Vaasa aka: Vasa

Great creamy mushroom soup! :)

The archipelago in Vaasa and four neighbouring municipalities was given a UNESCO world nature heritage status yesterday (12.7.2006). The area was admitted on the UNESCO list together with the High coast on the Swedish side. The name for the heritage site is High Coast/Kvarken Archipelago. The thing that makes the archipelago unique in the world is the fact that it’s rising from the sea with a speed of one centimetre per year, which basically means that in about 2300 years you can walk over to Sweden. It also means that areas like Replot and Björköby in the archipelago are gaining 35 hectare of land every year. Nowhere in the world is the effect of landrising so obvious on things like geology, animal- and plantlife and culture. The Kvarken archipelago came about during the last ice age (20 000 years ago) when a three kilometre thick continental ice sheet was covering the nordic countries and pressing the crust of the earth 800-1000 metres downwards. A good place to find out more about these thing when visiting Vaasa is Terranova – Kvarken nature centre. It can be found in conjunction with the Museum of Ostrobothnia on Museokatu 3-4. (http://museo.vaasa.fi/) Remember to give the museum feedback if you think they should do something better. They’re quite new to the fame of UNESCO, and are probably not that prepared yet.

There are six UNESCO cultural heritage sites in Finland from before, but this is the first nature heritage site in Finland. Today UNESCO has listed 812 sites in 137 countries. Of these 628 are cultural sites, 160 are nature sites and 24 are combined sites.

During the autumn, winter and spring when the students are in town, there are a lot of concerts and parties almost every weekend. Some places to check out live acts at are Club 25, Doo-Bop Club, Amarillo, Fontana, Superstereo, Gigglin Marlin, Olivers Inn, Royal Night, Sky and Hullu Pullo.