Hello Finland!
Updated 8/5 with pictures and some additional text....
This lets you know where you are. Below is a photocopy of my grandmother's passport that we're carrying with us on the trip. I held it next to the "b" in Abo since that's the name she chose to use when she told people where she was from. Interesting that she used the Swedish name but she was half Swedish herself.
While we're in Turku we're trying to visit sites that were here when my grandmother was here. She left in 1922, as far as I know never to return. Today we went to Turku Cathedral which was oddly moving for me since I'm not religious in any conventional sense of the word. Walking around a place where my grandmother might have walked was an odd feeling. She died when I was 9 so I have no way of knowing what she would think of me returning to the city she left behind to start a new life 86 years ago. 
Dinner tonight was at a schoolhouse from the turn of the 20th century (was she ever there? I'll never know) that has, happily for me been converted into a gastropub. They kept the classroom motif in a few rooms and there were even a few old desks strewn around one of the hallways. They also brew their own beer; I sampled their hefeweizen (nothing special) and their dark lager (a bit above average). According to the Frommer's guide the building was the primary school building for the whole of Turku in the early 1900s before becoming a bank and then the restaurant that it is today, but again who knows if my grandmother went there? I have to rely on imagination I suppose.
The Mrs. met a woman from a group of Americans staying at our hotel and managed to borrow a plug adapter so we can charge the camera batteries and laptop battery; unfortunately I can't take full advantage since Blogger's image upload function isn't working right now. Might post a Snapfish link down the line, or I may go back and add photos to these posts after I get back. Then you'll have to suffer through 'em all again if you want to see pictures. Sorry about that.
(8/5 update: as noted we now have an adaptor so you can ignore the previous paragraph).
Tomorrow we're planning to visit the Turku Castle and then may jump on the river tour boat or take a 2 hour historical tour offered daily by the tourist info folks. Depends on the weather, which is pretty dreary right now. Such are the risks of going north for vacation, eh?
This lets you know where you are. Below is a photocopy of my grandmother's passport that we're carrying with us on the trip. I held it next to the "b" in Abo since that's the name she chose to use when she told people where she was from. Interesting that she used the Swedish name but she was half Swedish herself.
While we're in Turku we're trying to visit sites that were here when my grandmother was here. She left in 1922, as far as I know never to return. Today we went to Turku Cathedral which was oddly moving for me since I'm not religious in any conventional sense of the word. Walking around a place where my grandmother might have walked was an odd feeling. She died when I was 9 so I have no way of knowing what she would think of me returning to the city she left behind to start a new life 86 years ago. Dinner tonight was at a schoolhouse from the turn of the 20th century (was she ever there? I'll never know) that has, happily for me been converted into a gastropub. They kept the classroom motif in a few rooms and there were even a few old desks strewn around one of the hallways. They also brew their own beer; I sampled their hefeweizen (nothing special) and their dark lager (a bit above average). According to the Frommer's guide the building was the primary school building for the whole of Turku in the early 1900s before becoming a bank and then the restaurant that it is today, but again who knows if my grandmother went there? I have to rely on imagination I suppose.
The Mrs. met a woman from a group of Americans staying at our hotel and managed to borrow a plug adapter so we can charge the camera batteries and laptop battery; unfortunately I can't take full advantage since Blogger's image upload function isn't working right now. Might post a Snapfish link down the line, or I may go back and add photos to these posts after I get back. Then you'll have to suffer through 'em all again if you want to see pictures. Sorry about that.
(8/5 update: as noted we now have an adaptor so you can ignore the previous paragraph).
Tomorrow we're planning to visit the Turku Castle and then may jump on the river tour boat or take a 2 hour historical tour offered daily by the tourist info folks. Depends on the weather, which is pretty dreary right now. Such are the risks of going north for vacation, eh?
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