We spend last Saturday in Kristinestad on the western coast of Finland, it's a pretty small city, filled with old beautiful wooden houses. Finnish name for the city is Kristiinankaupunki, but I'm using Kristinestad because it's situated in the Swedish speaking region of Finland, even though I sadly don't speak any Swedish.
This was the perfect time to visit Kristinestad, with autumn turning leaves to gorgeous shades of red and orange. We were very lucky with the weather, it was pretty cold but it didn't rain or wasn't windy, like it usually is in the coast.
That pale dementor looking creature you see in some of my pictures is my sister.
We started our day from the old windmill up in the hill and then made our way down to the wooden church, then to the market square and criss crossing randomly through the small city center.
You see that little contraption in the window? It's called a gossip mirror, and it was literally used to spy on people up and down the street. This was the first time I heard of them and I could see them all over the city. So funny.
I think this yard was the most beautiful and enchanting place I saw, especially in it's autumn colors, going hand in hand with the red buildings.
Old firehouse turned in to a hotel.
Wait for the next post from Kristinestad where I'll show you some beautiful rocks and forest by the Baltic Sea. Until then, I hope you enjoyed these pictures :)
That's awesome!
LOL love the Harry Potter reference!
Beautiful fall photos thank you for sharing!
Soo good Photos and beautiful place. Keep shooting and sharing with us please.
Thanks, I will! :)
Such a beautiful place
What a lovely place, pure nature. So much space and peaceful surrounding. I love it !!
Thank you! :) I left out the pictures of people in the busy market square, on purpose :D
Looks like a picture perfect autumn town, Black cats and all!
It was really picturesque :)
favorite time of year to go exploring, these are some really great shots of the area that you visited- thanks for sharing
Thank you for viewing! :)
Some very high quality photos! Enjoyed them very much.
Thank you! :)
That yard makes me want to pile up some leaves and lie down in them looking at the sky.
Lush and beautiful.
I felt exactly the same way but I only kicked a bunch of leaves around and tried to be an adult 😁
Putting this here, since you are away traveling - saw this today and thought of you.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bitbangerlabs/colorspike-create-in-color
Not a shipped product yet, but maybe something to keep an eye on.
I've already been home for few day :D
Oh that looks very cool, definitely have to keep my eye on that one :) Thanks!
Hi @eveuncovered The place looks serene :) Do many fish near the boats there ? "use to fish a fair bit when living near good spots"
There were some fisherman on the opposite side of the docks :)
nice
Seeing such photos makes me wonder why I live in a big city... The shot with the black cat is 😂
Probably because big cities generally have much better job opportunities. Also, people in big cities tend to be friendlier, more open-minded and tolerant. You might think that, with all the hustle and bustle, people in cities like London, UK, would be busy, self-important, would not suffer anyone getting in their way. On the contrary, living a large metropolis trains you to become smooth and flexible. If you're not, you'll be creating disturbance and delay all the time. Even though the crowds will adapt to minimize any disturbance you make, you'll feel the pressure as if you were trying to resist a current. A large metropolis never sleeps and the flow of people and things is constant and can be overwhelming before you get used to it. There are no gossip mirrors in London. There are simply too many things around you for you to want to fixate on the details of anybody else's life.
You have a good point there, @markkujantunen. However, one thing I don't agree about is the friendliness of people. At least in my country, people that live in smaller cities and villages tend to be friendlier :)
Maybe friendly is not exactly the right word here. I'm talking about smoothness, good manners and things like that.
There is a difference between Lahti (population 118,000) and Tampere (population 225,000). People in Tampere tend to have slightly better manners, on average. But the biggest difference is the difference in the standard deviations in how well people behave measured by, for instance, the frequency at which someone will say something rude to you. To give you an idea of what I'm talking about in quantitative terms, my impression is that if a certain level of rudeness is achieved, say, by one percent of the population in Tampere, that same level of rudeness would be found in three percent of the population in Lahti. At the other end of the spectrum, if a certain level niceness is achieved by one percent of the population of Tampere, that same level is achieved by two percent of the population of Lahti. This implies that how well-behaved the people you meet in Lahti are will depend more on the individuals and their upbringing than in Tampere where there seems to be more of a general tendency to maintain a polite distance to a greater degree.
