helsinki / helsingfors

we're back from a lovely 2-day trip to helsinki, finland.  it was interesting--much more russian/baltic than we expected; very different from sweden, which surprised us.  we thought the combination of geography and genetics would make them more similar, and they do but not from sweden--they come from the east.  in any event, it was a good trip.

we've discovered the joys of norwegian airlines, which can best be described as the southwest airlines of europe--they're super cheap, simple, and their planes are brand-spanking new.  perfect.  i'm working on some other weekend trips through them.  anyway, it couldn't have been easier:  we left the apartment at 6:15 in the morning, took a subway to t-centralen, took the årlanda express train to the airport, checked in using a kiosk, and got on the plane.  50 minutes later we were on the ground at helsinki; 40 minutes after that we were in front of the central train station and a 5 minute walk from our hotel.  public transit kicks major ass in europe--i have no idea why we resist it in the US.

so, by 10:30 in the morning we were ready to start our helsinki/helsingfors (the swedish word for helsinki) adventures...

all the street signs are in finnish first and swedish second...which made all of us realize that we really need to take our swedish studies more seriously

first stop was the botanical garden, which was right next to our hotel--sophie and i loved it;  rich and gus got frustrated by all that nature crap about five minutes into it and left

and while i was shooting things like this...

...sophie was in the background stomping through the fermenting apples

"wait...you DON'T feed the birds here?  i hate finland."

this is the deli counter that sophie and i picked for our lunch at the helsinki saluhall--i defy you to identify anything on that menu (lasagne doesn't count...and we couldn't identify it in the case)

sophie just pointed at the meatballs and potatoes without prompting--she's learning how to function without ever speaking a word to anyone

the whole time we were eating lunch, this was going on behind us--there was a line to use this machine, while an apparently unlucky one next to it went unused

and even though our lunch kiosk looked reasonable and clean (and it was perfectly good), it was harder than you might imagine to find something to pick up and eat right away...

...or things that were cooked--finns (and swedes) are far less squeamish about eating raw fish...even if it's not sushi-grade...than we are

funny little squirrel bunnies on a building

gossiping trolls

we tried to go to the big lutheran cathedral (helsingin tuomiokirkko), but there was a wedding inside...

...and a classy stretch hummer waiting out front!   this is the culture we are exporting to the world...nice.

i don't know what sophie was thinking about here, but it was certainly devious

not what i usually think of when i hear "amarillo," and i checked--it is for the city, not the color.   there was a place called "santa fe" selling food called tex-mexia across the street and "memphis" selling clothes down a little further.  it's little america!

so...this is a site that i really wanted to take more pictures at, but it closed about five minutes after we got there--this is the rock church (temppeliaukion kirkko).  it is literally a church built into the dynamited crater of a rock in the middle of a nice residential square in the eastern töölö neighborhood.  unfortunately, in addition to the abbreviated visit, a severely mentally ill man clutching a box of domino sugar with both hands out in front of him (where the hell did he get that from?) took a very unhealthy interest in gus and sophie...and we had to basically flee the area.  it made for a bit of tension to say the least, but rich and i swooped in and got everyone out of there safely.  it was kind of a drag.  everyone's fine.

two freaked out kiddos posing with an equally freaky looking thing

beautiful sunset at the end of a very interesting day in helsinki

next morning:  off to the cone of silence!  actually, it's the kamppi chapel of silence (kamppin kappeli), located in the middle of probably the busiest commercial area in helsinki

you have no idea how happy it makes me to see my children taking pictures of anything

interior (roof), chapel of silence

altar, chapel of silence

weird, cool, giant felt stones, inside the chapel of silence

no matter where we go, sophie always finds a 4-legged friend

uspenski orthodox church (uspensken katedraali)--gus and sophie decided those rocks below it needed to be climbed

now that's an iconostasis!

interior, uspenski cathedral

interior, uspenski cathedral

interior, uspenski cathedral

interior, uspenski cathedral

very old icon--from the i think the 16th century--and i liked this one, especially the kiss marks on the glass (most of the icons had them)

i didn't get to see this one as it was stolen a few years ago--this is/was saint nicolas the miracle worker. unfortunately, this cathedral has a rather bad history of getting its objects stolen.

one last shot of the beautiful rooftops of helsinki...then it was off to the airport. goodbye helsingfors!

last one about ducks, i swear

today, at rålambshovenparken.  i wasn't worried until she tried to shove it in the bread bag...

