Sotamuseo
Krigsmuseet I Military Museum
Discover the colourful phases of Finnish military history. In our exhibitions come face-to-face with historical objects from the Second World War, explore the wonderful collection of trench art and frontline illustrations and learn more about the Finnish conscript service and training.
Shattered tree stems standing lonely in a ghastly moonlight, gentle waves glistening in a sunlight across the shores, a solitary soldier looking at the ruins of his destroyed home – these are some of the images captured by the Information Company illustrators during the Continuation War.
The Continuation War began in the summer of 1941 and ended in the autumn of 1944. As the front line advanced deep into the lost territories of Karelia, art was used to record a land and people shaped by the battles fought there.
The exhibition Altered by War explores the history of Continuation War through art and follows ordinary soldier´s journey from home through the battles of war to an altered reality of life after the war.
Opening times Wednesday-Monday 11.00-16.30, last entry 16.00 (closed on Tuesdays)
The Military Museum
Suomenlinna C 77, 00190 Helsinki I www.sotamuseo.fi
Tickets 7/4 €, children under 18 years free of charge Hope to see you soon!
www.helsinkiphilharmonicorchestra.fi
– OPEN EVERY
Saunas – relax in traditional Finnish saunas with panoramic sea views. Warm water pool – take a dip in the 27°C outdoor pool, open all year round. Sea water pool – try ice swimming for a refreshing experience. During the colder months, the sea water can cool down to 0°C, offering a crisp and energizing dip. Restaurants – enjoy tasty bites, warm drinks and cozy moments by the sea. www.allaspool.fi
Metropolitan Times Magazine for Visitors Issue 2/2025
Autumn-Winter-Spring www.metropolitantimes.fi
ISSN 2489-2688 (print) ISSN 2669-8277 (online)
Graphic design & layout
Petteri Mero
Mainostoimisto Knok Oy
Welcome to the Helsinki Metropolitan Area 8
A hotline in a cold world 10
A short history of sisu 12
Captain Finland: How to make it in Finland, Part 2 16
Map of the metropolitan area 18
Hotels providing Metropolitan Times 20
Exhibition brings a natural forest to the heart of Helsinki 23 Best regards, Tove 28
The oldest folks in the building 30
The hotel room: a writer’s haven – Column by Arttu Tuominen 32
Editor in chief
Roope Lipasti
Sales manager
Raimo Kurki
raimo.kurki@aikalehdet.fi
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Published by Mobile-Kustannus Oy Betaniankatu 3 LH FI-20810 Turku, Finland
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Digital edition of Metropolitan Times: metropolitantimes.fi.
Cover photos
Suomenlinna Ferry .
Photo: J. Hatfield & C.Williams / Helsinki Partners Lux Helsinki light festival .
Photo: Ninni West / Helsinki Partners Sharing free hugs in a tram.
Photo: Outi Neuvonen / Helsinki Partners Winter sports in Paloheinä.
Photo: Jussi Hellsten / City of Helsinki
Arttu Tuominen.
Photo: Mikko Rasila / WSOY
The magazine is available in selected hotel rooms and lobbies in the Espoo-Helsinki-Vantaa metropolitan area (see pages 18–19 and 20). The next issue will be out in May 2026.
In the world’s happiest country, the Helsinki Metropolitan Area offers a unique balance of lively urban culture and peaceful green spaces.
In Helsinki, the most sustainable travel destination in the world, history and modernity meet seamlessly. Start at Senate Square, then walk into the bold architecture of Oodi Central Library, a symbol of Finnish openness and innovation. The Helsinki Design District bursts with creativity and local character. The creative and growing food scene is a highlight. Try the innovative flavors of Teller, the elegance of Michelin-starred Olo, or enjoy a relaxed lunch at the Old Market Hall by the harbour. For a full view of the city’s beautiful skyline finish your day at the Ateljee bar
Just minutes from downtown, island getaways like Suomenlinna, and Vallisaari offer peaceful escapes by the sea. Every island has a unique nature and feel worth visiting. Finally, no visit is complete without experiencing Helsinki’s sauna culture—whether it’s the stylish Löyly, the traditional Kotiharju Sauna or a visit to Allas Pool. For an indoors experience try out the beautiful and historical Yrjönkatu Swimming Hall, the first and oldest public swimming hall in Finland, which is set to open its doors after renovation in the early months of 2026. We can’t wait for you to experience everything that Helsinki has to offer.
