Oops!

I am very sorry to have neglected my blog for such a long time! I blame Facebook but really it's just an excuse.

I've had a very lovely, quiet, traditional Christmas time visiting my parents up north. Christmas Eve (the big celebration takes place on the Eve rather than the Day in Finland) was traditional: sauna, Christmas dinner, presents, mass in the evening. I felt really elevated by the mass: the lights, the joyful hymns of praise (like 'Oh Come All Ye Faithful' by John Francis Wade - hymn 27 in Finland) and how they sounded with the organ. My only complaint is that people did not sing loudly enough. With that sort of joyful songs, they should sing their heart out and sing out loud if they come to the church!

Otherwise during the holidays I've done a bit of writing work and watched French & Saunders and Absolutely Fabulous; I've got the box set of the complete series of both (though sadly they don't include the specials) and I'm such a huge fan. Absolutely Fabulous is, apart from making me laugh more than just about anything, one of the most psychologically perceptive comedy shows I've seen. And French & Saunders... well, it's just pure brilliance.

It has been really cold on most days until, minus 27 Celsius at lowest, but I have done some forays outdoors, dressed in several layers of cotton, wool, skiing overalls and mittens - once to take an oxygen trip in the form of wading around the field through the snow at a brisk pace (a real power exercise that!); and once to take some pictures. Temperatures of below minus 20 C are funny in that only then does it begin to look like everything is frozen solid and standing still out there. It doesn't feel like that when it's only -15 C or so. Another special thing about the very very very cold temperatures is that they often create an extraordinarily beautiful blue, sleep-like atmosphere. Here's a picture - this one taken through the window.

I'm travelling back home to Helsinki on wednesday. I'll be trying to go see the city's New Year things on New Year's Eve although if it's too cold I suppose I might just watch it all on telly.

Here's hoping everyone will have a good 2010!

A winter day is white, blue and silent

It really is. I'm happy because proper winter has arrived. It has snowed and the temperature fell to minus 10 degrees celsius. A short, brisk walk in the cold air (properly, warmly dressed of course) is incredibly invigorating. Today I really enjoyed the nibbling of the cold on the cheeks, the dry sound of the -10 C snow under the heels and even the familiaring stinging, tingling sensation when your fingers get a bit cold (and no, I didn't go barehand, I'm not a fool - I had thick mittens on my hands).

Here is an image of melancholy beauty: fallen, brown maple leaves covered by frost.

Warm wishes

If you stare at the picture long enough, you can almost see the flames fluttering.

I bought a lot of candles yesterday, in an attempt to bring some warm, cosy light into the dark. For a couple of days it looked like it was going to get colder; proper winter coming and all that. But no, it's again well above zero, wet, cloudy. Of course, even if it gets colder it doesn't mean it will snow. Oh, it's also dark, obviously. That goes without saying. I wonder if December is going to be the same as November?

All the same: warm thoughts to all!

Update

Didn't get it. Bah.

Anticipation

I have feelings of anticipation, to put it mildly. They are going to decide about the research grants I applied for today, so I'm waiting to see if they're going to put up the info on their website soon. It's a Finnish foundation connected to the Kone company, which is one of the leading businesses in the world in the field of elevators and escalators - so, one of those foundations started by industry magnates who wanted to become patrons of culture. I have no idea of my chances, but last year they approved 19% of the applications, which is pretty good for foundations awarding grants. It would be good because it's a bit over 25 000 euros for 12 months. If I don't get it I will have to apply for the unemployment money at least for some time, while I apply for other things. There's one grant application that's still open, but they don't decide on it until February. The unemployment money isn't much financially, but it's not too bad for a limited time, and I also have a small amount of savings. I just hate applying for such things, with all the millions of appendices you have to have with the application etc. Oh well...

Otherwise things are fairly ordinary. It is November. It rains and rains and rains and is cloudy every day. I have got some work done on the papers I'm working on. At least there are things to celebrate: last sunday was my younger nephew's first gig with the choir he's in - it's the small children's music play school (or whatever you could call it in English) of Cantores Minores, which is a famous boys' choir here; their Christmas concerts are sold out well in advance each year, etc. My nephew's choir performed at a children's church service for the first Advent. They sang three songs connected to the Advent theme and did very well. An immensely adorable sight too, about ten little boys in their best clothes, white shirts, hair neatly combed etc. This coming weekend is my younger nephew's birthday - he'll reach the proud age of 5.

To end, here is a hitherto unreleased and unseen U2 video that was discovered in the vaults not too long ago:

And this particular thing works on so many levels, and I'm sure especially the ladies can relate to it:



I completely adore these two ladies.

Where is he going and where coming from?

Another image of misty beauty

Magical Mist

This was today, in the morning and early afternoon.

I have been complaining about November, and never would I have thought to see this kind of a November day. It was both sunny and misty, which gave the air a silvery, soft gleam. But when I got to the bay I saw the most amazing, white mist above the water, flowing and swirling, like straight from the world of myth. It was gone after 1 pm and the sun didn't stay much longer.

Two November moods

Monday, November 9th

Wednesday, November 11th

It's quite amazing how the mood can change from one day to another, and all that is needed is a bit of sun. But, for some weird reason I also like the mood of the first picture, melancholy as it is. Maybe it's something to do with Finnish mentality? Generally speaking, though, I wouldn't mind if the year skipped straight from early October to the late January or so.

Having quite a lovely weekend: it was my elder nephew's 10th birthday, so I went with my parents who have been visiting. Also present were, in addition to the whole of my brother's family of course, my sister and her boyfriend, my sister-in-law's brother and his wife. The food was wonderful, as is always the case with the stuff prepared by my sister-in-law, and lively time was had with a house full of people (one of whom is a highly energetic almost-5-year-old). My elder nephew is very much a rock guy, so I got him a t-shirt of his favourite band and also a wall flag. They seemed to be to his liking.

