Ville and Soumenlinna

Back to the meet up with Ville, the arrangements for which were mostly made breaking my Facebook silence and last minute e-mails. Ville is a fellow who lived in the US from the age of 4 to 16. I knew him from church and the youth group growing up and his family have been friends of my family since they came to St. Paul. My parents and brother and his family have been in touch with Ville since his return to Finland. But having spent only an ad hoc day in Helsinki since his return I have not seen him. All of which is to ask how do you find a fellow across from city centre, in front of Stockmanns, under the clock when you haven’t seen each other in some twenty-six years? Having hair much longer than it once was I figured it was more in my favor to find him whose Facebook picture was much more recognizable. My dad and I split up in an effort to find him in the midst of all the people and after a bit of walking around to make sure that was the only clock present, I found him standing there. After a bit of reacquainting while my dad made his way around Stockmanns to us we went inside for a refreshment.
We decided to head out Soumenlinna for a walk around and to see the historic place. Soumenlinna was built back when Sweden ruled the area as an outpost and fortress against the Russians to east. Turku, another city in Finland was the capitol at the time and most of the Helsinki consisted of a settlement at the mouth of the Vantaa River. As a fortress it was very high tech for the time (18th century) with star-shaped embattlements and heavy artillery to protect to only safe strait into the area. Alas, it was not to last for Sweden. The Russians laid siege to it, conquering the area and later the whole of Finland which they held on to until Finnish independence almost one hundred years ago.
Some pictures of Soumenlinna.
Part of the fortress.

Looking out onto the Baltic.

Looking back to Helsinki.

Ville and I.

The Finnish submarine.

Six Finnish subs were manufactured in Finland in the interwar period with technological funding coming from Germany. Since the Germans were not allowed to manufacture weapons of war under the treaty of Versailles they R&D’ed their submarine technology in Finland and then used it to great effect in building their U-boats. Only one Finnish sub remains, dry docked here.
The visit to Soumenlinna was more of a social visit as walk around the grounds than a seeing of the site. I enjoyed it as such. There was much more to be seen there that will happen on another visit.
On returning from the island fortress we headed to a restaurant that Ville had picked out for us. The Sea Horse was a place that base once been a hang out for architects and designers and previous to that was a socialist hang out (maybe both together). I think he chose it with my dad in mind. We also figured there to be a great chance that my grandpa had eaten there on his visit for those reasons. The meal of Baltic herring, mashed potatoes and beets was delicious and familiar fare to me although prepared with a Finnish twist. The conversation and catching up was good as well. After after dinner coffee Ville walked us back to the bus, bringing us past his flat and pointing out buildings by famous architects (he was an architecture student). He bid us adieu and we found our way back to our hotel by 11:00 pm. A second late night out in Helsinki and most of the reason why I am now catching up on this blog.
Pics below at the moment.