To the west, Espoo invites you into a world of diverse nature and vibrant culture. Its beautiful seashore and archipelago, with over 40 kilometres of Waterfront Walkway, is open to everyone – you can cycle, hike, or simply breathe in the sea air along its countless trails and viewpoints. Or take a break from the hustle and visit Nuuksio National Park up north and enjoy the wilderness views, marked
routes and countless activities. Nature is always within reach and carefully protected.
Would you fancy a sauna and a dip to the frozen sea? Choose the Water Sports Centre Laguuni where you can enjoy sauna experience during wintertime. Check also the cafés and restaurants like Nokkalan Majakka, Lucy in the Sky or Restaurant Plats along the seashore. Two favourite Finnish activities are ice-skating and cross-country skiing – test Tapiola Ice Garden or well-maintained skiing tracks.
But Espoo isn’t just about peace and quiet – it also hosts some of the region’s most exciting events. Whether you’re in the mood for concerts or theatre, Espoo’s event calendar is as diverse and dynamic as its nature. Culture enthusiasts can also enjoy the exhibitions from the works of a national artist to modern art and history. Check at least EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art and Gallen-Kallela Museum
Vantaa most likely was your first step into Finland. Vantaa is proud to be the home city of Helsinki Airport, one of the world’s most sustainable airports, powered by renewable energy. In Vantaa it is easy to be an environmentally friendly traveller as all the airport hotels offer eco-conscious stays with comfort and convenience. But Vantaa is more than a gateway – it’s a destination of its own. Sipoonkorpi National Park, a hidden gem of ancient woods and moss-covered trails, offers a deep immersion into the Finnish wilderness just minutes from the airport. Nearby, Kuusijärvi is a beloved local escape: a lakeside oasis where you can swim, hike, and unwind in authentic smoke saunas – a rare and soulful experience deeply rooted in Finnish tradition.
And for a sweet touch of local tradition, don’t miss Fazer Experience, the iconic home of Finland’s most beloved chocolate and bakery brand.
Written
During the Cold War, a hotline ran through Finland. Its purpose was to prevent the accidental outbreak of nuclear war. Traces of it still linger in the landscape.
In 1962, the world trembled. We had never been so close to nuclear war. The Soviet Union intended to deploy nuclear missiles to Cuba, and the United States responded that it would mean war.
War didn’t break out, but it was a wake-up call: the world needed a direct line between the great powers, one that would operate immediately, without the delay that usually accompanied diplomatic relations, where a message from Washington to Moscow or vice versa could take hours. That was far too long when the world could be destroyed in minutes.
The communications link was quickly built and operational in just a couple of months. The hotline wasn’t exactly a red telephone, like in the movie Doctor Strangelove, but something in that direction. Actually, it wasn’t a telephone at all, but a teleprinter, or telex system. These electromechanical devices were once used to send text from one place to another, typically along a telegraph line. Physically, the machine resembled a typewriter and printed a message on paper.
In the case of the hotline, the line was of course very well encrypted. At first, there were teleprinters at each end. In the 1970s, they were replaced with fax machines. Each party used its own language in its transmissions, and the texts were translated at the receiving end.
for example, off the coast of Denmark, a Soviet ship severed it while towing a ship that had run aground on a sandbar.
So it seems that undersea cables have been vulnerable for a long time!
The risk of cable breaks was also taken seriously by the authorities: in the places where the line ran, digging with an excavator required police supervision.
Nonetheless, there were so many accidents that eventually the route of the line was marked with red metal posts, which can still be seen here and there in the landscape.
The hotline wasn’t exactly a red telephone, like in the movie Doctor Strangelove, but something in that direction.
GiVeN tHe tecHNology at the time, the system was not entirely simple, as it had to cover a long distance. The line ran from Moscow to Tallinn, then to Helsinki and onward to Turku, where it plunged into the sea, emerged in Stockholm, and continued via Copenhagen and London to Washington. There was also a backup line in Finland, which went via Lappeenranta to Helsinki and then to Hämeenlinna before reaching Turku.
