A few photos from Helsinki

Once again, I'm in a place that likes to use people as decorations!

(Hence, of course, the reason that Helsinki was used as a stand in for St. Petersburg.)

So, yes, I met the (male) prime minister, not the (female) president, who apparently does indeed look rather like Conan O'Brien.

Today I skipped out of the conference a little bit early in order to go to the library downtown, which has a fantastic Russian collection (excuse me, Slavonic collection) because Finland was part of the Russian Empire for most of the nineteenth century.  Hence, actually this conference, which is basically inspired by the Finnish war of 1808-1809, which led to Finland, which had just been part of Sweden, really, being reconstituted as a Grand Duchy within the Russian Empire.  And though I had not thought in these terms, apparently this is the start of nation building in Finland and, perhaps, in Sweden as well, which as of this ends up being a separate individual thing, too.

Now, no, this isn't the library, it's the cathedral in the center of town.  But the library is right next to it, and it's fantastic.  So I went, I spent a couple hours finding a few things, made photocopies thanks to the copy card given me by a departing fellow conference goer (who had skipped out on yesterday morning's session to go to the library), and then walked around a lot, and did a bit of shopping (I swear that since the last time I was here there's been a HUGE increase in the amount of yarn for sale, and yes, I bought some, but didn't get back here in time to photograph it in decent light).

Now, the conference itself has been held at a place called Hanasaari, which is a little island outside Helsinki, reachable by highway (and public transportation).  It's here on google maps.  And this is what you see outside the windows, or walking on the little path around the island.  Totally a lovely spot... I had a gorgeous view of the sunrise this morning, actually, and if the weather holds, I'll hope for one more before I take off for the airport and... Portugal!

(Also, there are two swans in this picture.  Hee!)

Comments

[desiknitter]

Ah, what memories. Good to have you travelling and posting pictures of landscapes and buildings again! We have to do a lot of that next week.... see you soon! Am emailing you my contact info, I leave tomorrow.
Oh, and the Conan O'Brien point is spot on!
How cool that you spoke with the PM.