Monday, August 08, 2005

My Home Town in Pictures

Not your ordinary Russian town!

A friend of my parents’ mailed them a CD with some recent photos and I thought I’d share… So here goes.

My home town was founded by the Swedes in 1293. In that year, the castle was built.



This castle is 48.6 meters high. For a small fee you can get up on top and enjoy the panorama of the town:



The town remained part of Sweden until the early 1880’s. A lot of medieval buildings still remain standing.

My best friend used to live across the street from here



and my Mom’s aunt lived close to this clock tower



In the XIX – early XX century, the town was a part of Imperial Russia, and then Finland.

This park was built as a place of recreation for the Russian emperors.





Under the Finns, beautiful buildings were erected in the Old Town



The town, located in the south of Finland, was one of the favorite summer resorts.

Then, in 1939, the Soviets took over. My Mom’s family moved to our town after WWII, and my Dad came there to work in the early 60’s. We lived close to the port



and in summer, my friends and I used to go to this beach



This is my home town. I haven’t been there since 1995, but some day I plan on coming back to visit, and bringing the kids. It probably won’t be a whole lot of fun for me – it wasn’t much fun even back when I lived there as a kid, and, since then, my old friends have either moved out or passed away; but I am sure the kids will enjoy the scenery, the sea, the winding streets of Old Town, and the fascinating history behind them.



See it all on flickr

Wikipedia has an interesting article on my home town

The Goldie has spoken at 2:30 PM


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