Thank you

 Dear Bookcrossers,

A very special weekend is behind us, one that we all waited for so long, but which flew by so fast. We are thankful for so many of you coming to Finland and participating in 2024 Convention! Without you it would have only been four walls and 15 kilos of candy. It was so great meeting old friends and making new acquaintances, and we only hope we had had more time to chat and have good laughs with you all.

We have nothing but gratitude and admiration to everyone! You braced the weather and laughed at the face of all the snow and wintry conditions, and you brought so much warmth into our hearts over the days we’ll keep warm for blizzards to come. Your bravery to join us in the sauna and winter swimming, to shake your bits to Finnish dances and try out our weird delicacies was exemplary and we truly admire you!

Thank you for all your beautiful words and attention we were showered with! We are overwhelmed by the love we have received over the Convention weekend, and the memory of our days together will stay with us forever. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts, and long live BookCrossing!

Appelsiini, Lii5a, Pamina_81 and pippis

About guided tours to Moomin Museum

 Ahoy all Moomin lovers! Both guided tours to Moomin museum will take place as planned on Friday! If you wish to join a tour and haven't signed up yet, you can still do it. You can find the link from Special Activities -post. 

Picture: Laura Vanzo

Hemulens & Fillyjonks -tour will take place at 11.00-11.45 and Tove Jansson -tour at 13.00-13.45.
The entrance fee to the museum is 14,50 € for adults, 7 € for students, pensioners, unemployed, conscripts, non-military conscripts and children (7-17 years). 

All participants need to pay the entrance fee themselves at the ticket office. (Free entry with Museokortti, Museum Card).

A guided tour fee will be added to the ticket price (paid to pippis at entrance or during Convention). The guided tour price is divided by the number of tour participants, and at the moment of writing the guided tour fee of both tours will be appr. 6 €. The more participants, the lower the guided tour fee! Please sign up and join us in Moomin museum lobby 15 minutes before the tour starts, so you'll have good time to purchase your ticket, leave your jacket and bag to deposit boxes and freshen up!

Once the guided tour is over, you can stay in the museum exhibition as long as you like. Moomin museum shop offers Moomin books in several languages, but they cannot guarantee what will be available. Most probably at least en, fr, de, es, sv, fi.
If you want to spend little time just reading, there is a little library of Moomin books in all the languages they have been published in around the world! Moomin library is a little room in the museum lobby (at the back) and accessible to all, you don't have to purchase a museum ticket for it.

Special Activities

 About two weeks to our convention! We are getting excited already! 

We have planned some special activities to those who want to join beer tasting, sauna and visits to Moomin Museum and Metso Tampere Main Library. 

Here's a link where you can add yourself to these activities: Link to Forms

Please notice some of these activities might be happening same time with convention program. 

If you are joining guided tour to Moomin Museum, you can use Finnish Museokortti / Museum card for entrance fee. Finnish Museum card can be bought from almost any museum in Finland and it costs 79 €. If you love museums and are planning to visit many during your stay in Finland, you may want to buy that. More information about Finnish Museum Card from Museokortti web site.

Picture: Laura Vanzo

Rauhaniemi Folk Spa:

Thursday 18th April

LeishaCamden, Inge1990, Travelina, Cassiopaeia, RazFaz, meganh, Melydia, k-j-h, hingrald, Bookgirrl, Gizmopuddy

Friday 19th April

Shepparm & Mr. Shepparm, Livrespublic, Azuki, Macaufan, Lotty-, Skyring, echode, Juli312, Xarodoc, Gizmopuddy, olagorie, OldVulture, ReineFormsache, panzeranzi

Sunday 21st April

Inge1990, ZeeEllZett, WhiteNights, dacejav, eliso, earthcaroleanne, jax987654321, Inken, Dutchblad

Beer tasting in Konttori:

Azuki (&Macaufan), Shepparm & Mr. Shepparm, Sakirmo +1, Livrespublic, Tobb, beson, Skyring, echode, hugbert, Mr. Romney, Inken, OldVulture, ReineFormsache, panzeranzi

Moomin Museum / Hemulens & Fillyjonks 

Livrespublic, Lotty-, Poodlesister, ZeeEllZett, WhiteNights, dacejav, eliso, rahar109, eli-fromSweden, bokmalsblomma, Melydia, echode, Bookgirrl, 3malglueck & Mr. 3malglueck, hingrald, OldVulture, ReineFormsache, panzeranzi

Moomin Museum / Tove Jansson

Azuki, LeishaCamden, chawoso & Mr. chawoso, Macaufan, RazFaz, Travelina, meganh, Cassiopaeia, beson, FrakeRo, jax987654321, Apechild, Juli312, anith, toukokuu, hugbert, hetku77, Lilith89 & BabyGirrl, Malkavian_Mad, Gizmopuddy, Anke68, T800, saarahoo

Metso 1st tour:

Shepparm & Mr. Shepparm, Janna2, oehoeboeroe, LeishaCamden, Mankyi, enitnaj, earthcaroleanne, ApoloniaX, sumako, Poodlesister, k-j-h, olagorie, Dutchblad, maritn

Metso 2nd tour:

Lotty-, ZeeEllZett, WhiteNights, Inge1990. rahar109, beson, FraukeRo, Melydia, jax987654321, echode, Juli312, anith, Anke68, T800

Visit to Rauhaniemi Folk Spa

 If you have never been in Sauna, now is your chance! And if you are already familiar with this lovely Finnish way to relax, you are also welcome to join us in Rauhaniemi Folk Spa. 

