Seal hunting in Turku

Some photos from Turku. There were "art seals" scattered around the city. I caught 6.

Another wierd thing about Turku was that in the neighbourhood near the university, some of the cobblestone streets were made up of round rocks from the river. I don't have a photo of that, but you can imagine that this created a very bumpy and uneven surface.

Finnish bicycles

In the winter Finland is as bitterly cold and dark as Ottawa. That does not stop the Finns from having a thriving bicycle culture. There is no need for BIXI bicycle-sharing programs because lots of people have bikes. There is no need for bicycle lanes because drivers are not aggressive greed-heads. Cycling is just a normal part of everyone's transportation options.

I noticed a particular brand of bicycle was very common. The Finnish bicycle company Tunturi has been around for 90 years. Their city bikes have a caliper front brake and an internal-hub rear brake. It is odd to see bicycles with only one brake lever. The emblems are quite nice.

That must be a rare one: Tunturi made in Turku

In addition, there was a particular style of bike I had never seen before. With 24-inch wheels and a unisex frame with oversized down-tube, the "JOPO" bicycle struck me as an ideal runabout. These single-speeds were fairly common and were ridden by adults, not children. I wonder what the reasoning is. Pehaps the smaller wheels give some advantage in terms of ride or quickness off the line. I sure thought they looked cool.

One of the original stamped-frame JOPOs

Actually, the JOPO website explains the origin of these typically Finnish bikes:

jopo story begins from the 1960’s when Eero Helkama had a dream. He wanted to create a bicycle that all people could use, no matter what age, size, sex or financial status. Almost 50 years later the same dream is a crucial part of Finnish cycling culture. Three generations of jopo bicycles live in perfect harmony, and do not care about fashion trends.

An old (JOPO-style) Tunturi PONI

After seeing the widespread popularity of bicycles in hilly Turku, I know there is really no excuse for Canada to not have a vibrant 3-season bicycle culture. The Finns put up with long, dark winters and icy winds coming off the Baltic Sea. But when the snow melts they don't make up excuses to not ride.

Turku experience 1

I got back from Turku, Finland on Sunday evening. I notice that travelling long distances seems easier in Europe. Of course a direct flight to Vancouver would be easier, but to go between countries and switch planes was pretty seamless here. There wasn't the same hassle at airport security. Or maybe it was just that the airports were smaller. I dunno.

In any case, Turku was neat. As soon as I got there I felt like I was in a small Canadian city on the edge of the boreal forest. Think Sudbury or Quebec City: big enough for a theatre and concert hall, but only a few kilometers from endless pine trees. On arrival and departure, our turboprop was the only plane on the tarmac. This makes it easier to find your luggage (there's only one baggage carousell!).

Turku airport

The emptiest airport.

Turku's cathedral is the oldest in Finland. Aura river in foreground.

Some unusual facts about Finland:

• Many (most?) Finns are lactose-intolerant, and all the coffee-creamers are lactose-free. 
• Much of what is now Finland was controlled (or was technically part of) Sweden. So Swedish is a sort of second language. The university in Turku is a Swedish-language institution.
• Although a free and democratic country for most of the 20th century, Finland was careful to be friendly with the Soviet bloc during the Cold War. 
• The Finnish language is unlike any other, and bears only structural similarities with Korean and Hungarian. So all Finns under retirement age also speak English (perfectly). 
• In Finnish, there are 15 different ways of saying "the". That is really silly because "the" is not an interesting word. I can understand that the Inuit have 15 words for "snow". Or the Australians have 15 words for "vomit". But what's with all the "the"s?
• Vladimir Lenin lived in Turku for a while, while plotting the overthrow of the Tsars. 

Comrades

Also, Turku is the "European Capital of Culture" for 2011. I am pretty sure that this is just a marketing ploy that Brussels cooked up to help down-and-out cities make a few bucks off of tourism. What is central government (supposed to be) for anyways except to spread the largesse? There were many public sculptures around, including a series of seals.

Seal eating fish