florals at the cemetery

 Not too long ago I was talking about wanting to explore the Hietaniemi cemetery in Helsinki this summer, and now I've already started my exploration. The cemetery is quite large, though, so I know I'll need to go back for at least one more (most likely two) trip at some point. But even this short look around it was so lovely!

On this day the main objective was to visit all the graves of the Finnish presidents, which was something both my mum and I had wanted to do. My mum doesn't necessarily share my fascination with cemeteries and the morbid side of it, but still likes visiting them and it's nice to have company sometimes (and to trick that company into taking pictures of me!). All but two of the Finnish presidents are buried in Hietaniemi, and it was actually exciting and somewhat humbling to first try and find them and then actually visit and pay our respect to them. But they're almost all (there's only nine dead ones, and three that are still alive, haha!) on the new areas of the cemetery, which means there's still about two thirds of the cemetery I've not got to experience. And the older the graves, the better, really. Anything from the 20th century onward tends to get a bit more boring than the previous centuries with every decade, in my opinion, and the older graves and areas have a very different kind of atmosphere. Not that there was anything wrong with the atmosphere and parts of the cemetery I visited - I loved it all. It was very beautiful and peaceful. It's just different.

The cemetery also provides a map with the graves of the presidents and other remarkable politicians, artists and more marked on it. So I'm excited to find more familiar names on my next visits as well. In addition to planning on revisiting Hietaniemi, I'd love to travel to the other two cemeteries with presidents, to complete my quest. My mum and I have semi-formed plans to visit the grave of Kyösti Kallio, as it's near enough the place my mum's from (and because we're distant relatives, haha!). But then it'd bother me not to have visited one grave, even though it's nowhere near any place I usually visit or have plans to visit. And it'd be ridiculous to travel somewhere just for one cemetery and one grave, right? (I'm pretty sure I'll still do it at some point.)

 

 Dress - Self-made // Shoes - Adidas // Sunglasses - Portobello Market

 I wore this dress that I've made partly using the same pattern I did this one with. It's just a bit more fitted, but with an open back that again makes it more loose. When I picked up some fabrics, this one wasn't the one I was the most excited about, but I'm really liking it now. The floral pattern has some orange, green and violet in it, and it is really cute. The dress is really light and the material is, well, light as well, which makes it good for warmer weather even though it has longer sleeves. (Bell sleeves forever, still.) It was a hot day and the open back sort of works as ventilation, haha! You can also see my bikinis which isn't the cutest look, but from the cemetery we were on our way to the beach as they're next to each other. (Ideal placement for me as cemeteries and beaches are two of my favourite locations.) All in all, I'm pleased with my dress and I'm pleased with the first of my Hietaniemi cemetery excursions.

 Hat - H&M // Rucksack - Amazon