The line itself was a cable with a diameter of about five centimeters. Inside a pitch-coated lead tube were four pressurized copper pipes, within which the actual copper conductors ran. If the pressure dropped, meaning that the line had been broken or someone had tried to infiltrate it, the system sounded an alarm.
Because the distances were long, the signal needed to be amplified every so often. Special repeater stations were built every few dozen kilometers, which dotted the fields of Finland for a couple of decades. The stations weren’t just some chicken coops – they were built to be bombproof. These concrete bunkers were built underground if possible, and above ground if not. They were a few square meters in size and filled with the best technology of the day.
A few of these huts still remain in Finland, one near the eastern border in Lappeenranta and another near Hämeenlinna.
Despite all tHe precautioNs, the cable did suffer breaks every once in a while, usually when some farmer was out in a field digging some kind of ditch – the cable was buried only 60 centimeters deep. Of course, Finland wasn’t the only place where the cable was disrupted. Once,
THe liNe itself was tested continuously. Test messages were sent once an hour to ensure it was working. It was agreed that these messages should be as apolitical as possible, to avoid misunderstandings.
The Soviets sent things like texts by their classic authors (maybe not War and Peace, though...)
For their part, the Americans sent baseball scores and excerpts from the Kama Sutra, which seems to show that there’s no limit to human childishness.
The line has also been used in real situations. The first time appears to be when Kennedy was assassinated. The Soviet Union, in turn, made contact via the line during the Six-Day War in 1967.
In 1973, during the Yom Kippur War, Israel accidentally torpedoed the USS Liberty reconnaissance ship, at which point President Johnson saw fit to inform Kosygin of the Soviet Union that there was nothing more to it: it was simply a case of friendly fire and an aircraft carrier was being sent to the area, but no need to worry. The Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 and the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan a few years later were also discussed on the hotline.
I Myself HaVe written a novel about the hotline, which was published in the fall of 2025. It’s intertwined with my own childhood in the 1970s and ’80s, when the line ran through my best friend’s yard, which of course sparked our imaginations. The book follows a group of kids growing up in the shadow of the Cold War and the fear of nuclear weapons, from 1970 until the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.
Despite all the madness of humanity, the hotline was a symbol of hope for us then, as it is now in my book. The fact that it existed meant that someone was trying, at least a little. And the loss of that kind of connection would be a terrible thing. s
Sisu is as important to Finns as the right to bear arms is to Americans, afternoon tea to the English, and surströmming to Swedes.
Sisu has its own national emoji, is considered a key element of the Finland brand, and in 2017 was the overwhelming winner in a contest to find the word that best describes Finland. So, what is sisu all about?
Written by Matti MäkeLä
by Christina saarinen
According to Wikipedia, “Sisu is a Finnish word variously translated as stoic determination, tenacity of purpose, grit, bravery, resilience, and hardiness.” As you can see, there is a lot of meaning packed into one word, and Wikipedia even fails to mention that the meaning of sisu has changed over time. During the Middle Ages, and long after, sisu was generally defined as an undesirable tendency or characteristic in an individual.
It was really only after Finland’s independence that sisu was transformed into a positive phenomenon that defined Finnishness and united the nation. A strong early representation of Finnish sisu was provided by the runners who dominated the Olympics in the 1920s and ’30s (Finland won 10 of the 15 long-distance gold medals awarded in 1920–36), as well as the other athletes who raised Finland to second in the Olympic standings of the era, right after the United States. Unfortunately, Paavo Nurmi, who won nine Olympic gold medals and was proclaimed the “King of Runners,” attributed his success not to sisu, but to training harder and more systematically than his competition.
WHat really put Finnish sisu on the world map was the Winter War. The word was probably first defined in English by Time magazine in January 1940, when the Soviet Union’s brutal war of aggression had been going on for a little over two months: “It is a compound of bravado and bravery, of ferocity and tenacity, of the ability to keep fighting after most people would have quit, and to fight with the will to win.”
