"Washing a carpet" Helsinki Travelogue by sabsi


Helsinki Travel Guide: 4,535 reviews and 6,842 photos

Strange...

I don't know where I saw this first - I guess it was on German telly somewhere - but ever since I saw that you can wash your carpets at the sea in Helsinki I wanted to do it! So one fine day we asked my friend's mum whether she has a carpet we can wash and she had one. So there it was ..

.. the big day!!!

Here we are, Bigs and me, in front of "our" door with "our" carpet, a bucket and everything a Finn needs to wash a carpet...

We took pictures of the whole thing - so we could write a book on carpet washing afterwards ;-) Here we put the carpet and our bucket into Bigs' Lupo...

And here we arrived at the "carpet wash" at Helsinki's seafront...

... I have a look how this all works first (as our Finnish instructor had never washed a carpet before in hiw whole life..maybe he isn't a true Finn - he can ice skate though ;)...

... I couldn't believe my eyes when this duck passed by first ;)

OK time to start, Bigs... At first you have to get a free table and put your carpet there....The put some Finnish cleaning stuff thats smells like a whole forest over it..

You take the fresh sea water and pour it over your carpet until it's all wet...

Next you have to brush like crazy. We did that for several hours to get rid of the stains in our carpet... from time to time we added more of the forest stuff..

..and brushed..

..and brushed!

Next you have to try and get rid of all the soap - using looooads of water - not too easy I tell ya! It's good that we used this forest natural stuff - I don't think it would be healthy for the sea to use chemicals and soap .. and I am sure it isn't allowed!

Then carry the carpet - that only weights something like 20 tons because of all the water ... !

..over to the water removal!

Do this until the carpet isn't as heavy anymore...

..then hang it up to dry! And come back later that day to colect it... that's what everyone does! (I wont suggest going there now if you need a carpet ;)

  • Page Updated Mar 12, 2003
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Comments (151)

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  • junecorlett's Profile Photo
    junecorlett Jul 20, 2009 at 8:18 AM Report Abuse

    Yes I do agree - a beautiful opening picture of Helsinki. Hi from South Africa.

  • gugi66's Profile Photo
    gugi66 Feb 7, 2009 at 4:51 AM Report Abuse

    Great tips. I was wondering, is it a long walk from the ferry terminal (coming from Stockholm) to the city center? Or should I take a cab? Take care

  • Mikebb's Profile Photo
    Mikebb Jan 12, 2009 at 1:17 PM Report Abuse

    Hi Sabsi, Information on your pages is fantastic. Looks a great place to visit, have not been this far north in Europe. Very different from my home in Australia.

  • nyperose's Profile Photo
    nyperose Jan 10, 2009 at 1:11 AM Report Abuse

    Hi, Great pages about Helsinki. I'm planning to go there in June, so I very much appreciated reading your pages. Have a nice day!

  • Belsaita's Profile Photo
    Belsaita Jun 16, 2008 at 10:56 AM Report Abuse

    Great tips Sabine, thank you for sharing! Heading to Helsinki next week :) Greetings from Barcelona, Isa

  • pure1942's Profile Photo
    pure1942 May 12, 2008 at 2:02 PM Report Abuse

    Great Page! Looking forward to checking out some of your great tips in three weeks time when I visit. Thanks - Brian

  • Wild_Orchid's Profile Photo
    Wild_Orchid Oct 19, 2007 at 9:45 AM Report Abuse

    nice tips. It looks like a lovely city. :-)

  • maztek's Profile Photo
    maztek Oct 11, 2007 at 7:18 PM Report Abuse

    Nice to visit your pages...

  • livi4's Profile Photo
    livi4 Feb 4, 2007 at 12:12 PM Report Abuse

    nice notes and pictures. very interesting about a spot I know nothing about. I think I'll go !

  • tranceperent's Profile Photo
    tranceperent Dec 7, 2006 at 11:29 PM Report Abuse

    loved your helsinki pages and tip. i think findland is the best place i have ever visited

sabsi

“It isn`t good having anything exciting if you can`t share it (Winnie the Pooh)”

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