November Mist

A lonely flight under the moon

My favourite among the photos that I took the other night when I managed to drop one of my lenses in the water - my favourite, that is, among the pictures I have gone through and edited so far.

(By the way, in my browser, at least, the small picture looks odd - like it was heavily compressed. So if you have the same problem, be sure to open it in larger size in a different window).

Just a randomly chosen picture. This dog was definitely seeing to his siesta. This was on the walkway that goes around the Acropolis and is for a good section barred from cars. I was wondering because I kept seeing lots of dogs running around free, all with tagged collars. I don't think Athenian owners would let their pets run free in the city, as that would be too dangerous, so I'm pretty sure the authorities have collared and tagged the stray dogs to be able to monitor them.

I'm a bit under the weather unfortunately. Yesterday I had a fever of 38 C. After resting for most of yesterday - reading Minister Jim Hacker's diaries from Yes, Minister - and after a good night's sleep the fever was gone in the morning, but I'll have to see what happens today. I'm very annoyed about the timing because just on wednesday I bought a ticket for a concert which would be this evening. Only 10 euros so financially not a great loss, but I'm a big fan of the artist, a Finnish singer-songwriter called Jarkko Martikainen who is one of the best lyricists in the country. Fingers crossed that I'll feel well enough to go in the evening.

Gentle beauty

Here's an image of delicate beauty. This is from the National Gardens in Athens.

My trip to Athens took a slight negative turn towards the end: my wallet was stolen last thursday; the thief got two credit cards and some cash. The old story: a rush hour crowded bus and a moment of carelessness on my part. I was alright money-wise though, since my brother sent some money via Western Union. It's easy enough to get new credit cards, just takes some time to wait. It is very annoying though. Despite this my trip was very successful: the Blegen Library is absolutely brilliant and I got lots of work done; I saw quite a lot of things; and the hostel of the Finnish Institute is really homely and comfortable. In the end, though, I must admit that I don't like modern Athens very much, one of the problems being the pollution. For those travelling to Greece I might actually recommend primarily staying somewhere outside of Athens and making day trips to the city for the sights.

Now that I'm home I'm enjoying the clean air, even though it is cold. However, I was not spared from further misfortune - one that I can only blame myself for: I was out there by the pier earlier today, photographing the magnificent moon. Standing just by the water, I began to change lenses, mittens in hands (because it was cold). As I was doing that, I thought to myself: "Better be careful so the lens doesn't fall into the water." And just then, the lens I was detaching from the camera slipped from my hands and plop fell into the murky depths. At least it was just the cheap kit lens which wasn't very good. But d'oh indeed. Had I but stood my back towards the water, the lens would have rolled away from it. Well, then again, in that case the lens might rolled into the street and been driven over by a car.

Such a perfect day

It was a national holiday in Greece today, so I had a day off. The Acropolis ticket that I bought a couple of weeks ago includes free entrance to several other sites, so I decided to go visit the ancient cemetery of Kerameikos. It was a vale of peace in the metropolis: to walk amidst the olive and cyprus trees and the ancient ruins, in the greenery, listening to the birds, watching white butterflies play in the mellow, warm air... I could hear the traffic in the nearby streets but all the same the peace was such that the ancient cemetery really felt like a sanctuary.

The Kerameikos museum houses some of the impressive pieces of Attic funerary sculpture art of the 5th and 4th centuries B.C., which survived until the last decade of the 4th century, when the tyrant of Athens, Demetrios of Phaleron, passed a law forbidding excessive spending on the grave monuments. This particular work of art moved me deeply. It is the grave relief of Ampharete, from 430-420 BC, and the inscription above the relief says, approximately: "Here I hold the beloved child of my daughter, which I held on my knees when we were alive and saw the light of the sun, and now in death I hold it, dead."

From the Kerameikos I decided to go to the Syntagma square and take the tram to the seaside in Palaio Faliro, a trip that takes about 45 minutes due to the many stops. The metro would be faster but the tram allows seeing much more of Athens. Faliro is located next to Pireus on the seaside. In the antiquity the area was called Phaleron - the above-mentioned tyrant was from there - and had the harbour of Athens before Pireus took that role. How I wish I had packed a swimsuit when leaving Finland! I had to settle for walking along the shore, marvelling at the immensity of the open sea and the straight line of the sea's horizon. I picked some beautiful, white stones, hewn smooth by the waves, to take home as a keepsake.

This is probably my last blog update in Greece: there are two whole days left, and then on saturday evening I'm flying back to Finland. Of course, there will be lots and lots of pictures to post back home.

Mare nostrum

Mare nostrum

"Our sea", that's what the Romans began to call it after they had conquered all the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. I went to Pireus today, and walked around the entire promontory, or whatever one should call it (look up "Piraeus, Greece" in google maps: I started from the metro station and then headed south to the roundish part and walked around it), along the Akti Themistokleous that follows the shoreline. Themistokles, in case someone's interested, was a fellow who in the 480's B.C. persuaded the Athenians to build a fleet of 200 ships, which was then victorious against the Persians in the battle of Salamis in 480 B.C. If I remember correctly, Themistokles was also responsible for fortifying Pireus, the port. But, wilfull as the Athenian democracy occasionally was, Themistokles was ostracized* in the following decade and banished. I can't recall the reason exactly, but he died without being able to return to Athens - although subsequently he was rehabilitated and venerated as a hero. It was about 24 C, cloudy and very humid though it didn't rain more than a few drops, so I greatly enjoying walking along the seafront, looking out on the Aegean and thinking of things like what might the ancient Athenians thought of the sea. They respected it for sure: it was the thing to do for sea travellers to ask for the favour of the appropriate deities before their journey, so that they might make the passage in safety. A funny thing happened at one point too: this old feller stopped me and said something in Greek. When I indicated I couldn't understand, he asked in clear English: "How long are you here for?" I said: "Just one week more", whereupon he asked "where are you from?" When I answered "Finland", he said "Ok, let's go have coffee." At this point I politely declined, and he left, saying "ok, bye bye." He had that weather-beaten look of a fisherman, but given the fact that his English was fairly fluent - not too common in Greece - he most likely was the proprietor of one of the restaurants nearby and was thus trying to tempt a tourist to come to his restaurant.

