Glada vappen!

I tried to draw a balloon in celebration of May Day, but it became a cane instead.

Location: Etelä-Haaga, Helsinki
(see map) (see track only)

The big O

Driving around, trying to make a perfect circle.

Route: Pitäjänmäki-Vihdintie, Helsinki
(see map)

It's all good

After parking my car, I walked past the railway station to pick up my copy of Together Through Life by Bob Dylan.

Route: from Sanomatalo to Asematunneli, Helsinki
(see map)

Crossing Mannerheimintie

On my way to work this morning.

Route: Tukholmankatu-Mannerheimintie-Reijolankatu, Helsinki
(see map)

Walking books

A quick visit to the local library. Blackbirds singing in a beautiful spring evening.

Route: from home to library and back, Etelä-Haaga
(see map)

Lunch poem

On my way to lunch, I crossed my old schoolyard, although judging by the satellite picture, it looks like I walked right through the building.

Route: from Ristolantie to Kotipizza, Vihdintie, Etelä-Haaga
(see map)

Strolling down the sunny Esplanade

Leaving the Il Siciliano (see post below) I walked along the Esplanade to visit the Academy Bookstore. The mess at the "low" point of my walk is caused by stopping to chat with Katri and Silja (see today's first post).

Route: from Il Siciliano, Aleksanterinkatu to Academy Bookstore, Pohjois-Esplanadi, Helsinki
(see map)

Harry's strut

Poet Harry Salmenniemi going out to lunch with colleagues Henriikka Tavi, Vesa Haapala and yours truly at the Il Siciliano in downtown Helsinki.

Route: from University of Helsinki, Unioninkatu to Il Siciliano, Aleksanterinkatu, Helsinki
(see map)

Downtown poetics

On my way to talk contemporary poetry and poetics with colleagues Henriikka Tavi and Harry Salmenniemi, in a seminar arranged by poet Vesa Haapala at the University of Helsinki. I was also glad to find two familiar faces in the audience, schoolmates Katri Kaarniala and Silja Rantanen, both of whom I've known since 1964. Silja is an artist and a painter, and we published Katri's translations of Lorca in Parnasso 1/09. The first and last part of the journey were done on foot, in between I was riding a tram.

Route: from Ristolantie, Etelä-Haaga to University of Helsinki, Unioninkatu, Helsinki (see map)

To the store and back

Now, this looks wild. It seems this time the tracker had trouble following my exact footsteps, making false, imaginary swerves off the sidewalk and a couple of times even to the other side of the street where I never went. The long crazy jump to the right at the "low" point is when I was actually inside the store and the satellite probably couldn't figure out my location. Or maybe all along the satellite was tracking my wandering mind instead?

Route: Ristolantie-Vihdintie-Ristolantie, Etelä-Haaga
(see map)

Sunday walk in Munkkiniemi

This is the first installment in my new project, that is, tracing my steps in the world, using Sports Tracker, a service available for Nokia mobile phones. The first trace or image (click see map below) tracks the proceedings of my Sunday walk through Munkkiniemi, a neighborhood pretty close to where I live. A few remarks: The "slow" is where I stopped for icecream. The "fast" must be a technical bug. The circle in the park turned out pretty nice, although it looks like I missed my starting point for a few feet. The track itself follows my walking route quite accurately, except for that mysterious, sharp sidestep at "fast" and a few other places where it looks like I crossed over people's yards or even walked through their houses. Which I didn't.

Location: Munkkiniemen puistotie, Munkkiniemi
(see map)