Once Upon a Time I Went to Turku

My friend Tanja went to Turku for the weekend with her husband, and invited me to join up with them on Saturday.  It's only two hours west of Helsinki by train and one of my resolutions was to do a better job at exploring my new country, so duh, I said yes.  Here is how to have fun in Turku:

1. Ride the Train There
   Just show up at the train station and buy a ticket, and then get ushered to a big roomy seat with giant windows.  After so much time on planes lately, I was in heaven.  And after being too excited to sleep the night before, I was also very very tired, so I slept for most of the trip.  At one point I woke up at a station where we were stopped, and saw all these stacks of logs covered in snow, so I vowed to wake up, pay attention, and enjoy the scenery, which was snowy and beautiful.
   
   
   
   
2. Find Your Friend Quickly, It's Cold!
   Tanja's hotel was a short walk from the Turku train station, but no walk is "short" when it's -38432984 C outside.  And the sun was out, which turns out is a bad thing, if you can believe that.  Sunny = no clouds.  No clouds = nothing to hold the heat in.  Confusing.
   
   
3. Go to the Turku Library
   As I mentioned it was super super cold yesterday, so we popped into the Library for sightseeing and warmth.  It's a really interesting building because they kept a very old historical building, and added on a super new modern section...but it's all seamless and somehow works despite the very different styles.  I was most excited about the microfiche machine.
   
   
4. Visit the Turku Cathedral
   The Cathedral is one of the two biggest attractions in town, and as we were walking there I confessed my greatest fear about winters in Finland: slipping on the ice and falling and hurting myself.  About 30 seconds later when the cathedral came into view, I said "wow", grabbed my camera, and started trying to find the ideal vantage point for my photo...and stepped into a little snow hole and fell.  Oh, well.  At least it wasn't ice.
   
   
   
   
5. Go to the Turku Museum of Modern Art and Archeology (?) and Get Tipsy on Hot Chocolate
   At that point we had been walking around for a while and were pretty cold, so we decided to duck into a little cafe at an art museum for some hot chocolate.  This was a contemporary art museum, built on top of some old ruins.  Part of the ruins stick up/out into the museum, and the rest is underground and they have panes of glass in the floor so you can see the hallways of the medieval building underneath you.
   
   We asked the barista to give our hot chocolates a little extra oomph and to add some Minttu (peppermint liqueur).  He obliged, but I think instead of just adding a shot, he did equal parts liquor and hot chocolate.  I bought a postcard of some little Finnish boys playing cowboy (foreshadowing...) in the gift shop and we left very warm and very tipsy.
   
              
   
   
6. Tour the Turku Castle
   I mentioned there were two main attractions in Turku, the cathedral was one and this castle is the other.  It's a medieval castle, with several rooms of exhibitions of Finnish cultural stuff.  They didn't have an English tour, so they just gave us a little booklet in English that explained everything.  I read it out loud to Tanja, and became our very ineffectual defacto tour guide.  My favorite part was the scale model of the castle...which included a toy car parked out in front of it!?  (See middle photo below.)
   
   
   
   
7. Visit "The Restroom"
   Since we had seen all the main sites, we decided it was time for a beer.  As it turns out, Turku also has a bar called "The Restroom," just like Helsinki!  This one held a little truer to the theme on the inside, as the walls were adorned with lots of books about bathrooms and with plants growing out of chamber pots. 
   
   
   
   
8. Take a Sauna
   Tanja's hotel had a sauna, so we decided after such a long, cold day of walking around outside, we'd take a quick sauna before we met up with her husband and friends for dinner.  Just like last time, there was a little boy in there and it's hard not to feel weird about gettin' all nekkid in front of a child...but again, I just had to shut off all my normal prudishness.  It seriously does feel awesome to be so sweatily hot when you've been so numbingly cold.
   
   There was a small balcony off the sauna room overlooking the city center square, and we finally got warm enough that we were ready to stand outside for a moment.  I've been warned/threatened about how people often follow a sauna with a dip in an icy lake or by rolling around in snow...so when I wasn't looking Tanja dumped handfuls of snow on my shoulders!!!!!  ACK!
   
   P.S. These photos have nothing to do with our actual post-Restroom sauna, these photos were from the exhibition at the castle, but whatever...
   
   
   
   
9. Have Drinks at the Pharmacy
   I'm sensing a theme here.  Turku has a bar called "The Restroom." They also have a bar (shown below) called "The Pharmacy." And another called "The School," and another called "The Bank." I will forever be suspicious of anyone claiming to go on errands, because I now assume everything is the name of a bar!  "Oh, I have to stop by 'The Post Office' on my way home."  Whatever, drunkie.
   
   
   
   
10. Have Dinner on the Cindy Boat
    There is a river called the Aura that runs through the middle of Turku, and in warm, summery times it is lined with boats that are docked along the sides that are bars and restaurants.  Obviously in the winter, most of these are closed.  Also in winter, the river is frozen over (see below, all that to the right of the boats where those tracks are is where the river is supposed to be.)  This photo was taken earlier in the day, but we went to one of the few boat restaurants that was open for dinner.  Fortunately it was very toasty inside.  Unfortunately, the heating system did not extend to the bathroom area.  I ate a snail.
    




11. Go to the Castle to Hang Out With Cowboys
    All day, Tanja kept mentioning a friend of hers who was excited to meet me because I am a Texan.  Apparently he had visited Texas a while back, and underwent a total transformation while there and returned with a belt buckle, Stetson hat, and thick Texas accent.  I was equally excited to meet him. 
    
    His accent was hilarious and great.  Sadly, I was not able to capture him talking on video.  It would be worth going back just to do a quick documentary on him.
    
    
    
    
12. Ride the Train Back to Helsinki
    Unfortunately I wasn't able to hang out very late, because the last train left at 9.  So I said goodbye to my friends, and hopped on the train.  (I love how you can show up 10 minutes before the train leaves, buy your ticket and still make it with plenty of time to spare.)  I fell asleep against the window, thinking it would be like the trip over and I'd sleep lightly and wake up at every station.  No.  I fell asleep HARD.  I woke up inside the empty train car sitting at the station in Helsinki.  I have no idea how long I was there, or why no one woke me up!!

All in all, lovely day in Turku...goodbye castle!  Goodbye 260 proof hot chocolate!  Goodbye inexplicable Finnish cowboy!