Finland, Oulu: Introducing The Doghill Kids (Koiramäen lapset) at the Museum of Northern Ostrobothnia

Mauri Kunnas must be one of the most loved illustrators and storytellers in Finland. The books on his wonderfully delightful Doghill Family have been concurring the world and the imagination of many, many children.


The books represented in the permanent exhibition at the Northern Ostrobothnia Museum in Oulu, Finland are 'The Doghill', 'On the Doghill Farm' and 'The Winter at the Doghill'.


The 1990's Doghill project was very large involving the Museum, The Artists Workshops, the Youth workshops and the Oulu Theatre. The aim was to bring history nearer to children by creating scale models of the very true to history books by Mauri Kunnas.

Through viewing the larger scale models and the tiny precise models of the everyday life equipment of the old days, children could relate to the real historical artifacts placed at the other parts of the museum.


Here for example are the looms that were used in weaving in the old days.


And here is the way the hay was harvested.

I found that while visiting the Northern Ostrobothnia Museum, the little exhibition on the Doghill Family was just so much fun.

Suddenly I remembered reading all these books to my own children. I remembered their great joy in looking at the illustrations and the way we could talk about the old days through the stories of the books.

It is just wonderful to see them as 3D scale models at the museum. I wish everyone could see them.

So, if you happen to be in Oulu, I urge you to do so. (You might at well see the whole thing, 4 floors of excellent historical displays, including the one on the seafaring).

It will be so very enjoyable.

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Finland, Raahe: Sharing Memories of the Old Times at Raahe

Sometimes while traveling the world it is good to look for your own roots and recreate new memories from where you were as a child. As an adult the place and the memories get a whole new perspective.

I remember Raahe along the Finnish Ostrobothnia as a town full of old wooden building streets but not much more. It was also the place where lots of Finnish teachers were educated before the university days, including many of my old family members.

I also remember all the stories about the sea, the fishing fleets and the jokes related to emigration and exploring the foreign countries. Lastly, I remember the presents we used to get.


One such an old present which the seafaring men used to bring as souvenirs to their wives were the porslin dogs from England. If you are walking at Raahe along the pretty old streets, you see them in the windows.

It is possible to interpret the language of these dogs if you know the old stories about the sea. If the dogs look inside, it means that the man of the house is in and you need to give him time to rest and not visit, but if the dogs look outwards, they are waiting for the father of the house (who is at sea) and you can visit to share the long wait.


These kind of dogs were bought to Finland from England during the 19th Century to every port but today they are especially connected with Raahe due to a clever ceramic designer who developed them for tourism along with the old stories.

Some of the original dogs sit nicely at the Raahe Museum's display of the old living room along the afternoon coffee set up.


This dog I found from the Museum of the Northern Ostrobothnia in Oulu about 100 km north of Raahe. The dogs usually come in pairs and are the mirror image of each other,


I went to visit the Raahe Museum as I was gathering information for my Crimean War history project. I wanted to know what had happened in Raahe in 1854 when the English fleet struck the ports of Finland.

In Raahe they burned a lot of ships and destroyed plenty of cargo, including the already paid cargo for the English shores. Apparently, they did not realise how big the trade between Finland and England was then.

There are some very impressive paintings depicting the battle at Raahe, which I found very interesting.

After becoming aware of the destruction in Finland, the compassionate English quakers collected a donation to Finland to aid in the rebuilding of the lives of the people in the towns along the Ostrabothnian shores. Some of this money was given to Raahe to ease the enormous unemployment that followed the war.


The creator of the very fine church art depicting the archangel Uriel and the 300 Century Saint Agneta was a man called Michel Balt. He came to Finland around 1650 and settled in Oulu. He worked in many wooden churches in Finland, including in Turku. Unfortunately, most of his work has been burned. Only the pieces that were in the Raahe church are preserved in their entirety.


For those people interested in church art, Raahe museum is a treasure hunting place. It turns out that while in most European countries the Catholic art was taken down after the Lutheran faith overtook them, this didn't happen in Scandinavia which gives us a possibility to see these lovely pieces at Raahe Museum today.


