5A. June 13, 2024: Oulu and Kärsämäki

Thursday, June 13, 2024

Sunset at 12:15 am (actually that would be Friday morning); Sunrise at 2:13 am (just two hours later)
In reality it is never dark; the hours between midnight and 2 a.m. are sort of like dusk. Picture that shows window frame taken from our hotel room at 12:30 am. I guess all this daylight is good for our walking steps—averaging between 10,000 and 16,000 steps a day.

Greetings from Oulu-

After breakfast, we headed to Kärsämäki, about 110 miles south of Oulu to see a very interesting church dubbed the “shingle church of Kärsämäki.” First you need to understand that although Finland is a very non-religious country, there remains a religion tax of about 1%. With this money, it appears that the government (or maybe the church itself) commissions the construction of lots of churches throughout the country. Officially, the majority of Finns are Lutheran, but churches are empty on Sunday mornings. Most Finns say they are agnostic (at least those we know). But they keep building new churches and many are exquisitely designed. So, I suppose this tax keeps many architects busy. We had read about this particular shingle church and decided to make the journey. The 90+ minute drive took us through miles and miles of forested roadways and streams, rivers, and lakes. Not a billboard in sight! No potholes. And amazingly well-maintained roads with great signage. As you drive through all of this unbuilt land, you truly get the sense of Finland’s reality: 5.5 million people living in a country whose land mass is the size of California (population about 40 million). We made a little pit stop at the Marimekko Outlet store nearby, which is in a small mall. And as elsewhere in Finland there was a well-equipped large room in the mall that was for kids to play–supervised by a qualified “teacher” so that parents could shop without distraction.

Anyway, we had considered driving to the church when we were planning the trip a few weeks ago and reached out to find out if we could get inside since we knew it was a pretty special interior. We couldn’t find a contact for the church, so we sent an email to the city clerk; we figured that in a town of 2,500 people, the city would be able to either tell us what to do or have the information. It’s pretty rural out there so I knew getting a response in English might be dicey. I did get a response saying that the person I reached out to no longer worked for the town. So, without knowing whether or not we’d get inside we decided to make the drive anyway. In the end, we could only see the church from the outside, and peek in to see the interior. But it was still worth it. Nestled in this little forested area, a stone’s throw from a stream, sat the shingle church.

The story of the church is interesting. In 1999 the local municipality, sponsored an open student competition to rebuild the original 1765 church that was demolished in 1841. There weren’t any documents showing the original appearance of the building, so the competition, which was organized by the Department of Architecture at the University of Oulu, asked for entries that would create a new, modern church using traditional 18th century methods. The final design of the church, the award- winning solution, is based on Anssi Lassila´s winning entry “Cantata.” The task was “to design a contemporary sacred space to be constructed with traditional handicraft methods.” The goal was “to achieve a sense of serenity and sacrality, an ecumenical atmosphere that would feel compelling and natural to all people.” The building style emphasizes the natural roughness of the wooden elements which were all hand crafted.

While we didn’t see the interior (if you want to see pictures of the interior, check it out on the Internet), we have read that one enters through a dimly lit space and then emerges into a lighter colored main space that is lit by natural light from a skylight. At dusk, the interior is lit by movable, candle-lit glass lanterns and tin lanterns carried by churchgoers. All seating as well as the altar are movable. It is my understanding that the labor was all local, everything is handmade, and lots of volunteers helped complete the structure.

They used traditional methods of construction requiring a good deal of research and learning about these old-fashioned building techniques that had all but disappeared. They also needed to find new solutions based on old traditions. Apparently, many hours of discussion with builders and designers in diverse fields were critical to figuring out solutions step by step. Really sorry we couldn’t get inside… perhaps next time.

One thing we discovered while walking around the outside of the church is that Karsamaki has mosquitoes in June. We headed to a small supermarket to get “hyttyskarkote” (mosquito repellent). We also stopped at a gas station that had a large shop and cafe attached. Inside was an array of cheeses that you’d be more likely to find in a really good specialty market in the states. By the way, sales tax is 24.5% and Finns are taxed on income at about 35% on average (with many paying about 50%). But the use of their taxes is visible: they get excellent healthcare, free education from preschool through university, well paved roads, and more. When we lived here their military budget was 1% of their GDP. I imagine with entry into NATO that is probably no longer the case.

We reminisced about our previous trip to Oulu when we lived in Finland— We had taken a week-long trip to Lapland with our good Finnish friends. We stayed overnight in several towns and cities along the way and in one cabin in the woods where we needed to cross-country ski to get to the cabin as it was snowed in. We skied in, carrying packs of beer and food and also a Monopoly set to teach our Finnish friends the game. It was March and the country was totally covered in snow. It was beautiful.

Anyway, Antti made all the ”hotel” reservations. As the four of us approached our ”hotel” in Oulu, we couldn’t stop laughing. The building was some kind of office building and they rented out two rooms on the first floor as hotel rooms (I think), Anyway, those two rooms each had big streetside windows and had a deep showroom type ”shelf” at the window (large enough for a person or a set of mannequins to be on display at the window). We got there pretty late and wound up staying there. We all felt like we were on display the entire night. Don’t think that ”hotel” exists any more. The purpose of that trip was to see more of Finland and to cross country ski in Lapland. Many funny stories about that, including my personal encounter with two reindeer on the trail.

At about 8 pm, Mike and I headed to dinner at Alfred Kitchen, a small upscale restaurant (ravintola in Finnish) and shared three small courses: beef tataki, asparagus risotto, and salmon. Quite good. The menu is very autobiographical with family stories (fortunately they had an English version) of Alfred’s childhood and his mother’s cooking and his desire to emulate her simple, fresh, recipes and to update them with modern cooking techniques and ingredients.

We strolled back to the hotel at about 11:00 pm in light that felt like it was about 6 pm.
Hope you are well and that you are enjoying your own upcoming summer solstice.
Tomorrow we head for Rovaniemi
All the best- Fern

PS – I received a note from one of the recipients of this travelogue to say that Finland’s placement as the best school system in the world has plummeted. I did a little research and it is sort of true. The explanations are also complicated and contradictory. I’m interested to hear what our Helsinki friends have to say about this… Regardless, it is amazing to be able to have such deep and thoughtful conversation with any Finn, regardless of education level, so something is working. And every Finn can have that conversation in any one of (at least) three languages, with those who are university educated being able to easily converse in at least five languages.