Located ourselves on the outer edge of Europe for a few days last weekend – a week too early for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest we learnt to our dismay.

The city itself was fantastic – absolutely spotlessly clean with wide streets and crisp building lines giving a sharp edge to every perspective. Surrounded by water we explored quite a few bays and islands but spent most of our time wandering the streets, checking out new architecture (as we were architouring with our friend CJ) and hanging out in bars & cafés meeting the locals. Each little bay at the end of a street provided a new surprise – bits of working harbour jammed up against luxury residential development, or an eight storey high ferry moored right in the centre of town.

People seemed particularly friendly – in a bit of a ‘why the hell are you here’ sense and we made some great contacts for future visits. The bars and cafes (there isn’t much of a distinction they all serve multiple purposes it seems) were great – quite simple food, very clean understated interior design that made them feel comfortable without seeming fussy.

Architecturally the best stuff we found was at the end of random tram rides (trams are now a requirement for Chhay & my next city of residence, we have decided after this trip) rather than the flashy new buildings in the centre of town.

Aalto’s Finladia Hall (below) was still the highlight however, sitting delicately in it’s context, even if we weren’t allowed inside.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 16th, 2007 at 8:50 am and is filed under tim, travel log. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.