Turku Finland - Journeyjoy.org

Turku, Finland’s oldest city, was granted city status in 1229. It is home to the Turku Castle, the largest surviving medieval building in Finland. If you are a Moomin fan, you can get bus number 6 from Turku to the Moomin World in Naantali. It costs 5$ and you should be there in less than 40 minutes. Due to the limited time, we have not been able to visit it on this occasion, but we can show you different attractions around. Let’s start from Turku Castle.

Turku Castle is one of the oldest buildings still in use in Finland. If you are interested in the history of Finland, Sweden, and Nordic countries you can visit the museum located inside. If you only want to see it from the outside there is a restaurant in the courtyard. Can’t say anything about the food as we did not eat there, but coffee is quite good. Opening times and prices you can find here: https://www.turku.fi/en/turku-castle/visiting/opening-times-and-prices If you are a coffee fan and 1 is not enough or if you decide that you prefer to drink it somewhere else, we invite you to the Turku’s prison.

How to get to a former prison that was given a new life? Here is the link to the maps: https://maps.app.goo.gl/wmbKyt4AywtK4Cfc7 In the re-developed prison today we can find the Kakola Hotel, Brewery, Restaurant, and a souvenir shop. The Hotel is rated very well – currently, 9.0 on the most popular accommodation website and the prices for this weekend start from 242£ based on 2 adults sharing the room. Luckily all the facilities are outside in the courtyard so you do not need to stay there to go to a brewery or for a coffee. You do not need to walk up the hill yourself, there is a free lift that we have discovered after climbing to the top so you do not need to 🙂

After having a coffee or a beer in a former prison, you can have a walk close to the Aura River. If you are interested in visiting the museum, there is a Forum Marinum (Maps: https://maps.app.goo.gl/df2JnLWXQdjxPjvM8). A large part of the museum is located outside and you do not need to pay a fee to see the ships. If you would like to see more here you can find the current admission price and the opening times: https://www.forum-marinum.fi/en/visit/ The walk close to Aura should take you to the library located in the city center.

What is interesting in Turku’s library? Turku City Library apart of books and music offers a Music Room free of charge. In the Music Room, you can plan the piano, electric piano or bring your own instrument. The booking system allows you to book it for 1 hour and you do not need to be a resident to do it. As I am personally in the middle of my piano learning journey that was a fantastic opportunity for me to practice – those who travel and learn an instrument know that it is not easy to find the place to play when traveling and it gets even harder if you do not consider your skills being at the level high enough to play in public.

Turku white nights – if you visit the city in June you are likely to experience white nights – when the sun does not completely hide behind the horizon for the entire 24 hours. Make sure that you stay in a place that has proper window blinds or you take a blackout eye mask to avoid sleepless nights. Below pictures were all taken in the middle of the night in a few hours time intervals.