Tampere
I like Tampere: iron and brick, a lot of water, population of 200 000 and nonchalant image of a (biggish) city. It seems original, not a provincial capital watercolor strangely merged with a more modern industrial city around a canvas once used for a 18th century fortress plan (hi there, Helsinki), not a typical 'western' city (from a fantasy novel) with an obligatory fortress and a too big cathedral. Tampere seems new, I haven't seen a building older than the second half of the 19th century (though there are a few end of 18th hundreds/beginning of 19th very much trying to look medieval in the failing light), but it does not have a blank of an image of a new city. It doesn't seem hurried, urgent to prove itself, ready to wring its share of life, and people, and space, and recognition out of unfriendly universe as new cities so often are. The air floats, the water sings in the canal between the lakes (they are doing some reconstruction there, so it's not exactly as it should be atm), and the city is real, not in need of your gaze to fix in existence (hi there, my lovely hometown).