Pireus can be reached from central Athens on the metro in about half an hour. The metro line follows the ancient Long Walls: these two parallel walls, with a road running between, used to connect Pireus to Athens about 2400 years ago. They were torn down and restored a couple of times at least, but in the 2nd century B.C. Athens no longer had the resources to restore them. In the ancient times the port was a hugely cosmopolitan place, with merchants from as far as Phoinikia, Syria and Egypt, with all kinds of exotic cults being practiced and so on. I guess it's still cosmopolitan in the sense of all the ships and ferries arriving carrying passengers from all over. All the merchants are Greek, though, and the religion is Orthodox (Greek Catholic) Christianity.

*This was a system where the Athenian citizens could vote for the banishment of a politician, and if there were enough votes, the banishment was put into action. The votes were given on ostraka, shards of pottery, from which the name.

Aah, weekend!

One of the countless stray cats in Athens. I guess they're not too badly off what with the climate, and also there must be plenty of rats in the city and cats are of course hunters by nature. I snapped this above Plaka, below the Acropolis. The Acropolis would be rising to the left of the picture.

As a side note, it's technically wrong to call it the Acropolis, with capital A, because in ancient times there were many acropoleis: dwellings were typically build on hill tops due to the security these locations offered. So it was the case with Athens too, in Mycenaean times in the 2nd millenium B.C. In the 1st millenium inhabitation spread below the hill, and eventually the acropolis was reserved for sacral use only. Now it's of course known as The Acropolis because... well, because it's famous.

I've been so busy with work this week I haven't had the time to blog. Having said that, I enjoy working at the Blegen Library of the American School of Classical Studies. For instance only this morning I was thinking "My it's ever so nice to get up early and head out to the library!" It's such a brilliant library, because it has everything. Anything I might be looking for, they have it. The library also feels like such a solemn place: the readers going about their business and quietly concentrating on finding knowledge (I know, there's a practical explanation: the rule is "no talking"). The American School has long traditions, having been founded in the 19th century, but the traditions don't show in stubborn stickling to the old ways of doing things simply because they are the tradition. On the contrary, the school and the library have excellent database systems, research equipment etc. It's all due to funding. It's interesting how the U.S. is supposed to be a "young" culture but it still is willing to give more money to the research of these old things than the old continent. Not that I know how the funding is organised. Maybe it's a bunch of rich mesenates.

Apart from working at the library, on wednesday I went to the Finnish institute to talk with the boss about the article I'm working on (he was my PhD opponent). He had great comments to give, so I was very happy. The Finnish institute doesn't have much money but it IS located below the Acropolis just a few blocks away which is not too bad. The American School is nowhere near, in comparison.

Now I really do deserve the weekend. I don't have any fixed plans. I might go to the site where Aristotle used to have his philosophical school. I'll probably visit Pireus, the port of Athens. You can get there by metro. About 2400 years ago the port town was connected to Athens by long walls, in between which ran a road. The walls were razed down and repaired a couple of times, until finally in the 2nd century BC Athens no longer had the resources to repair them. Maybe I'll walk around Pireus along the shores. I want to see the Mediterranean.

To end, another thing I like about Greece is manners. It's considered good manners to greet people you encounter with a "good morning/good day", like when you buy something at a kiosk. I like that. One thing I hope to do, though, is to catch a couple of courses of modern Greek, because not that many speak English fluently here. I tend to feel embarrassed about not being able to speak modern Greek beyond simple things like ordering stuff at a fast food place. Sometimes I feel it would be easier to be like a certain percentage of American tourists who are quite confident to speak English and if other people don't understand them it's their problem.

Oh, not to worry, I won't start fuming about tourists again. And I do know American tourists aren't the only ones whose behaviour is so very, well, touristy. In fact, for instance the Brits are considered the absolute nightmare in many resorts...

Autumn in Athens

Citrus trees are pretty common here; there are some right by the corner of this building for instance. It looks like a lime in the picture, but they're really satsumas or the like because they turn yellow when ripe. They're not edible of course, far too much pollution.

I decided to use the public transport as much as possible today, and it turned out to be a wise choice: I kept coughing much less. Yesterday, walking along the large streets, the car exhaust fumes really felt bad in my lungs, throat and nose. The air must have been a bit cleaner today, as well, because it rained yesterday and during the night. Quite a different weather today: +24 C in the shade and sunny. It really felt like being in the Mediterranean, especially when I was walking around the Acropolis and its lower hillsides with their greenery, cyprus and olive trees and palms.

The public transport system of Athens is really excellent too, and cheap - a weekly ticket for all forms of transport is only 10 euros. They also play music at least in the central metro stations. This morning at the Syntagma (parliament square) station the music had a distinctly Arabic flavour. Perhaps someone in charge had fancied the CD, or perhaps it's a reflection of the fact that Greek music - like a lot in Greek culture - is heavily Turkish-influenced (although apparently this is something that many Greeks don't like to admit).

I must say that I really enjoy the fact that I know (and remember) the city well enough to not need a map usually (would of course be different if I decided to head out to the suburbs; and I will be needing a map if I go to Pireus - and I will, as I want to catch the sea). Of course I don't know all the streets and alleyways, far from it. But I do know the basic plan and the location of the major streets, so I always know which way I should be going. Not needing a map gives you a feeling of freedom, and it also has the advantage that you won't be automatically thought of as a tourist.

