Vaasa, Laihia, and Seinäjoki

After I left Turku, I headed over to Seinäjoki where I met up with some of the Perttu cousins. This is the area my family is originally from.

Esa took me to meet Seere, a very old woman who knew a lot about my family. They showed me 10 albums worth of photos and memorabilia dating back to the 1800s. Then I went and saw the house that my Great-Grandfather left Finland for America. They kept pointing out to me places in real life that were in an ancient photo they showed me.

Seere's house was incredible also. We drive up to an old house in the middle of Finnish farmland and the house seems typical from the outside. But on the inside it was incredible! It won a design award in 1974. She must have spent thousands and thousands on the interior. All the best furniture and famous modern art paintings decorated her home. It was a retro masterpiece!

Later on in the evening I went to go see Titanic: The Musical staring my very own uncle Esa! Although it was all in Finnish, I was able to understand a lot. The lead star is apparently a hot young Finnish actor, so the audience was abuzz with excitement.

The Homecoming at Last!

I finally made it to my ancestral motherland - Finland! The trip began with Turku, Finland.

I arrived after a peaceful boat ride with a toasty warm sauna and was greeted with such friendly smiling faces. The Finnish people are so helpful, friendly, English-knowing-and-speaking, and well-dressed.

Turku is the oldest city in Finland and was once the capital. As such, it is a special city. The city was well maintained, plenty of cobble stoned streets, and a beautiful old cathedral. To my delight, there were plenty of thrift stores and antique stores with fun little surprises inside and all priced very moderately. There were also many art galleries and good museums.

I was able to go to the Sibelius Museum, in honor of Finland's greatest composer, Jean Sibelius. There was great information about his life and I was able to watch old videos depicting his funeral and his life. The museum also housed musical instruments. It was even hands-on! I was allowed to play a harpsichord from the 1700s. This, to me, is one of the greatest things a museum could allow. When I went into the basement of the museum, there was a collection of keyboards from the 1960s-current. This excited me even more. It is about time musical instrument museums started curating some forms of electronic music.

Later I went into market square and ate some delicious food that I have been deprived of for several months. The karelian pie is my favorite treat that I only seem to get at Christmas time back home. You can be sure I loaded up on plenty of these pies to last me a while.

Stockholm

Beautiful people.

Nice, Englsih-speaking people.

Relaxing atmosphere.

Interspersed with art.

Free bus ride for Sara.

Wonderful marketplace filled with unique oddities.

Free water!

Moscow

Moscow:

More convenient than St. Petersburg
More metro stops
Blanket Internet over the city

Goth Youth
Boy with flame sticks waving them around in the park

Nazi Youth
People making the swastika symbol on the metro car

Very expensive

The few Americans in Moscow are all connected

Animal Cruelty
3 bears tied up with chains. Man shouting "give money if you want the bears to eat!"

Strange Men
After arriving at the airport, I receive a text message. It says "I'm sorry, but I wanted to tell you that you are beautiful. The next time you are in Moscow, please call me. My name is Alexei, I was your taxi cab driver". I ignored it, then received another text message "Are you interested?". Finally I responded and told him that I would not be in Moscow again. The next text message, "HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE. THIS IS A SHAME. YOU ARE WONDERFUL!"

Travels Galore!

Today I am leaving for a great exploration!

First I will go to Moscow with my university group and see the Kremlin, Lenin's Masoleum, the Tretyakovsky Gallery, and all of the goodies of Moscow.

After that I will leave the group and head off to Stockholm and see the city.

Then I take a boat from Stockholm to Turku, Finland to see the oldest town in Finland.

From Turku I will take a train to Seinäjoki, Finland to see the town where my family originates. There I will be met by relative Esa Perttu and his parents Reijo and Kyllikki.

Then from Turku I will take a train to Helsinki and meet up with Matti Perttu and will stay with Eeva and her sons Harri and Jyri.

Finally I get to see my roots!

Smolny

I attend school at the Smolny Cathedral Complex. Smolny is a very historical place.

It was a school for training young girls by Catherine the Great. Once an aristocratic girl entered the school at a very young age of maybe 8 or 12, she was not allowed to leave the school or see her family until she turned 18 years old.

Later Lenin held assembly meetings and Kirov was murdered there.

And now I am sitting learning Russian in the very same halls!