the daylight which was sneaking in through the slats of the venetian blind, was
the cause. Any how I sort of slept on and off after that. Actually 5:15am will
be my wake up time tomorrow because I need to leave the hostel just before 6am
to walk to the station for the 7am train. Miss this and my next two connections
will be 'stuffed up'.
Breakfast dragged on and on because I got talking to a couple middle age women
and I am safe in saying that because one said she was 45. They have come for
the university entrance exams and interviews because they want to do a mid life
career change or sorts. The one who had the best English (and was 45) told me
that she was a kindergarten teacher but wanted to re-train in special needs
pre-school education. She felt that it was time to make a change but still
wanted to stay within the basic area.
She was divorced, had a 16 year daughter who had gone off the rails a bit but
was trying to sort herself out and was going to redo her school year again to
get a better report. She wants to be a writer. Anyway the mother has an
apartment in a building, her 83 year mother lives directly below on the lower
floor and the ex husband is in the adjoining building. So the daughter could be
cared for while her mother was doing her two months in university work. The rest
they do as distance education. So there is a little bit of Finnish social life.
I went out walking into the town centre, but first planned to call into the
Orthodox Information Centre which was near by and on a route into 'town'. Here
I looked at an exhibition of Orthodox icon reproductions, some of which I did
find interesting, often it was the little extra details in a corner of the
picture which made the interest. Then a viewing of a water colour exhibition.
Here an artist has done a painting of every Orthodox church building and Prayer
House in Finland. I can assure you that there are a lot of them too. But all
different.
Then upstairs to the Elias Cafe for a cheap lunch. It was very busy and it was
this popularity which convinced me to have some salad and a half sausage and a
potato for lunch.
The next point of call was a department store to see if they had the video I
wanted. Then to the post office to post DVD's and CD's home. I had a very
helpful English speaking assistant who made the process of posting very
straight forward. The large envelope should be home in 5-7 working days, which
seems pretty speedy to me. In my enthusiasm I sent off a text to Debbie and to
Hannah to ask them to watch out for it as the parcel will have to be signed
for. Only after I had sent the text did I work out what the NZ time would be.
But Debbie replied and did not tell me off for waking her up at 3 am. That was
kind of her.
Next I headed through the Market Square and that meant through the small market
as well, to visit the museum. I do not as a rule, visit all that many museums,
but in this city there was not much else to look at.
Anyway, the cost for seniors was only 2.5 euro so it was not too expensive. I
was glad I went. The first exhibit was one of a puppet theater's puppets. No
performance, although there was some on a video, but it was really just the
puppets. The range which had been constructed for various productions, was
impressive. Some looked quite large and made from solid wood. I assumed that
they would have been very heavy to work. Some were marionettes, while others
had various levers to work them. Rods attached to arms and legs for instance.
From the video example, it was clear that they made no attempt to actually hide
the puppets handler (for want of a better term – oh that would be 'puppeteer'
wouldn't it?).
The were all very colorfully costumed. At the stat of the display there were
some puppets made form all manner of simple household items, such as wooden
spoons, kitchen hand wisks and wooden serving forks.
In the next room was Children's Street. Here was a street made up of all sorts
of child sized houses and buildings, which they could go into and play. Some
had interesting puppet styled figures in upper windows. At one end a group of
women were sitting at a table making stuff for children to play with. At the
other end were dressing up clothes and a boat with fishing rods and next to it
was a 'tank' full of paper fish.
Upstairs there was a a very good and not too heavy, exhibition on the early
history of the area from Ice Age onwards. There were artifacts such as flint
arrow heads stone axes and early pottery fragments. It too was interesting.
Other displays on this floor dealt with battles around the local area, the
religions, local customs, traditional women's clothing, and a photo display of
people and life in the city around 40 years ago.
All in all it was a small but very well planned and presented museum. It did
what it set out to do.
I wandered down to the river to take some photographs of the loch and the rapids
which the loch enables shipping to by pass. It is quite a forceful river and I
now know, thanks to the museum, that it links two lakes together.
As it was now after 5pm it was time to make my slow way back to the hostel and
too make dinner. Well, to be honest, the kind helpers at the food factory had
done the work and I just had to warm up the meat and vegetable mixture. No idea
what it was called but it tasted fine.
On the way back to the hostel, I took a short cut through the forest along a
cycle and walking path. I had spotted it this morning and decided it would be
good way back. It was here that I squashed the first mosquito of my trip so
far. I would add that it was also the largest mosquito which I have ever seen.
It would have been over one centimetre, perhaps even two. It stood high on its
legs. Although I ended this one's life, others came along to check me out. Some
were equally large and some I did not manage to squash. They could be lying in
wait for me on my way to the station tomorrow.
Any way, how do mosquito survive the snow and cold of the winter months. Oh, and
I have been told to expect battalions of them in Norther Finland.
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