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Kallio

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Posted 12th-December-2008 at 11:52 AM by T-bag

Kallio is one of the main district in Helsinki,located on the eastern side of the Helsinki about one kilometer north from the citycenter. It is the most densely populated area in Finland. Kallio (literally "the rock") is separated from the city center by the Siltasaarensalmi strait, over which is a bridge called Pitkäsilta ("long bridge"). Traditionally, the bridge marks the symbolic divide between the bourgeois center and the more working class areas around Kallio.

However, working-class families as the most typical Kallio residents have long ago been replaced by young adults and elderly people living alone, in a process which could be seen as some sort of gentrification. For many people who move into Helsinki from elsewhere in Finland, Kallio is the area where they first settle. Most flats are small (one bed room flat -like my flat ), and rents are typically somewhat lower than elsewhere in central Helsinki( but still more than lots of other districts), lots of student resident this arera .

as I am living there and observing the life style Kallio has a reputation as a "bohemian" and liberal area more than any other district in Helsinki. Among other things, it is distinctive for its heterogeneous population and large number of bars and pubs, usually with relatively low price level ,there is the old style bars with all kind of annoying drunk peopole and also the new wave of bars like (HOLA ) (Rytmii) and others that I havnt visit yet . The area also has more sex shops, strip joints than other areas in Helsinki its like the center of all sex sale in Finland with lots of thai message places that lots beleive its a sex sale places . The district's seedy reputation grew steadily.
I live in Alppikatu its quite nice street that Linnänmäki is infront of my Balcony .
other great scene you can observe in Kallio is the Kallio church which located in a very central place of Kallio that you can see from different locations as it build on the highest point in Helsinki ,I read that it have been build since 1912 (just after Titanic have Sank) ,it was designed by a very famouse Finns desiger (Lars Sonck) he also design Tampere cathedral .
also in Kallio you can enjoy the large and lively marketplace which you can find all Finns traditional food and clothes and hosehold ,and just few meters from the market square you can see the häkäniemi market hall where you can find all kind of Fishs ,cheese , bread and sweets thats totally fresh every day .

one more thing in this area is the Häkäniemi metro station ,what make it his station intresting is that it was also featured in Bomfunk MC's music video for the hit single "Freestyler".

night life in Kallio is a bit dangerous but still not like other Eurepean cities its dangerous in contrast to other Finns districts ,everyday there is some bad things happening that next day most of the local magazine is talking about ,from suicaid cases to robary , raping sometimes lots of drunks which I beleive that most of them are from what they called in Finland the red people as some local told me.
one of the drunk people there who you can see every day there specially near the swimming pool he was a politican 25 years ago ,and I dont know how did he end up like this .

any way there is also lots of Immigrants shops specially Indean and chinese and African that you can find lots of nice things there .
By the way did you know that Mrs. Tarja Halonen was a resident of Kallio till she left to the president house(thats what I called a life change ).

so this is Kallio ,I love it its nice close to every things and here where I live after the quite silent life of meilahti .

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Comments

  1. Old Comment
    Snow's Avatar
    Great article. Was already wondering where they made this Boomfunk Video in Helsinki
    permalink
    Posted 12th-December-2008 at 11:24 PM by Snow Snow is offline
  2. Old Comment
    T-bag's Avatar
    yes its Kallio,
    BTW sorry for some of my speling mistakes like Hakaniemi and may be you gonna find some thing else my english is yak
    permalink
    Posted 13th-December-2008 at 06:19 AM by T-bag T-bag is offline
  3. Old Comment
    Snow's Avatar
    No problem, looks good
    permalink
    Posted 14th-December-2008 at 09:51 PM by Snow Snow is offline
  4. Old Comment
    Snow's Avatar
    What's new in Kallio?

    Hey lets go to play Badminton next weekend!
    permalink
    Posted 7th-January-2009 at 08:57 PM by Snow Snow is offline
 
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