Tampere

On Sunday afternoon I arrived on the train to Tampere. At the last moment I was able to find somewhere to stay with a Finnish bloke called Lari who had an apartment right in the middle of town. I went for a wonder around town. Tampere is between 2 big lakes, with a set of rapids flowing between them. These rapids were the source of energy for the mills, and the town quickly grew as an industrial centre. The city still has enormous brick chimmneys towering over the city centre, but the factories have mostly been converted into modern shopping areas, bars and theatres. I had a look around town then we watched a movie back at home.
In the morning I headed into town and saw the Finlayson old mill, Näsinpuisto park with a view over the lake and theme park, and then relaxed in the sun by the beach at Pyynikki. In the evening we had some drinks in the famous shipyard bar with Lari and a few of his mates.
On Tuesday I met up with Susanna in the afternoon who just returned from a trip to Ecuador. She was an avid salsa dancer so we headed down the the central park in town where everyone had gathered to dance salsa. Afterwards we headed to a little bar where there was a blues band playing with a very energetic singer / harmonica player who would often be laying on the stage blowing on his instrument.
Wednesday morning we went for a drive out to the village of Norda in the area of Vesilahti. This was a really nice spot with just a few houses and on the side of the lake. We went for a walk down to the lake and up some hill that had several russian trenches and bunkers from world war 1. In the afternoon I got my hands dirty painting the balcony fence, but they insisted with staying with the Finnish red rather than my suggestion of an Australian design of green and gold stripes with kangaroo motifs.
The next day we went for a drive to some sights in the local area. This included a big manor from an old guy that used to rule the area, and a nice peninsula where there were cliffs into the lake. We had some mushrooms for dinner then yheaded back to Tampere were we went to Henry's bar to see the live funk band perform.
On Friday morning we went to the local markets and enjoyed a big salmon hamburger for breakfast, and then I jumped on the train to Jyväskylä.