However, the resilience deriving from sisu cannot be stretched forever, and in truth, it must be admitted that Finland’s policy of acquiescing to the Soviet Union in the 1960s and ’70s, dubbed “Finlandization,” didn’t seem to demonstrate much sisu. If Finland successfully walked the tightrope of independence during the presidential term of J. K. Paasikivi (1946–56), then during the far-too-long presidency of Urho Kekkonen (1956–81), Finland seemed to be constantly falling off the rope.
N’t forgotteN their sisu, however, and it is constantly referenced when explaining the success of Finns in things like ice hockey, rally car racing, and Formula One. Nokia CEO Jorma Ollila also offered it as an explanation for the success his company enjoyed in its peak years: “You overcome all obstacles. You need quite a lot of sisu to survive in this climate.” (It was unclear whether he was referring to Finland’s often wretched weather or the challenges of the mobile phone business.)
When you add a pinch of the stoicism mentioned in Wikipedia to this recipe in Time, the result is Finnish sisu on steroids. This is how the Finnish national novel The Unknown Soldier describes the perspective of the cynical Corporal Lehto, a man struggling with personal demons: “They can’t offer anything worse than death, and he can deal with that.”
In Under the North Star, the second masterpiece by Väinö Linna, the author of The Unknown Soldier, we go even further into the dark side of sisu. In his work, Linna describes the Finnish hatred that drove the 1918 Civil War. This was sisu in its old-fashioned meaning, which, according to Linna, is “like a bog pond: deep and black.”
But – if sisu is simply the ability to fight bravely against a seemingly overwhelming barbarian attack, then global history is full of Finnish sisu. Take, for example, the Greek warriors of Thermopylae, the heroes of present-day Ukraine, and even the late-19th-century Oglala Sioux chief Red Cloud , whose remark before battle was something even Cpl. Lehto would have been proud of: “Today is a good day to die.”
Sisu is actually a complex concept, and it’s been used to respond to a variety of challenges in different eras. After World War II, Finland was in a desperate situation. The Soviet Union had occupied the rest of Eastern Europe, and Finland had to try to maintain its independence, democracy and existence with a totalitarian superpower next door. In that period, the resilient side of sisu helped, which Time magazine once again described during the 1952 Helsinki Olympics as follows: “The Finns are not stupidly hiding their eyes from their future, but they are determined not to fall into another fight with a powerful and predatory next-door neighbor 66 times their size… the Finns have learned to walk the nerve-racking path of independence like tight-rope walkers.”
As important of a concept as it is, sisu has of course also been commercialized, and in Finland, the word sisu can be found on such products as candy, trucks and buses, trams, t-shirts, hoodies and mugs, and – in many people’s minds, unfortunately – in the name of the nationalist organization Suomen Sisu. The most recent sector is film: two films named Sisu have already been made. In the first, Aatami Korpi – according to a tagline, “the man who refuses to die” – slaughters Nazis in Lapland. In the second, we get to the origins of sisu, and Korpi travels to his home region, Soviet-occupied Karelia, to take revenge on Soviet soldiers (this is where Korpi begins to deserve the nickname “the Finnish Rambo”: in the second Rambo film, Rambo returns to Vietnam to win the war the Americans had already lost once).
A couNtry’s NatioNal identity is always reflected in its relation to others. Finns believe that sisu sets them apart from the other Nordic countries. According to this view, Swedes enjoy their coffee and buns (fika), and Danes sit beside a warm fire with wool socks on (hygge), while Finns crush granite into dust with their bare hands (the national emoji for sisu is a person bursting through gray stone), and eat the fat off of meat and the pits out of olives. Okay, the last two are actually how the Spartans are depicted in the comic book Asterix at the Olympic Games, but I’ll justify them with the fact that, in Finnish literature, characters from the Kalevala and The Unknown Soldier have often been compared to the Spartans for their fearlessness and discipline. Overall, defining sisu is difficult, and it has both its good side (persistence, belief in oneself even amid difficulties) and its dark side (smugness, arrogance, stubbornness). Perhaps in trying to define it we encounter the same problem as US Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart when considering whether he could define hard-core pornography: “Perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it.” s
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Helsinki became the capital of Finland in 1812. Back then, it was merely a village, although it was founded as early as 1550. Nowadays Helsinki has got 675,000 inhabitants and is the largest city in Finland. More information: myhelsinki.fi.
