#7 - Arrested Development: birds, scissors and Estonia
2/15/15
I suspect anyone who has written about their travels to Finland has included similar information found in this post…regardless, I hope you will find this “new” and enjoyable. Cheers!
I passed a man, in his twenties, walking through the city this evening. He was Finnish (speaking English) on his phone to someone who was not Finnish. How do I know? At the point we passed each other I heard him say, “…and so you know, Angry Birds was created here in Finland.”
I discovered this little tidbit of information months before my arrival. Having been here now for several weeks and more aware of my surroundings, I thought to myself after hearing this comment, “It’s good to be in-the-know”. Had I not known, I would have surely picked up on the (not so subtle) visual clues that are littered throughout Helsinki; Angry Birds yogurt, candy, canned fruit drinks, themed kiddie playgrounds, and even graffiti.
Nokia is also a Finnish company. I was told, however, that its recent takeover by Microsoft was not received well by many Finns; these are proud people who do not like to see a home-grown company exchange hands.
Walking through one store I could not help but notice the abundance of signage and products associated with Fiskars. This was a company I was familiar with having spent 19 years ordering art supplies for the classroom - Fiskars is the go-to company for scissors. Finding out that they were a Finnish company was complete news to me.
I suspect anyone who has written about their travels to Finland has included similar information found in this post…regardless, I hope you will find this “new” and enjoyable. Cheers!
I passed a man, in his twenties, walking through the city this evening. He was Finnish (speaking English) on his phone to someone who was not Finnish. How do I know? At the point we passed each other I heard him say, “…and so you know, Angry Birds was created here in Finland.”
I discovered this little tidbit of information months before my arrival. Having been here now for several weeks and more aware of my surroundings, I thought to myself after hearing this comment, “It’s good to be in-the-know”. Had I not known, I would have surely picked up on the (not so subtle) visual clues that are littered throughout Helsinki; Angry Birds yogurt, candy, canned fruit drinks, themed kiddie playgrounds, and even graffiti.
Nokia is also a Finnish company. I was told, however, that its recent takeover by Microsoft was not received well by many Finns; these are proud people who do not like to see a home-grown company exchange hands.
Walking through one store I could not help but notice the abundance of signage and products associated with Fiskars. This was a company I was familiar with having spent 19 years ordering art supplies for the classroom - Fiskars is the go-to company for scissors. Finding out that they were a Finnish company was complete news to me.
Skype (not a Finnish company) was developed in part by two Estonians, with a large portion of the company still situated in the capital city of Tallinn. I traveled to Tallinn for a weekend jaunt; a two and a half hour boat ride on a small cruise liner out of Helsinki and across the Gulf of Finland. At 40-50 euros round trip, it is a cheap and popular voyage. Its lure is also rooted in lower taxes, and Finns will use this as an opportunity to load up on alcohol. I was told this beforehand by several people but you don't really get a sense of it until you see the alcohol being carted on the boat in suitcases, large bags, and any number of wheeled contraptions for the voyage back to Helsinki.
This short trip included museum visits and leisurely walks around "Old Town" where buildings are beautifully rooted in medieval architecture. Store employees, some in attire reminiscent of days gone-by, wait outside doing their best to lure in potential customers. It is a poor comparison, but the first image or reference that came to mind was a Renaissance festival…with a Russian flavor. Either way, walking through the narrow cobble stone streets was like a stroll back in time….until you round the corner and see a McDonald’s unsuccessfully trying to blend into the surroundings.
We visited several museums in Estonia; not having to keep a brisk pace, with excitable students leading the way, is something I am not generally accustomed to. So, it was with great enthusiasm that I seized the opportunity to read each description that accompanied each display without having to look over my shoulder to see if I was missing a student!
Learning about Estonia’s history made me recognize how little I know about this area of the world. I found myself in awe reading the personal accounts of people who were forced out of their homeland by the Soviets during World War II, and the incredible adversity they faced. It was difficult not to think about my own children after reading one story about a young girl and her brother who were separated at a young age from their father. The glaring difference of course was that I will see my kids in the coming weeks whereas this story had a very different and tragic ending. There is never enough time to absorb everything a museum has to offer, but as I walked away I found myself wanting to learn more, and having a greater appreciation for the life I was living.
