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Turku - Tampere - Turku Day 15 - 26-June

Taking a day trip
There are several things you can do in a deserted town. As everybody in town decided to leave Turku (except for the tourists), I decide to leave it as well and make a short day trip to Tampere.

Travel details: Turku-Tampere Trainride: Express train Departure:13:05 - Arrival:14:47 Distance: 168km

The landscape is typically Dutch, dark clouds in the sky, and large area's of flat land used for agriculture. There are quite some houses and villages along the route but none are big enough to be called a city.

Tampere
Tampere is a nice city and with almost 200.000 inhabitants Finland's third largest city. It's also a bit busier and quite modern. Turku looks like it is stuck somewhere in the 70's but Tampere doesn't. It looks quite modern and the big shopping street looks pleasant. Naturally all stores have a sign saying "Suljuttade" (Closed), but still it's quite OK. Just like in Göteborg also Tampere has industrial buildings in the city centre. But these buildings are a lot order and the big chimneys give the place a funny atmosphere. The factories are transformed into houses, offices or shopping centers. The city is situated right at some lakes, but I cannot see these lakes properly, just like I didn't see any lakes from the train.

Factories in the city centre. And a nice waterfall.


The main shopping street of Tampere. There is traffic here.

Travel details: Turku-Tampere Trainride: Express train Departure:16:11 - Arrival:17:55 Distance: 168km

When the train arrives back in Turku, the city is still quiet. But there is a supermarket open. I buy a typically (that's what it looks like) finnish vegetarian meal for the microwave. The food happens to be typically Dutch as well. Mashed potatoes with carrots. But it's eatable. In the hostel everybody is adjusted to the silence outside. A new backpacker is walking around in the hostel and after a while I realize that this was a roommate from Stockholm, a boy from denmark. After eating I can do the laundry and in the evening I watch a very boring match between the Netherlands and Sweden on TV. Everybody is for Sweden, and I don't really care who is going to win. I get some history about Denmark from the 2 Danish boys in the hostel, and so I learn that the Danish flag is the worlds oldest flag and that it just fell down from the sky during a war. Strange.. I never knew that flags could fall out of the sky. Miraculously the Netherlands wins on penalties. Though they were playing really bad.