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Around Southern Finland

Prolog It was Wednesday and I was on vacation and deadly bored. This was my first real summer holiday ever, and I had been mainly sitting at home playing some stupid computer games. Suddenly I got an idea: why not to jump in to the train and go to Helsinki? Finnish railway company (VR) was offering quite cheap summer tickets for students, so the costs were no issue. And guess what? It took couple of hours and I was sitting in a first train to leave.

From Oulu to Helsinki Let's think carefully: what to do while traveling in a train for six hours? I guess it is not surprising that quite soon we left our seats to go to the restaurant railroad car. While being in the restaurant having some beer, we noticed quite strange thing: there was a picture of a hand with six fingers in the door's hand grip of the railroad car! Don't know is the railroad company taking an attitude of welcoming all mutants and aliens to travel with their railroads or what, but it looked quite funny... It was some time before midnight I arrived to the railway station of Helsinki city. You know, Helsinki is the capital town of Finland, so there is always some activity going on and people rushing around. For example Oulu is quite small compared to this city, and you can see the difference just by looking the city life.

Helsinki sightseeing Next morning was beautiful, sun was shining and and it was warm enough wear T-shirts. After some bookstore shopping I ate a lunch at Pizza Hut. Now it was time for me to go alone around the city with my camera. First I came to Toriranta, where were lot's of market sellers, street artists and people buying vegetable, fishes and other fresh cooking stuff. Market place was really full of life, and most of the people were just spending their time. Maybe the most famous street of Helsinki is a double boulevard called Esplanadi. During summer time there is activity like outdoor concerts and other live performances. And of course there are tourists hanging around with their cameras photographing all possible sorts of things...

I also walked to little bit far a way from the main center of the city, but in Hietaniemi I didn't find anything really interesting. I must say that the parks are the hearts, and walk-only-streets are veins of the cities. This goes also to Helsinki. Sudden downpours belong to warm summer days, and it was no exception that day. It was raining so heavily that the streets were waving and for example trams or trolleys had troubles to go on.

Way to Joensuu via Lappeenranta Next day I decided to continue to Joensuu city, where my brother lives in. The ticket I had, allowed me to stop in Lappeenranta, and that was what I did. I walked around Lappeenranta city about three hours. It was really warm summer day, and therefore there were lot's of people enjoying beautiful city harbor area. Next to the harbor there is an old fortress from the times when Finland defended itself from Russia. It took some hours to travel from Lappeenranta to Joensuu, but for a change I had a companion with whom it was nice to talk with. We talked about everything about life, and before I noticed, I was in Joensuu railway station. It was half past six in Friday evening.

Joensuu here I come... I have been several times to Joensuu, and as I city it goes OK. This time I spent whole weekend there, and we had some wonderful time. We wandered around the city, as usually, and went also to the bar of Jokilaituri. There is a great view to a lake and it is the place to sit outside and spend summer day.

Later on we went to a boat trip to a place called Aavaranta. It was late summer evening and when the sun was going behind horizon, it was one of the great moments of this summer. Final destination - Kuopio After relaxing weekend in Joensuu it was time to head back to Oulu via Kuopio city. It was Monday morning and raining heavily, although there had been several clear and warm summer days behind.

But luckily when I arrived to Kuopio, the weather was again coming clear. Kuopio is famous of it's market area, and it was not any surprise that there were lot's of people when I walked through it. While walking on Kuopio streets I noticed many great looking old wooden houses and different kind old fashioned shops. There were also a bar called Julkinen salakapakka Kummisetä (~ "Public back street dive called Godfather"). Finally, I spend some time some park shooting "local" city animals.. The ducks seemed to be quite peacefully in Kuopio.. It was 9 PM when I was back to Oulu. My small summer trip was over. Send comments about this photostory! Back to Finland on Focus

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