Sunday, January 17, 2010

Ekenäs, Finland

I moved from Fiskars to the Pro Artibus residency in Ekenäs, Finland, at the end of December. Ekenäs (its Finnish name is Tammisaari) is a predominantly Swedish-speaking town of 14,000. Here I have supermarkets, a variety of shops, hardware stores, a library and a public swimming pool with a sauna-- all within walking distance of the residency house. The house itself is amazing, a stone building apparently built in the 1700s. The stone walls are 17 inches thick—I measured the depth of the window sill seen in the picture below. The temperature in southern Finland has ranged between -6 degrees Fahrenheit and the mid twenties in the past two weeks. I will do a post about what I'm working on, once it's further along. I've put most of my time into research since I've been here. Having this library close by now is a great advantage, saving me loads of money over resorting to Amazon UK! I have been unable to use the Helsinki National Library while I've been here, because they require me to have a Finnish social security number.

Pro Artibus residency house.

The living room in the residency house.

Window in the residency house.


Trees on the way from the residency house to the downtown area.

Snow-covered trees.

Snow-covered trees by the water's edge.

A pier and boat in the snow.

A house on the main street of Ekenas.

A school building on the main street of town.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I could live here......without the snow and high cost of living and lack of Englishw

Shannon Wright said...

Connie: ditto! I've got three light bulbs burned out in the house-- a visit to the store showed me that it will be $50 to replace all three... think I'll stay in the dark a while!

Shannon Wright said...

Also, most people here do speak English-- but one gets tired quickly of always feeling like one is being accommodated. I'm taking a Swedish class for that reason.