Finland: Kuopio – Peninsula City
Published: 10.6.2015
Right after we traveled through the capitals of the Baltics, we moved by ship to Finland where we paid a visit to beautiful yet bit expensive Helsinki. Still, it would be a mistake to pass it for there is lots to see.
In Finland’s capital we have spent only one and half day. We saw the port, sights, and tasted some local specialties. After a great walk, we moved to a train station. We took a modern Finnish train which transported us Kuopio, a city of hundred thousand people. This city is embodiment of Finnish slogan – the land of thousand lakes. It spreads on the peninsula that runs into Kallavesi lake. About one half of city’s area is water.
Kuopio hasn’t such an old history as it was founded only in 1653. City privileges were given to it only in 1775 by Swedish King Gustav III. There are, however, couple interesting 19th century buildings of awesome sport centers that operate whole year. As for sights, we can recommend you Lutheran cathedral or Orthodox church of St Nicolas. Make time for museums, galleries, or visit an open-air museum. There is more than enough of art, maybe also because the city is considered a cultural center of east Finland.
Should you intend to view the city from nontraditional perspective, visit Puijo hill with a tower on the top. You will have a fantastic view of the city, lake, endless forests, and surrounding islands from the top. The tower was built in 1963, soon it became city’s symbol. Should it be not enough, look in one of the local pubs there you can enjoy local Finnish dialect, or special meal called Kalakukko, a bread filled with fish.
As we have mentioned, there are sport centers in the city. And they are something! We visited a large ski compound with cross-country tracks, and ski jumps that are the most important in Finland. Every year, World Championship in ski jumping takes place there. Kuopio is also famous for a roller-skate marathon that takes place on many types of tracks up to the length of 200 kilometers! Interesting attraction in winter is the so called fishing on ice that said through a hole in ice. There are many other things you can do sportwise.
While wandering about there, we encountered not only sportsmen but also many students as the city has many universities. Students made the city cools and merry. With many good impressions we moved on this time to Rovaniemi which is considered the gate to Lapland. More you can read here ZDE.
Text: Oskár Mažgút
Photo: Beata Firicová
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