Asuntomessut 2015, Vantaa

To explore the culture, one needs to explore the housing style, my dad, who is an engineer by profession, says.

The idea of the housing fair is that every year certain Finnish city welcomes it, letting thousands of interested people - professional engineers and all others - to explore the exterior and interior of the newly built housing area. This year it is held in Kivistö, Vantaa. Apartments blocks are peacefully neigbouring with luxurious villas. What unites them all is a simplistic Nordic design - nothing seems to look as falling out of place, minimalistic elements of design are in harmony with each other.

 

Biowaste container wants to sleep.

Colourful area for parking and washing bikes.

Some flats are designed with special taste - urban, modern and retro. Where else could you find the exhibition of Finnish washing powder from the sixties?

On the way to Helsinki

Somewhere on the way from Savonlinna from Helsinki.

Photostory of Finnish bridges (Heinola and further). 

Petrozavodsk Street Art

This nice street art object is situated near my home. Even though often objects of art get ruined after certain time by delinquents, this place is protected somehow and gets new objects (the train with giant toys appeared last week).

The text reads: "I wish that all". What all? Have no idea!

Mammoths are alive!

A biker holding a plate informing that "the gun is not working".

An author`s intepretation of Baba Yaga, an evil woman from Russian fairytales. In this variation she gets a fashionable car:)

A weird pair.

Keep calm and dance!

If someone asked me what dancing is when I was 12, I would say - performing! At that age I waited for every chance to go on the stage of the Republican Musical Theatre for rehearsal or performance, in the image of the butterfly/beattle/elf/whatever.

Then I was absolutely sure that dancing is about movements - learning them and repeating them, in a certain sequence which should better correspond to the musical rhythm.

If someone asked me know (okay, I will ask myself if no one wants to!) I would say that dancing is about feeling, inspiring, sharing warmth, emotions with audience and your fellow dancers, showing your inner world through your own interpretation of what you have learned. 

Seeing off our dear friends and fellow dancers from Jordan, I felt so sad but so happy at the same time. What a great example and inspiration I get from my friends, who travel thousands of kilometres to the foreign country to study the most difficult subject  - medicine - in one of the most difficult languages - Russian with just 10 months of basic preparation (progressing from the Russian alphabet to learning biology and chemistry in Russian). And in all those difficult periods of life sharing their energy, positive attitude to life, kindness with us. 

Petrol station as a place for sightseeing

I noticed one particularly nice thing in Finland - when you pass relatively big petrol stations in small muncipalities in Finland, you notice that they become not only the centre of life (eating out, shopping, etc) but sightseeings as well. As I remember ABC petrol station in Juva have nice decorations in form of pigs, when you enter Mikkeli you see the dinosaur (if I remember correctly, its eyes glow red in the dark!) and in some place on the way to Lahti an old aircraft serves as a decoration.

And yes, it is Russian.

Yes, of course, originally it did not copy the color scheme of ABC: you can see how it looked before. Antonov An-2 prototype was made in the USSR in 1947. In nineties it was still used in different countries, including China.

So, a nice way it is - learning history through making stops at the petrol stations across the country!

Savonlinna

Flowers in colours of the Finnish flag on the way to Olavinlinna.

Founded in 1475, Olavinlinna (St Olaf`s castle) witnessed much. 

No, I am not going to take part in the photo contest, I am just taking photo!

Enjoying summer weather before returning to Petroskoi with summer mood guaranteed by +13 degrees celsius.

Helsinki: first walk

Yes, sure, I have been to Helsinki before - visiting debating championships, Model United Nations and university seminars, heading for the rock concerts or for the ferry to Stockholm. But in the warm weekend evening of July I took my first walk and car ride to the city centre from the place where I am going to live during my studies.

I can put a "Oh, take care of the photos of the well-known places of Helsinki" warning, but I still believe that each traveller or resident of a certain place should try to communicate his or her own view, feeling of the place through stories and photos, regardless of the fact that these places may be well-known to us from our own experience or tourist booklets

Construction zones next to cafeterias, creating such a nice, unique atmosphere.

Cars, beautiful cars.

Finnish Horror Stories, or Patsaspuisto (Parikkala)

On the way to get settled in Helsinki, we made a stop in Parikkala - a small village, pretty close to the Russian border, famous for its sculpture park which leaves pretty weird feeling of amazement and fear (I still do not know whether I was lucky to visit it in the daylight or not - taking a short walk there at night would be a memorable experience!).

From the website:

Veijo Rönkkönen, who worked at the paper mill, started sculpting concrete statues in the early 1960s. For fifty years, until his death, he dedicated all his spare time to making his original art. There are some 500 different and skilfully executed statues, mostly human figures, as well as an amazing garden on the site.

URL: http://www.patsaspuisto.net/english.htm

Are you ready for scary yoga?

The teeth look so realistic!

 The anatomy of sculptures

 P.S. Owls which are traditionally considered to be mysterious birds, are very normal and pretty in this park!