I was out and about in the city early today so got to the new Acropolis museum before the huge queues. A brilliant building that uses lots of glass to best effect. Also the exhibitions are fantastically arranged, though most of the stuff - or similar stuff - I have already seen in other museums. The walkway to the museum entrance has glass-covered sections which reveal the archaeological remains beneath, and also there's a larger, fenced-off open space where you can see the things beneath better. The archaeological remains look like the bases and lower walls of private houses, with a couple of wells. It really shows the situation with all building projects in Athens, particularly in central Athens: you just can't go ahead and build, because there are likely to be important archaeological remains beneath which have to be investigated and excavated and catalogued.

From the museum I walked around the Acropolis and to the Agora. I did not walk around it because I've seen it so many times already, but the Acropolis entrance ticket I bought yesterday gave free access to the Agora so I could go through the gates and over to Plaka. Yesterday I said to myself that I need to go back to the National Gardens when the weather is better, so today I did. What a wonderful respite from the din of the city! The greenery, the warmth, the scents, the singing of birds... I really hope I won't feel too depressed getting back to the cold and dark of Finland at the end of this month! Then again I'm sure it will be getting cooler in Greece too by that time, so it should ease the transition.

By the time I got out of the park I was a bit tired so I decided to head back to the hostel. I had in mind to rest a bit and then walk around in the neighbourhood, but in the end did not have the energy for that. Instead, I did the laundry and then just have been editing some photographs. Tomorrow I'm getting to work. In the morning, I need to go to the Finnish institute to pick up the introduction letter which will give me access to the library of the American School of Classical Studies. At 2.30 pm I will be at the library; the precise time is because they give out new entrance cards in the morning of each monday, and between 2.30 and 3.30 pm on mondays and thursdays. I will mostly be working at this library, though might possibly need something at the libraries of the French and German institutes as well. I'll be trying to work studiously from the morning to closing time (8 pm). Who knows, maybe I'll be able to do the things I need to do well ahead of schedule so will have some extra free days before I'll leave Athens.

Parthenon, etc.

This is a view on "my" street, i.e. the street where the hostel of the Finnish institute is located. I snapped it from my balcony. I think there's something adorable about the name of this cafe and also about the garishness of the neon sign. I haven't checked in to see what kind of a place it is. Might be mostly frequented by the men of the neighbourhood, who knows: these traditional Turkish type "social clubs" of men still exist in Greece though have been getting rarer in the recent decades. The hostel feels very familiar to me, as nothing much seems to have changed in the last six years: the apartment looks the same; the hand-drawn map on the notice board of the room is the same; so is the grocery store across the (narrow) street opposite the door of the hostel.

I got a good 9 hours of sleep, despite my reservations: I couldn't get the AC working so I had to keep the balcony door open a bit, which let in noise from the street. All the same I fell asleep fairly quickly, so I must have been tired. I headed out about 10 am, first walking around for a while, then heading out to the Omonia square metro station where I bought a weekly ticket that covers all forms of public transport (only 10 euros). Then I went to the Acropolis to see the Parthenon. I have seen it about 10 times already, but how could you not go see the Parthenon when in Athens? Beforehand, I was not going to go to any of the tourist places, but you just have to go to the Acropolis. All the same, I felt the familiar annoyance about tourists, because their behaviour is so, well, touristy. The entrance to the Acropolis through the Propylaea, right? It's a place where about a thousand (or whatever) people pass each hour. It's also a fairly narrow passage. Even so, some tourists don't think nothing of stopping right in the middle of the passage and blocking the way from lots of other people, because they just have to snap that picture just there with their little pocket cameras. Rant over.

In contrast, I did NOT go to the new Acropolis museum, because it had huge queues and I was hungry so I didn't feel like waiting in the rain. Instead, I walked back towards the city centre through Plaka where to my delight I found that the trad. pita grill that had been there six years ago was still there. The giro pita I had was so delicious. From Syntagma square I continued to the nearby National Gardens. A delightful place, offering some peace in the noise of the city. Definitely a place I need to go back to when it's not raining - especially as my visit now was cut short due to the fact that nature called and the park toilets were really not a place you'd want to do your business in. Some more walking afterwards, but it was still raining and I was getting tired, so I thought it best to head back towards the hostel.

In Athens

A couple of things at the National Museum which I went to as I happened to walk by it.

This 5th century dedicatory stele depicts a scene from the myths related to the Mysteries of Eleusis: on the left, the goddess Demeter gives an ear of corn to Triptolemos, so that he may give it to the humankind and thus teach it agriculture. On the right, Persephone, daughter of Demeter, watches.

An early 5th century bronze, variously identified as either Zeus or Poseidon. This is an example of the so called Severe Classical style, for which anatomical precision was typical.

My plane was at the Athens airport shortly before 2 pm. To my joy, I found that they have in the last six years built a metro line that takes you straight to the city. It's super modern and has air conditioning. In central Athens, I had to change line a couple of times, and by that time it was already rush hour so the metro was like a can of sardines. A very warm - several degrees above 20 C - and humid weather, so by the time I got to the hostel of the Finnish Institute I was soaked. A quick shower, and off I went to walk around a bit. On first glance, it doesn't seem like Athens has changed much in the last six years, apart from there being some new stores and cafes and such and some places that used to be there having gone out of business (particularly I was disappointed to find that a Greek fast food place not too far from the hostel where you could get great pork pitas has now been replaced by a Pizza Hut). Athens is still very very noisy and everybody drives a car everywhere. I don't think I've seen as many cars anywhere else. I'd better not walk along the major streets too much, otherwise I'm liable to get a lung disease from the exhaust fumes of the car.

Some more experimentation

The theme here is urban anonymity. Just experimenting and having fun doing so.

By the way, my referring to urban anonymity might make it sound like I found the urban existence a negative experience. Not so. I do not feel anonymous in the city and the city is where I want to be. But I do know there are many lonely people in the large cities of the world, people who do feel anonymous, detached; and I sympathize with them.