The first mention of Espoo dates back to 1431, but it was not granted city rights until 1972. There are several centres in Espoo, of which Leppävaara is the largest. It is the second largest city in Finland with 314,000 inhabitants. More information: visitespoo.fi.
Vantaa is Finland’s fourth largest and the oldest city in the capital region: the first mention of it dates back to 1352. Helsinki Airport is located in Vantaa. Just like Espoo, Vantaa has several centres. Inhabitants: 247,000. More information: visitvantaa.fi.
The metropolitan area and the municipalities or cities of Hyvinkää, Järvenpää, Kerava, Kirkkonummi, Nurmijärvi, Sipoo, Tuusula, Mäntsälä, Pornainen and Vihti form the greater metropolitan area with a population of about 1.4 million inhabitants. Together with the cities of Porvoo, Lohja and Riihimäki, the population of the greater metropolitan area rises to about 1,600,000.
01 break sokos Hotel
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Written by eMiL Johansson / Finnish MuseuM oF naturaL history
In Finland, natural forests have become a rarity –and for many, they remain unfamiliar. The Forest Home exhibition invites visitors to discover them through photography, video installations and scientific specimens. Created by photographic artists Ritva Kovalainen and Sanni Seppo, the exhibition opens a window into the living diversity of Finland’s few remaining natural forests.
“We are so used to landscapes shaped by humans that we risk forgetting what a natural forest looks like,” says Ritva Kovalainen.
Together, photographic artists Kovalainen and Sanni Seppo have created a new exhibition at the Natural History Museum. Forest Home portrays our natural forests as diverse spaces and states of being that sustain life. It depicts the rich ecosystems that our northern forests can be at their best. The exhibition also illustrates how forest habitats are becoming threatened and being lost.
“This is an exhibition about communities, formed by thousands of different plants, fungi, animals, protists and bacteria maintained by our natural forests,” Sanni Seppo explains.
Kovalainen and Seppo have been capturing the Finnish forest for thirty years. This extensive life’s work has resulted in books, exhibitions, and films. For their long-term dedication, the duo was awarded the Finnish State Award for Public Information in 2024.
The majority of Finland’s forests have been transformed by intensive forestry into something fundamentally different from what they would be naturally. Only a few per cent of Finnish forests are in their natural state, that is, untouched. There are still slightly more forests left where the impacts of human activity have not decisively changed their natural structure and species composition. These, too, are still disappearing due to logging.
“A pine tree is said to grow for 200 years, live for 200 years and die for 200 years. It takes a couple of hundred years for the thick, protective bark to form on its trunk and for its canopy to grow broad enough to hold a large platform nest for birds. In northern Finland, the tree would start slowly passing away perhaps at the age of 700,” says Ritva Kovalainen.
“If a Scots pine was just left untouched by humans, it could influence its environment for up to a thousand years. Scots pines are the most common trees in Finnish commercial forests, and the list of threatened species dependent on them is long. For industrial uses, trees are cut down young, when aged less than a hundred years. This means the
The
majority of Finland’s forests have been transformed by intensive forestry into something fundamentally different from what they would be naturally.
pine tree’s significance for the ecosystem is cut short, eliminating its years of maturity, old age and dying,” continues Sanni Seppo.
Most of the photographs in the exhibition were taken in protected areas near Finland’s eastern border, ranging from North Karelia to Lapland. Elsewhere in Finland, only small, isolated fragments of natural forest have survived. The Forest Home exhibition also features many scientific specimens that introduce museum visitors to the rarer inhabitants of the forest. Due to intensive forestry practices, many formerly common species have become rare treasures.
The exhibition urges us to recognise the difference between a natural forest and a commercial forest. Forest Home brings together visual art, scientific insight and environmental reflection – and is designed to resonate with visitors of all ages.
Forest Home is on display at the Natural History Museum until 5 April 2026. s
The Natural History Museum is among Finland’s most popular public attractions. Its exhibitions provide an extensive overview of natural history and species diversity. You can learn how big the mammoth was, how beavers live or how life has evolved – all while exploring the secrets of the natural world, uncovered through long-term research and carefully curated collections. Five permanent exhibitions are Finnish Nature, World Nature, History of Life, Story of the Bones and Change in the Air. In addition, the museum has temporary exhibitions.
