Special Guest Post: by kaija of paperiaarre

This Is My City

Writing a blog has opened up my eyes in so many ways. I look at things differently and my camera has become my faithful companion (still need to learn how to use it better though). It’s only after blogging about it every once in a while that I’ve realized that Turku is now my home town. This is my city; I just needed to start seeing it as one. I’ve been to Prague and I loved it – then someone from Prague looked at my Turku photos and says that Turku looks so much like Prague. Of course they were right; I just didn’t know how to look at my daily landscape.
Turku is a city by the sea, but it’s not the sea that makes Turku the city it is. The river Aura flows through the city, divides it to my side and to the side of money (I work and do my shopping mostly on the other side).



On both sides of the river there are big hills (Turku is no San Francisco, but still…) and big parks on top of them. Of course we have plenty of lovely old steps! Great workout too, you could walk a route of 11 kilometers and 1256 steps! Let your thoughts rest while your thighs do the work? Maybe not, but steps are definitely in my top 3 of good things about Turku.



I’m sure everyone has seen more than enough of ugly cities, so I’ll share some of my places in Turku with you. Of course we have ugly concrete buildings, but I’ve learnt how to ignore them. We don’t have a separate old town; the beautiful old architecture is right there next to the modern boredom and it brightens up the entire city.



Many of the buildings near the old greater market are from the 18th and 19th century, built after the great fire of Turku (1827), but some are a lot older. I love this little cobbled street that used to be an arterial road sometime in the middle ages, it led from the Kaskenmäki monastery to the cathedral you saw in my previous post. It’s hard to remember in what century we’re living when walking here. This place is a must see if you ever come to Turku! (Soon I’ll start sounding like a travel guide!)



There’s some beauty on the other side of the river too; I didn’t even notice these keys until I took photos of this old gate. Art is crawling out from the galleries. I love it. And I love keys (and locks, gates, steps and bridges too).



I’ll skip the Finnish design talk; you’ve probably read enough about it from non-Finnish blogs, but I couldn’t resist taking a photo of Artek’s store. It’s such a beautiful building right by the riverside!



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