Actually, I should say the theme is anonymity in general, however one defines it or whatever kind one feels or is familiar with.

A bit of fun...

Enjoying fiddling with some new pictures. I had such a joyous photography session in "my" park nearby earlier this evening. I think I've mentioned it before but the lights in the park aren't of the cold, glaring kind but rather give a soft glow. That's why I love the park when the dark starts to fall. To stand in the softly embracing, falling darkness, to listen to the silence while waiting for the camera trigger to go off; that's meditation. I've had a cold in the last few days, so it probably wasn't so good for my cough. But it certainly was very good for the spirit!

Publicly I don't take pictures of sunsets ;-)

Red

The Road

No, I have not been reading Jack Kerouac lately. Just felt like posting this one.

Autumn

The line

Delicious lines in this pedestrian tunnel! This was in Tampere in late August.

New angle

I quite enjoy the challenge of trying to find new angles to places that are very familiar. This metro station definitely is very familiar to me, being the one closest to me and therefore the one I go through just about every time I go to the city.

The Modern Confusion

Early autumn light

Not a bad day today, not a bad day at all. I went to Vuosaari, on the eastern shores of Helsinki. I managed to find enough chantarelles for dinner. Then I had coffee and pancakes with whipped cream and strawberry jam in Cafe Kampela (flounder) by the harbour. Coming back home, I had a hot bath, throwing in the water some of the bath pearls my sister gave me. In the end I forgot to eat the mushrooms for dinner but did prepare them later. Fried in butter until all the liquid evaporated, a bit of herbal salt. Ate on toasted rye bread. Heavenly!

Just a couple of shots I liked. Taken last sunday when my brother and younger nephew visited and we were down in the playground in the yard.

Today was actually my birthday but I didn't do anything special, because I have a dentist's appointment in the morning at 8.15. Consequently I decided to move any birthday things to friday or the weekend. I don't have anything major planned, maybe go out for a drink with my sister; or go to Tallinn on the weekend. Or both.

I really should be in bed already due to the early rise, but I needed to get my hair dry after my bath. If only I could've got the dental check at the local health station just across the road instead of the neighbouring district. I could've slept an hour later!

Viikki

This was taken in Viikki, a district in northern Helsinki, last week. The residential parts are very modern, I think among the newest in the Helsinki region; also many of the university departments are located there. But it also has a large area of woods and fields, and a nature reserve by the bay which has rich bird life. A perfect place to walk on a late summer's day, with the sun as warm and full and as only late summer's days can have; golden wheat in the fields swaying in the gently-caressing wind; cows grazing in a pasture with birch trees... Wait! This is beginning to sound like the films produced by the Suomi film company in the 1940's which typically were set in the countryside, had never-ending summer and usually involved beautiful, blond young women and muscular, handsome young men making hay in the fields - and then making out in the hay. But it WAS absolutely beautiful that day.

The picture is towards the city. Beyond the reefs there's the bay, and after that Sörnäinen, the chimneys of the Sörnäinen power plant center-right, and still further, to the left of the tall chimney, the city center (the dome of the city cathedral visible there).

The look

This is an absolutely super geeky thing to do, but all the same I wanted to show what my computer looks like now. I'm pretty happy with it at the moment. I am running a Linux distro called Fedora, version 11 (Leonidas), plus KDE desktop environment (in Linux you can choose between several desktop environments that have their own appearance, set of software and controls). I am using the latest version of KDE, 4.3, which allows setting several virtual desktops and connecting different "activities" to each of them. This means I can set a different background for each desktop, but more importantly that I can put different types of program icons, folders etc. on different virtual desktops. So, I have four virtual desktops set up: 1) writing/work programs and folders; 2) audio and video stuff; 3) photo/graphics stuff; and 4) misc things. The pics I used are my own except the one on desktop 4.

Actually, it's not QUITE perfect: I would prefer slightly darker panel and desktop folders for the b&w virtual desktops. But setting a different "plasma" theme (so as to have, for instance, a different-looking panel) for each desktop is the one thing you CAN'T do with KDE, and on the other hand I prefer this transparent theme for desktops 3 and 4.

I suppose you could say: who cares what the computer looks like? But I do! As I work a lot on the laptop I want it to be both good to use and aesthetically pleasing!

DESKTOP 1
DESKTOP 2
DESKTOP 3

DESKTOP 4

Conference

I've been in Tampere from thursday to now, for a conference titled 'Passages from antiquity to middle ages IV', concentrating on the various social aspects of religion, with speakers from Finland, around Europe, the U.S. and New Zealand. My papers was today, I spoke on the subject of the spheres of interaction and cooperation between citizens and foreigners in the religious life of Hellenistic Athens. Went fine, but there were no listeners with knowledge of my field (nor such participants in the whole conference), so it wasn't particularly fruitful in the way of comments. But at least it gave me something new to put in applications. I was glad that my former teacher and PhD supervisor also gave a speech there, so I got a chance to chat with him; also there was an anthropologist who used to study at the uni of Oulu at the same with me and is now in Siena, Italy. Was lovely to see her too. The conference in entirety was very nice. There was a reception at the fancy city hall on thursday (free food, drinks, someone from the city hall gave a speech). Yesterday I took some time to walk around Tampere and take some pictures. The old cotton factory of Finlayson is especially interesting. This was founded by a British gentleman in 1820, and it was central in the industrial development of Finland. These factories are fascinating, because they were their own world: they had housing for workers, their own school, church etc.

Now I'm in the train back to Helsinki. Will have lots to do: a grant application by the end of August; the article on ephebes I mentioned earlier; I'm also going to work this paper into an article if I can come up with a fresh approach (as it is now, one guy had spoken about quite a few things in his book already; but I have some ideas that might lead somewhere). I'm planning to go to Athens for a couple of weeks in October. The current boss of the Finnish institute there was my PhD opponent so I'm going to try and see if he might have some valuable comments.

