1 july helsinki

Remarkable. As is the national library...

The conference had a 'mobile workshop' i.e. field trip visiting Puu-Käpylä - I couldn't resist that. Even though I've been there many times before, including earlier in the week! 

On the way back I dropped into this place, which provided me a very valuable service insofar as I selected a bunch of curious looking things and was queuing at the counter and the guy behind the counter was just talking, talking (obviously I have no idea what about) to a customer, with at least one other person waiting besides me, and his tone was so much that of Comic Book Guy, I was able to talk myself out of buying anything, put it all back and left. 

Current mood:

But this willl pass... 

helsinki 30 june-1 july

It is Wednesday 1 July and I am in Tintin the Cafe aka Tintin the Bakery with no Tintin memorabilia or merch anywhere around, that's nice. I'm getting sugary shizzle on my keyboard because I am eating a cinnamon bun - like, with my fingers, and then typing.

A lot of dogs are going past - true.

Last time I gave a conference paper in Finland I was met with bafflement, but yesterday I feel it went really well. The other papers were, you know, fascinating but of course became a mish-mash after a time, to the extent that ultimately I was left making the classic response 'those are all words'. Subsequently by the end of the day I was fucked up with no blood sugar and I was pleased to see that close to our digs in Jätkäsaari there is a vietnamese vegan restaurant. Initially I'm pretty sure google map directed me to a big hole in the ground but then I found it, and it was grouse. I mean the plate of food I had would have satisfied five people, I exaggerate, but satisfied two and maybe three. But it was excellent. I will go back. 

(That stain on the ground was there when I got there btw).

Earlier in the day yesterday I paid a quick trip to Tapiola to find rather disappointingly/worryingly that the old shopping centre, which I always enjoyed, is now boarded up and not looking at all happy. I suspect it might be at its end. 

helsinki 29 june 2026

 big day tell you later

helsinki 28/29 june 2026

Yesterday morning just after the Taivaskallio visit walking back to the Park Hotel - passing these boarded up buildings - I wonder what they were - they look slightly more institutional than apartments but maybe that's all they were. 

Back at Käpylä the kioski was doing great business (many I've seen around are apparently derelict, as per the Karhupuisto one) and once again I am struck by the ridiculous truth that, for some reason, in Australia we can't have this. I really don't know why but it's apparently the case. 

I suppose we have analogs to it so I should not be so whingey but when Melbourne is so boastful all the time about its coffee chops, why not institute a straight up kiosk and park culture in Melbourne?

That said, as mentioned, the kiosks are often empty and unused. As per this one:

 

Anyway so... here's something else I saw (below). I imagine a seagull is on the head of this statue more often than not. 

I suppose I will fight to the death for op shops to sell any trash they find, but it is slightly disgusting that this book - surely banned in Finland or it should be - is available on a secondhand shelf. 

In the afternoon of the 28 a lot of the time was spent at Jätkäsaari, which is a new suburb right next to central Helsinki, built on former port land. I am interested in this place. 

I'm sorry you had to see this (but you did).

Sometimes I take a picture of an industiral-ish landscape and I think 'that's so Jeffrey Smart', a credit to Smart, not me. 

I woke up early this morning (29 June). 3:30 am. It was light. 

Cafe I went to this morning, because it opens at 7:30 (earliest in the area) and had good reviews. I think it is called Kulma Kahvila. 

helsinki 28 june - 2 (taivaskallio)

I decided to walk to what seemed like the nearest cafe open on a Sunday from the Park Hotel and a minor deviation into a park en route (and the decision to climb a steep hill - 'climb' seems too much, it was a short path) got me to this. Big surprise. 

\

I tried to find the site of this cafe  but it wasn't evident. 

It so gets on my wick that the union jack is used to designate 'English' though I suppose there is sense in it somewhere, somehow. 

helsinki 27 (and a little bit of 28) june 2026

So here's a bit of a photo dump for you from the remainder of Saturday 27/6. This was when I started to get a bit hazy and fucked up from the jet lag etc and wasn't entirely sure what I was doing... i.e. I really thought there was a huge seagull head on the art museum. 

100% chance these guys don't talk anymore:

Big pile:

I am so ridiculously sentimental, so yeah, back to the bear park (Karhupuisto). I reckon the first time I came here, you couldn't take pictures with your phone (I mean, 'one couldn't... with one's'). 

Bear park iconography is so cool 

The kiosk, which was definitely functioning the first time I came here, now looks pretty redundant. There is another one diagonally opposite in the park now which seems very upmarket. 

They have pop-up-pocket-parked the street alongside the bear park (the southern section of Fleminginkatu) in a far more attractive way than this picture suggests. 

Next stop was a wild agricultural allotment area, though purely by accident. My plan was to go to Arabia (again) and walk through the botanic garden area to Käpylä. So, I was almost there and my phone said to get out at the next stop. I did. However what I didn't realise until I'd got off was that the tram stopped not at the stop but it stopped because some city workers had blocked the narrow road that the tram was on (single track). Presumably the driver was going to discuss this with them. A Melbourne tram would never let its passengers out between stops regardless of the reason, but this wasn't a Melbourne tram. So I started walking in the right direction (a little knowledge is a dangerous thing) but what I didn't realise was there was still a railway line to cross before I could go freely in the direction I was planning. Google maps agreeably set me a course and it also didn't realise that there was a railway in the way of where I wanted to go, or at least, it thought there was a bridge or an access way or something when there actually isn't. So I wandered randomly for a while in this wonderful agricultural allotment area not entirely appreciating that there was only one way in and out. 

So OMG there is a allotment garden museum here - I will definitely visit. Open Sunday for two hours.

There is no problem in the world that can't be solved with chinese paper lanterns. 

Except the problem of walking into this fucking sunlight, that can only be solved with sunglasses, which I had left back at the hotel. So by this time I had a bit of a battery problem - I guess I'm putting extra pressure on my phone here. 

I was slightly worried that I would not be able to get to the hotel without my battery running out. So I put my phone in airport mode and took a photo of the google map, and tried to follow that. It worked ok, actually. But of course the time for taking photos was over (sorry kids). 

Except for the rare occasion where you see something so amazing you have to record it. What on earth is going on in this picture?! 

As for this house... too perfect. 

A little bit of Käpylä magic, and this isn't even really a nice bit. 

That's quite a lot of walking for someone who hasn't slept for two days! Now it's 7am and insanely it actually appears that we are prohibited from leaving the hotel before 8. Is that legal? I guess, like the Melbourne trams thing, I have to remind myself that I'm not in Melbourne anymore. Here's the view out my window. 

More later!