The Natural History Museum’s striking neo-Baroque building has been part of Helsinki’s cityscape since 1913. Its original façade still stands nearly unchanged after over a century of activity. When the University of Helsinki purchased the building, the occupants of what was then the Zoological Museum moved into their new home from the attic of the University’s Main Building in 1923. The Natural History Museum’s bone hall features a rare specimen: the skeleton of a Steller’s sea cow, which became extinct in the 18th century. Only a handful of these can be found in museums around the world.
Forest Home brings together visual art, scientific insight and environmental reflection - and is designed to resonate with visitors of all ages.
OPENING HOURS AND OTHER INFORMATION: luomus.fi
Tove Jansson diligently replied to fan mail from around the world – thousands and thousands of letters. Now a book about the letters has been published.
TThe author herself has said that all the characters in Moominvalley have something of her in them.
he “mother” of the Moomins, Tove Jansson (1914–2001), is probably one of Finland’s most famous people around the world. Her Moomin stories continue to captivate new generations, and no wonder, since life in Moominvalley is so rich, exciting and humane.
Tove was already a celebrity in her lifetime, and the postal service brought her letters by the sackful from people all over the world. She tried to answer them all. It was no small task, and eventually it even interfered with her work. But she was so kind-hearted, or felt such a sense of responsibility, that her writing of books would have come to nothing if she hadn’t answered the letters. In fact, even the press appealed to children not to write to Tove anymore. In 1974, the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter published an interview of her with the headline “Save Tove from the children.”
To the credit of the postal service, it should also be noted that even letters addressed simply to “Moominvalley, Finland,” or to a specific Moominvalley resident, arrived in Helsinki at the artist’s apartment in the Ullanlinna neighborhood, or, in the summer, at the summer cottage she shared with her partner Tuulikki Pietilä on Klovharun, a lonely islet off the shore from Porvoo.
Tuula Karjalainen, an art historian and author of Tove Jansson’s biography, became interested in this fan mail and dug up the letters and Tove’s replies to them from archives and from people around the world who received her replies. The book Tove Jansson ja maailman lapset (Tove Jansson and the Children of the World) was born.
What did fans – mostly children and young adults – want to know about their idol? A lot of normal fan stuff, of course, like what Tove’s favorite color is (blue, green), whether she’s a vegetarian (the book doesn’t say), and what her blood type is (we don’t get an answer to this either).
But a lot of big issues were also considered. For example, what Tove thought God was like, or what she thought about the atomic bombs dropped on Japan. Tove took these questions seriously and delved into the topics. For example, the atomic bombs are of course a horrifying thing, but the end result could be that they saved lives, as crazy as it sounds.
The young people also talked a lot about their own problems, loneliness, shyness, and so on. Tove herself had felt lonely and even bullied during her school days, so she had plenty of sympathy and advice to offer.
On the other hand, some of the letters expressed admiration and outright love for the author. Tove usually responded to these with more restraint, reminding fans that she shouldn’t be admired. She said, as her character Snufkin would have said, that if you admire somebody too much, you can never be really free.
The fan letters could be quite long, too: the record seems to be 74 pages.
The Moomins felt so vivid and real that even adults behaved strangely sometimes: at a literary matinee in Japan, Tuula Karjalainen was asked – in all seriousness – whether there were still many Moomins in the forests of Finland.
Of all the creatures in Moominvalley, there was one in particular that fans often asked about, wondering why it existed in the first place and hoping that Tove would help it somehow. This creature was the Groke. The Groke is a girl who spreads nothing but coldness around her. Wherever the Groke sits down freezes, and nothing will grow there.
Many people thought that was terrible. To one person, Tove replied:
“The Groke really has been a problem. If you’re as cold as she is, no one wants to play with you. But I think you’ve come up with a marvelous idea – the Groke could make refrigerators. With a job like that, she could finally find a coworker like herself, the kind of person she has always been looking for.
