utö lighthouse 1814

i just returned to helsinki tonight... the trip to utö was amazing, although i am glad to be back "home" in helsinki - it feels nice to want to come back here, even though we were on utö for about the same amount of time we had been in helsinki, haha.
so one of the major highlights for the trip was that we were able to go not only into the lighthouse, but up to the light at night. the first lighthouse in finland was built on utö in 1753, but it was destroyed in the swedish / russian war in 1809 or so... then the current lighthouse was built in 1814 and the existing lens was put in around 1906. it is made of glass prisms (as seen in pictures - although we could not crawl all the way up or it would hurt our eyes!). the light is so beautiful and it was pretty cool to be able to crawl up the very tiny wooden stairs to the top. currently, the first floor is just a little gift shop and info room about the light, the second floor is like a banquet type area, and the third is an old church that is still used. we were told there are often weddings there and when it's warm enough people frequently have dinners there. the reason the lighthouse is square (not round) is just because during the time it was built, that type was popular.
the island of utö is so interesting because there is so much history and culture there. it seems to have more swedish influence, even though is it part of finland. i am so excited to start our projects here and to learn more about it. we get back in the groove of school starting tomorrow ;)