Töölö i

Green parks, idyllic coffee shops, wooden villas, praiseworthy culture, late Jugend style architecture, small streets, cozy restaurants, a market square, cute small shops, beautiful Töölö bay, the Hietaniemi beach. All this you can find in Töölö, the area in Helsinki where I live.

The town of Töölö was first mentioned in 1476. That means even before the founding of Helsinki itself. At that moment the name Töölö stood for the whole Helsinki peninsula with its waters and islands. When Helsinki was moved to the Vantaa river in 1640, the queen of Sweden donated the town of Töölö and made it officially a part of Helsinki.

Still in the end of the 18th century, Töölö had almost no buildings. Soon though, during the 19th century villas were built in Töölö. Soon even some factories were brought to this area to accelerate the city move from the Vantaa to the Helsinki peninsula. There was a sugar factory on the Töölö bay and in the Hesperia park there was a soap, candle and playing card factory. In Hietaniemi there was a wall paper factory. The area continued to have few inhabitants, only 1749 still in the year 1870. The habitation started to grow rapidly after the industrialization and during the next 60 years the population grew with almost 36 000 inhabitants.

Today Töölö has about 30 000 inhabitants which are mainly women, middle age and middle class. Töölö has several parks, universities, hospitals, churches and offers different sport- and outdoor activity possibilities. But above everything, Töölö is a district of culture. There's music, theater, opera, art and a striking 14 museums!

Living in Töölö is wonderful. I don't think it comes as a surprise to anybody that knows me that I love living here. When I was younger, I dreamed of becoming an inhabitant of Töölö. After living here for one year and seven months, I can really say that all my dreams were there for a reason because I really like it here. Like all districts in Helsinki, Töölö offers the feeling of belonging somewhere with its small supermarkets where the workers recognize you (seeing as you visit them on a daily basis). But besides that, Töölö is filled with active people that motivate you to be active as well, via e.g. walking or jogging. There are thousands of dogs in this area, so without a doubt an inhabitant of Töölö gets affected by this and starts to dream about a dog. Since a lot of people here are sporty, you never have to worry about being alone when you go out. We also have a lot of culture events going on here, partly thanks to the Töölö bay.

Today I witnessed another aspect of Töölö. I woke up to see some helicopters circulating around our home street. First I thought that they were taking people to the hospital, that maybe an accident had occurred. But once I put on the news, I got my answer. An international summit about the Baltic Sea was being held today in Helsinki close by to our home, in the Finlandia Hall, and therefore these helicopters were circulating to make sure that nothing went wrong during the summit. Suddenly I remembered how central I actually live in Helsinki. It's going to be very sad when I have to give up this apartment, but I know that that day is coming soon because of my autumn plans, but everything is possible. At least I will always remember the time I've lived here.