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. 

Supply Store in Convention

 As usual, Supply Store is open during Convention!

Moem is bringing lots of goodies for us to buy so now is good time to make a little inventory and check what you need. In Supply Store you can pay with cash and card!

Picture: Laura Paronen

Tampere 2024 Convention Bookplates

 We are happy to introduce our logo for Tampere Convention!

It's drawn by Appelsiini's 12-year old daughter Vansku. She doesn't like books and reading, but she loves to draw and paint. When Vansku is forced to read, she reads YA horror and fantasy books and manga.

In our logo there's Näsinneula which is one of famous landmarks in Tampere. Näsinneula is an observation tower and it's located near Lake Näsijärvi, in Särkänniemi amusement park. Although the amusement park is still closed in April, you can visit Näsinneula. Up on the observation deck there's Restaurant Näsinneula. 

You can find bookplates in English and in Finnish from Bookcrossing Supply Store.

Convention Schedule

 Thursday 18th April: Early Bird

18.25 Sauna trip to Rauhaniemi Folk Spa with Pamina_81
- Gathering at bus stop Koskipuisto D (address: Hatanpään valtatie 1). Pamina_81 will take the 18.34 bus from the stop!

Pamina_81 will be waiting for you next to the statue.
Ladybug has been added to pic to cover other people 🐞

18.30 Beer tasting in Konttori, address Verkatehtaankatu 5

- Gathering in front of Beer restaurant Konttori at 18.15. 

Friday 19th April: Convention Day 1

11.00-11.45 Guided visit to Moomin Museum, address: Yliopistonkatu 55 (Tampere-talo)
- Hemulens and Fillyjonks -tour, max 25 participants. 
Please be at the museum lobby 10 minutes before the tour begins!

12.15 Guided visit to Tampere City Main Library Metso, address: Pirkankatu 2
- max 25 participants.
Please be at the library lobby 10 minutes before the tour begins!

13.00-13.45 Guided visit to Moomin Museum, address: Yliopistonkatu 55 (Tampere-talo)
- Tove Jansson as an artist -tour, max 25 participants. 
Please be at the museum lobby 10 minutes before the tour begins!

14.00 Convention venue opens! Registration opens.

15.00 Official Welcome to Tampere 2024 Convention 

- Appelsiini, lii5a, Pamina_81 & pippis

- Greetings from bookcrossing.com

15.30 Ice breaker games with Xarodoc. Raffle and Supply Store opens!

16.00 Bookswap Game with Meganh

16.15 Guided visit to Tampere City Main Library Metso
- max 25 participants.
Leaving with lii5a from venue at 16.00

18.25 Sauna trip to Rauhaniemi Folk Spa
- Leaving with Pamina_81 from venue. Remember to bring your swimming suit and towel!

20.00 Convention venue doors closed

Saturday 20th April: Convention day 2

9.00 Convention venue doors open! Registration open. Raffle and Supply Store open. 

9.30 Good morning! Getting ready for day 2.

- Appelsiini, lii5a, Pamina_81 & pippis

10.00 Guest speaker: Arttu Tuominen

12.00 Guest speaker / Avi Heikkinen

lunch break

14.30 Guest speaker: Mirva Haltia

16.00 Raffle Draw 

17.00 Convention venue doors closed.

18.00 Gathering to go to restaurants for dinner.

Sunday 21st April: Convention Day 3

10.00 Convention venue opens 

11.30 Special Guest

12.00 Group Photo at Convention venue

12.15 Bid for Convention 2025

13.00 Last chance to browse the book buffet!

13.30 Release & Sightseeing Walk

15.00 Sauna trip to Rauhaniemi Folk Spa
- Gathering at the Convention venue after release walk! Please take all your belongings from the venue with you!

16.00 Convention venue doors closed.

Bottomless coffee / tea / juice available at venue. 

picture: Laura Vanzo

Moomins and the World's only Moomin Museum

 We Finns love Moomins and so do many other around the world. As our convention takes place in Tampere, you can't miss visiting Moomin Museum. 

The Moomins are characters in series of novels written by Tove Jansson. Moomins are a little family of white fairy-tale characters and they live in their round house in Moominvalley. In Moomin books you also get to know other characters from Moominvalley. In all, there are nine books in this series. 

During our convention, we are organizing guided tours to Moomin Museum. It's an experiential art museum where you can admire Tove Jansson's original illustrations and beautifully crafted tableaux and so much more!

More information about Moomin Museum: Moomin Museum

Picture: Matias Ahonen

If you wish to buy Moomin -products during your visit to Finland, you can find several different products from playing cards to lamps and other home decoration items in many places. Book shops. department stores and even groceries have many different products. There's also a "official" Moomin shop at Helsinki-Vantaa airport, if you decide to make some last minute Moomin-shopping. 

