For our day trip with Maja, Tampere was the chosen location. This city is known as the Manchester of Finland for it's industrial (mostly textile) history. It is twice the size of Jyvaskyla and has many interesting museums (Shoe Museum, Art Museum, Doll Museum and many more!). Another thing that Tampere has a lot of, and this popped out right away in my guide book, is THEATERS. They've got their main theater but also a Musical Theater, TTT Theater, University Theater and many smaller ones. We saw 3 theaters on our way to the Observation Tower and at least twice as many on our way back to the train station. And all of the buildings were so great, marble floors and columns. I wonder how the actual theaters looked, I bet the acoustics and sight lines are great.
The Observation Tower was also wonderful, it kept me and Maja entertained for hours. At the bottom of the tower, there was a motion activated projected pool of fish. If you waved your hand over the pool or stepped on it, it rippled and the fish scattered. Simple minds are very amused by these kinds of things.
Next was the elevator, it had a really cool ceiling and an equally cool up button (see pictures below). Once we made it up to the top, our heads began to spin - partially due to the beautiful view and partially because the top of the tower was rotating. There's a restaurant up on the top floor, much like La Ronde in Crowne Plaza in edmonton, but this one had stairs everywhere which made it impossible to walk without staggering. I don't know how the poor waiters carry expensive meals and wine in that place but I sure respect them. I almost fell flat on my face just carrying my own weight.
We took a breather and our lunch break on top of this tower and enjoyed the view. It turns out that having 6 hrs for seeing Tampere was just the right amount of time - we were seeing all the highlights without having to rush.
To get to the Lenin Museum and TTT Theater (which I really wanted to see), we had to backtrack a little. The buildings were great to explore although TTT Theater was closed sadly. From the billboards, I found out that Chicago the musical was coming to town soon. I hope it's better than the Broadway across Canada version.
Before crossing the railroad tracks to the other side of the city, we saw the city marketplace, one of several arenas and another harbor. I am enjoying the amount of water in all Finnish cities.
For our second break, we chose a homey looking cafe and bathed in sunlight while observing the city life. My pastry was made out of pure sugar and it was delightful as it gave me the sugar rush that I needed to get me through the rest of the day. Before making our way back to the station, we explored the University of Tampere which looked like a modern art exposition. All the buildings had odd metal contraptions sticking out of them or shapes that looked like Tim Burton collided with Martha Stewart. It was all too modern for me, I really prefer the U of J campus.
On the ride home, I slept and Maja walked the length of the 6-7 car train to find a decent washroom. We arrived home with just enough time for me to write a lecture diary due at midnight and for Maja to shower before going to the center to meet up with Paivi. There was a bar, called Bar Passion, that Paivi really recommended so we went to check it out. Seeing as it was Wednesday night, we really didn't expect a crowd; just a drink and some girl chatting time. When we arrived we found a speed dating game in progress. One of the organizer bounced up to us and offered 3 free spots to us. We thought: Why not? it would be fun. I talked to some interesting guys from Italy, Holland and Finland. What made me laugh the most was how serious some of them took this.
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