Helsinki, Finland (May 2008)

Finns love their saunas, our hotel room had a small two-person sauna.







These were taken near the Helsinki harbor area. Kinda nice, but definitely not as nice as Stockholm :)









These were taken going to/from or on Suomenlinna. Definitely worth a visit if you're in the Helsinki area.

From Wikipedia: Suomenlinna or Viapori (Finnish), or Sveaborg (Swedish), is an inhabited sea fortress built on six islands, today within Helsinki, the capital of Finland. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site and popular with both tourists and locals, who enjoy it as a picturesque picnic site. Originally named Sveaborg (Fortress of Svea), or Viapori as called by Finns, it was renamed Suomenlinna (Castle of Finland) in 1918 for patriotic and nationalist reasons, though it is still also known by its original name. It is an example of the Star Fort style of fortification.

Sweden started building the fortress in 1748 as a protection against Russian expansionism. The general responsibility for the fortification work was given to Augustin Ehrensvärd. The original plan of the bastion fortress was strongly influenced by the precepts of Vauban, the foremost military engineer of the time.

In addition to the island fortress itself, seafacing fortifications on the mainland would ensure that an enemy would not acquire a beach-head from which to stage attacks. The plan was also to stock munitions for the whole Finnish contingent of the Swedish Army and Royal Swedish Navy there. In the Finnish War the fortress surrendered to Russia on May 3 1808, paving the way for the occupation of Finland by Russian forces in 1809.

Valborg (Walpuris Night) in Turku, Finland (May 2008)

A few colleagues and I had a chance to visit Finland during Valborg. Valborg is the Swedish version of Walpurgis Night.

A little info from Wikipedia: Walpurgis Night is a traditional Pagan holiday, Roman Catholic Saint's day, and Satanic holiday celebrated on April 30 or May 1 in large parts of Central and Northern Europe.

The current festival is in most countries celebrating it named after Saint Walpurga, born in Devonshire about 710. Due to her holy day falling on the same day, her name became associated with the celebrations. Walpurga was honored in the same way that Vikings had celebrated spring and as they spread throughout Europe, the two dates became mixed together and created the Walpurgis Night celebration. Early Christianity had a policy of 'Christianising' pagan festivals so it is perhaps no accident that St. Walpurga's day was set to May 1st.

To travel from Stockholm to Turku, Finland where we'd be celebrating, we took the Viking Line (AKA party ferry). What's really nice is that ferry travels through the archipelago that borders Stockholm to the east.









These were taken on the first day of celebration, which involved a lot of champagne!







Another colleague, Michael, that I always tease about going to his local community college (D.Phil from Oxford).





These are from the second day. The decrease in activity is recognizable and is due to the previous heavy evening of partying. Getting some sun and having a picnic was quite nice though.









These were taken while walking around Turku.







These were taken at a public sauna. What a bargain at 4 Euros per person. The temperature inside the sauna was 70C (160F) then we ran and jumped into the lake which was supposedly 13C (55F), but it felt much, much colder as can be easy seen from these photos!

Morten's Lake House in Knivsta, Sweden (April 08)

One of our colleagues lives with his family in a lake house in Knvista (Knife town) which is located between Stockholm and Uppsala.

One Friday afternoon, the weather was to good to pass up, so we ran by the System Bolaget and hit the lake house for a wonderful evening!