the window for a postcard is closing rapidly.
yesterday was another great day.
i started my day by transporting my huge backpacker's pack to the cruise line terminal where i deposited it in a locker. after leaving the bag, i headed for a ferry to suomenlinna, an 18th-century fortress built on a series of 6 islands just off the coast of Helsinki.
there was a mix-up and i barely made the ferry for the island - i wanted to be at the Visitor Center on the islands by 11 because there was an English-language guided tour scheduled to start then and the next one after that started at 2, which would be too close to the departure time for my overnight cruise to Stockholm.
it turns out that, even though i walked in the doors of the Visitor Center at 11 exactly, the guide was on the ferry with me and she needed a few minutes to prepare.
and so we headed out.
Suomenlinna is a fascinating place to visit. it's one of the oldest buildings (or series of buildings) in Scandanavia... "huh?" you say. "i thought everything in europe was older than everything in the states." not so, i say. you see, in scandanavia most buildings were made out of wood, not stone, up until the 18th century. this, of course, means that they are no longer around because the wood has expired one way or another since those buildings were initially built. fire was extremely common - a huge fire in Turku helped precipitate the already in-process movement of the Finnish capital from Turku to Helsinki in the early 1800's. and, even though Porvoo suffered a very large fire that took with it the original town hall, many buildings there survived - see the update for day 16.
anyway, Suomenlinna was built by the Swedes - it's name in Swedish is Sveaborg, which means "Swedish fort" and so does the Finnish equivalent "Viapori"; "Suomenlinna" is Finnish and means "Finnish fort". it served primarily as a base for the Swedish navy (and later on for the Russian and Finnish navies, respectively). it has a spectacular (if shrunken) dry dock, where many war ships were built up until the first world war. during WWII, the dry dock served as a base for the Finnish submarine fleet - a whole 5, rather small, submarines.
the fortress is unique because, even though it is a bastion fortress, it is not shaped in the traditional star shape. this is due to the rocky quality of the islands it was built on and the shape and size of the islands.
suomenlinna was ceded to the Russians in 1808 (and Finland overall in 1809) with no conflict. the Russians initially attacked in the winter, an uncommon and unnatural tactic this far north. the Swedes stationed at the Fortress sent a liaison and they agreed to a proper naval battle at the beginning of May, if the other Swedish ships could make it. if they could not, the Swedes in control of the fort would have to cede it. due to an uncommonly cold winter, the rest of the Swedish navy was still frozen in the ice in Stockholm in early May and the fort, which had poor communication with the outside world anyway, was given over to the Russians. the commanding officer stayed in Helsinki after the war in order to avoid being tried for treason back in Stockholm.
during the Crimean war (between the Ottoman Empire and the Russians), the fortress was bombarded by the French and English navies (allies of the Ottomans) with little resistance from the Russians in the fort. most of the military action of this war was on the Black Sea between what is now Turkey and Russia, but since there was a Russian military presence and the Ottomans' allies were closer... anyway, because the Russians had not updated the artillery on the island and they still had the old Swedish cannons, which had a range of about 1.5 km, and the French and English navies' cannons had a range of about 2 km. so they shelled the fortress secure in the knowledge that they were not going to get hit.
since the British and French really didn't need or want to occupy the island, but rather wanted to demonstrate their respective navies' superiority, they left the scene of the crime without ever setting foot on the island. that was the last direct conflict the fort saw, being mostly passed over as a target for the allies in WWII...
the fort finally went to the Finns on their independence in 1917. again, it was used for the Finnish navy in WWII. it ceased opearation as a military institution in the 1970's, but the dry dock was used for ship building up until the 80's. it is still used today, but only to house boats during the hard, unsailable winter time.
there are currently about 900 people living on the islands, which is possible because there is more than just the fortress there.
i'm going linguistic on you for a second: on the tour i learned that Finnish does not have a "b" sound. which is odd, considering that they also have a "p" sound. those two sounds are cognates and the only difference between them is that one requires sound and the other is just lips and air. same goes for "k", which they don't have, and "g" (pronounced "guh"), which they do have. there are others, i just found it strange.
other things i learned, not necessarily relating to the fortress: Marshall Mannerheim, after whom many streets have been named, is a huge, albeit controversial, national hero. he's controversial because in the Finnish civil war he was on the German-influenced side (the white side) when they were fighting the red side (who were influenced by the Soviets), both sides had Finns. in other words, he led a battle of Finns against Finns. oh, and he didn't speak very good Finnish, apparently, which is kind of odd considering that we went on to be president for a short time...
there are about 3000 people in jail in all of Finland. but, according to my tour guide, that's partially due to the difficulty of actually being sentenced to jail - only violent crimes, really.
after the tour, i took a tour of the Augustin Ehrensvärd museum. he was the man responsible for the building of the fortifications of the fortress. the museum was small but informative and contained some interesting relics of the era.
i had some lunch at Piper Cafe on the island, while seated at a table on a rocky promontory that overlooks the Baltic Sea. after lunch, i walked around the island - it's still many islands, they're just connected by bridges, so in effect it's one big island now - and took many photos. somewhere towards the end of my walk, i got to tour a beached submarine, which is the only one of the Finnish fleet left since part of the Finn's agreement with the Allies at the end of WWII involved the dismantling of their navy and all 5 of their tiny submarines.
after the submarine, i headed back to the mainland.
back on mainland and having t-minus 2 hours until i had to be checked in for the overnight cruise, i hurried to the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma for a quick look at the exhibits. the Museum itself is a fantastic design with interesting level changes. the art was also incredibly fascinating but also a very mixed bag - some was worth seeing and some just looked like garbage. but then again, who am i to say what is art and what is not.
one thing about the museum which was not directly related to the art was that their audio tours were on mini iPods. i loved the idea but i'm wondering how many have disappeared...
i then caught a tram to a grocery store in the opposite direction of the cruise line terminal. i bought my dinner and my breakfast and got back on the tram. i checked in and went to my room of 4 beds. in the end, however, there were only two of us in the room, which was very pleasant.
on board the ship, i wandered around for awhile taking many photos and then i saw Mr. and Mrs. Smith on a very jerky screen - jerky due to the vibration of the ship. speaking of the vibration, the duty free shop was hilarious because when you walk in the entire room echoes with the sound of clanking bottles as every one on the shelf hits its neighbor in constant, vibratory motion. anyway, after the film, it was time for the sunset. it was cloudy however so the sunset wasn't great. i still took pictures though.
eventually, after messing around (including Terminator 3 pinball - "You'll be back") and seeing a very brief instance of the aurora borealis and talking to a crazy, old, bearded Estonian who has relatives in New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia, etc, etc and after witnessing a young slightly drunk guy propose to his very drunk girlfriend, i went to sleep.
Posted by iain at August 25, 2005 09:01 PM