Guest speaker: Arttu Tuominen

Picture: Sohvi Sillanpää

 Arttu Tuominen is a Finnish author, who works as environmental inspector at days and writes mysteries and crime fiction at nights. His books has been translated to several languages. His book Hyvitys (Eng. Credit) was awarded with the Palle Rosenkrantz Prize by the Danish Academy of Detective Fiction. He was chosen as most positive resident of Pori, his home town. 

Getting around in Tampere

Although Tampere is quite compact and main sights are in centre, some of you might want to explore Tampere more. So here's some tips and information about public transport etc. Please note this post is only about public transportation in Tampere! Helsinki and other cities use different tickets and apps, also long distance travelling tickets are different. 

Bus and tram Nysse

Busses and trams in Tampere use same ticket system, so you only need to buy one ticket. The ticket price is determined by the payment method and the zones selected. There is also a cheaper ticket for childen (7-16 years) and youths (17-24 years).

Tampere area is divided into three payment zones: A, B and C. If travelling only in Tampere, you are staying in AB zone. 

How to buy a ticket?

With your bank or credit card / Contactless payment 

You can pay your ticket in busses and trams using contactless payment. Please note, cash is not accepted! In all busses and trams there's a ticket device. Just select the payment method, check the zones of your journey and pay for the trip. The devide will not ask for you PIN code. Please note, you can use contactless payment for one person at time. If you want to buy several tickets, you need to use another mean of payment. 

Your ticket is valid for 90 minutes or 24 hours if needed. The total price will first be calculated based on your trips during 90 minutes. After this, if you keep travelling, the 24-hour price cap will be applied. Even if you use contactless payment multiple times within these time limits, you will only pay up to the maximum price cap for the zones you have selected! If you have many cards, use only one to pay your trips in Tampere!

If travelling at night (00:00 to 04:40), the night fare will automatically be added to the final price of a single trip. 

Mobile tickets NysseMobiili

You can upload NysseMobiili application from GooglePlay and AppStore. NysseMobiili is using Visa and Mastercard. 

When using NysseMobiili, please note your travel time starts at the time of purchase. So buy the ticket just moments before your trip! In app select ticket type, zones, your customer group and payment method. Check the ticket information, pay for your ticket and then open the ticket. When boarding buss or tram, show the ticket code to the bottom reader of the ticket device on each of your trips. 

If you need to buy multiple tickets, you need to use NysseMobiili. Each ticket must be purchased individually and tickets will appear under Tickets. 

Confirm your ticket

Remember to confirm your ticket on each of your trips! An inspection fee in Tampere is 80€ and can be charged for passengers traveling without a confirmed ticket. So always confirm your ticket with the ticket device. All busses and trams have it near the entrance. 

Routes and schedules

There is a route planner in Nysse website: Route Planner

If you prefer printable timetables, you can find those here: Timetables

If you check bus routes etc. already in advance, please note spring season in timetables start 4th Marc 2024! So choose the right season when searching for timetables! 

Other ways to get around

By your car

Lets be honest here... Tampere hates private driving. Or that's how it feels when trying to drive from place A to B in Tampere centre! Parking in Tampere centre can be a nightmare, but near our venue there are few parking houses. All these parking houses operate via Finnpark and easiest way to pay for your parking is via mobile app Moovy. When driving into parking house, your license plate is recognized and when you leave, your license plate is read again and your credit card charged. 

 P-Näsinkulma, Näsilinnankatu 13

P-Frenckell, Frenckellinaukio 3

P-Plevna, Polttimonkatu 5

If you don't mind little walking, this one is a big parking house and very easy to drive in:

P-Hämppi, Ratapihankatu 39C and Pellavatehtaankatu 6A. If choosing Hämppi, you might want to leave your car near Koskenporras as that's closest exit to our venue. 

More parking places and information about parking charges: Finnpark

Please note, there's no free parking in Tampere centre. Parking control is efficient and brutal. 

City bikes and electric scooters

City bikes and electric scooters are now in garage waiting for spring. The season for city bikes will start on 15th April 2024! 

More information about city bikes and electric scooters later!

Picture: Jukka Salminen 

Taxi

Getting around by taxi might be expensive, but sometimes it's quite handy. Here are numbers for reliable taxi companies and they have fixed prices.

Taksi Tampere phone: 0100 4131

Mansen taksi phone: 044 744 6400

There are several taxi stands in Tampere centre, but basically anyone can stop there and offer a ride for a waiting customer. All official taxi drivers must have a price list available which you can check before getting a ride. 

