Goodbye, Turku -> Hello, Helsinki!

Great being in Turku, but I hope they are not offended. A journalist of the second biggest Finnish daily, Turun Sanomat asked me what I think about Turku being the Cultural Capital of Europe in 2011, or is it in 2012, and I gave a brilliant (and probably too long an) answer. So, in yesterday's newspaper I was saying "Turku should become a nationally acknowledged city".

As if there were hundreds of thousands of Finns who have never heard of Turku. (But I had not, until I was about 25.)

The Turkuise entrepreneurs have some brilliant ideas. For example, they have nicely decorated and renewed cafes, bars and restaurants in old, restored buildings, and these are named after thay original usage. Like SCHOOL, which used to be a school; BANK, that has been a bank; TOILET or loo (Puutorin Vessa, see pic); WELL (= kaivo); FARMACY and even KINDERGARDEN, where people sit on tiny little chairs. And TRAM, which is now an ice cream stand at the market square (see pic).

We in Helsinki have had only a bar called "BAR" – which was not a bar before.

The BookTori happening was nice, see picture. And see a pic of a man riding a waterbike on the river Aura. How strange.

About the fashion life I have to mention the fact that I have never ever seen so many Marimekko products everywhere around me, all the time. My dear friend E. S. and I had a contest: Marimekko jacket 3 points, shirt 2 pts, bag 1 pt. On Sat we actually were competing aggressively and counting points, but on Sunday there were couples the both of which wore Marimekko shirts and bags and even scarfs etc, so we got overloaded. They love that label, I have to say.

Now back to business, and I have to start planning my next trip to Estonia.

All best,
IStori