Churches and Museums are fun!

Hi Everyone!

I'm sorry about not posting yesterday, but I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. I must have been tired because I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. 

Harold was excited for breakfast because he got to see his new friend Hilbert, the mascot at the Green Hippo Cafe. Their latte is so good it doesn't need sugar. 

The first place on the agenda for the day is the Uspenski Cathedral. It was built during the Russian rule of Finland, and definitely looks Russian.

From there we went to the Bank of Finland museum. I'm always fascinated to see other countries' historical currency, and to see the cultural factors that shape monetary and economic policy. Finland struggled in the 90's after the collapse of the Soviet Union, however their decision to join the EU in 1995, and adopt the Euro in the early 2000's has lead to economic growth and stability. 

The museum is right next to the Senate square, so I got some better photos now that it's sunny. It rained yesterday, I think I forgot to mention that.

From there I went to see the Church in the Rock, which was closed for another hour due to a special event, so I decided to go to the National Museum of Finland, and come back afterward to visit the church.

The National Museum has been nominated for museum of the year, and I can totally see why! The museum is interactive in a way that doesn't seem childish, and they have used technology in a way that truly enhances your experience (most of the time I feel like technology is over used, just for the sake of using it). The museum begins with the history of prehistoric people in Finland during the stone and bronze ages. Artifacts that cannot be linked to a specific area have been put on display for people to touch, so I was able to feel prehistoric pottery and a stone ax head. They have a wall depicting cave paintings, and when you touch the designs, all of them glow. 

The religious beliefs of the prehistoric people center around the tree of life, so the room explaining the symbolism of different animal deities also centered around a tree of life.

The section on Finland as a nation (1917-present) displayed photos from the 60's and 70's in ViewMasters.

Finland is the home of Nokia (I think we all had a Nokia phone in the early 2000's) and Nokia boosted Finland's struggling economy making it the prosperous nation we see today. Also, Fins love metal music. I liked that the museum highlighted the Baby Box. Every expecting mother in Finand is given a box of baby suplies, including a small mattress that can turn the box into a bassinette. While letting your baby sleep in a cardboard box might sound strange, it decreased infant mortality so significantly that Finland has the lowest rate of infant mortality in the world.

It turned out to be a good thing I came back to the Church of the Rock, because I got to experience the excellent acoustics while they had a choir rehearsal. The church was built in the 60's, and is an excellent example of Finnish design-blending simplicity with nature. Water is allowed to drip freely down the rock walls.

Then I headed out to see the Sibelius monument, a tribute to Finland's greatest composer Jean Sibelius. I had a lot of fun photographing the monument. 

That's it for now, I'm hoping I'll be able to post again tonight, I'll be taking the overnight ferry to Stockholm, there's WiFi, but I'm not sure how reliable it is once I'm in the middle of the ocean.