Turku Weekend Update

A post from Julie

We arrived in Turku on Friday mroning. We were greete4d by our host families and daily hosts, Rune and Caterina. We had an interesting visit with Seppo, the CMO of Oncology at the Turku University Hospital where we learned more about the Finnish health care system. Seppo also gave us a tour of the hospital that included a resource center where patients and families can find information on all sorts of diseases and ailments. Caterina then whisked us away to the Rotary Club of Turku Aninkainen for a lunch meeting followed by a presentation and tour of the district courthouse. We learned many interesting facts about the Finnish judicial system including don't open the door if the "in session" light is on. Afterwards, we walked through the promenade and discovered Stockman's, the Finnish department store, had some ice cream and watched all the beautiful people of Turku go about their days.

On Saturday, Caterina took us to her architecture firm, CC-M, where we got to view some of their 3D building models and talked about becoming an architect, employee benefits and the disparities among salaries between men and women. Afterwards, Caterina took us to the Handicrafts Museum, an old village in the town center that survived the Great Fire of 1827. We then went down to the river to have a beer on one of the boats, followed by a delicious lunch buffet on yet another river boat. The town center was alive with people and avid football fans (the European football matches were ramping up). After a delightful morning and afternoon with Caterina, we went to the Kakola prison for a guided tour. The prison just closed in September of last year and is now the most popular tourist destination in Turku for visitors and locals alike. Some lucky prisoners had a gorgeous view of the city and the Baltic Sea. There were many protests when they found out they were moving to a new location. Rune bailed us out of prison a couple of hours later and took us to the Turku Cathedral to be redeemed. There was a wedding in progress, so we just took a quick look around and then set our eyes on ice cream (we've been eating a lot of ice cream on this trip).

To close out the weekend, we went to Rymättylä Harbor where we met Olli, the president of the Rotary Club of Turku, his wife Liisa and their guest, Layla. Olli took us out on his motor boat for a day in the Turku Archipelago. We first went to Seili Island where lepers and the mentally ill were banished in the 17th century. The mental hospital is now a university research center and the island is quite beautiful. After lunch we headed back in to the harbor, but not before stopping to have coffee and dessert. We were all exhausted after a long day at sea and headed home to our host families.