On the inside, looking out

I really think the opportunity to take photographs from a moving vehicle is one not to be missed. Whenever I get the chance I like to take internal and external shots: internal ones of fellow passengers, signs or other interior details, external ones of the passing landscape, the transition zones between urban and rural, the effects of speed.

These are a few of the shots I took on the bus between Helsinki and Porvoo, and on the train between Helsinki and Tampere last October. Partly it’s a liking for a record of the fleeting and impermanent shot, partly a record of landscapes impossible to capture any other way, partly the ease of taking pictures of whatever passes by. Reflections and out of focus shots only add to the character of a collection of impromptu snatched pictures. String enough of these together and you would have a unique travelogue of the journey, the passenger’s view, the inside looking out.

Helsinki central railway station

It’s general practice in Finland to find all the signs in both Finnish and Swedish, both being official languages. The magnificent Helsinki Central railway station (rautatieasema in Finnish and järnvägsstation in Swedish) is a widely recognised landmark in central Helsinki and the focal point focal public transport in the Greater Helsinki area. The granite exterior is notable for the two pairs of statues holding spherical lamps, and its clock tower (the statues are featured, for instance, on the covers of local timetables published by the country’s national rail operator, VR).
The station’s interior, besides its beautiful high ceilinged booking halls and wide concourses, has a good range of shops, cafes and bars, and entrances to the underground shopping complexes linked with the Kamppi store and other key points in the commercial centre. From the central station the trains rush out to the north, past Töölönlahti Bay and quickly reaching Pasila and on though the suburbs of Helsinki

It’s also a great place for people watching, with commuters coming and going between the trains, the connecting buses, and the city centre itself. I took quite a few informal shops near the cafes and ticket offices. And what really interested me were some of the quirky things going on – like the display below, some kind of art school project, I think, and the notes stuck to a pillar (I couldn’t figure these out, maybe they were advertisements). There were stalls selling berries and other fruits. It's a very pleasant atmosphere, as main railway stations go.

A walk around Töölölahti Bay

Töölölahti Bay and its surroundings are one of Helsinki's most distinctive attractions, and there is much to interest the photographer. It's only a short walk north of the city centre. Until you reach the railway bridge just outside the central station it seems like a lake - then it's apparent that it's really an inlet. Walking and jogging round the bay is a popular activity: beginning from near the Alvar Aalto designed Finlandia Hall www.finlandiatalo.fi overlooking the bay there's an extensive network of paths fringed by silver birches and (unexpectedly) outcrops of rock. Nordic walking poles are much in evidence. It's a pleasant place for a stroll on afine autumn day.

Setting off anticlockwise you soon cross the railway bridge (a chance to watch the constant procession of red and white trains entering and leaving Helsinki) and reach the beautiful ornate wooden villas of Linnunlaulu set on a rocky rise above the eastern banks of the bay - and a fine viewpoint. An art park was created around the bay as part of Helsinki's celebration of European Cty of Culture in 2000.



I carried on walking to the east of the railway tracks and down along the edge of the Elantarharlahti bay towards Kallio Berghall and the shops and market at Hakaneimi, but follow the Linnunlaulu houses to the Helsinginkatu and return past the Finnish National Opera House www.opera.fi or continu further to take a look at the Olympic Stadium (the Games were held in 1952). The stadium's tower now houses a budget priced hostel for travellers.

Not far away you may come across the welcoming and well stocked Arkadia Oy bookshop on Pohjonen Hesperiankatu, a fine place to stop off on the way, maybe, to the Sibelius Monument among the silver birchesa and perched on a rocky outcrop looking westwards across the bay towards Seurasaari island.

Tampere's Vapriikki Museum

Tampere has an excellent museum in the Vapriikki: several museums in one. I wanted to include a couple of photographs from the Shoe Museum and the Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame. See www.tampere.fi/vapriikki for more. I didn't get to see the photo archives, among the country's largest archives of historical photographs. The building is what used to be the engineering works of Tampella Ltd., on the banks of the Tammerkoski rapids. I spent a very pleasant hour and a half on a whistle stop tour of the main exhibits..........first the Shoe Museum.

No problems with getting the camera out, which is always a good thing. And it was hardly crowded.

In my next post I will be returning to some of my favourite parts of Helsinki.