Hei Hei Where's the Munkki?

  Santalahti A funny thing happens when you are on a trip for this long.   You kind of run out of things to do.   At least the things that you had on your list when you started.   Over a month in we had our things we’d checked off of our list.   We had our regular activities that we liked doing.   And we had a fair bit of downtime.   And that was welcome.   But we were also keen to keep trying new things and not waste the time that we had.   So one day we woke up and had breakfast, and didn’t have an agenda.   So after going to some parks and doing our grocery shopping, we had a whole afternoon unaccounted for.   So we decided to ride the tram as far west as it went, to a place called “ Santalahti .”   Lahti means bay or cove, and there are a lot of lahtis around Tampere.   We weren’t exactly sure what we would find.   We hoped there might be a café for some coffee and korvapuusti.   Or maybe a cool park. ...

  Public Transit One of the many great things about our trip has been using Finland’s wonderful public transit system.   We are most familiar with Tampere’s Nysse system, but have also ridden trains all over the country, busses and metros in Helsinki, and also a bus from Turku to Nantaali.   Thankfully Amy had done plenty of research ahead of time, and managed all of the apps that we needed. Everything is convenient, timely, and easy to navigate.   Trains are spacious, and have dining cars, as well as a play car for kids.    The train company is VR , which is managed by the government.   The cars are clean, and employees friendly. Nysse administers the Tampere transit.   At first we were worried that we might not be able to get the discounted local rate being out of towners.   But as usual, Finland excels at hospitality and as long as we had an address we could get a monthly pass.   It worked out to about 2.50 a day for Amy and I,...

  Hyva Ilves   Tampere has two professional sports teams:   Tappara and Ilves .   We’ve always liked Ilves.   I don’t know exactly why.   Part of it is probably their colors – a very sensible green and yellow.    It could also be because the Ilves mascot is the most adorably weird creature you’ve ever seen.    But most of it comes down to random chance.   It’s one of my favorite things about sports – you pick a team to support for any number of arbitrary reasons.   You could have chosen any team.   But you chose this one.   And now that you’ve made your completely arbitrary choice you’ve sworn a blood oath and will defend that team till your dying breath.   For whatever reason, Ilves is our choice. One interesting wrinkle is that both Tappara and Ilves play hockey.   In fact they are the two most successful teams in the Finnish hockey league.   Though most of Ilves’ success was a long time ago. ...

  Tulli & Tammelantori Tulli is on the other side of Tampere from us.   During our visit here last year we spent a lot of our time at Tulli – it’s where the University is, and the kids fell in love with the park here.   This trip we’ve had more fun exploring other parts of Tampere, but we still go to Tulli on occasion.   If you go the other way from the tram stop – away from Tulli – you come to Tammelantori , Tampere’s first and oldest open air market.   Today it’s mostly got a bunch of outdoor food trucks and booths.   It’s always lively.   This is where I tried the mustamakkara for the first (and only) time.    It reminded me the most of meat loaf.   Traditionally it is served with lingonberry jam, and a tall glass of milk.   I did the jam, but as a tourist I opted for coke instead.   It was all okay.   If I were offered another one, I would eat it.   But I wouldn’t be heartbroken if that never happens. Up t...