A trip to Tampere
I spent a few days in Finland
A conference presentation and a visit to Helsinki Toy Museum
I'd never been to Finland, so I was very pleased to be invited to present to the Industrial Labour and Literary Culture in the Long Nineteenth Centuryconference organised by the Piston, Pen and Pressproject and held at the Finnish Labour Museum, Tampere in June. I enjoyed the conference, and was very impressed by the museum, which I thought shared its messages and stories in an accessible and engaging manner. The history of the Finnish labour movement could have been very dry, but the museum managed to grab and hold my interest, and to present what was sometimes a grim history without avoiding or glossing over its more brutal aspects.
I managed to explore the Tampere area a little, before spending a couple of days in Helsinki. I wasn't there long enough to really give the city its due, but for me the highlight was a ferry trip to the island of Suomenlinna and its Toy Museum. Here's my record of that visit.