A Canadian I met at a hostel in Estonia, was talking about how it can get boring looking at cathedrals and castles all day . . . I didn't think it was possible, but it's true, after you have seen a few they all kinda look the same. I'm not much of a museum person, but his advice was to try to find one thing in each city to do. The spy museum in Tampere was that one thing. It looked awesome on the web site, but unfortunately was dissappointing in person.
This was actually from the cathedral in Tampere, which I really enjoyed (outside picture is on here somewhere). Instead of an archangel on the ceiling, there is a picture of a viper, surrounded by mouldings of angel wings. The architect of the cathedral is quite controversial, but he thought it was important to remind people that evil can be found everywhere, even inside of a church. This is the garden of death, a famous painting inside, there is also a painting of a wounded angel but I wasn't able to get a shot of it, since the gallery was closed.
Moomin Valley! The Moomin's are hugely popular in Finland. It's crazy, every coffee mug I saw here had one of the characters on it. For those non-Finns reading this, you can find out about the Moomins here. There is a Moomin theme park a short ways out of Tampere, which I totally would have gone too, if there were some kids around so I wouldn't have looked like such a peodophile. But as it was, I happened to be in Tampere waiting for things to open (I arrived at 5:30 am) and found out there was a Mummin Valley there. So, I swang by the valley (aka the library basement) on my way out. Not much was there, some 3 d drawings, and things, it was kinda cool though. 
This is just one of the views of the river in Tampere, it's actually quite a pretty place to visit, and I would have spent more time there, had it not started raining every time my pants got dry! (I think it rained 5 or 6 times that day!)
Saying goodbye to Heli - sniff!
The church (from the outside) with the crazy viper cathedral! This was one of the first photos I took when I got off the train - around 6 am, note no people in the photo. I went back later and the place was swarming with tourists.
Window shopping (about 7 am, still waiting for stores to open), found some nice clothes, and puma shoes,
and coffins, and headstones oh my!
this is the sight seeing tower and dolphinarium. I was planning to go up the sight seeing tour, but by the time I got there it was raining A LOT, and well, from the look of this shot, I think I made the right decision in saving my money (it only got foggier as the day went on). So about 1 pm, I had seen and done EVERYTHING in Tampere (that's what happens when you get there so freaking early in the morning!) after consulting my guidebook, I took a journey to visit Hamenlinna! Comign up next. . . .
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