some really cute kids and random stockholm street scenes

 astrid's adorable class at the international school

i spend most of my days walking, walking, walking around stockholm while the kids are in school--i don't always have my camera, but i do always have my phone.  these are iphone pictures of random things i've come across on my walks that seem interesting (to me, at least).  enjoy!

adventures in learning swedish

after almost a month of trying i can say with utter conviction that swedish is one difficult tongue to learn.  there are phonetic pronunciations that an english-speaker just cannot form--my personal bane is "sju" which should sound like "hoo," with a slight edge to the H by rounding the tongue into the back molars.  there are three additional vowels to sound out (å, ä and ö) that have no english equivalent, and these three extra letters are tacked onto the end of the alphabet, as in after z, so it makes finding things listed in alphabetical order extra challenging.

even though we share 26 other characters, the letters we recognize and their predominate sounds do not necessarily translate into swedish.  for example: i was told to send an email to a woman named sigrid o'berry--and as the person was spelling out her last name i got totally confused.  she kept saying "o'berry" and i'm expecting something like "o-b-e-r-r-y," but her last name is actually spelled Åberg.  i would look at that as an english-speaker and think "ah-berg," but alas this is sweden and it is o'berry.  sophie's name is actually pronounced, "ah-strrrrrid;" gus is "yous."  rich is "rickard," as -ch and -th seem to be problematic for swedes to say.  i'm not sure i've heard anyone say my name yet.

a few common words that are the same:  taxi, under, sport, salt, blind, vision, storm
a few more that are close to the same:  mjilk, stopp, buss, upp, peppar, fotboll, foto, cykle, applen
a few more that are way, way off:  sin = its, slut = stop/end, fart = speed, sex = six, böner = prayers, skänk = bring/gift

if i were working towards citizenship, then the swedish government would provide me with "swedish for immigrants" language courses, but i am merely a temporary resident so this is all on me.  for me, watching TV helps tremendously...especially the simpsons...but gus and sophie have actual swedish classes at school so fortunately they're not dependent on my crappy attempts to assimilate.

i am going to figure out this language eventually!

"hello daddy, hello mom...

...i'm your ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-cherry bomb!  hello world i'm your wild girl i'm your ch-ch-ch-ch..."

we are in so much trouble with this one.

for lucia...

...and marge, and mom, and everyone who is following sophie's epic quest to capture a duck: SHE FINALLY GOT ONE!

obama in sweden

the president is here! we've known he was coming for a while, mainly because stockholmare have been warned not to travel anywhere within the city today or tomorrow--taking the day off of work was mentioned many times in the media. the traffic outside my window is crazy and not moving; there are at least three helicopters hovering just above my apartment as i type this. still, i came home after drop-off and watched him land at Årlanda airport (on TV) and then shake hands with some nice swedes on the runway.

the television guys were hilarious to listen to--i still can't understand a lot of swedish, but much of what they were saying was interspersed with, "obama's in da house!" and then explaining blah blah blah "south side of chicago" blah blah blah "in da house" blah "in sverige hus" blah blah blah "44th president, or POTUS"...it was great. then, the newscasters showed a table they had set up with a line of toy black cars--one of which had little american flags taped to it--and a toy plane that they held in their hands and swooped around as a model air force one. i loved it. yes, this was a serious news channel.

anyway, the downside to the visit is that almost all of the center of stockholm is closed. t-centralen, the main station for the subways, buses and trains, is closed for some lines and all buses; all of gamla stan is completely off limits to cars and bicycles in some parts. kungstradgården station is closed as it is right next to the grand hotel where obama is staying. yesterday the police were beginning to close off all pedestrian access, bike lanes and definitely car lanes anywhere near it. it's quite an undertaking...and people on the few open subway lines were pissed, crowded and tense this morning. i'm currently trying to figure out an alternative to the underground to getting the kids home from school.

considering all that is happening with syria and the question of military action obama has presented to congress, i'm a bit worried about traveling in the subways while he is here. there are just too many people in a very small space right now. then yesterday sweden announced that all syrian refugees would be offered permanent residency here, which can't help but seem like a bit of a premonition of what is to come from us. it also seems like a terrible idea, but that's another blog post. i still can't get a personnummer...but i'm not willing to become syrian to get one.

welcome to stockholm, obama!


did anyone remember to set up the hot wheels ramp?

pretty skies of stockholm

when we first got here, the sun began to set at almost 10:00 pm and was up again by 4:00 am.  now, 18 days later, it starts to set at 8:00 and starts coming up around 4:30...the days are getting shorter, for sure, but the sky outside my bedroom balcony is lovely tonight. unfortunately, i had to put on my coat to see it.  göd natt!