Sorry people. I know it has been a while since I posted, but 1 I got writer's block and 2 I just plain forgot. We had to write a lecture diary for this trip so I thought I might as well make it interesting enough to put on here. So here is a little piece on what I did last week.
(side note: For whatever reason, my computer or the internet is playing stupid games with me and I can't post pictures at this time. So, please be patient and come back so you can see pics)3/14/06--Introduction-- The trip began like any other . . . the night before I went to bed later than usual, then woke up earlier than usual and obviously left for the trip at a semi-early hour . . . as usual. Nine hours we were on the bus to Ǻland Island, with a few pit stops here and there. But really, I can’t call these places pit stops. No, no, more like high-class stops. High vaulted ceilings, extensive well-kept buffets, a Hesburger
(likeness to a McDs) at everyone, nice bathrooms (not Gucci nice, more like a housewife’s bathroom), “fake” wooden floors – mind you, nice ones though –, a convenient store with more than just junk food (bananas, apples, oranges, the like), and of course it wouldn’t be a Finnish store with out gambling machines. Poor people pay high taxes (about 50% of their income) and then the government puts these lotto machines all over the land for people loose more of their money.
--Breakfast -- Today we began with a typical Finnish breakfast, which is rather interesting because it seems as if Ǻland Island does its best to be separate from Finnish culture, but I digress. So, the breakfast consists of a variety of breakfast items from every part of the Food Pyramid. Unlike back home, there were no biscuits and gravy, bacon, pancakes or waffles, scrambled eggs, hash browns, or grits. There was “porridge” or something like it; I thought it looked like oatmeal. Maybe oatmeal is porridge. I will have to find that out. Even though the southern breakfast was not at my disposal, they had other regular breakfast items: bread that could be toasted –or not–, jam/jelly, butter, cereal, yogurt, milk, 3 minute eggs, 5 minute eggs, orange juice, berry juice, coffee, bananas, and apples. I am probably missing something, but you get the idea. Though, I did find it quite funny to have two clay jars that say 3 min and 5 min eggs, and I thought that the sandwich fixings part was a little off from what I would call a typical breakfast scene at a hotel. However, I am reminded that I have actually encountered sandwiches for breakfast before when I visited my kummi family’s daughter in Kajaani; I assumed it was their own quirky preference. Now I believe it is just a common custom in Finland.
--Discussion of Main Part of Trip--I find it quite interesting that the people of Ǻland and their government are desperately trying to preserve their cultural history by forbidding Finnish language in their daily activities. Sure people will speak Finnish if they know it and are talking to a Finn, but from what I have gathered the Finnish language just is not widely accepted here. Then again, neither is Swedish in many of the towns/cities in Finland. In fact, if I remind myself that Swedish is the second official language of Finland, and in Ǻland Island it is only Swedish, maybe it isn’t as crazy of a rule as I first thought.
The Ǻland Flag
As seems to be the case in all of Finland, it is the same in Ǻland Island. Almost everything closes after about 4 or 5. Therefore, when one is trying to find a place to eat a descent meal, that person will walk around for about fifteen minutes or more before they find some place to eat. Typically, it is either a pizzeria or a fancier restaurant, either both too expensive and dressy or just too expensive. I am still getting used to that part of the culture here. Where many American families regularly go out to eat, even on the weekdays, for the most part families here in Finland (seems also to be the case in Ǻland Island) eat at home – or they go to places where foreigners like us do not know about. I guess the good old phrase “It’s all about supply and demand, supply and demand,” makes sense here. Unless it is tourist season, which is typically in the summer months, the supply and demand of different restaurants to be open late at night is quite low or nonexistent. Tonight, a few of us decided we wanted to eat out and just get a little something. We walked around for about fifteen minutes before we found the trusty old Koti Pizza place. Though not exactly what I was looking for, beggars can’t be choosers, I settled for a delightful pan pizza with pepperoni – caked in the oh so, goodness of fattening grease!
3/15/06Another morning, another day . . . However, today started out a bit humorous. Yesterday, we were told that we would be eating on the road, which means if we ate out then it would be expensive. Thus, we pulled a granny and showed up to the breakfast buffet with an empty bag. Slyly, we acted like we were going to eat the sandwiches we made, and sneakily we wrapped them up in napkins and stuffed them into the get away bag! Got away we did, and a lovely free lunch we had on the road.
Today we visited several little places, most of which were in ruins. First stop of the day was at the northern most defense tower of the fortress Bomarsund: Notyik Tower.
