Il Dolce Far Niente: A City Walk, sort of

January 2012

It's the beginning of February. We have about half a meter snow in Southern Finland. Condition of skiing tracks like in a dream. Temperature meter showed -27C this morning. The sun was about to rise soon, no clouds. All prospects for a great day at outdoors, but ...

... earlier this week a doctor had diagnosed a repetitive strain injury in my heel. He had instructed me not to stress my heel practically at all, so walking, running, skiing etc. were all banned for the time being. Grrr!

Both of these meant a day off from outdoors, a boring day at indoors waiting. So, what to do then? Time to record some old outdoor stuff.

This walk happened on a cold Sunday, in the beginning of January. It had been cloudy some time already but weather forecast promised sunshine for the whole day.

Temperature was -14C, until then the coldest day of this winter. However, the sunshine ruled and inspired for some outdoor activities.

Hadn't been a long time in East of Helsinki. Wanted to capture some photos about a sunrise on the sea. Thus, headed by car to Vuosaari, a 54th suburb of Helsinki. Drove to the beach in Kallahti, a beautiful peninsula.

There were several people already there shooting photos. Most shivered by cold weather, but nature and the sun kept them there. It was the right time for sea smoke, too.

After capturing some photos and getting really cold, started to walk back to Kallahti. The sea had started to freeze, but mostly it was still open even near the coast line. There was just a little bit of snow. However, enough for kids, as they learnt skiing on a thin layer of white powder.

At Kallahti bay, there was a wonderful old coffee house. Hot coffee with just baked warm bun crowned the moment. Vuosaari is the right place to talk about coffee as Paulig coffee roastery has been located there a long time. To me it always brought nice smell around its neighborhood. Last year it moved its roastery closer to new harbour, so probably good smell disappeared, too?

After a break headed towards a newly built area in Vuosaari, Aurinkolahti bay. There was a walkway built between houses and the sea, following the coastline. Despite cold weather it was full of people, who slowly spent their day there. For me it was just a walk-through route to my second target, Uutela Recreation Area.

Uutela area is very popular place for outdoors. There is a nature path, some shelters where to make fire, beaches plus numerous places to enjoy awesome view of archipelago. Bird watchers stay there around the year.

Walked via nature path, stopping near shore every now and then. Followed the path through Skatta farm house (farm house became more famous after Miina Äkkijyrkkä, an eccentric artist, who used to live rich life in there few years back).

Not long from a nature path in east side one can see the new harbour of Helsinki, Vuosaari Harbour. Huge cranes loading goods into large boats is a common view there.

Time for daylight is quite short in January. It was time to head back to Kallahti beach, where my car stayed. Another good reason was sudden clouds which quickly came from the sea, bringing absolute cloudiness, covering just the coast line.

Uutela and Kallahti were places where I would return next summer, either by bicycle or by sea kayak.

GPS stored route, 16km (view larger map):

Some photos