Turku is a beautiful city for walking in. Beautiful pedestrian and bike paths follow the curves of the Aura river.
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| From the walking path along the river |
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| This view of the cathedral comes from a wooden boardwalk bordering the river. |
After a long walk along the river, I finally made it downtown. Good thing my main goal was just to enjoy the day, since all the shops were closed once I finally made it downtown. I suppose the cell phone will have to wait for another day.
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| Such a quiet city |
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| Riverboat restaurants and bars are popular in the downtown section. |
Feeling tired after all my walking, I decided to head back to my apartment. I sat in front of the Cathedral and looked at the map. I knew how to get from the Cathedral to the university, and I know how to get from the university to my apartment, but surely there was a direct route back to my apartment without detouring to the university. It didn't help that my apartment is farther north than the map goes. I thought I knew the way though, and set off. I passed 3 or 4 second hand shops in a row and made a mental note, then noticed a grocery store that was still open and ran in for some things I'd forgotten. When I came out, I realized that if I really had chosen the right direction, I should be arriving at something familiar by now. Instead, a large park was just in front of me. Crossing the street to get to it, I stopped in shock. I was at Kupittaa park, the exact opposite direction of where I wanted to be. I was tired and needed some water, but I was so far from home at this point, I decided I might as well at least check the park out. One live band was playing at the main stage, while another was setting up on a side stage. I laid out my blanket and enjoyed the atmosphere for awhile, before my headache from not drinking enough got the best of me and I went in search of water.
Mostly, I haven't really used Finnish outside of Finnish class. Other than the perfunctory "hei" (hi) and "kiitos" (thanks), the honest truth is that taking a bus or buying groceries doesn't really require talking. But here I was, in a park, no grocery store, only vendors. So, I practiced once or twice for good measure and then walked up to the girl "Paljonko vesi maaksa?" (How much does the water cost?") I asked. . . And glorious day! She answered me! In Finnish! And I understood! It's really the first time that I've attempted something other than "hello" or "thank you" outside of class and been understood the first time around. And, usually, as soon as anyone realizes Finnish is not my first language, they switch to English immediately (It's kind of annoying, actually). So for me, this was big. Of course, then she proceeded to ask me in Finnish if I wanted it with or without bubbles, and my vocab isn't nearly that good yet, so I had to abashedly tell her I didn't understand, at which point the conversation did switch to English, but hey, at least I did the first part in Finnish.
By this point it was after 7:30 and I was a good hour's walk away from my apartment if I walked straight there and didn't get lost along the way, so I decided to take the bus. The good thing about buses in Turku is that they all (I think) go through the market square at some point, so all I had to do was get a bus headed the right direction, get off at market square, and grab my bus home. The bad thing about buses in Turku is that they don't run frequently. I must have just missed my bus by minutes when I got to the square, because the next one wasn't scheduled for another 20 minutes. But, another plus for Turku is that it is safe and quiet, so I pulled out my kindle to read (something I never would have done in downtown Bogota) and before I knew it, I was home and cooking dinner for one.
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