Tampere City

My Tampere trip – part two

My boyfriend lives and studies in Finland and I live and study in Denmark. Last we saw each other was Christmas, and when Corona came, all our plans had to be put on hold. My trip to Tampere was our first time together in 7½ month.

The city of Tampere is Finland’s 3rd largest city and is known for it’s art, culture and history. It’s sitting between two big lakes and are split in two by a river. The two half’s of the city is connected by multiple bridges and it’s easy to go everywhere by foot. Everyone I met during my week was super friendly and 95% of them spoke English as soon as they realize I weren’t Finnish.

Moving around:

My boyfriend lives about 3.5 km from the city centre, and it gave us the perfect point to go exploring. Their bus systems weren’t the easiest to navigate and I didn’t use the bus unless my boyfriend was with me, but as I said everything can be walked to. If you wanna explore a bit further, there’s a very efficient train net and you can go to Helsinki in 1½ hour if you take one of the fast trains. They also are very good at announcing everything in Finnish, Swedish, and English on public transport.

Shopping:

Tampere has a lot of small shops and you can find a lot of things made by local artists. Especially if you move a bit away from the main streets. You’ll also find 3 big shopping malls in town, though I purposely avoided them as they mostly are the same as anywhere else, with the same kind of shops and design. The only exception is the Tullintori shopping center that not only features an indoor climbing center for kids and grownups, but also have some amazing architecture.

Food:

Tampere offers a wide variety of food, and many places you can find a lunch buffet or lunch offer that will provide a good meal for cheap. The choice of restaurants are big, and you can get flavours from all over the world, or go for restaurants who use locally sourced products served in local traditions. We went to a wide range of places, from a steakhouse with local meat, to a fancy restaurant that served a 6 course meal from around the world.

One thing worth noting is that the Finnish love their horse meat, and if you’ve never tried it before I can only highly recommend it. It’s sweet in taste and if prepared right it will melt on your tongue.

Entertainment:

Tampere offers a lot of entertainment, from dance clubs, to art museums. I can highly recommend the varpriikki museum if you’re interested in the history of the town and Finland. As the town is located between two lakes, there’s loads of opportunities to go swimming from some of the many lake beaches, and since it’s Finland you’re never far from the forest. We went to a nature preserve located just at the edge of the town, and had an amazing walk in the forest, all the way until we hit the town centre again. The Area Finlayson houses a lot of local art places, and you can find art clubs, art workshops and even an art cinema. If you want to watch the area but not actually move to much around, there’s ferries that goes from the town centre and all the way to hämeenlinna about 60 km away by the river. There’s also the option of renting a sauna boat. It’s basically a floating sauna with a terrace where you can have a bbq. You sail it out onto the lake and enjoy the hot sauna and the cold lake water with friends ad family. Lastly you’ll find the amusement park at the edge of town, that also holds a rotating restaurant that gives you a full view of the town and lakes while eating your dinner.

Overall Tampere is such a cool city, and a place you can easily spend a week and not even see half the stuff worth seeing. I highly recommend visiting if you ever get the chance.

Love, Tea

Part One – Travelling curing Corona

Part Three – Tampere Market Hall