But first, I'm going to go to the woods of Viikki to look for mushrooms right today! Chantarelles and king boleti are my faves but I'm willing to go for other kinds too).

Four days of music

Sorry for the lack of updates but I've been sort of busy - with music! I've just had four days of wonderful music in a row, namely the Flow festival which is held every August at the location of the old power plant in Suvilahti, in one of the districts of the heart of the city of Helsinki, just next to the city center. Usually the festival lasts three days but this time music began on thursday already, with the concert of the legendary electro pioneers Kraftwerk. From friday to sunday there were dozens of indie rock, folk, electro, soul, jazz etc etc artists; lots of very fresh talent and some old talent too. There were some I missed due to the performances being so late and due to my running out of energy; such as the grand old lady of disco, Grace Jones, or Lily Allen. But a huge amount of fantastic music I did hear.

One of the absolute highlights was this:

I don't know if anyone reading my blog is familiar with afrobeat, in particular afrobeat as it was created by Fela Kuti. His youngest son Seun Kuti - now 27 I believe - has now taken up his father's band Egypt 80, and they gave a concert at Flow. I've never listened to Fela Kuti, but seems the word is Seun Kuti is more than up to taking up his position. And I can very well believe that after witnessing the show. This band OWNS rhythm. It's as if they hadn't only got the outer form of rhythm right but actually got under its skin and inhabited it. So powerful, heady, tight, feverish. And Seun Kuti has quite a presence on stage. "Young lion" is a completely ridiculous expression but I'm going to use it of him anyway. If Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 are performing in your town, DO NOT MISS IT.

So many other, absolutely fantastic performances (note, the links are to myspace). I was surprised how much I liked Kraftwerk on thursday. I haven't listened to them much, and only can recognize a few songs like Autobahn, The Robots or Tour de France. They didn't move me the way best rock concerts do (i.e. catharsis) but it was quite an audio-visual feat.

Then I might mention Tuuli Inari, mysterious, fascinating experimental electro (or actually the live set had a bass player and a guitarist too).

Or Le Corps Mince de Francoise, a group of three Finnish girls, whose music really got into the brain and the body and the dancing feet and put the entire audience in a feverish state.

Then again there was Röyhkä and Rättö and Lehtisalo. Kauko Röyhkä is a legend in Finnish rock, and he recently hooked up with two other major Finnish musicians and released a record. They were just brilliant and they ROCKED. The show ended in a tremendous, magnificent fall of feedback/noise. One thing about that is that when you really listen, you notice it's not just noise - there's a huge amount of modulations and levels and tones there.

One act I was really surprised of liking: Eero Johannes, one man electro/dance. It's the sort of music I wouldn't necessarily listen to on a CD, but live I really dug it - hard to say why, sometimes the music just clicks.

The best day was saturday. Sunday was a bit of a disappointment, the performers being more the sort that is good to listen to on a summer day but that doesn't necessarily touch in any deep level. Still, I did enjoy tremendously the jazz of the artists of a Finnish jazz label Ricky-Tic Records, with Five Corners Quintet. Immensely talented, tight playing by the band, and of the solo artists especially trumpetist Jukka Eskola was fantastic.

I'm afraid I presently only have the pictures on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/maria.niku).

3 am

I tend to sleep with the balcony door open. Last night, around 3 am, I was awakened by loud, drunken shouting down in the yard. Not fighting, just the sort of shouting that drunkards do after drinking so much as to have lost all concept of their surroundings. I guess they might have been at the pubs in the mall across the big road, and were not in a hurry to get indoors after the pubs closed, it being a warm night. There was a woman who seemed convinced that on some bridge somewhere - I didn't quite catch what bridge - there was or had been a group of men (or youths?) who had shot somebody at the back. Being only half-awake I didn't quite catch the details of it. A drunken man's voice was telling her she was talking nonsense, but she seemed convinced of it, repeating "I'm telling the truth". Strange what alcohol can do. Maybe the woman was confusing in her booze-hazy mind reality with something she'd seen in a film or a tv show. These people sounded not so much like occasional excessive drinkers but alcoholics who've drunk so much for such a long time that the alcohol has caused permanent damage to their brain. Or perhaps they had just lost it with the drinking in the summer. After a while someone shouted down from a balcony, telling them to shut up and go home to sleep, and a bit later they either quietened down or left, or then I fell asleep again despite their voices.

10+

On a scale of 1 to 10 my beach day was 10+. I went there around 10 am and just returned. Blazing sun but not TOO hot. I had +30 sunscreen which applied regularly so I didn't get burned. I drank enough water so I didn't get dehydrated and start feeling bad. The water was JUST perfect, +21 C. I did at least five longer swimming rounds. All in all it left a delightful, pleasurable, languid tiredness.
And I had a fantastic book which I finished on the beach: Death with Interruptions by Jose Saramago (originally published in 2005). One day in an unnamed country, people stop dying. Those who should die keep hanging on, not getting better or worse. This puts the country in quite a disorder, having unprecedented results to instances such as hospitals, insurance companies and undertakes. Families begin to carry their dying relatives to die beyond the border, where this still happens normally - and the maphia (with 'ph' to differentiate from the other organisation) takes it over and makes it a productive business. This goes on for seven months until a purple letter arrives at the desk of the chairman of the national television company; in the letter, Death announces that people will die again but this time those about to die will be notified a week in advance with a similar purple letter. So far so good, but one letter refuses to be delivered. However many times Death tries to send it, it always appears back on her desk. And so, she has to set about to investigate what exactly is going on.

Dum dee dum

A real indian summer earlier today, I walked some way towards the city. The scent of these late-summer flowers so wonderful, too bad it can't be blogged. Now it has changed: cloudy-sometimes-rainy.

