The Twelve Days in b4 Christmas already emptied my reserve of things to look back to in 2009. So instead of reminiscing about how great and shitty anime was this year and how blogging is such a badass hobby, I went out on a nice clear day to take some pictures of my hometown. Since as some of you know due to my ranting on IRC, I’m staying at my family’s house for the holiday season. As my merry, careless student life is very close to an (BAD) end, I decided to visit some places of my childhood where I spent my earlier school days. So yeah, nothing here now but personal ramblings of an old man and pictures of snowy places. Grab a cup of glogg, turn up the Vangelis and heed to my story.
Close to my house, this intersection was pretty much the beginning of my old school route. Other kids were obedient to their parents and walked along this main road to the town center and then to school. I noticed this was actually pretty slow route, so I found my own that went through a densely forested hill with steep slopes and crossed a highway at a curve where drivers had no way of seeing me before it would be too late to stop. Hell yeah.
Used to be pretty much nothing but forest here back in the day. Down on the left there still runs a stream, we used to play with improvised styrofoam boats in there and crawl through big culverts.
This is what we call sunny in winter. That pathetic excuse of sunlight that appears for a few hours and only makes you feel colder than you were already.
One of the few blocks in town that has not changed at all over the years. Still the same old wooden houses, gravel roads and the same old angry people.
An entrance to a local shelter. These creepy concrete cubes are commonly found under hills close to residential areas in Finland, to provide emergency shelter to the residents. Yes, I’ve been to an abandoned one that was broken open by junkies and drunks looking for shelter. A nasty place to be. The close vicinity of this shelter was one of my favorite play grounds with its bare rock, small natural caves, tunnels and whatnot.
The end of the stream I mentioned earlier as it joins a tiny lake after running across the town. We used to come here to swim and play back in my elementary school days. One of the trees by the stream had a rope hanging from one of its big branches – awesome for trying out which is stronger, our thick young skulls or the old pine’s bark.
The said lake and its little beach. It was our favorite swimming spot because the water would warm up quickly in summertime. Then some bastards from another school nearby spread a rumor that it had leeches. It did indeed – but the only species of leech that bites humans in Finland is endangered and is found only far down south, definitely not in a small lake by a big highway somewhere in middle Finland. The beach was later closed down because of a waste water pipe breach under it. Don’t know if they got it cleared out by now.
Local residents have plowed a skating track on the ice.
Ah, the path to my elementary school. We used to have crazy sled races down this one until the angry local ladies complained to the authorities and they spread sand on it.
The sports field and my old elementary school. Half of it was demolished years ago and a whole new building was built in its place. The only original part of it is its right side (called B-building, reserved for grades 5 and 6 back in my day), though it has no doubt gone through a whole lot of changes too. We used to sit on top of that brown small shack by the field and cheer or shout childish curses.
The old B-building, the only thing left of my old school.
Towards the town center from my school, these buildings are some reminders of the town’s industrial past. These kind of gray, ugly apartment buildings exist in number close by this location, originally built for the workers of the nearby factories.
Some scenery from the town center. The hill with a mast on it is named “Chicken mountain“. It’s more badass that its name suggests though, as there was a military base on the other side as well as an ammunition factory mined under it. All abandoned nowadays of course. Excellent place for hiking and getting good views of the region.
The road to my old middle/high school. I rarely took this way though as there was a quicker route via a jogging track through the woods.
Another shot towards the Chicken mountain. The white factory building is an old sugar mill, probably the oldest industrial facility in town that is still in use. Probably not in its original purpose though. Oh, by the way a hill next to the Chicken mountain is nicknamed “Cock mountain“. Just so you know.
My prison for 6 years, the old middle/high school complex. Nowadays a shadow of its former self as soon after my graduation it was discovered that the ground water level was only 40cm from the bottom floor and had caused massive problems with mold. It’s been under rigorous renovation for years and currently all its students attend another school in a nearby city.
The sports field next to the school as seen from a jogging track. Many painful PE classes were held here. I hate track & field sports.
Talk about pain and you get ice hockey. I rarely ended up in here though, I usually feigned sickness or just lied that I don’t have the equipment for ice hockey PE.
The jogging/skiing track that I mainly used as my route to school. The track network is very extensive and goes all around the region – I think the longest route is around 60 kilometers.
A path down from the track to the area where our house is.
Setting sun. Looking towards the intersection from where the first picture was taken. It became too dark for my shitty cellphone camera so this is the last one. In early winter when they still hadn’t spread sand on the road, us local kids would use it for mad sled races at breakneck speeds much to the terror of hapless drivers.
It’s still a few hours to go to 2010 here but I don’t feel like dragging this post out. Hope you enjoyed 2009 as much as I did – personally I had a lot of great experiences. Now excuse me while I go fire some rockets. See you next year!
Vangelis is awesome [in Winter too] and the pics are awesome! Looks like there should be many sad girls in the snow… XD Really nice setting though.
Happy New Year!
The pics are really cool~ happy new year ^^