“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page” said Saint Augustine. And vice versa – by reading we can get the knowledge about the world. What if we make a move further and connect reading with traveling? As a ONE BSR blogger I had possibility to visit for the first time ever Helsinki and Tallinn. All with amazing, full of energy and ideas people.
As you probably know Finland is a country famous for the “Moomins”. When I was a child I used to sit before the TV (every day at 19) and wait impatiently for the story of Moominvalley. Now, after more than ten years I decided to come back to this story and before visiting Finland read it once again.
- 1. The “Moomins” are little trolls who live in Moominvalley, they lead “gypsy” lifestyle. Their house is always full of inhabitants of valley and new visitors, they travel a lot and live with the rule of “carpe diem”.
- 2. The authoress name is Tove Jansson. She was Finn but she was writing in Swedish.
- 3. The story was inspired by the members of Tove’s family, so each character has his/her equivalent in some of Moomins or their friends. (It’s even said that Moomintroll and Little My are Tove’s portraits)
- 4. There are a lot of movies and performances about the Moomins , but in fact Jansson didn’t like them.
The story has nine volumes : The Moomins and the Great Flood (1945) Comet in Moominland (1946) Finn Family Moomintroll (1948) The Exploits of Moominpappa (1950) Moominsummer Madness (1954), Moominland Midwinter( 1957) Tales from Moominvalley (1962), Moominpappa at Sea (1965), and Moominvalley in November (1970)
Believe me or not, everyone who thinks that he/she is too old to read it, is wrong. The one of good points of this book is that any time you coming back to it, you can discover something, which you haven’t noticed before, even to find out another ‘truth about the life’. E.g. just have a quick look on Snufkin’s words “One can never be truly free, if one admires someone else too much.” Is it not enough to persuade you? So maybe the question of the Snork Maiden would change your mind: „How can I be thirsty when I’ve been drinking all night?”
So my advice is – read this story before visiting Helsinki. It is a really great feeling while walking down the streets you can see these characters on each step, eg. at the shop window. Indeed, there are plenty of them: Moomins mascots, postcards, pens, mugs and another souvenirs. You can buy there almost everything with their image there.
But Finland is not only a country of these trolls. Every child in Poland knows, that here lives Santa Claus with his assistants (elves, reindeers and so on). And of course here is the gift’s factory located! This makes I may say that this one day which I spent there, was not only sightseeing and meeting with Finish culture, but first of all coming back to my childhood’s memories. It is a cold country but with amazing, warm atmosphere. Where else you can hug a reindeer on the street…
…and after hugging eat it as an appetite for a dinner? I’m sure that for Polish people it sounds cruel, it’s impossible to meet with such dishes in our cuisine (the bear soup isn’t known as well), but I had an opportunity to taste meal form such a menu Lappish restaurant “SAAGA” and I must admit that it was a really specific taste but in fact I enjoyed it.
In one article I’ve read an opinion that the capitol of Finland is like two completely different cities, depends on which season you are there. This time I had an opportunity to see it from both sides, although I was there only for one day. In the beginning of the day, when it was cold but sunny, the city was beautiful – full of sunshine, verdure and warmth. However when beautiful colorful autumn’s morning changed in rainy, dark and wet afternoon the sight-seeing wasn’t so pleasant and a lot of venues and views lost their attractiveness.
I hope that someday I will have a possibility to have a closer look on this city. It’s a pity that we spend just one day there, because in fact there were no time to get to know it well. However, it’s great that I had a chance to be there! What my impression? Finland is different than Poland, but such a little things as Moomins and Santa Claus bring us closer. I think that if I spent there more time I could find another similarities or our common features.
During the BSR’s trip last week, we visited three different cities (Warsaw, Helsinki and Tallinn), three different countries and cultures and what’s in my opinion is the most important – we met other bloggers It gave and gives us a possibility to exchange our experiences derived from our cultures and catch the differences. I’m really glad that I could took part in this project as well as be a member of BSR team. It was a great time and thanks to that I have much more stories to tell.
If I only had heard of this Moomins before, I would have read the story prior to flying to Helsinki. Well, as you say, it is never late. And since I would like to learn more and more of the BSR…
By the way, it looks like you had a great time during the trip ;)