I have visited London, UK, eight times. During all of my visits, people were using polite words and being flexible and adaptive all the time, and I started to follow their example. I also noticed that in Stockholm, Sweden, the general atmosphere was very relaxed and friendly, moreso than in Helsinki.
You're kidding, right? 🤣 ...and London doesn't need anymore spying devices, they are already the surveillance capital of the world!
London does have a lot of security cameras. Precious few have been installed for the same purpose as the mirrors @eveuncovered saw in Kristinestad.
sure
Haha, move out of there! But I understand, I live in a small city and the view from my window is a ugly yellow wall...
Beautiful photos, by the way. Thanks for publishing them.
Kristinestad looks about the way I remembered it. I've actually been there twice. The second time was while on my cycling trip around Finland in the summer of 2001. I stopped in Kristinestad for coffee on my way from Pori to Kannus where my maternal grandparents lived. I covered the 368 km distance in about 21 hours. I spent 19 hours riding my bycycle and two hours resting and eating. I stopped in Merikarvia, Kristiinankaupunki, Vaasa, Oravainen, and Kokkola.
That's some serious cycling! I visited Kristinestad a couple of times when I was a kid, but hadn't been there for about ten years I think. I'm glad I get to visit all these places again, I appreciate everything more as an adult.
I visited Kristinestad a couple of times when I was a kid, but hadn't been there for about ten years I think. I'm glad I get to visit all these places again, I appreciate everything more as an adult.
Absolutely.
That's some serious cycling!
I rode my mother's regular women's bicycle. A very comfortable ride for an ultra-long leg like that. Five years later, I purchased a racing bicycle. After my first trip from Tampere to Helsinki (190 km) and about seven hours of riding, I noticed that I had lost feeling in the nether areas. I felt completely normal only after about two weeks. Yikes! I decided only do short distances on it from that time forward. Some years later, I sold it.
Very well done. A very beautiful place. I love the falling leaves, except when it comes time to clean them up. The gossip mirror is hilarious. Never heard of such, but I guess it is a good way to spy on people.
I want one on my home, though I don't think there is much to see on the fourth floor here :D
You just have to tilt it right and you'll be able to spy on the whole street.
Well, you never know. Superman or any of the super heroes could be in the neighborhood fighting crime and may fly by your 4th floor window :)
These are some incredible pictures! I loved your work!
Thank you very much :)
Beautiful photos, as always.. of course. I'm fascinated with the architecture and if I had my way, I'd like to live in a house built with wood.
Looks like most buildings have tin roofs? Makes the one of the church even more impressive. Looks like its all wooden shingles.
Thanks a lot for the high resolution, your sister is still barely visible 🤓though..
Wooden houses are the best! And yes, most have tin roofs, very traditional.
I'll let her keep her privacy, this is eveuncovered, not the whole family :)
As a Kristin, I feel I need to add this to my list of places. Also, so beautiful! Lovely pics. The alley between the red and yellow houses is my favorite. I'm a warmblood, so maybe I'll try for summer.
Is that your sister again in the middle on the bottom? She looks a bit like Lucius Malfoy in that one.
Hi Kristin! :) Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed these.
Yes it is, I have to tell her that, I think she's gonna take that as a compliment :D
That's funny. He is sort of handsome. He's just such an awful person.
Pratar du inte nån svenska? ;)
Tyvärr jag had inte märkt det här före för jag har jobbat så mycket jag är inte tillräkligt on Steemit..
Ok sorry, I'm not a Fennoswede but I pretend I'm good at Swedish.
Jag förstå lite svenska men I can definitely not communicate with it 😅
Bra bra fint fint! ;)