Aye, aye Vice-Captain

C: Hey! Watch out!

Boom!

VC: Aah. That hurt. What was that?

I will never forget the name after that. Hard to tell if that was meant to be onomatopoeic but that was a tough way to learn the name. Sailing is not for amateur photographers like me. But you can always steer the boat for a few miles in the open sea without crashing into many things.

Subtleties Involved

There are certain subtleties involved like you always have to take the boat on the right of the green sticks (so that you don’t go to shallow waters). Then you have to keep saving your location on the GPS and check the map once in a while. Other than that, if you know the ropes right, you are all set to sail! According to the captain (C), one week should be enough to learn how to navigate the seas independently.

Bastards & Fishy Business

One could see the sea gulls following the ships in search of fish that had been thrown onto the surface of the water because of the movement. Then, there was a really beautiful view of the famous fort of Suomenlinna from the sea. And not to forget the racing yatches, barges, ships and boats in the sea that come in all shapes and sizes (and colours).

One particular yatch kept following us around for no reason at all! At times, World War II era propeller bombing aircrafts could be seen droning away in the sky. On the whole, apart from the cool breeze, it was really calm.

I was about to relax but hey! what is that?! A pirate ship! Heading straight at us. Ok. Brace yourselves.

Danger Staved off.

The important thing to keep in mind is to keep having some Karelian Pasties. This not only ensures that you are never hungry but also lets you look you super calm and scares away the pirates.

Talking about amateur photography, how about a small collage of photos taken while sailing and sailoring?

Now I know why Finnish people spend long vacations (going to different countries even! The Greek islands are pretty much preferred) in the sea on solar powered sailing boats equipped with refrigerator, kitchen, bedrooms and complicated toilets. An amazingly eco-friendly way to have an awesome vacation!

Moi Moi.

PS1: If you are wondering who the bastard is, click here. I didn’t do the christening!

PS2: For a possible origin of the name above, see this.

PS3: Some fun facts about sailing:

1. No sailing license required for privately owned non-motorized boats!
2. You always wave your hand to someone passing by. Really nice sea-culture.

Regular readers must be tired of the long postscripts. But that wasn’t the end of the post. The post ends now.

Hei Hei.

PS: Could I call this a nested post script?

Jugendstil Buildings of Helsinki

Helsinki is one of those few towns in Europe which does not dwell on castles and churches to paint its cityscape. The Jugendstil architecture of Helsinki is defined by a spacious and minimalistic look that is a vestige of the idea of futuristic buildings in the early 19th century. 

The stock exchange that you see to the left is one of the numerous buildings that were constructed at the height of the romantic movement in Finland. Although no longer used for active trading, it is one of those places that is a subset of must-see-Art Nouveau in Helsinki.

First up, on our itinerary though was the Pohjola building. Originally meant to be the offices of the Pohjola Fire insurance company but now turned into a run of the mill office building, one could clearly see the influence of Kalevala on the buildings: the beautiful spiral staircases ending in a skylight shaped like an egg (which apparently gave rise to the universe). And then you have references to the birds that laid the egg:         

It seems, many of these buildings were designed by young people who won architecture competitions. Most of them cared the least about reigning architectural styles. In fact, reeling under the repressive rule of the Russians, the Finns were looking for something that was unique to them and these young architects provided them with  just that! Then there was the Uschakoffin house now turned into a café. The original stained glass was no longer to be found. However, one could still find the owls that are quintessential of Nordic Art Nouveau.

And finally, the trip concluded with a visit to the Helsinki central railway station. Masterpiece of Eliel Saarinen, it stands testimony to the spirit of Jugendstil in Helsinki.

 

Suomi Diaries: A trip to Nuuksio

One of the really cool things about the supermarket in Otaniemi is that it opens at 7 in the morning and closes at 11 in the night.

For comparison, the Tech market in Kharagpur would open for 6 hours in a day and remain closed on all (inter)-national/state holidays and Mondays.

The other really cool thing about the Aalto campus is the cafeteria system for lunch – the staff have the same food as the students. Only thing - it is subsidised for the students. Browse through their menus and go to any cafeteria you wish.

Today was one of those rare days when both the cafeteria as well as the supermarket was closed! And you couldn’t turn to the latest Otaniemi Sensation because it wasn’t a Sunday. A trip to Nuuksio National Park was inevitable (unless I wanted to sit in my room twiddling my thumbs). Not really sure of what to expect, I jumped the bandwagon. It wasn’t very difficult reaching the place thanks to amazingly detailed descriptions of routes on the Journey Planner.

And then you could find amazingly detailed terrain maps in the Tourist Information Centres to navigate the area with information about location of camp sites, lakes and even about details such as the kind of trees (conifer/non-conifer) to be found at a particular place.

After a bit of a dilemma*, some crazy ringing sounds in the woods (read lost mobile phones), we finally found a spot that overlooked a lake.

Someone commented that the small piece of land in the lake looked like the famous painting of Michelangelo: The Creation of Adam. Come to think of it, even the colours seem to somewhat match!

One could find people going fishing, hiking, biking, swimming and picking blueberries. (It was too cold for swimming and it is a while for the blueberry season).

We picked up some interesting lines of conversation which I will not describe in detail here. Compressing a 4D event into 2D photographs does cause some amount of data loss. Maybe some of them could be the subject of a blog post!

Hei Hei!!

* We couldn’t really resolve*** our starting points and destinations owing to low signal quality on the mobile phone and an interesting fact** I learnt about how the sun moves near the poles.

**East to West via North/South depending on the season (summer/winter). The peak elevation remains about 60 degrees and not 90 degrees like near the equator. To compound matters, it was around noon: but the sun wasn’t exactly on top of our heads because the noon doesn’t always divide the day into exactly two halves. It depends on the rising and setting time of the sun!

*** See photo above.