Well, here is the link to my pics of Vaasa. The photos of Helsinki will follow when I've managed to persuade our very slow server to upload them.
I really liked Vaasa a lot. It reminded me of Bloemfontein in South Africa with its wide, clean tree-lined streets and fine neo classical buildings playing neighbour to the lovely old traditional wooden structures. The only thing that marred it was the rather numerous sixties apartment blocks, but then they're everywhere aren't they?
They indeed are, the 60's apartment blocks. For instance in Oulu in their fervour to build these apartment blocks they tore down most of the old wood buildings in the town centre. Thankfully the cement blocks went out of favour before they could cause complete destruction.
ReplyDeleteActually, Vaasa reminds me a bit of Oulu, not only because of this but also because of the buildings of the town in general.
Great photos :)
ReplyDeleteThy did the same here from the late 50's onward. Tore down complete blocks of nice old wood houses. In the early 80's there was only one block untouched and after years of debate it finally was left untouched and most of the houses were restaurated.
ReplyDeleteVasa of today is not older than 150 years though the city was founded in 1606 but it burned completely in 1852, only one house survived the fire. Afterwards the whole city was rebuilt about 10 km closer to the scoast and the new harbour.
Nice pics, you used your time very efficiently! :)
Hans
Ah! I hate those sixties blocks! Lovely building!
ReplyDeletelovely photos Val.
ReplyDeleteVery quite place. Thanks for the tour.
They must be everywhere, those 60's apartment blocks!
ReplyDeleteIt brings to mind some old, brick tenement buildings a couple of blocks over from where I grew up in a suburb of Montreal.
They used to burn their trash every second evening or so in big incinerators. A continuous belch of glowing cinders from their chimneys would ensue. We used to stay up and watch "the sparks" from my bedroom window as a child - the same window the landing lights of jet airliners would shine through at night, as they made their final approach to Dorval Intl Airport...
Your photos are brilliant, in more ways than one! I love how you capture the essence of the city from all different angles!
Thanks for sharing.
xx
The lay of the land looks very flat there. Is it similar to the Netherlands where it is at sea level?
ReplyDeleteyour pictures of vaasa are really nice. you sure see things in a new light through other people's camera lenses. still, i think our houses are boring compared to all the wonderful ones we saw on our trip recently. cannot wait to go back...
ReplyDeletetake care!
xxo
Nice picture. The first thing I noticed tho was the vegetation. The picture looks like it could have been taken somewhere within the Canadian shield.
ReplyDelete