Also on display in the museum was a rusted sphere about four feet in circumference; the shell of a bomb. One of the many tragedies that still exists from the Second World War is what lies at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. Scattered across the ocean floor is the largest collection of explosives than anywhere else in the world; rusting away, many still explosive and containing hazardous chemicals (gases). In recent years, some of these unpleasant relics have been accidentally caught in the nets of fishing vessels, and washed ashore of the Baltic coastlines. It was hard not to think about this nugget of information on the boat ride back to Helsinki…in waters adjacent to the Baltic.
My impression is that Estonia is a country that has struggled to find its identity, particularly with regards to art. At the Museum of Occupations in Tallinn, one man wrote in a letter home to his wife how his job as an artist working under Soviet rule was dictated in every way imaginable, from how to paint, what to paint, and what size of the canvas. This was made clearer to me during a visit to an Art Museum in Tallinn where I could not help but notice that so many of the paintings were reminiscent of other artists; Winslow Homer and Norman Rockwell come to mind. It’s as if the artists of this area were looking outward to others for inspiration in regards to technique and traditional subject matter. Artists by nature borrow from previous exemplars. In this case, however, very little seemed to evolve in what some might describe as an “arrested development”.
“…and don’t you wonder, why in Estonia they say, Hey you…” – Morrissey
This short trip included museum visits and leisurely walks around "Old Town" where buildings are beautifully rooted in medieval architecture. Store employees, some in attire reminiscent of days gone-by, wait outside doing their best to lure in potential customers. It is a poor comparison, but the first image or reference that came to mind was a Renaissance festival…with a Russian flavor. Either way, walking through the narrow cobble stone streets was like a stroll back in time….until you round the corner and see a McDonald’s unsuccessfully trying to blend into the surroundings.
We visited several museums in Estonia; not having to keep a brisk pace, with excitable students leading the way, is something I am not generally accustomed to. So, it was with great enthusiasm that I seized the opportunity to read each description that accompanied each display without having to look over my shoulder to see if I was missing a student!
Learning about Estonia’s history made me recognize how little I know about this area of the world. I found myself in awe reading the personal accounts of people who were forced out of their homeland by the Soviets during World War II, and the incredible adversity they faced. It was difficult not to think about my own children after reading one story about a young girl and her brother who were separated at a young age from their father. The glaring difference of course was that I will see my kids in the coming weeks whereas this story had a very different and tragic ending. There is never enough time to absorb everything a museum has to offer, but as I walked away I found myself wanting to learn more, and having a greater appreciation for the life I was living.
Also on display in the museum was a rusted sphere about four feet in circumference; the shell of a bomb. One of the many tragedies that still exists from the Second World War is what lies at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. Scattered across the ocean floor is the largest collection of explosives than anywhere else in the world; rusting away, many still explosive and containing hazardous chemicals (gases). In recent years, some of these unpleasant relics have been accidentally caught in the nets of fishing vessels, and washed ashore of the Baltic coastlines. It was hard not to think about this nugget of information on the boat ride back to Helsinki…in waters adjacent to the Baltic.
My impression is that Estonia is a country that has struggled to find its identity, particularly with regards to art. At the Museum of Occupations in Tallinn, one man wrote in a letter home to his wife how his job as an artist working under Soviet rule was dictated in every way imaginable, from how to paint, what to paint, and what size of the canvas. This was made clearer to me during a visit to an Art Museum in Tallinn where I could not help but notice that so many of the paintings were reminiscent of other artists; Winslow Homer and Norman Rockwell come to mind. It’s as if the artists of this area were looking outward to others for inspiration in regards to technique and traditional subject matter. Artists by nature borrow from previous exemplars. In this case, however, very little seemed to evolve in what some might describe as an “arrested development”.
“…and don’t you wonder, why in Estonia they say, Hey you…” – Morrissey