Hamina bastion

Since my godson's confirmation on Sunday began at 10 A.M. and took place hundreds of kilometers from home, my parents and I started the trip on Saturday. We left before noon so we had time to visit the town of Hamina on the southeastern coast of Finland. Hamina's town center has a quite unusual circular town plan (three circular streets inside each other), as well as the remains of a star-shaped fortress (the fortress and the circular streets were based an Italian renaissance fortress concept). There are still a lot of interesting old buildings and structures in downtown Hamina, including the bastion, part of which can be seen here. The dark part at the top of the image is the roof of a large marquee at the bastion. The bastion hosts various cultural events, such as the Hamina Tattoo, a military music festival, which is held there every other year. Unfortunately my friend Antti, who lives in Hamina, wasn't in town during our visit, but at least I met him a couple of weeks ago as he stayed at my flat during the Ilosaarirock weekend.

After visiting Hamina we drove about half an hour north and stayed at my aunt's place for the night.