The construction of Bomarsund Fortress and the defense towers was set into motion around 1832 when Finland and Ǻland were part of the Russian Empire. Fourteen defense towers were to be built all around Ǻland, but only three of them were completed. However, in 1854 the British and French completely destroyed the main fortress and defense towers during the Crimean war. After Ǻland’s defeat it became a demilitarized zone (and still is today). Now, what it means to be demilitarized is
- No military presence (not even one person in Finnish army uniform).
- Islands cannot be fortified (Milton said that at one time they wanted to reconstruct some of the old ruins, but this idea was shot down because of this fact).
- Ǻland is neutralized: must be kept outside the conflicts of warring countries.
- “Those who have right of domicile and moved to Ǻland before the age of 12 are exempt from military service” (Ǻland in Brief, 2004).
Normally, it is mandatory that all Finnish men spend at least on year in military service. I don’t think that would go over well in the States. Thus, after our visit to Notyik Tower, we made our way to the main fortress: Bomarsund. 
In my opinion there was nothing to really see, just a bunch of random ruins over a huge span of land. I took some cool pictures though. However, I still had fun and felt like a kid again in elementary school going on field trips and climbing all over things. However, this time we weren’t yelled at to, “Get DOWN from there!!” No, in fact we were praised at our ability to climb high and pose well for one of our many groups shots of the day.
Next, we visited the Kastelholm Castle.
Believed to have been built in the end of the 14th century, it is not known who originally built it and why, which I thought was rather odd. Anyhow, other facts: originally was built on a small island and was surrounded by water and moats. In 1745, it was severely damaged by fire, and became a ruin. Some parts of the castle were used as a granary until the 1930s. The castle has been partly restored. Nowadays, the castle is one of the most famous places for sightseeing in Ǻland. I don’t know why though. Quite frankly, I thought it was rather boring. I believe I have been forever spoiled by Biltmore Estates in Asheville, North Carolina. The well preserved home (which is much like a castle) is extensive and history ridden! To me, Biltmore is one of those places where you can go time and time again and never get bored. Kastelholm, however, is a place that I’d only like to see once. Sure there is history within those walls and signs up explaining what different parts of the castle were used for. Though, even with those signs I wasn’t impressed.
A few of us ate at Dino’s this evening to break the monotony of fast food restaurants and grocery store snacks that only leave you wanting more. What we encountered a bit of an annoyance concerning cultural norms in restaurants. I found out a couple of weeks ago that you do not tip in Finland and in many other countries in Europe (if not all of them), which I found quite odd because we had quality service. I am sill not wholly sure as to why that is so. Normally in North America you tip about 15% and you can go up or down on that depending upon how the waiter/waitress did their job. All I know is that the waitress at Dino’s would have gotten zip of a tip! Let me start at the beginning. Everything started out just fine, she came up to us speaking Swedish, and we promptly asked her if she spoke English. Thankfully she did and thankfully the restaurant had an English menu. She apologized that they had not updated their English menu in a couple years but said for the most part was about the same as the new Swedish one. She took our orders and said they should be out relatively soon. Food arrived, and we dug in. So far so good right? Here comes the downhill part. For the remainder of our meal never once did she come by to ask how our food was, if she could get something for us, or even refill our waters (or ask Matt and Suzi if they wanted more beer). In fact, Pierre had to her at the bar and asked for more water. She looked a little startled at the fact that he was asking for more water. Once we had finished our meals we weren’t sure if we were suppose to ask for the check or not. It took us forever to get the check because nobody really wanted to take the initiative to tag her down, and she seemed to be avoiding eye contact. I think from now on I need to just overtly make it known that we want the check instead of being subtle.
3/16/06
Over the past couple of days I have accumulated several booklets of information about Ǻland Island and today I have finally sat down to read most of them. I just wanted to touch on one major subject: population. When I read that in 1905 there were around 22,000 people living on 150 islands, and now the current population is 27,000 and people are only living on 65 islands, I asked the simple question, why? I mean, if Ǻland is rising out of the sea and thus gaining more land then why are more people gathering closer together? Wouldn’t that make people want to spread out and have more of their own land? Then, I thought of all the possible reasons. Possibly, it could be due to the mere fact that people all over the world are more than ever dependent on grocery stores and malls to help them survive. There are not many people in first world countries today that could live a substantial life without much outside help. Also, it would be impractical for companies to set up stores on 150 islands just so 50 or so people could reach a store at a reasonable distance from their homes.