The most curious thing I found in Raahe is the toy box made by Samuli Sarkkila. It represents the townspeople during the 1920's and -30's. He used to take the box to the markets with him and for a fee tell stories of the townspeople to his audience.

What I remember best about Raahe are the stories my grandfather used to tell. For my great delight I found that the storytelling tradition in Raahe is still there.

I would recommend you go, see and listen for yourselves and make the memories of your own at Raahe town.

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Finland: Lapland, Rovaniemi: Meeting Santa at the Arctic Circle

If you wanted to meet the Santa in person at any time of the year, I suggest you travel to Finland, to Rovaniemi, Lapland.

There is a special place, right at the Arctic Circle where Joulupukki, as the locals call him, the Santa Claus or St Nicolaus, whichever you prefer has built his base. It's been there all the time I remember. I was born in that city so I know and have visited Napapiiri many, many times since my childhood.

It is a magical place, where you can meet the Santa, talk to him, get to know his elves and the reindeer. You can relax in the festive atmosphere, shop to your heart's content or just browse around.

Most of all you can visit the Santa's main post office, write to your friends and order them a letter from the Santa. And what is really cool, the letters and cards you ordered will come to them right at Christmas, if you want.


Bellow is the line of the Arctic Circle. You can stand on it and also get a certificate that you have crossed it. Pretty impressive. To the North of this line, it is guarantied that the sun will stay up for at least 24 hours for one period in the summer and it won't rise at all for a least one 24 hour period in winter.

In practice, if you happen to be in Lapland for the summer, you think the sun never goes down, because it is no possible to stay up and check when you sleep, although you might not want to sleep at all. In winter, however (which the local call Kaamos-time) you think that it is always dark and the lights have to be on at all hours. And it will be cold, too. But very exotic. That I can attest to.

Take a trip to Rovaniemi at Christmas and you are able to experience all of the magic of the winter wonderland with Santa and his helpers.


The last time I visited Napapiiri or the Arctic Circle was in early October. It was a long time since my last visit and I had totally forgotten the vividness of the autumn colouring in Lapland. It is every brightest colour imaginable. It was so exciting to experience once again. Any time of the year is a good time for the Santa Claus.


What we did was to visit all the shops at the Santa's Village. You can get good bargains there as all the major retailers have their factory outlets right at the village.

We also spent at least two hours at the Santa's main post office, writing cards and looking into all sorts of displays trying to see from which countries all the letters came from. They are saying that Santa gets letters from all over the world and you better believe that is true from all the evidence around the place.


There is also a little exhibition on the history of Christmas and the Santa himself seems to be in a few places at one time or the other, so you can be sure to meet him. You can get a video and pictures as proof, too to share around with friends and family.


My granddaughter was very excited. She happily ran around the village, never getting tired and had such great fun spotting elves, and other things and choosing her own souvenirs. Mostly pink, of course. She was not afraid of the Santa, either.


Now, if you cannot get to Lapland at this present time, all is not lost. You will still have the Internet. It is so cool!

At this time of the year visit www.santaclauslive.com and you are able to find two cameras, one inside the Santa's sanctuary where you can witness him greeting visitors from all over the world and one outside, where you can check the snow situation in Lapland while listening to whatever Christmas song is playing at the village at any one time.

There is also the Santatelevision.com where you can watch lots of small videos about the life at the Santa's Village at the Arctic Circle. I especially recommend those about Santa and the magic of Aurora Borealis. You are sure to want to start planning a trip there after that.

I ensure you will have lots of fun and maybe if you are good the Santa will ensure that at Christmas you will get the present you wished for.
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Finland, Tuuri, The Country Village Shop

This is a blog about compassionate travel. In my opinion being compassionate and dedicated is also fun. According to research, people who work to enhance the wellbeing and health of others live longer and are happier.

Sometimes people should just visit palaces that make them feel good. In many countries, there are such places where people plan to go to spend a day just for the experience of it.