I started on a new article today, typed the introduction stating the premise and the method. Shouldn't be too troublesome as I did the groundwork earlier. Was only later that I saw there was substance for another article there. Broadly speaking it's about immigrant groups, foreign ephebes (youths who participated in a 12 month training program of military skills and other stuff) and their ethnics (e.g. Demetrios Milesios, 'Milesios' the ethnic = Demetrios the Milesian, or of Miletos).

All sorts of things

My younger nephew visited me yesterday. He thinks it would be great if there was a tree that grows ice cream cones. It would have to be in winter of course so the ice creams won't melt. I think it's a wonderful idea. Come spring, you could gather the ice cream crop to your freezer.

Today, the Antiquitas library opened again so I went there in the morning. I confessed right away the loss of the key card. Nothing to it: I didn't even have to pay anything, and I got a new card right away. I really like the library - it's quite small, with only one librarian who is a down-to-earth and friendly person. I had missed the library.

In the early evening I, my father (who had been visiting since saturday), my sister and her bf went out for dinner in a restaurant in the district where they live - a really traditional place called Kolme Kruunua, or Three Crowns. It was originally founded in 1928, then refounded as a restaurant proper in 1952, the year when the summer Olympic games were held in Helsinki. They have retained the original appearance, only the bar counter has been counted. I really loved the mood, it reminded me of the restaurant in Aki Kaurismäki film Kauas pilvet karkaavat (Drifting Clouds), the one where the lead female character works at the start of the movie. The restaurant in the film was called Dubrovnik. I know it doesn't say much about the mood to those who haven't seen the film, but it was as if time had stopped - in the 1950's. Fantastic food too. Honest, good food with good-sized portions.

On leaving the restaurant, and while waiting for the bus at the bus stop close by I thought: it's good to live in the city. The streets feel like home. Though on the other hand I am glad to have the greenery and the woods here in the suburb where I live.

The Tallinn photos

Alright, here they are finally, my Tallinn photos. It's a round that starts and ends at the megalomaniacal Soviet cultural palace. This is because the catamaran harbour is located behind the cultural palace.

The photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/mr.wisty/TallinnEstonia#

A slideshow, if you prefer: click here.

Feels like Autumn is upon us

May sound silly for me to say this, since August hasn't even started yet and August is typically the holiday month in most of Europe. Still, I'm getting a feeling that the Autumn is here soon. It's partly because typically the Finns' holiday month is July rather than August, so the latter already feels like "holidays over". But mostly it's because the schools start in mid-August, so in late July the stores begin advertising school clothes (trendy of course, no school uniforms here), backpacks (also trendy) and pens, rulers, erasers, pencil cases etc. (very often, like the backpacks, parts of the merchandise range of a big Hollywood movie or whatever is popular with kids at the moment. Harry Potter, Spiderman, Lego Star Wars, Pokemon, Bratz...).

Still, August might turn out to have stunning summer weathers so I must fight the "summer is over" feeling.

I did my little trip to Tallinn Estonia. The morning catamaran took 2,5 hours instead of the usual 1,5 due to a technical fault, so I had a little less time than I had hoped. Nevertheless, I enjoyed my day hugely. The forecasts of the previous evening had predicted rain, but it was sunny and warm throughout (although I feel sure that if I HADN'T taken an umbrella along, it WOULD have rained). Usually the most interesting things can be found outside the typical tourist tracks, so I did not go to the city center but headed out from the port towards northern Tallinn. I walked along the seaside and then in the city districts. These are places where traces of recent history, the Soviet time, are still visible. The city center is shiny and full of glass and stone palaces of commerce, but here you can see blocks of wood and stone buildings that on the outside look like nothing has been done to them since the 1950's. Probably it's true, at least as far as the exteriors are concerned, because the fact is not much was done in the Soviet era, and now there is so much to repair and renovate that it will take years and years. I find places like these fascinating.

I could've done with more time but then again it's easy to get to Tallinn again, and very cheap. I'll post pictures when I get them edited.

Travel plans and other assorted bits and pieces

Not very grandiose but will be a pleasant day all the same.

I have the catamaran tickets to Tallinn reserved for tomorrow. I'm leaving on the 10.30 am boat and returning on the 7 pm boat. That gives plenty of time in a fairly small city like Tallinn. Will be a very pleasant day and I of course plan to take lots of pictures. I did consider one of the cheap hotel + travel packages too, but the hotels included in them tend to be ones that are mainly used by Finnish booze tourists. So, not very nice - that was my sister's and her bf's experience when they visited Tallinn recently, anyway.

Yesterday I spent some time nannying my nephews. My younger nephew greeted me with a hug, then I spent most of the time playing with legos with him. Still very Star Wars themed. The little one also gave me what he calls a "super smooch": a very long and very wet smooch on the cheek. Of course it was very lovely seeing my elder nephew, my brother and sister-in-law too. :-)

The City Beneath Her

One of those lucky shots just today. Given that she's elderly, she probably lives in this part of the city. Perhaps she was born and has lived her entire life here, and this is one of her favourite places where she likes to rest on her walk and look down at the bustle of the street below. I like to think so anyway.

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I did a little excursion today: to the neighbouring town of Järvenpää (30 minutes on the regional train), to see Ainola, the home of the composer Jean Sibelius and his wife Aino, who lived there until their death, that of Jean Sibelius in the 1950's and of Aino in 1969. The home is now a museum, left as it was when Aino was living there in the 1960's. No pictures I'm afraid as photography was forbidden in the house, but here's a picture of the grave monument.


Click THIS LINK or the original orchestral work of Sibelius' Finlandia (short interview at the start, music starts at ca. 1:00).

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Now I'm actually tempted by another excursion, this time to Tallinn, Estonia. I could take the fast catamaran at 10 am, be in Tallin by midday, and come back on the 7 pm or 9 pm catamaran. Only a bit over 50 euros two ways.