Trust me, it will all work out. Tove”
The author herself has said that all the characters in Moominvalley have something of her in them. One of the characters whose traits she would have liked to embody more was Little My, because she
Best regards, Tove!
dares to say no, and she knows how to say it. Unfortunately, Tove wasn’t strong in those traits, so she obediently responded to the letters, which arrived at a rate of 1,500–2,000 per year. Even if she had responded to “only” a thousand letters, that would still be three letters a day. That’s a lot of stamps already.
When Tove and Tuulikki Pietilä took a long trip abroad, Tove asked her brothers to sort her letters and to send a card in response to them, promising that Tove would write when she returned from her trip.
Of course, the famous author also constantly received all kinds of requests. She made a compilation of them at the end of a collection of her short stories published in 1999:
“We await your prompt response to our inquiry regarding the printing of Moomin motifs in pastel colors on toilet paper.”
“Dear friend, I have been thinking about you for so long now that it really is high time that I dared to make a small request: could you please, when you get around to it, draw all your cute little characters in color for my granddaughter Emanuela.”
“My cat is dead! Write quick!”
“Now, don’t be alarmed, but do you have any idea what your newspaper comics can do to expectant mothers?”
“We have launched a new, discreet mini sanitary pad... We’ll appeal to a younger customer base with the line ‘All of Little My’s days are safe days’ – a witty remark that, with your permission...” s
Tuula
In many Finnish churches, the oldest remains are over 450 million years old. Fossils can be found not only in churches, but also in many other public buildings in Finland. Stone floors are a good place to look for them.
There’s one! And another! And another!
If you put on your paleontology glasses, you can spot something amazing in quite a few public buildings in Finland. For example, there are several churches where you can find fossils – and not just the vicar! In Turku, you can find them at the cathedral, and in the Tampere region, at the Finlayson and Nokia churches.
But also in Helsinki, when you go to the basement toilets at the Oodi Library, have a look down at your feet, and not only so you don’t trip on the stairs. At the Ateneum Art Museum, too, there is more to see than just the exhibitions if you keep your eyes firmly on the floor. Finland has hardly any fossils of its own because the Ice Ages washed them away. The Åland Islands and the bottom of
the Baltic Sea are exceptions. According to archaeologist Ilari Aalto , the fossils that can be found in the flooring materials of Finnish buildings generally originate from southern Sweden or Estonia.
Aalto is working on a doctoral dissertation about brickmakers and medieval churches, so the material he usually digs up in churches is a little more recent, but he enjoys spotting fossils too. He first came across orthocones – the fossils most frequently found in Finnish floors – as a young boy visiting Häme Castle:
Orthocones existed in many sizes, ranging from tiny to several meters long.
“I’m always happy when I see them. There are a lot of them in southern Sweden, in particular, because there are large limestone deposits there. The older floor slabs in Turku Cathedral were brought from there sometime in the 18th century. Orthocones lived in the ancient Baltic Sea, which was near the equator back then – though strictly speaking, there was only one big sea at that time,” Aalto says.
Since then, the continents have wandered across the planet, and today, that ancient section of seabed is off the coast of Finland.
Orthocones are ancestors of modern octopuses and squids, and like their descendants, they were also predators. Orthocones aren’t a single species, however. Instead, they’re a so-called wastebasket taxon, into which creatures that seemed similar were collected in the 19th century. Orthocones existed in many sizes, ranging from tiny to several meters long.
They grew a horn-shaped cone – a protective shell – that was made up of chambers. The older the creature, the more chambers it had, like adding rooms onto a house. It’s the same thing that happens when people grow up: first you get a studio apartment, and then move on from there.
Orthocones had tentacles and a beak and apparently swam backwards. And how did they end up encased in stone? The answer lies in the slab material:
“It’s limestone, which is made up of calcium from dead animals. Long ago, they sank to the bottom of the sea, and over time, they turned into limestone. For example, the orthocones in the Turku Cathedral lived during the Ordovician period, about 450 million years ago, when the sea was teeming with life.”
