I have some great news to share, yesterday I defended my doctoral dissertation! The topic of my dissertation was eco-labeling in the airline industry. This was a good reason to celebrate and as it is the academic tradition in Finland the doctoral candidate has to arrange for a dinner party (Karonka) in honor of the opponent. I decided to have my post-doctoral dinner party in no other place than the Alvar Aalto Museum's own restaurant, Cafe Alvar.
I have already reported on the Alvar Aalto Museum in some earlier posts, however, so far I haven't told much about Cafe Alvar. The restaurant of the museum is located on the ground floor and functions as cafe for museum's visitors as well as a lunch restaurant. In addition to that can the restaurant also be booked for special occasions such as dinner parties etc.
Having the dinner party in an building designed by Alvar Aalto was certainly the crowning of my defense day. Not only the building itself but also the entire interior was designed by the master himself. Even the napkins used during the dinner featured his famous Siena design.
It is needless to tell that I also mentioned Alvar Aalto in my dinner speech and pointed out my special relationship to his work reflected through this blog. Also my colleagues, friends and family know about my passion and brought me many gifts related to Alvar Aalto and his work.
hi stefan!
ReplyDeletefirst of all, thank you so kindly for keeping this blog and posting so much useful info on aalto’s heritage. i’ve been his true admirer and follower for years, and even some of them were actually spent in alvar’s motherland, i didn’t see even a half of his sites in person and learned about crazy many details related to his work only thanks to this very page.
secondly, if understand it correctly you are still planning a visit to one of his sites left from the list, namely viipuri (vyborg) library. i’ve visited it myself a couple of years ago and now it looks like this library gonna host an exhibition of mine dealing with finnish culture next february. i just thought maybe it would be possible for you to arrange an awaited journey to vyborg at the same time, so i could help or orientate you a bit (at least for i do speak russian and other people of vyborg definitely do not speak any other language at all - a note from my previous journey there, heh). so just in case you actually decide to travel next winter, it would be my pleasure to maybe show you around and give a helping hand in return for everything i’ve been learning from this blog over years.
besides all that, congrats on your doctoral dissertation!
best,
lisa
Dear Lisa,
DeleteThank you so much for your kind feedback on my blog! I am very glad to hear that this blog has been a useful and inspiring source for you to learn more about Alvar Aalto and his works. It is also nice to get to know fellow admirer of his work this way.
Congratulations on your upcoming exhibition in the Vyborg library. I would be happy to not only see the library but also to visit your exhibition. Thank you very much for offering me help with my planned visit to the Vyborg library, especially when it comes to language. I very much appreciate your offer and I would be happy to meet you in Vyborg in the upcoming winter!
Stefan
dear stefan,
Deletethank you kindly in return! then we could probably get in touch on fb or via email later on, so i would tell you more about the dates, etc. my full name on facebook is lisa saga or you might email maitomjolk (at) gmail . com