electri bulb in Nordic | Keskustori ]

On the next day morning we departed for our walking tour after having our breakfast at hostel. This time we made sure we have enough batteries with us. Before this, I felt it was interesting to tell you more about the elevator at hostel. It looks like a small room rather than an elevator. I’m very sure you can’t find this kind of elevator in Malaysia (I’m Malaysian). I snapped some photos about it.

The weather was good, not snowing, temperature was about -5°C. From the hostel, we walked to Pyynikin kirkkopuisto Park. The park is just opposite to our hostel. There is a church inside that park, the neo-Gothic Alexander church. This church was awarded the most beautiful church in Finland. It was built in the year 1881 and named after Emperor Alexander II, who ruled Finland and Russia at the time.

From that church, we just walked along the road to Hämeenkatu, main Street of Tampere. Before we arrived at the Hämeensilta bridge, there is Kauppahalli (the Market Hall) on our right. I like to visit this kind of place because you will find something really special. This market hall is the largest market hall in Nordic countries. You can find local delicacies such as “rievä” bread and mustamakkara (Black sausage; my colleague told me this is Tampere unique local food) at here. We were there for a short while to warm our body before we walked to the Keskustori (Central Square).

TechTags Plugin [ elevator | Alexander church | Hämeensilta bridge | Kauppahalli | mustamakkara | Keskustori ]

As I said before, Finnish Sauna is totally different with what I can get in Malaysia! You must read this,don’t miss it! So, what is the different? All of us were NAKED in the sauna. Wait a minute, NAKED? Yes, I was completely naked inside but in the Male sauna room (What do you expect?) This was the first time I’m naked in public. There were several old folks in the sauna and they kept on splashing water to the stoves. As the result, it generated a lot of steam and the sauna room was really hot (about 80°C). They seem enjoyed this very much. Just imagine one guy came in and he poured water to the stoves, in a few second the other guy came in and repeated that again. I can tell you, I swore like shower in the sauna room.

During winter, Finns prefer having their sauna near to lake or sea because they can run and swim in a lake or sea with ice surrounding them after sauna. Then, their come back for sauna again. This will repeat for several times. According to them, this will help you to improve your blood circulation and your immunity too. Not only this,sometimes they drink beer inside. Can you? I spent 45 minutes in the sauna room after that I gave up. I came out from the male sauna room and my girlfriend already waiting me at outside. After having sauna, I felt very nice when I was outside. I do not feel cold although that was -5°C outside.

For your information, there are 2 million finnish saunas in Finland (more than the number of cars on the road). 1.2 million of these saunas are in the private house. My colleague has one in his house. The rest of the saunas are in swimming halls,health spas, and other public locations. You can read more about Finnish sauna at here. But, I strongly suggest you should try this Virtual Finnish Sauna!

TechTags Plugin [ Finnish sauna | sauna | Finnish sauna in winter ]

We went down the hill and crossed the bridge at Sataunnankatu. Just walked through a park on our left, we arrived at Vapriikki Museum Centre. You may found that we don’t take bus but we walked. Yes, we walked according to the walking tours map. There are several museums located inside this Vapriikki Museum Centre such as Shoe Museum and Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame.

Vapriikki Museum located at the former Tampella engineering workshop. It exhibit archaeology theme, metal theme, nature, handicraft, technology and modern art. The original Finnish Ice Hockey Championship Trophy and the World Championship Trophy 1995 is exhibit inside the Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame. We spent quite a long time there, but, we missed the Shoe Museum because we were tired. We were allowed to take photos inside the museums without flash light. However, we can’t get any battery replaced inside this museum centre therefore we can’t take anymore photos. We felt sad about this.

After this, we walked back to our hostel. During the way back, we stopped at the city centre and have our dinner at one of Chinese restaurants there. While we were on the way back to hostel, we will passed by the Tampere City main library Metso. Next to the hostel we stayed at is a swimming hall. It has a sauna inside the swimming hall. We don’t know about this at all while we did our reservation. Therefore, it was a good opportunity to try Finnish Sauna (Finland is the origin country for Sauna). I can tell you, Finnish Sauna is totally different with what you can get in Malaysia! I will tell you later perhaps tomorrow.

TechTags Plugin [ Vapriikki Museum Centre | Shoe Museum | Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame | Finnish Ice Hockey Championship Trophy | World Championship Trophy 1995 | Metso | Finnish Sauna ]

Our digital camera still managed to squeeze out some power from batteries occasionally, but not all the time. Therefore, we still able to take one or two photos before it completely out of function. After the Amurinlinna residential area, we walked ahead to the southern side of the Hämeenpauisto Park and up to a hill, the Näsinpuisto Park.

Up the hill, there are Näsilinna palace for the son of Wilhem von Nottbeck built in the year 1898 and Mältinranta Art Centre. The Mältinranta Art Centre is located at former water purification plant. We saw some water purification equipment still attached on the wall inside this art centre. From the hill, we can saw clearly the Särkänniemi adventure park on the other side. We missed this Adventure Park because we don’t get information about this park before we left from Turku.

source: Coaster and More

TechTags Plugin [ Tampere | Amurinlinna | Hämeenpauisto Park | Näsinpuisto Park | Näsilinna palace | Särkänniemi adventure park ]

We left for Tampere on 6th January 2006 early morning by train. We chose train because it is much convenience to us. Besides, European train service is well established and we never try the train service in Finland yet, I mean us together. The journey from Turku to Tampere was about one and half hours, not too long on the train but nice. We have chance to have a look on winter scenery. However, I forgot to take some photos regarding this winter scenery.(Actually both of us were slept for a while at that moment)

We arrived in Tampere about 10 o’clock morning. Immediately stepped out from Tampere railway station, we saw McDonald. Now only we realized that we can’t found more than one McDonald in Turku city centre. We found Hesburger everywhere in Turku. My girlfriend likes the tomato souse at Hesburger. Our hostel, Uimahallinmaja or Hostel Tampere was about 15-20 minutes walking distance from the railway station walk along the Hämeenkatu.

After check in, we were so surprised the room we got. We reserved for a twin room with my Hostelling International membership card but the room was really big. After that, we start our journey in Tampere. We walked further up the Pirkankatu and then made a right turn to Sotkankatu and right turn to Satakunnankatu. We just walked straight passed the Amuri (the Finland’s first quarter entirely inhabited by factory workers in the 1860’s) until we arrived at Hämeenpauisto Park. The Hämeenpauisto Park was a one kilometers long park served as a firewall barrier to the city almost entirely comprising buildings during the year 1830. You can read more about the Hämeenpauisto Park at here.

Ahead to the southern side of the park, the Amurinlinna residential area was on our left. This residential area was built for the workers of the Finlayson factory in the 1950’s. The highest 14-storey building there was the home of the “cotton mill girls”. Unfortunately, our digital camera was running out of battery power start from this moment. We don’t have any spare. Therefore, we can’t take more photos after this.

TechTags Plugin [ Tampere | Europe train | McDonald | Hesburger | Uimahallinmaja | Hostel Tampere | Amuri | Hämeenpauisto Park ]