One experience in Finland you should not miss is a visit to the world's largest country village shop. I can just imagine what is on the people's mind when planning their trip to this particular store.

It is a real shopping extravagance. Even for an experienced world traveler who has seen the largest department stores packed with customers, visiting Tuuri in July can be an overwhelming experience.

It seems that most of Finland, half of Russia, Sweden and many other European countries are represented there on any one day. The restaurant lunch production alone is a huge undertaking.

I was told that the buffet alone serves well over 1000 lunches on any day during the summer season. It is cheap, easy and delicious. They even have the most wonderful vegetarian variation to the buffet. I was so impressed.

The only thing that resembles country living in this place is the entrance to shop where you
walk through the old stone barn to the shopping street. The restaurant is also situated in the
old barn. It is very atmospheric. Otherwise the store is dedicated to kitsch.

The castle looking front of the building is a hotel and the food market. The other part of the huge store is the department store where you can buy anything and everything.

The enormous lucky horse shoe resembles the original horse shoe that was situated on the original door. The Finnish word 'Tuuri' means 'luck' in English. It is the name of the Village where the shop is situated.

The shop was originally founded by the brothers Keskinen. Vesa Keskinen, a son of one the original brothers, who is the Managing

Director loves Disney's Donald Duck. This dedication is reflected in his business attitude. Even his house next door resembles the Duckburg building design.

The owners are really astute business people. There is a railway hotel, a free caravan park, where the customers can park their mobile homes and a lot of free circus and tivoli businesses on the side. You can find markets on every corner.The whole village shares the customer base. Everyone prospers.

One should perhaps think of the whole place as a circus. It probably needs a few days to experience the whole thing.

We only had a fee hours, but I am sure that when next time is Finland, we'll be back. If nothing else, we definitely want to see what new extravagance has been created while we were away.

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Finland, Peräseinäjoki, Migration Museum, the Australian Cane Cutters' Barrack from Queensland

If you ever travel to Seinäjoki area in Finland, you can find a fascinating location to visit in the form of the Migration Museum in Peräseinäjoki, just a few kilometers from the city.

A location is a logical place for a Migration Museum in Finland as most of the early emigration to America was from this part of Finland. Many people left the country to earn a better living in America or South America.

However, about 40% of the migrants returned to Finland. Many emigrated several times in hopes for a better life. My own great grandfather went to America five times to work at the mines before settling back to Finland for good.

They contributed to the Finnish economy by building houses and starting small businesses around this region. With them, they brought new entrepreneurial ideas and technology. Seinäjoki and it's surroundings became very prosperous because of emigration.

The Migration Museum is a work in process and it is currently situated in a few places around Peräseinäjoki. Most of the collected items are in the city centre.

However, the most interesting part to me are the buildings that have been moved from some of the regions where Finnish people have emigrated to over the last two hundred years.

We visited two of them: the house that John G. Annala built with his 'American money' and what was of the most interest to me, the Cane Cutters' Barrack that was donated from the North of Queensland in Australia.

I had been following the progress of this Barrack and it's journey to Finland as I have friends up North and know something of the history of the Finnish migrants at Tully-Ingham region.

The Tully Finnish Society is the oldest of the Finnish Associations in Australia. I have heard a lot of interesting stories about the Finnish cane cutters there. Apparently they were there in large numbers in the early 20th Century. There were well over 100 of them at any one time during the early years.

The project of dismantling a Barrack from Ingham and donating it to the Finnish Migration Museum has been a complicated process. Due to the size of the building and a lot of bureaucracy, it took several years for it to be sent to Finland. Mikko Hietikko, the current representative of the Asian-Pacific Finnish Societies did a lot of work before the project was completed.

However, here it is! As a result of compassionate and dedicated people from far North of Queensland, the Migration Museum in Finland can display an original Australian building that holds a lot of memories for many generations of Finns in Australia and Finland.

The building was completed in 2010.It forms a part of fascinating history of Finnish and Scandinavian emigration to Australia and Pacifica. It is well worth a visit.


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