A WEEK HAS PASSED

A week already – it doesn’t seem possible that we have been here for more than a week.  Some of the streets are becoming familiar, we have acquired a bus system map, plus a book of schedules and have begun to venture out of city center using our bus passes. All the best shopping centers are too far to walk, though we have been doing plenty of that, too. And then there are so many beautiful nature spots not far away.

We went out to the island of Ruissalo one day – a beautiful place just a twenty minutes from the city – we took the ferry there – a slow ride down the river and the bus back.  We walked and walked in search of the botanical gardens – which we eventually found.  Really interesting to note that many of the same plants grow here as in Colorado – even though we are at sea level we are so much farther North.  There were even columbines!  Our guide/tutor Henna works at the Spa hotel on the island and has let us know she can let us in. – that would be fun.  It would be a wonderful place to bike to – maybe an hour’s ride away from our house and it looks like the perfect place for cross country skiing in the winter.  We went to the end of the island and found the “beach.”  Pretty rock, warm water, lots of litter, unfortunately mostly cigarette butts.  We watched a guy windsurfing for a while – it looks like so much fun.

We have been checking out shopping centers, malls and other various stores and shops in search of an affordable bike. The idea that we could acquire inexpensive used ones has evaporated after miles and miles of walking from one shop to another.  Out of solidarity with commerce in Colorado, yesterday we went to the IKEA store in the suburb of Raisio – quite the experience (one of which was finding out our bus passes only worked outbound).  And then we explored all the other big box stores nearby – at one of which we may have found reasonably priced new bikes.  (But we spent much of today continuing to look for a used one.)

In nearly every store we have found people to be helpful with usually more than passable English.  It is still almost impossible to make sense of anything that people say or anything in writing in Finnish.  I am constantly thumbing through my dictionary and then promptly forgetting what I just looked up.   By the end of each day we are both mentally and physically exhausted – which helps with falling asleep when it is still light out – although we can already perceive that the days are getting shorter. 

The only people who have been gruff with us are bus drivers – we make a lot of mistakes not knowing proper bus etiquette yet.  For example – you have to wave down the bus to stop – it won’t do so just because you are standing there, as there are multiple routes that use the same stop.  And you have to press the button for a stop. Not surprising.  What we didn’t realize  (which caused the wrath of one driver) is that even if they are stopping to let someone on – they will only open the back doors if you push the stop button.  A little thing but it sure seemed to piss him off when we stood by the door waiting to be let off.

What is the style of Turku? Glad you asked.  Eclectic, unselfconscious, unpretentious.  It seems that just about anything goes – clothes serve to cover your body – sometimes provocatively, not often matching in either color, pattern or texture for young and old. Skirt length goes from touching the ground to not covering up much.  Men wear capris. And black seems to be the favorite color of both genders.  Tattoos abound – on women they are mostly on shoulders and upper arms, men are mostly sporting skulls embedded within larger designs. The full cuff, and calf style doesn’t seem to be as popular here as at home.

Today we also walked around the university neighborhood where we will move in October.  Close by are many yummy looking restaurants (Indian, Italian, Chinese, Thai) coffee shops, a great knitting store, etc.  It’s a fairly steep hill to our apartment – which looks potentially treacherous when the ice comes.  It will be much quieter than where we are now – we are thinking there may be a hospital nearby here, since there are sirens often and then there are the 2 stroke motorcycles at all hours of the day and night. 

Every day, there are more people around and more stores open in the center – people obviously returning from holiday and soon college students will begin arriving for summer school which begins next week – one of the reasons that used bikes are so hard to find.

The sky says it is still day time, but the clock (and my body) say it’s time for bed.   More soon Hyvaa yota.