Monday 21 October 2013

ILLUMINATED


A couple of evenings ago we met up with my sisters and their husband/boyfriends and my parents at the amusement park of Helsinki, Linnanmäki, for the Carnival of Light. The park closes after summer but opens for some nights now later in autumn for the event.

It's a great atmosphere with uplight trees, illuminated ballerinas, fire jugglers and the occasional witch and ghost wandering around, plus lanterns and ribbons of light all around. Awesome.

As the entrance to the park is free and the rides for the smallest kids free as well we went there quite often times with Dag this summer.* The place still looks so different from summer now when it's dark. Or, dark and full of lights. It was terribly cold as well (thank you universe for hot cocoa!).

I'd love to visit in winter when it's still and quiet. A paper (HBL) once made a winter photography feature of the park, spooky and lonely, all covered in frost and snow. Amazing. (I've been to an abandoned amusement park once, the one in Berlin that everybody visits although forbidden. I was going all eager there with my camera until we were kindly escorted out by a couple of here-we-go-again guards.)

There were lots of photographers around during the evening and as usual when I don't bring my camera it started bugging me out but then again when I do bring the camera my level of being social drops, or, I start stressing about  not taking enough pictures. Most often the later. 

Dag and my sister all red-nosed from the cold.

I have a feeling this was the last night of the carnival though. I started writing this post with many hours left of the night for anyone about to miss to be able to make it, but then it took abut three hours to get Dag to sleep, so you wouldn't have made it even if you'd tried. But definitely next year!

*) Otherwise each ride is a swooning 7e but I can tell you that the spinning hot balloons for small kids are just enough of spin for me. Dag loves them and to please that lil' toddler of mine we rode it twice in a row once which that made my stomach turn and knees go week - so yes, I am officially old now. I think the kot-kot chicken train is quite enough for me. Luckily this time there were plenty of other candidates to spin around with Dag. (Well,  in fact I think my fun-park youth was over when I was fourteen already and threw up in my friend Lotta's lap after a ride with the Viking Ship...)

5 comments:

Cherry said...

I also thought I had gotten old when at the park the other day with my mum and 1 year old son I had a turn on the swing set and had to sit down for awhile afterwards as I felt quiet ill. However my mum mentioned to me that she also was always one to enjoy rides at the show until she had me and from after that pregnancy she just couldn't stomach any sort of spinning or swinging. And she had me 5 years later than I had my son. In conclusion we should blame the pregnancy, not our age!

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Anonymous said...

That amusement park in Berlin sparked my interest for abandoned buildings. I explored one of the many abandoned hotels in Croatia (near Rijeka) recently, photos here: http://thejefferyvintage.wordpress.com

Christina said...

The park in Berlin is called Plänterwald and I still remember going there as a child 25 years ago... There are guided tours there now during summer, so you can take your pictures without getting thrown out ;)