Let There be Pictures :)

These pictures are not very touristy and aren't particularly architectural, but are mostly documentation of places I have been regularly wandering the last two weeks.

This is the SeaHorse restaurant where we all ate our first Friday here - where I had Vasmuck (sp) and meatballs and tried my first fried herring:

 This the grocery store closest to the apartment where I go about 3-4 times/week

 The Thai restaurant across from the grocery store where we've been twice

 The tram that goes right in front of our apartment:

 These two crazy expensive dresses make me want to try them on every day I walk back from Kampii (the main bus station)

 This is the coat I want mom to buy and wear (it's dark gray, my flash just killed it):

 Stockmann, the largest department store in Helsinki:

 These signs appear every other block in the city centre.  According to the first Finn I met, they have the best burgers in Finland.  I have yet to eat one, but think it should be considering a junior burger is a great deal at 2 euros (that's $2.60)...they do not have cheap food in Finland.

 This is the hot chocolate I got on Friday morning - so lovely and sooo yummy!

 This is the Triennale 001 chair which won an award n 1960.  It would cost about 2000 euros to purchase and I had to make and appointment at a showroom in order to see it.  Thankfully, it's quite comfortable.  The up close picture is to show the joint that is surprisingly welded and sanded amazingly well so as to appear mold formed.  Yesterday afternoon I started a drawing of this chair which is due Monday morning for my furniture design course.

 Saturday morning we went to the National Museum as a furniture design class.  I thought we would be looking at contemporary chairs, but instead we looked at historical chairs.  The chairs ranged from a hollowed out log with a seat to a bridal chair from around the 1600s.  On display at this same museum were ancient tools, skulls of long-gone Finns, armor, and dollhouses.  The dollhouse exhibit was a great surprise to me not only b/c it was there but also because some of them (in my opinion) looked like children had made them.  I know that is probably unkind to say as I do not have the patience or dexterity to make anything as accurate as the dollhouses I saw.  The furniture in them was truly wonderfully detailed.

 After the museum, we walked to the Artek store to look at more contemporary furniture.  These three shots were some of my favorites.  While I tended to like the wood pieces and chairs that combined wood and fabric, I was very surprised by the comfort of a few of the purely plastic models in which I sat.  I think one of the most challenging things about designing my own chair will be thinking about the ergonomics of the seat and the back....I think I want to make the chair have a back but am also curious about more of a stool design...

 This is the Kamppi station.  It is a combined bus terminal and shopping mall.  Since being in Helsinki, I've probably not been inside it at most two days and have at least walked by it every single day.  If you look closely you'll see that to the left of the entrance is a Merrimekko store!