Da Vinci knew
For Ilari Aalto, the age of fossils is precisely what’s fascinating about them:
“Fossils massively exceed the entire time period that humans have been around. It was a completely different world, and yet the same Earth, and our very own Baltic Sea! Back then, the land was desolate and empty, but the seas teemed with life. It’s also interesting to think about what people in the 18th century thought about them. At that time, they had no concept of evolution or of how rocks are formed,” Aalto reflects.
In A Description of the Northern Peoples, published in 1555, Olaus Magnus explains the shapes of fossils by saying that since nature is hierarchical, and humankind is the crown of creation, even rocks might imitate things like the shape of a human hand, and so on.
Noah’s flood was used to explain why fossils of mussels could be found in the mountains.
“Leonardo da Vinci, though, believed they were there because the mountains formed afterwards, lifting the fossils into their places. And that’s exactly the case,” Aalto says.
Although fossils are fairly common, Aalto points out that it’s quite rare to become a fossil, that is, to be petrified:
“All in all, we haven’t even found very many fossils of land animals. The seas were better places because fossilization requires, first, time and, second, pressure. As dead animals accumulated on the sea floor, they were eventually buried deeper and deeper and came under greater pressure, ultimately forming limestone as organic material was replaced by minerals.” s
It was a completely different world, and yet the same Earth, and our very own Baltic Sea!
Awriter’s work is solitary. For the most part, the work is done alone, with one’s own thoughts. When a book is finally published, the author stumbles out of his or her cell to bask in the limelight for a moment, only to retreat as soon as possible, back into silence, to create something new. Or at least that’s how I would prefer it to go. After all, a writer’s most important job is to write.
But the more you publish, and the more frequently your books come out, the more you need to be visible, because the book business runs on promotion. For an introvert accustomed to toiling alone, getting up on a book fair stage and giving interviews requires major effort. And nowadays, the marketing no longer takes place only when a book is released, but all year long.
I’m from Pori, a smaller city on the coast, and the peaceful rhythm of life there suits me. My beloved hometown has everything a person needs. But sometimes I’m forced to leave Pori. Promoting my books has taken me all over Finland and the world. This year alone, I’ve spent over 70 days traveling and almost as many nights in hotels. As in previous years, most of my trips this year will be abroad. My two longest book tours lasted 10 and 19 nights. That’s a long time to be away from family.
I’m happy to admit that I don’t enjoy traveling. I don’t like bumming around the airport, and I don’t love sitting on a cramped bus or train, gnawing on a sandwich. I won’t even start on the joy of dragging a suitcase through a station in the sleet.
Traveling truly teaches you to appreciate the small luxuries of everyday life, of which, for me, peace and quiet are the most important. I long for the silence of my own office. Because it’s a long way from Pori to anywhere else, the trip can often take up to fifteen hours, using multiple means of transport. When the writer reaches his or her destination, a crowd of strangers often awaits. Everyone wants a piece of you. You have to be cheerful and social, and take everyone into account. The language is foreign, as are the culture and local customs. Nonetheless, you’re supposed to network and be able to discuss your future plans in an interesting way. Up on stage,
you need to be funny and intelligent. In addition to being a good writer and storyteller, you’re also supposed to know how to be an entertainer and a salesperson.
Please don’t get the wrong idea. Being invited to appear abroad is a great honor and a privilege, but for an introverted writer, traveling is an energy-sapping ordeal. To be abroad is to be far away from one’s family, home, and familiar people. Once you arrive, the program is usually tightly scheduled, and there is very little time for oneself.
In truth, the only peace to be found is in your hotel room. On a book tour, a hotel room is often the only space where you can be completely alone with your own thoughts. When the door to the room closes behind you, the cacophony of different voices ends, and there is space to breathe freely for a moment. When I travel, my hotel room is a haven for me, a place to retreat to when the flood of external stimuli becomes too much. When you close the hotel room door behind you, you’ve finally arrived – you’re safe. And if, in addition to a bed and a shower, the room also has a desk, internet access and an electric kettle, life becomes downright luxurious. s
Arttu Tuominen (b. 1981) is an internationally awarded author and environmental engineer from Pori who derives his creative inspiration from the madness of Pori, the nature of the coast, and the waves of the Bothnian Sea. Tuominen has written eleven crime novels, of which Alec, published in 2025, marked the beginning of the new Kide trilogy.
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