Chapels, Churches Galore

Day 27: Turku, Finland

Going strong. Saw a lot this weekend in Sweden. It is a beautiful city. We than boarded the Viking Line for the night. It was like a mini one night cruise from Sweden to Finland. We had dinner, discoed, got little sleep and docked at 6am. It was a lot of fun. Side note: if you run on a ship and the deck is wet and you have had a few drinks you will break your arm. Radhi in our group found out the hard way but we were all happy that she is safe and hadn’t been swept out into sea.

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Where we stayed: Viking Lines (great!) & Jyvaskylan Laajavuori Oy Hostel (Was an ok hostel not my favorite)

New Finnish word of the day: Hyvaa Huomenta means Good Morning!

What I Saw:

Holy Cross

-Chapel of the Holy Cross

This chapel is very modern and the way the architect Pekka Pitkanen plays with light makes it a very dramatic place to be in. Although this place was very interesting to study it was hard to concentrate because I just had chills running up and down my back because a cremation was taking place and you can see the black smoke coming up from the chimney.. a few kids went down to the basement to watch...um not for me please. 

A lot lighter than my picture shows

-Chapel of the Resurrection

I thought this chapel was beautiful because it was so soft in its features and construction. The layout of the church was different from any church I’ve been in and really gives you the sense of nature and peacefulness.

-Petajaesi Church

A traditional church that is still in use today. It is beautifully contructed from all wood. Our professor Chuck would call this place kindling.

Kuokkalan Church

-Kuokkalan Church

Lassila Hirvilammi Architects did a great job of the design of this church. It is a newly contructed church which is all slate tile on the outside which was ok looking, but when you enter the wood detailing and construction was so interesting and different what what I’ve seen so far. 

An experience to try: Finnish Suana

You sit in the suana until you are sweating or really hot to open and cleanse the pores than run and jump into a really cold lake (or go get a cold shower) to wash the bad away. You are suppose to do this minimum of 3 times but jumping in the cold lake once was just as fun for me! I did feel really relaxed though after that. A lot of people felt more relaxed especially having to travel by bus all day and getting very little sleep.

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End of the day was fun an relaxing. We got to sauna and barbecue with our professors at the lake. So far so good. 

Shout-outs: CONGRATS to Greg and Natalia for their new bundle of joy! Welcome to the world Mila Mitchell! You are so lucky to be born in such a wonderful family. 

End of the Day thought: It’s not that much more fun to eat Swedish fish in Sweden.