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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UK, Lewes, The Crimean War Memorial for the Finnish Prisoners

It was always my intention, while visiting UK to travel to Lewes and look for the Crimean War Memorial for the Finnish Prisoners who were brought there in 1854.

One of my most favorite moments at primary school was to sing the most famous Finnish war song from the Crimean War with the class. It was called 'Oolannin sota' (The War of Aland) and it was written by a war prisoner at the Lewes prison.

I took my son and his family with me to investigate Lewes. We had heard that the Obelisk we were looking for was in the old cemetery behind the St Paul's Church.




We had an interesting time trying to find our way to the cemetery as there were no signs or any information about the monument anywhere.




Finally we found our way through a near theatre car park and wound our way through the badly kept terrain and spied the monument we were looking for.







To me finding this obelisk was a curiosity. It had been ordained by the Russian Char, Alexander II in 1877 to commemorate the 28 Russian solders that had died during their imprisonment at Lewes. In 1957 the Soviet Government had paid to restore the obelisk.





I could see the names of the solders ingrained in the Obelisk. They were Finnish. I knew some of their stories from my research.

The Finnish prisoners had become quite a celebrity in Lewes and there were many articles written about them. They had made toys that were sold in order to provide some luxuries for them while at Lewes. Most of the solders returned home after the imprisonment in good health.



After the Crimean War, the British people collected money for Finland. They thought of Finland as a victim of the war rather than an active participant. The money that came to Finland as one of the many charitable acts that the Crimean War inspired was used to enhance the Finnish fishing fleets and ship building and finally to help the people after the famine during the 1860's.

Afterwards, I went to the Lewes Information Office asking about the obelisk. No-one at that office even knew of it's existence.

For the rest of the day, we had a wonderful time walking the streets of Lewes, shopping and having a lovely dinner at a Pizzeria.

We decided that next time we would spend more time there visiting the lovely castle and other interesting tourist destinations.

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UK, London - Florence Nightingale Museum

"I craved for something worth doing instead of frittering time away on useless trifles." Florence Nightingale

It is often said that the most horrible experiences produce the most extraordinary changes in human condition.

The Florence Nightingale Museum at the heart of London attest to a remarkable story of a woman and people who tirelessly work to change the human condition.

Florence Nightingale's struggle as a young woman




Being a woman from a wealthy upper-middle-class background during the early 20th Century, Florence had to fight for her rights to become something more than just a suitable wife and mother. In fact, she never married, instead she felt that she had been called by God to become a nurse.

She often wrote about her frustration of the expectations of the society for a woman of her status. However, she had devoted friends who supported her aspirations, even if her family did not do so right from the beginning.

After much struggle, she got her initial training as a nurse in Germany. Her upper-class status put her into a position of influence and her eager interest in statistics backed up her claims for a total health reform in the British Army. She was most hailed for her work at establishing the English female nurses to Constantinople (Istanbul) during the Crimean War.

Crimean War (1854-56)



Initially the Crimean War experience in Turkey proved to be a medical disaster for the British Empire. More solders died from the wounds than from the battles.

Due to the new technology, it was the first time in history the public was able to follow a war through the daily reports in the major papers. The public opinion influenced the politicians to act as the horrors of the war were laid out in article after article.

Florence was asked to lead a group of female nurses (38) to the war hospital in Scutari. In there she displayed a great skill in diplomacy, in organisation and in managing the hospital resources.

She battled dare conditions, appealed to the public who answered through donating funds through the Times. The reluctant army officers were forced to act. Her image as 'the Lady with the Lamp' was established and served to draw attention to her and her appeals for reforms.

Through her principal work and publications, Florence was able to petition for nursing to become an established part of the hospital health system.

The Museum at the St Thomas Hospital in London



The Florence Nightingale Museum is a great little museum to visit. A compassionate world traveler is introduced to her life as a young woman and her struggles to became a nurse.

The visitor gets a comprehensive understanding of her work at the Crimean War Hospital and her life after the war. It was filled with research and writing. She published some 200 publications before she died at the age of 90 in 1910.

My thoughts on the visit

I have been interested in the Crimean War and it's relationship to philanthropy for a while. Many new charitable reforms were initiated after the experience of this war.

Being from the Finnish background I am aware of the Baltic battles as well and the effect they had on the Finnish economy then and during the famine not long after the war. I am also acquainted with the history of the Russian and Finnish nursing as well as the history of the founding of the Red Cross. The effects of industrialisation could be traced everywhere and it in it's turn brought a new kind of focus on charity and reveled the compassionate side of the humanity. To me the Florence Nightingale Museum proved to be a wonderful experience.

The aim of the museum is to demonstrate the way Florence Nightingale's ideas and influence relate to today and the set up of the museum succeeds in showing the relevance of her work for today's health care.

All around the museum walls the visitors can follow the development of nursing from it's beginnings to the highly respected profession it is today. This is her 'legacy'.



Other interesting things you get to be introduced to are:
- Florence Nightingale's temperamental pet owl Athena
- Alexis Soyer and his famous 'Soyer Field Stove'. The British Army used it for 120 years after the Crimean War
- Mary Seacole, a herbalist and a hotel keeper who set up a general store, canteen and an unofficial surgery on the way to the front line.

The Museum is also focused on giving children a good learning experience.Very enjoyable.



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