Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Hanna Ott - Greetings from Helsinki




Dear room 13,
This sunny week we went exploring Helsinki. First we wandered around Lauttassari which is where we live in Helsinki and found a beach five minutes away! I was wrong when I thought Helsinki didn’t have a beach. After a night’s rest we went to the National History museum of Finland where they had lots of cool things to see and do, but there was one painting that really caught my eye. It was called “Attack” and had a maiden and a two headed eagle on it, and the eagle was trying to pull the Finnish book of law out of the maiden’s hands. The maiden symbolized Finland, and the eagle Russia (no offence, Russia!). The two countries are neighbours, and there were a whole lot of wars between them.
On a sunny day we drove to an outdoor swimming pool where the swimmers trained for the Olympics in 1952. There were 10 meter diving boards and a wading pool, plus an aqua jogging lane!
We have a sauna in our house downstairs; it’s on 2 days of the week, men and women on separate days. Saunas are a Finnish tradition. Lots of Finnish residents have a sauna in their house or back yard, and if they live near a lake, they will jump into it to cool down!

Sunny greetings from Helsinki,
Yours,
Hanna.

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