Eat Shit

Don't look at me, that's what the sticker in the picture says (better view in larger size). I was amused by this very succinct message and also wondering what motivated it.

Urban romance, urban reality

The older trams have real urban romance: the klang of the wheels on the tracks, the screech of the brakes in the turns...

And then another kind of urban reality: two empty liquor bottles on the stone steps, a faint smell of vomit somewhere close by.

Then there's this too:

"A diploma to the Rikhard Street library. The library is the best. Without the library I could not live."

And this:

"Port Train Street", a street sign that tells of history: both the Port of Sörnäinen and the train track leading there are now gone.

...

I've had a FABULOUS photography trek in the eastern and northern districts of the old heart of the city. I've been lacking in inspiration of late - well, okay, part of it has been lazing at the beach! But if I just get around to going, I'm bound to find something interesting.

Hehe, here's the video

...of Brüno's song Dove of Peace with Bono, Sting, Elton John, Chris Martin, Snoop Dogg and Slash. :-)



I've been pretty quiet in blog land, the reason being that I've been hanging on Facebook. I was suspicious of it but I have to admit that it's rather fun!

Something very old, something very new

I kind of find it fun how my line of research combines the very very old and the very very new. On one hand, the sources I use were inscribed in stone or written over two millenia ago. On the other, a pretty common image of Classical scholars is probably people sitting in libraries reading dusty manuscripts (not a word of archaeology here, it's a whole other pot of tea). Not so. Not any longer. For example, the majority of the inscription sources are available in a freely accessible online database (as transcribed Greek texts, the way they were published in text). And check this: the Greek and Latin dictionaries that I - and lots of other students and cholars of the field - use a lot are available as iPhone applications, costing a few euros a pop! That's about as new as it gets. Well done by Apple to authorize those apps!

Submission

Oh well, I relented and joined Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/maria.niku

Here it is!

I am of course talking about the wonderful charity single Dove of Peace that Brüno recorded with Bono, Sting, Elton John, Chris Martin, Snoop Dogg and Slash.

M - Everywhere

Though I'm saying so myself, I think this is a pretty good image of the modern ways of the world, in the sense of the consumerism, throwaway culture; the littering of our common environment (would you like to be one of the city employees responsible for cleaning out the parks? I wouldn't!); and yes, McDonalds and fast food being everywhere. In central Helsinki alone there are at least four McDonalds restaurants (not to mention all the other fast food chains), and it's not a big area.

Can't say that much has happened in the recent days. I bought a new terabyte size external hard drive, so at least I won't be running out of photo storage space soon. Very cheap these things these days, it's by Western Digital and cost 90 euros. The paper for the late-August conference is just about done, just have to checks certain things and read it aloud to make sure it fits within the allowed 20 minutes (and cut it if necessary). Today I went swimming. The water has cooled down to 18 C, but it's been warm today, so it was wonderfully invigorating. I also went to see the Brüno film on the weekend and enjoyed it tremendously. Also I didn't find it particularly outrageous though perhaps because I live in the fairly liberal northern Europe. It's much like Borat as a film, and if you like Sacha Baron Cohen's work (as I do), you'll like Brüno. If you have never liked his stuff, you'd probably best skip the film. As for those not familiar with Brüno, go to Youtube and search for "Bruno Rove", to find his interview on Rove, the Austrian talk show, hosted by Rove McManus.

Linux Geeks International membership

I surely must be well on my way to full membership of Linux Geeks International. A proper Linux geek tries out different distributions just for the fun of it - and I do. :-) I had a distro called OpenSUSE installed, and now I put in the latest version of Fedora (11), which is named Leonidas, on the side. Why? For fun and for a change, for wanting to see how it looks. Picture above - not as it's out of the box of course, I set up a different style and background picture. Another fabulous distro, easy to install and great support for my laptop specs. Super fast boot too. I only had to install a graphics driver but I expected that. Alright alright, I got some help from the Fedora forum as to getting the dual-boot to work. Wonderful places, the forums of the Linux distros. I've often received a response in under half an hour!

So, now I've tried quite a few of the popular Linux distros: Ubuntu (Gnome only, 8.10 and 9.04), Eeebuntu (a tweaked version of Ubuntu for the mini Eee PC:s, tried 2.0 and 3.0, base, standard and netbook remix versions), OpenSUSE 11.1 (Gnome and KDE), Fedora 10 and 11 (Gnome, KDE only slightly), Mandriva 2009.1, Sabayon 4, PC Linux OS, Puppy Linux. Think I'll stick to the ones I have installed now for a while: OpenSuse 11.1 KDE and Fedora 11 Gnome for the laptop, and Mandriva 2009.1 Gnome for the Eee PC. These are all distros with a graphical installer. There are several major ones that require text-based console installation and setting up from source code, but I don't think I'll go into them for quite a while. :-)

Now we're talking!

I bought one of these Baden-Baden chairs (I think that's their name) today, the sort that you can adjust to anything between sitting and reclining position. They're on summer sale in many places now, about 45 euros. Perfect for reading a book on the balcony, perhaps with a cold drink or a cup of coffee beside on the table! If only the summery weather returned now. It's raining and very windy this week so far.

Oh well, a good time to write that conference paper or to listen to my recently acquired CDs, like Two Suns by Bat For Lashes. Much hyped by just about every indie-conscious individual and their parrot but for once it seems to be worth all the hype.

Port pictures

Here's a set of pictures from the old port of Sompasaari. It took me a fair bit of time to get all of the pictures I took sorted out, mainly because last week had such a brilliant summer weather that I didn't feel like spending much time at the computer. Now the temperature has fallen below +20 C and it's semi-cloudy. Also, I always shoot in RAW, raw data produced by the camera, which allows editing with smaller loss of data/quality but also takes longer to go through the pictures as all have to be checked for necessary edits and saved in .jpg.