Market: the feast of fish
With the first light of dawn, when Helsinki still has not woken up to this autumn Sunday, traders Market and unload their goods on the quay, where the stalls are rising lazy while dragging unpacked boxes and colorful local crafts, startled routine, occasionally, by the clang of aluminum bars hitting the ground. Around the obelisk commemorating the visit to the city of Tsar Nicholas in 1833, Market Square is taking shape as a giant puzzle, seeking accommodation between the Presidential Palace and the waters of Baltic. The wooden chairs scattered around the terraces, awnings and counters tense start to rival the colorful. But still smells fishy in kauppatori, the largest outdoor market Finland and, undoubtedly, the most popular.
Whenever I have occasion, I've said before in VaP., Seeking the spirit of a city in a market positions, in a bar and in public transport. When you have little time to peer into the soul of a place you do not know completely, usually a precise temperature thermometer citizen. In Helsinki I made all three, but as the beer was quite expensive I spent a lot more time to wander around the market place before we got on the ferry, after a night of cruise, took us to Stockholm.
The place was bustling with people. The sun was out and the market was a party in a city in need of light
The noon, to return to the Esplanade, the place was bustling with people. The sun was out and the market was a party in a city in need of light. Helsinki is preparing for the winter reconnect with the days of just seven hours of light. Therefore, every sunny day is like a parting of two lovers facing imminent separation. The Sunday revelry can not hide that resignation to the inevitable.
The apparent kauppatori, Now, an unmistakable aroma of fish. The spring is full of sailboats that serve as bars and restaurants and their covers are full of people, relaxed conversations and herring dishes or smoked salmon. The Awoina, a red boat permanently docked on the port, is the most recognizable of all. The row of seats farther from the shore selling souvenirs and crafts. Reindeer skins, Sami knives, Russian hats, wool sweaters, t, wood carvings… At his side are distributed fruit stalls and verdudas, an amalgam of bright colors that pleases the eye. Above them looms the silhouette of the Uspensky Orthodox Cathedral, at which the sun starts coppery highlights when breaking through the clouds.
The spring is full of sailboats that serve as bars and restaurants and their covers are filled soon
Oceanfront, frontline, succeed the fish stalls exhibiting their huge steaming pans full of food. Dishes can be served on-, in any of the tables scattered around the stalls, while the conversations in several languages fly the intense odors. Very near here, rehabilitated a nearby hangar, is the old market (Wanha kauppahalli), to which we must come to soak up the neatness of its exhibitors. Prices, yes, are higher than outside. Just opposite, Visitors can find several posts of canned, much less crowded, a good alternative to escape just minutes from the hubbub of tourists and fish.
According to the morning progresses, Helsinki anyone would say that everything has come together in this square (just a few meters away to be diluted in half-deserted streets) to declare the sun, who gives a pleasurable minutes, in a city with an average annual temperature of 5,5 degrees, received as a blessing. The tourists are just passing, but it seems that the Finns were stored in memory playful and bright this morning to manage memories in the cold days of winter.
The Finns seem that were stored in memory playful and bright this morning to manage memories in the cold days of winter
After ruling lohikeitto (salmon soup), we face a salmon dish, whitebait and fish like herring (see photo), dotted with vegetables and roasted potatoes, one condumio appetizing that beer helps digest unhurried. In a nearby terrace, finish off with a coffee with a sweet native (warm pig), without suspecting that the curtain is about to fall. Without warning, each time it starts to rain harder and the awnings are quoted as discouragement spreads similar to a party just ended the open bar. The open bar, here, sol was.
For half an hour, a sense of helplessness runs the market. From awnings dripping wet the unexpected betrayal of a Sunday promised more sunshine. When the rain stops, the ground is full of puddles of pessimism. It's almost four in the afternoon when the boats start to make their engines roar to leave the dock and return to their shippers, offshore, to their farms spread by any of the hundreds of islands that dot the Baltic Finnish waters.
Suddenly, each time it starts raining harder as discouragement spreads similar to a party just ended the open bar
Tourists are swirling now to observe the maneuvers of ships conscientious. The agglomeration of vessels requires the highest skill of the drivers, in a show that starts even some applause. The market stalls start to dismount, while, with the same routine with which the sun has abandoned Helsinki, as if to anticipate the inhabitants that winter will return in a few days.
Comments (1)
Diego
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I know the city just a walk in a morning stop at the airport, but I got the same feeling you speak: deserted streets, cold, glimmer… Perhaps in that city, and better than anywhere, we have to take that “market route”, more than anything to see people in their habitat.
And salmon soup to warm. I think it is a good city "for passing through"
Hugs
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