Nun for a Night

We arrived in Turku early in the morning, which felt even earlier after such a short night.  Mercifully, one of the girls from the conference let us crash at her place for a few hours before hitting the tourist trail.  I was zonked out in a matter of moments, and was shocked to wake up several hours later.  Clearly this was needed!  We freshened up a bit and set off for the bus to the downtown to find the Tourist Info office and a place to stay for the night.  It started to rain along the way, so by the time we got to the office I only cared that the place was cheap and nearby.  As it turned out, the Catholics were an answer to our Mormon prayers!

The guy at the info desk was somewhat kidding when he asked if we wanted to stay in a convent, but I thought it'd be the perfect place for some peace and quiet to recuperate after the weekend.  Here are my nun-creds that he wasn't aware of:  I played a nun in my junior high production of "The Sound of Music", my family regularly quotes a line from "Sister Act", and my lifestyle involves vows of chastity and obedience (and occasional post-trip poverty).  Plus, I'm always up for a novelty and this place didn't disappoint. 

Sanctuary!

Our rooms were pretty bare except for a crucifix above the beds, but it was clean and quiet.  I did notice one thing:  in this culturally Lutheran, mostly secular country, most of the nuns were from India.  I know they weren't deliberately outsourced, but it still made me smile and they were so sweet!

Something we didn't confess to the nuns:  Maggie had been an LDS missionary here a few years ago—we both love Jesus, and that's all they needed to know.  But it also meant that Maggie knew what to see and do, and had some folks she wanted to reconnect with.  In the end, we met up with Anna and had some Finnish kebabs.  I thought I'd eaten enough Turkish and Greek ones to be a pro, but these had a unique flavor and a tomato-based sauce.  The huge portion size was familiar, though, and I happily ate warm food while drying off inside the restaurant for as long as possible in the hopes the rain would let up.

Maggie and Anna with a Finnish kebab

Turku cathedral

We settled for a drizzle and headed to the cathedral, which was consecrated in 1300.  It had a huge mural around the nave, but as usual the stained-glass windows were my favorites (not original, but very old).

We wandered along the river that cuts through the town and arrived at an art/history museum.  It was just planning on being the former, but during the excavation of the basement uncovered enough medieval streets and building foundations to warrant turning the basement into an additional museum.  It turned out to be my favorite of the pair. Fun facts abut Turku:  it's the oldest city in Finland and was originally the capital—a blend of Finns, Swedes, and Hanseatic merchants (Germans).  It seemed like a nice place to live, but this day was a reminder how much the weather and quality of sleep affects your experience of a place.  In short, we wrapped it up pretty early and returned to our sanctuary for the night.