St. Petersburg purchases

Helsinki, -5 degrees

Be like a photographer. Get your vision right, keep yourself focus, zoom in on your goals & you'll capture the success that'll become a souvenir.

As I promised you yesterday, I wanted to share with you some of my purchases from my recent trip to St. Petersburg, Russia, that you can read about in my previous blog post.

We had the pleasure to enjoy 1½ hours of shopping with our guide. Our guide made the most out of the limited time we had for shopping. Thanks to her we got to shop but also see some of the city while doing it. One of the main epiphanies during the trip was that one gets the most out of St. Petersburg, and I guess all harbor cities that tend to be windy, by visiting their courtyards and using them as shortcuts since they don't let the wind inside. Thanks to our guide, I dared to visit courtyards I wouldn't even have known about without her. This allowed me to explore the city in the best way and I noticed that this was the local way of moving around in the city! I will definitely keep this in mind also in Helsinki since my beautiful hometown is also a harbor city which is known for its fresh air that sometimes tends to get windy.

Thanks to our guide, I happened to walk into a shop selling Imperial porcelain. And guess what kind of teacup I found in the shop?


One with a dragonfly on it, of course! Isn't it stunning? This tea cup felt like it had my name on it, so I just had to have it. Russia is also one of the nations that I associate the most with tea, after England that is, so a teacup felt like a natural souvenir.

Another natural souvenir was a matuska doll! I wanted to find a traditional one, that consisted out of seven dolls and was colored in yellow and red, as I was told this is the most traditional one. I remember my grandmother having one of these dolls in her living room in my childhood, and I always found the doll fascinating, so I knew I wanted one of my own! I couldn't be happier with the one I found!


The other purchases I made during the trip were Christmas presents for my family and boyfriend.

What kind of souvenirs do you like?

Here's today's story about Finnish Christmas:

Joulupukki (Finnish) / Julgubben (Swedish) - Finnish Santa Claus
The Finnish equivalent for Father Christmas / Santa Claus is called joulupukki in Finnish and Julgubben in Swedish. He has his origin in the pagan Nordic shaman tradition of people dressing up in animal disguises.
The Finnish Santa Claus was once a symbol of fertility and more of a frightening figure back then than today. He wore a thick fur-lined coat turned inside out, wearing a mask and a pair of horns on his head. The Finnish name for Santa Claus literally means "Christmas buck" (billy-goat). Although the figure of the modern Finnish Santa somewhat resembles the American one, clad in red-and-white suit, he still maintains some purely Nordic elements in his clothing and way of life. Nowadays the relaxed and jolly Finnish Santa personally visits many Finnish homes on Christmas Eve, December 24th, to hand out presents for children. The custom of having Santa Claus visits became popular in Finland in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Starting his journey from his home in Lapland, joulupukki travels in a sleigh lead by reindeers. The Finnish Santa Claus always travels by land, as his Finnish reindeer do not fly.


An interesting note: One could say that the commercialised Coca-Cola Santa figure has Finnish and Nordic roots, since Haddon Sundblom's, who created Coca Cola's red dressed Santa Claus in the 30's, father was born in Finland and his mother was Swedish.
Source


Did you learn something new about the Finnish Santa Claus? Do you have something similar in your country?

What's your opinion?

  1. i went in s. pietroburgo only for one day and i saw a big grey city

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    1. Yes, like any other big city, if it's a grey day, the city looks grey as well. Luckily we didn't have one when I was there :)

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      E

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  2. Oh those are gorgeous! I really love the pattern on the china. And those dolls are so cute. My grandma gave me one when I was little!
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    1. The tea cup is so beautiful! Right now it decorates our cupboard!

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      E

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  3. oh my, what an absolutely perfect tea set for you! I'm happy you found it :)
    did you get anything else in addition to souvenirs? clothes, accessories? :P
    when it comes to your question I must say I'm not the biggest fan of souvenirs and I don't buy those very often but sometimes I do, yes, and when I do I buy very different goodies (jewellery, beauty products etc).

    Maiken,
    Maikeni blogi - part of me

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    1. Yes, I thought it was a sign that I found it, it was meant for me. It's not that common to find tea sets with dragonflies, hehe. Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to look for something else than souvenirs, we actually had only 1½ hours of free time in St. Petersburg. I would have wanted to find a scarf, but what can one do? I have to go back sometime.

      xxx
      E

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  4. I didn't know about the finnish santa

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  5. love the tea set and the japanese dolls! too cute <3

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    1. Thank you for your comment! The doll is Russian, not Japanese!

      xxx
      E

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