Instawalk: Katajanokka, The Little Island Just To The East of Helsinki’s City Center

perhaps the most famous landmark on this island is Uspenski Cathedral (closed Mondays, mind you!), but a walk around the island takes you from a small harbor to cruise ship docks to old red brick industrial buildings to prime examples of Helsinki’s Jugendstil (aka Art Nouveau) architecture.

Uspenski Cathedral — closed Mondays lol. (I suppose I remember enough from my last visit 8 years ago?)

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One of the old dock buildings

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The hotel that used to be a prison

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this picture above is a Best Western, converted at a reported cost of 15 million euro from the Southern district prison prison which closed down in 2002. next door to it, separated by a small park, is a school that appears to inhabit a converted factory space. pretty nifty stuff, i’d say!

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Lots of Jugendstil buildings around here. The Norma Building by Werner Von Essen.

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Moar Jugendstil.

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Alvar Aalto's Enso-Gutzeit Building

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this last building is the Enso-Gutzeit Building designed by famed Finnish architect and designer Alvar Aalto. it’s a pretty unassuming building until you get up close and see how the wood geometrically commingles with marble, at least in my humble opinion.

respite rec

stuck in a small spot in a converted warehouse row is the Finnish concept store branch of Swedish coffee roasters Johan & Nyström, and is reportedly one of the best places for a cup of coffee in town. (it didn’t disappoint.)

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