Oulu Off The Beaten Path

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The Cathedral of Oulu was originally named the Church of Sofia Magdalena (why did the name change?). It was constructed between 1770-1776. The cathedral was also renovated several times:

Carl Ludvig Engel 1832
Carl Ludvig Engel 1844, Bell tower
Laatio Architects / Pekka Laatio, Veikko Kotila, Jari Saarnio 1997

I kick myself now for not taking more pictures. I did not even go to Sunday service here.

I'm not sure if I should log this under warnings or dangers but here we go...

Imagine a beautiful sunny day with a blue sky. The sun is pretty low on the horizon though and it's -20 C. Yes, it's perfect weather for swimming, isn't it? :-)

Gather your courage and go for it! Head to Tuira, change into your swimming suit and join the ducks by plumpsing (scientific term) in the cold water. It may sound radical (and it is) but you won't regret it. Here's how you should do it and how you'll feel:

Wear enough clothes so that you're not freezing when you arrive there. You can change in a heated dressing-room. Remember to not lock yourself out! Then approach the water calmly and believe me when I say that the water is not cold. Slip in, swim for a while and get up just as calmly. Then walk back to the dressing-room and enjoy the feeling of being alive.

The cold water makes your body produce a lot of heat. The feeling is wonderful and you really don't feel cold afterwards. The only ones who will feel cold are the cameraman (you want a photo, right?) and the wimps who didn't have the cojones to join you :-).

There are more pics in my plumpsing travelogue.

This little hidden secret of Art Halvare gallery and its great sculpture park is located in Saarela, alongside the Oulu river. You can reach it by bike along Sangintie, which goes along the northern side of the river. You will notice a sign 'Saarelan veistospuisto = Sculpture park of Saarela' and then again a sign with Art Halvare on it. Also a bus number 6 takes you there.

There you will fing this gallery on an little island and great sculpture park made with almost onyl on its trees. There's also on beach where you can swim summertime or take a walk on the ice on the winter time.

A bit long way from thw downtown, but definitely worth of visiting in the summer time.

GALLERIA ART HALVARE
Saarelantie 11
90650 Oulu Suomi Finland
P. +358 (0)8-3121 478 tai 0400 351 271

The museums are not probably the main goal when visiting Oulu. But Oulu Art Museum is my tip to you, especially on Fridays, you can visit there free! Not that it would be expensive any other days, it is like 1 euro from students, pensioners, unemployed, conscripts, non-military servicemen and the standard fee is 3 euros.
The buildning itself is worth of visiting. It is located close to Ainolan puisto (just head south along Isokatu and you won't get lost) and there are different rooms and halls in museum itself. There is also a cafe upstairs and very nice museum shop on main floor. i really much recommend visiting there!

If you are visiting here between 22.1.-3.4.2005, check out the 'Hot Dogs' black-and-white portraits of dogs! It is very fun and well done.

If you love garlic (like the way I do) this summer festival is designed for you. There has been Garlic Festival Night now 14 times in Oulu and it has been succeed everytime and get bigger happening all the time. This year this festival lasts three days. There are lots of booths of local restaurants in the Market Place and they sell garlic food. This is a very big happening and there are stage where best Finnish chefs prepare garlic food for audience.

Usually the Garlic Night arranges in the late of July.

Want to eat something fresh, sweet and taste like home made? Go to Café Bisket and take away their more then B*I*G cinnamon rolls, that cost just 1 euros. Taste like home made and not too fat, always fresh and almost warm. I prefer taking away, 'cause Bisket is usually too crowded and custom service is not that good every time.

Cafe Bisket is located in Rotuaari, just nearby the 'pallo'.

There is a island called Hailuoto near to Oulu. It's almost like they are still living the 50's :) Really cool place to visit with small village and ggrrreat beach (actually there are two of them). Really great sand, somehow it feels different than other sand I've walked on. I think it's more like powder, I mean the parts of sand are smaller... If you can have an idea what I mean. There is camping area in Hailuoto and all the services needed (yeah, they have pub there also :)

Do you know how obsessed Finns are with sauna? If not, read the basics from my Finland-page. Here's downhill skiing with a sauna. It didn't slide that well, though.

There's a competition every February where university students slide downhill with anything imaginable. Great fun to watch