Artic Roses

There is a park in Oulu, where people spend their time. There is a playground for children and a cafe for adults. People go there for picnics and walks. It is frequently used as a backdrop for wedding and graduation pictures. I have also seen an open air play and heard an impromptu concert there. I love it and people of Oulu seem to love it too and we all know it by its name - Ainola.

For such a northern park Ainola has an amazing rose garden. It is truly amazing, because of our latitude. All possible colours flourish there in square shaped benches.

They even have roses with freckles there.

Oulu Castle

There used to be a castle in Oulu. It was build in 1605 by a Swedish King Johan III, who was our king at the time. Back then Finland was a part of Sweden. The castle was blown away in a huge explosion caused by a lightening. It set the gunpowder magazine aflame and BOOM!!!! This is all there is left of the real Uleåborg.

Oulu Last Summer

With my departure from Oulu nearing, I went out to town with a camera just to shoot anything. While organising the new pictures, I came across last summers Oulu shoots.

Rotuaari - the walking street. Last year I saw this troupe performing there with tons of energy.

This year Rotuaari has been a place to be avoided due to the construction work, which has turned the town's centre into a huge muddy hole. I am sure I shall appreciate it next winter, when I can walk there carefree during my Oulu visits. The piping and draining will be re-installed in the way that the heat from the hot water pipes will keep the street ice free throughout the winter. Hooray! Urban Planners are cleaver folks I must admit.

Hotel de Ville - the town hall. Oulu is a very nice town, but it is impossibly ugly. Despite the up coming Rotuaari success, the Urban Planner cannot rest. There is a lot to do to improve the looks. However Hotel de Ville is pretty.

Oulu has many nice little parks, but somehow many of them are insignificant. You rarely see people spending time in those. I cannot even recognise them by name. The most popular ones, where you see people sitting on the benches, having picnics and sunbathing are the ones with known names. Here´s a sample of one I hardly ever see anybody doing anything, but using it as a short cut. Please, don´t ask for its name.

Emptiness of the streets is another feature of the town.

And lastly, but not least, a sight typical to the area and to all of Finland. A well maintained pine forest. Despite its industrial feel, I find beauty in it.

Story of a Police

The brass man in the picture is Oulu's market police. When it was erected my dad told me, that back in olden times there used to be a Commissionaire on the market, who looked like the brass police. He also wore a uniform and had a big belly. However, the sculpture does not commemorate him personally. The Commissionaire was a kind of half guardian half security of the market and he knew everything what was happening there. The Oulu bus station used to locate on the side of the market and the Market Guardian had a habit of climbing onto every departing bus to see who was leaving the town. In my dad's story, he used to get on just before the departure, browse around, say: "Well, well, let's see who's here" and get off. He would also meet all the buses coming in in order to see who was entering the town.

My dad was a wealth of stories and by his stories I have geotagged my surroundings including the police in question.

I pictured the brass police earlier this summer while waiting to meet a friend for coffee. It was our first meeting in Oulu. We met few years back in Helsinki, though we are both originally from Oulu area. In two hours I'll meet her by the police for the second time. 

PS:Thank you for the inspiration Freckled Nest. Lovely idea.

Rugs, Train and Rain

Yesterday I did what I promised. I washed the rug. I took it to the rug washing pier of Oulu river. Those are provided by the town's administration. I packed a bucket, brush, environmentally safe soap, a little nephew and some money for ice cream with me and took off on a bike. My nephew turned out to be a real rug brushing pro and did the most of the washing. I lifted water from the river and pictured the process. The stripes in my rug are bright again.

Right now I am in a train. A little domestic trip to Jyväskylä has started with a detour to another Finnish town. I see lots of trees through the train's window, but took a picture only when they appeared horizontally. It was the only time rain did not smudge my view too bad.

I wonder if my rug will ever try in this weather. I left it spread stripewise to the backs of four chairs on the porch, but nothing tries in this weather. It is so humid. I should know this, as I am carrying a luggage full of yesterday's wet laundry. Summer night did not work its usual magic last night.

Oulu After the Heat

A heat wave swept over Oulu and over two weeks the arctic town was tropical. As always, the heat was followed by thunder and rain. I had rainy day's coffee on Oulu's half pretty market place.

The market place is half pretty, because on two of its side it has beautiful old warehouses turned into shops and restaurants.

On two other side it has concrete and cars. The nuclear power plant like construction is Oulu's theatre. I fail to see any beauty in it. Next to it sits equally ugly the main library.

Since it was a rainy day, I managed to picture some of the many rowing boats people keep by the Oulu river. On a sunny day they are on the river.

The wooden boat has not sunk by neglect. It is filled with water to swell the wood. If a boat becomes too try, it starts to leak through the planks. To fix it, it is filled with water and let to absorb enough moist to seal the cracks.

Public Decor

Oulu has some neat (and some, not so neat) furnishing it its public areas.

Super sleek granite bench. Chic public decor.

Picnic table looks very nice, but I don't see myself having a relaxing meal there. Where to you squeeze your knees? Not under the table for sure. The benches are actually so far from the table, that you do not need to squeeze your knees anywhere unless you are very tall. However, the fact that there is a considerable distance between the seats and table, does not make your eating position any easier. At least, I do not like to hang in the air when dining. Maybe these were designed for eyes only. If so, they work.

Feeling Almost Like a Winner

I made myself happy today. I did send a job application. It was for a job, which could be considered a way below my qualifications, but what the heck, I have very little ambition and the job could be fun. It feels like a place where I do not need to stress myself to the brink of burnout. Therefore, this potentially underachieving opportunity appears as a win-win from all aspects. It will end my unemployment, can be fun and stress free, but as it is in an environment totally new to me, it would provide me with an opportunity to learn new. So, keep your fingers crossed, thumbs up or what ever you do in your culture when you wish someone good luck.

In less than two hours, I received a reply with the usual two letter word.

Airhooks And Ice Hockey

I am sure, that everybody on this planet knows, that Finland won World Championship in ice hockey this year. It was huge. We are ice hockey mad people, but we have not been too successful in it on that level. This was our second time only. Last and first time we won in 1996.

First we qualified for the final by winning our other neighbour Russia. Then we won a sweet victory against our dearest rival Sweden. 6-1. One of the highlights of the whole competition was a goal extraordinaire by a 19 year old young man from Oulu area.

The celebrations have been unforgettable. Good manners were forgotten at times and the team's managing department versioned the airhook on iceless ground in the front of the cheering crowds at return from Brastilava, Slovakia.

The lapse in code of conduct has been much debated, apologies pleaded and lessons learned. The bowl has started a tour around the country. Last Wednesday the celebration train reached Oulu. Approximately 20 000 people had gathered to the market place to pay respect to the six players who originate from Oulu area, who brought the price for the Northerners to see. I was there too, freezing away in icy Nordic wind and could not stop wondering what a game of ice hockey can do to us. It really can make the nation go beserk.

Ode to Yoga Remorse

I have not been to my yoga class for ages for many reasons, which I am not going to list here. All excuses. However, when I was still a well behaving yogini, I needed to cross a river, dam and a park with seven bridges to get from home to my class.