Royals in Helsinki

Even if you don’t know what’s going on, an empty marketplace in Helsinki is a sure sign that something is going on, because the marketplace is “never” empty, unless of course, the place is needed for spectators who want to get a glimpse of the nordic heads of state: the three Nordic royals, the president…

Cruise Craze

The season has started and I survived my first tour, taking cruise guests through Helsinki and to Winter Wonderland. It seems that half of the world’s population spends half of their time on cruise ships nowadays. Helsinki gets a fair share of them each summer. Good for me, working as a tour guide is fun,…

Back in Helsinki

The first thing I heard when arriving in Helsinki: good you didn’t come earlier, it has been so cold. The wind was still quite chilly today, but the bright sunshine, the blue sky and the fresh air made up for it twice. I spent my first day strolling around in the city and felt somewhat…

Fall / Herbst – Original & Art / Kunst

Hundreds and thousands of migrating birds gather each year in September on the large fields of Viikki Bay in Helsinki, close to where I live. Helsingin Sanomat, the main Newspaper in Finland, took a video of a tremendous cloud of Canada-Geese a few hours ago.

Elections / Wahlen

On Sunday we will elect the new “Eduskunta”, parliament. Yle News, which is the English branch of Finnish broadcasting YLE, has interviewed all party leaders on the most pressing questions. Am Sonntag wird in Finnland das neue Parlament gewählt. 200 Abgeordnete in direkter Wahl. Yle News, die englische Ausgabe des Finnischen Senders YLE, hat alle…

Suomenlinna Fortress

In addition to taking my exams as a Helsinki Guide, I have enrolled into a training to become an authorized Suomenlinna Guide. The large historic sea fortress on several (5,6,7,8? The number keeps changing) islands in front of Helsinki has made it into the Unesco World Heritage list. It has been a very important influence…

Hvitträsk

With  my family in Germany over Easter, I decided to use my free time for visiting Hvitträsk, former home and studio to the trio of architects who belonged to the most influencial forces during the Art Nouveau period in Helsinki: Hermann Gesellius, Armas Lindgren and  Eliel Saarinen. Unfortunately, the weather was very “Finnish” and the…

Penkkarit

Wenige Tage, bevor in Deutschland die Karnevalsumzüge starten, gibt es jährlich in Finnland, und vor allem in Helsinki, eine eigene Art Umzug: Penkkarit. Auch hier werden Süßigkeiten unter das Volk geworfen und die Teilnehmer und Fahrzeuge sind “verkleidet”. Allerdings handelt es sich nicht um Narren, sondern um Abiturienten, die sich nun auf die letzten Abiturprüfungen…

New Prime Minister for Finland

Jyrki Katainen, former prime minister of Finland, has succeeded in transferring his burden of leading Finland to a new man: Alexander Stubb, who is succeeding Katainen as head of the strongest party National Coalition Party and thus becomes automatically prime minister of Finland. I have collected a few videos from YouTube to give an idea…