A reflection in a glass screen showed a fellow passenger standing on the other side of the restaurant car. He had spread a few dozen coins on the table and was arranging them over and over again. Once in a while he walked away, leaving the coins on the table, then came back and continued. J walked to the counter to get another beer. The coin arranger was now doing buddhist prayers, followed by slow-motion karate moves targeted to a window frame. Other than that, he looked like a normal young man. Going to Turku, just like J was.
I recently visited Hyvinkää, a town in southern Finland. I expected a typical small Finnish city, but Hyvinkää was bigger than I thought, population over 43000.
The main street has stores spread over a surprisingly long stretch. I guess there was no shortage of space when the streets were done, many of them are really wide. There are nice boulevards and lot of trees along the streets. Architecture is like in most Finnish towns, no common theme but different kinds of buildings next to each other like there was no desire to make it look nice. Quite a few ugly concrete buildings from 70's and a lot of smaller wooden buildings. The trees save a lot, making the general view quite nice. This was on a beautiful summer day; on winter the view is of course totally different (worse).
We didn't check out the tourist attractions, but at least the railroad museum I'd like to see. There is also a pyramid-shaped church, which might deserve a closer look. In the downtown there was an outdoor art exhibition, with works here and there. Ski resort Sveitsi, while being closed for the summer, provided good views for us. Its peak is surprisingly high considering that the area around it is quite flat. We did also an all-day hike on Kytäjä-Usmi wilderness area, stopping at the fireplaces along the route to enjoy sausages and beer, and cooled down by swimming in the lakes.
Tallipiha (Stable Yard) is an idyllic group of handcraft shops in downtown Tampere. In addition to shops and cafe there are also animals such as horses and sheep. This is a great place for tourists to buy souvenirs, but for locals too it is a nice target for a weekend walk.