How Finnish language sounds
Tuesday December 6th, 2011. 03:00 PM.[Finland culture, helsinki].
Audio in this page.
Text in this page.
It’s a mini-novel of Juhani Aho, from 1889, called Helsinkiin.
Juhani was one of the first professional writers in Finland. A statue of Juhani Aho en Eira, Helsinki:
Christmas coming …
Sunday November 20th, 2011. 11:44 AM.[Funny, Music, Photos, Spain, Winter, helsinki].
Having a walk today on Sunday in Helsinki we found a small celebration: Helsinki’s centre was lit up with the annual Christmas Street opening. In this article of YLE says that this year Helsinki’s Christmas Street Aleksanterinkatu is illuminated with LED lights for the first time.
Can you see the red-dressed chorus?
It was quite original that one of the songs was a rap with beat-boxing. Poor guys were freezing and my hands too, sorry for the shaky image.
Finnish people are used to this, but foreigners could not know that in winter, when temperature starts to go below 0, means that it’s time of long underwear (kerrasto).
Coming back to home, sunset already at 5 PM.
I will spend this Xmas in Finland, so probably I will post more pictures, hopefully white Christmas again like last year.
No CommentsAndalusian people around the world: Helsinki
Friday October 28th, 2011. 09:41 AM.[Spain, Videos, helsinki].
Os invito a sumergiros en Helsinki, en la vida del día a día en la capital de Finlandia de mano de 4 andaluces muy apañaos.
Es con diferencia uno de los mejores reportajes de Finlandia en español que he visto. Enseña todas esas cosas que los expatriados que vivimos aquí siempre contamos a nuestros amigos y familia. Y sin caer en los tópicos finlandeses: Santa Claus, la nieve, el frío, renos, etc
http://www.canalsuralacarta.es/television/video/helsinki–finlandia/8948/12
2 CommentsNorrménin talo Vs Enso-Gutzeit
Sunday June 12th, 2011. 12:55 PM.[Finland culture, helsinki].
Before
The Norrménin house, also known as the Norrmén castle and palace, was a red brick residential house representing the neo-renaissance architecture, situated for 63 years in Katajanokka, Helsinki, Finland, opposite the Uspenski Cathedral. It was designed by architect Theodor Höijer for the chairman of the Helsinki city council, Alfred Norrmén, who ordered the building plans from Höijer in 1896.
(From Wikipedia)
Now
Designed by Alvar Aalto, was built in the place of Norrménin talo. It was completed in 1962.
The dismantling of the house has been criticised ever since the year of its dismantling, and many view Aalto’s new building in its place as completely unfit for the façade of Katajanokka, and the dismantling of the Norrmén house as one of the greatest wrongdoings in the history of Helsinki. Some have even proposed that Aalto’s building should be dismantled and a replica of the Norrmén house should be built in its place.
2 CommentsFinnish lions, Ice hockey world champions
Monday May 16th, 2011. 10:10 PM.[Ice Hockey, People, helsinki].
At first, I didn’t pay much attention to the Ice hockey matches during last week, but then started to get pretty exciting. The semi-finals (against Russia) and yesterday final game against the classic neighbor & enemy Sweden was really vibrant. From a 0-1 to a unbelievable 6-1.
This is a goal from Mikael Granlund, against Russia, that will pass to the history of Ice Hockey.
Ice hockey championship was celebrated in Slovakia so today was a special celebration to receive to the Finnish lions.
I’ve never seen so crowded the South Harbour of Helsinki and KauppaTori marketplace.
Here a little video clip of the crowd I recorded, with the noise of 3 Helicopters that were flying over our heads.
Update: A 360º view from those helicopters:
South Harbour Helsinki - Eteläsatama
Friday October 22nd, 2010. 12:29 PM.[Photos, Winter, helsinki].
Really nice panoramic view of Sourt Harbour Helsinki.
Credit: Found in Naturagate (number 2). See there more great panoramic views and photos of Finnish nature. (via www.elblogdefinlandia.com)
Photo is from February, Here is a webcam view of this moment. (Refresh the page to see again or see in real time in portofhelsinki.fi)
Markorepairs, viral from Finland
Saturday October 16th, 2010. 10:17 AM.[Finland culture, Funny].
Marko is a finnish guy who uploads videos to his Youtube channel Markorepairs. Most of them are in Finnish, but last week has upload two videos in English that are spreading on Internet really fast. His poor English skills, haircut and funny laugh is becoming a meme, and being commented in youtube, reddit, facebook, and twitter.
Watch these 2 videos from Markorepairs at least:
Marko showing his VHS player collection.
Marko making coffee. See 5:07. “My coffee machine is FULL power” XD
If you have some extra info about Marko, leave a comment please.
I hope not, but I believe that these videos could be part of some campaign because I noticed during these years I have been in Finland that many Finnish advertisement campaigns make fun of themselves. This says a lot about Finnish people and their modesty.
For example, we have seen it in Lidl’s Finnish Campaign, Markku promoting Finland during Eurovision, and lastly Pekka and Mauri promoting Finland in Shanghai’s Expo 2010.
Here a couple of examples:
Also, this other Finnish viral from the past it’s a disco dancing video from Åke Blomqvist (a famous Finnish dance teacher), that sure you have seen. I have seen him in the trams of Helsinki a couple of times (Here a prove), since his dancing school is quite close where I’m leaving.
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Summer in the city
Monday July 5th, 2010. 11:37 AM.[Photos, Summer, helsinki].
Let’s rescue a hit from Summer’66, while we watch some pictures:
The Lovin’ Spoonful - Summer in the city
Juhannus weekend was very nice in a cottage with our friends Stefan and Catta and the playful Faro. Thanks for invitate us! Who wouldn’t like to spent a weekend with friends in a place like this?
Let’s say clearly. Finland in summer is
(Taken from a shop-window in Helsinki)
Other photos from Helsinki:
Yeah! Beaches, boats, barbacues, warm weather, even a Samba/Carnaval day.
So this post goes for people who doesn’t know Finland:
Finland is not only snow, reindeers, sauna and Santa Claus.
This other side of Finland is worthy to be discovered.
Related: Last year I was in Tampere in the summer and I talked about the looong summer days with very few hours of night. Good memories & friends from that time 
And now, excuse me, but probably I will publish very few posts until summer ends.
Buen verano!
6 CommentsAurora Australis From Space
Thursday June 24th, 2010. 08:38 AM.[Photos, Spain].
Photograph courtesy Johnson Space Center/NASA
Beautiful southern Polar light (or Aurora Australis). Here in Helsinki is ¿impossible? to see Norther Lights, you will have more chances to see them the norther you go and better in February/March.
In winter of 2007 I was in a trip to Lapland… close to Rovaniemi and we were lucky to see in action these magic lights. They move more slowly that I thought, and also if you want to take a picture of them you will need a camera where you can set a long exposure time (or some cameras with fireworks-mode can do the trick).
Related: Northern lights time-lapse videos.
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