Rauhaniemi Folk Spa is very dear to residents of Tampere and offers its visitors authentic sauna experience. Nature is close and the views from beach are stunning, so even if you are not into sauna, you can come and enjoy nature. They have two traditional saunas and both are gender neutral. Although usually Finns are naked in sauna, in Rauhaniemi Folk Spa you must wear appropriate swimwear (bikinis are also fine).

If you are brave and not afraid to challenge yourself, you can go swimming in lake Näsijärvi. 

Picture: Pamina_81

Pamina_81 is our local guide to ice swimming and sauna. We are using public transport to go to Rauhaniemi Folk Spa. We are organizing sauna trips every night. 

Sauna ticket for adults 10€ 

Sauna ticket for children 7-14 years old 4€

Payment for sauna by cash, bank card or credit card. You can visit the area for free. 

For a nice sauna experience you'll need a swimsuit, a towel, a small towel (to sit on in sauna) and something to drink (no alcohol). If you don't want to walk barefoot, you can take some kind of water resistant shoes (e.g. crocs, flipflops...). You can also bring your personal shampoo and shower gel. 

You can find more information about Rauhaniemi Folk Spa on their website.

Guest speaker: Mirva Haltia

 

Mirva Haltia is a Finnish Karelian artivist and entrepreneur dedicated to reviving the endangered Karelian language and culture. Her trilingual poetry book, 'Gruuga' (2023), delves into the Karelian language, identity, community, and the experiences of reconnecting with them. The poems in 'Gruuga' were originally written in the Karelian language (specifically the Southern dialect of Karelian Proper) and have been translated into Finnish and English. 'Gruuga' stands out as one of the very few books written in this dialect. During her speech, we will enjoy a bilingual poem reading in Karelian and English and gain deeper insights into the Karelian language, culture, and the experiences of revitalization work. 

Learn more about Mirva’s artivism at her website

Restaurants for Saturday night dinner

It's time to choose restaurant for Saturday night dinner! We have chosen few nice restaurants for you to choose from, please check your email for menus. This post will be updated. 

Bonker Moodcourt 

1) ApoloniaX

2) Apechild

3) hetku77

4) Kemppu

5) eli-fromSweden

6) Tobb

7) bokmalsblomma

8) Malkavian_Mad

9) Mecu *host*

10) hingrald

11) toukokuu

12) dacejav

13) eliso

14) k-j-h 

15) LeishaCamden

16) Travelina

17) Drosophilist....

18) ...Lilith89...

19&20) ... and their children

21) lii5a *host*

Plevna / picture: Laura Vanzo

Plevna 

1) Livrespublic

2) Skyring

3) sumako

4) Soozreader...

5) ... and her spouse

6) feltre

7) Mr. feltre

8) sakirmo... *host*

9) ... and her spouse

10) Mankyi

11) Oikku

12) chawoso

13) Mr. chawoso

14) RazFaz

15) Hugbert

16) Inge1990

17) indiegirl-de

18) halonhakkaaja

19) Romney

20) Mr. Romney

21) Meganh

22) d-vineland

23) rahar109

24) kirjakko

25) 3malglueck

26) Mr. 3malglueck

27) OldVulture

28) ReineForsmsache

29) Inken

30) olagorie

31) jax987654321

32) Bookgirrl

Viking restaurant Harald / picture: Laura Vanzo

Viking restaurant Harald 

1) Andreasberlin

2) captainanders

3) Moem

4) Mr. Moem

5) maritn

6) winhexe

7) BAMP

8) Mr. BAMP

9) Dutchblad

10) manuma

11) FraukeRo

12) Anke68

13) T800

14) Anith

15) Juli312

16) beson

17) Melydia

18) Appelsiini... *host*

19) ... and her child

Pyynikki Brewhouse / picture: Laura Vanzo

Pyynikki Brewhouse 

1) pippis... *host*

2) ... and her beerloving spouse

3) over-the-moon

4) echode

5) Azuki

6) Macaufan

7) ZeeEllZett

8) WhiteNights

9) Fifna

10) oehoeboeroe

11) janna2

12) Enitnaj

13) Poodlesister

14) earthcaroleanne

15) Cassiopaeia

16) Shepparm

17) Mr. Shepparm

18) Lotty_

19) Chania

20) Gismobuddy

21) Xarodoc

22) faerie-glen...

23) ... and her mother

24) Pamina_81

Host will have a list of orders, so you can check what you ordered. 

Guest speaker: Avi Heikkinen

 

Avi Heikkinen is a local multitalent who has published interesting graphic novels. In his presentation he will tell us about graphic novel "Valotusaika" and how he came up with this unique way to create it.