About our event & schedule

 When writing this, we are negotiating with interesting people who we would love to see in our convention. We already have some guest speakers and other plans to entertain you. 

So here's a rough schedule so you can plan your flights and staying in Tampere.

Thursday 18th April - Early bird mingling and other fun activities. Nothing official, you won't miss anything if you arrive on Friday or later.

Friday 19th April - Bookcrossing Convention 2024. Our official program will start afternoon. We will have some fun ice breakers, the book buffet, getting ready for our guest speakers, visits to museums, other activities.

Saturday 20th April - Convention continues. Guest speakers, visits to museums, other activities. Dinner in selected restaurants.

Sunday 21st April - Ending convention with raffle, packing left over books from buffet and release walk. Closing our venue's doors at 3pm. 

If you have signed up to museum visits, sauna or other activities, those will be organized between our guest speakers, so you won't miss any of those interesting presentations. 

Tampere, favorite city in Finland, and how to get there

 First things first: when Finns were asked which is their favorite place in Finland, they answer Tampere! And that is, in my opinion, quite right. 

Depending where you are travelling from, you are propably arriving to Finland in Helsinki, Turku or perhaps some Northern border crossing point if you are coming from North. When writing this, the border between Finland and Russia is closed. Here are some tips how to get to Tampere and how to get around while you are here. 

picture: Visit Tampere / Laura Vanzo

Fly to Tampere

Some smaller companies use Tampere-Pirkkala airport, so do check if that could be an option for you,

Tampere-Pirkkala airport is about 17 km from city centre. The city buss number 103 operates between Tampere-Pirkkala airport and city centre. There is also a taxi rank if you prefer using taxi.

To Tampere by train

If you are arriving to Helsinki or Turku or if you are staying in Finland longer and maybe travelling around, train is propably best choice for you. Train between Helsinki and Tampere takes about 1,5 - 2 h and there are several stops in smaller towns. Train from Turku takes about 1h45min. 

You can also take train from Helsinki-Vantaa airport to Tampere. Then you will hop into train in Tikkurila train station.

Please note, you are not able to buy tickets from train! You can use a ticket machine in train stations or buy your tickets online. More information from VR Ltd Finnish Railways .

To Tampere by bus

There are many bus connections to Tampere. It also may be cheaper to use long distance busses than train. All bus companies operate via Tampere bus station. 

Ways to buy a ticket varies between bus companies, so do check from their website if it's possible to buy a ticket directly from bus or do you need to buy your ticket online. 

More information from Matkahuolto

More information from Onnibus

Pro tip: Onnibus and Matkahuolto co-operate some bus routes and they both sell tickets to same busses. So if you are traveling with budget, you might want to check them both when buying a ticket! Same ticket to same bus might be cheaper from other!

Getting around in Tampere

After all Tampere is quite compact and "small" city, so (depending on weather) often it's quicker and nicer to go by foot. Anyhow, there is also a very functional public transport. 

You can check local bus and tram routes, timetables and ticket prices from Nysse.

If you are getting around by car, do remember there is no free parking in Tampere centre! Always check how to pay your parking, or prepare to pay a parking fine. Parking control in Tampere is cruel and gives no mercy. Frenckel parking is closest to our venue but Hämppi is bigger and more convenient and not that far away. More information from Tampere parking areas.

Venue: Näsin sali

Our venue is "Näsin sali", or maybe Näsi Hall in English, in Näsilinnankatu 26. Näsin sali is part of Tampere Evangelical Lutheran Church. Our venue consist of main hall and other smaller rooms where we can enjoy our book buffet, chatting and other activities. 

picture: Tampereen ev. lut. seurakunta

 

It's close to tram and bus stops in Hämeenkatu, if you are using public transport. After all, Tampere is quite small city so it's also easily accessible from train and bus stations. 

 Näsin sali is in 2nd floor and there is a lift. When writing this post, they are renovating the Hall but everything will be ready before convention!

Edit. 16th January 2024

Address: Näsilinnankatu 26, 33200 Tampere.

Please be aware, there seems to be two places for that address in Tampere, so add also postal code (33200) to address when using Google Maps or other web maps. 
 

Welcome to Tampere!

 We are happy to announce Bookcrossing Convention Tampere 2024!

Finally! Covid-19 destroyed our plans for 2021, but now we can travel again and are more than excited to invite you to Tampere, Finland. We are looking forward to meeting you, having great conversations, learning something new, visiting new places and maybe most of it all, having great time bookcrossing and reading! 

In this blog we are giving you some basic information about Tampere, how to actually get here, some tips for sightseeing and places to see and experience and of course what we have planned for the convention. We hope you find it useful! 

See you in Tampere!

Photo: Visit Tampere, Laura Vanzo