Talsinki

Talsinki is a portmanteau word, which consists of the names of cities Tallinn and Helsinki. It refers to the trans-national metropolitan area on the Gulf of Finland. The capitals of Finland and Estonia are separated by about 80 kilometers wide Baltic Sea bay.

For the region, the opposite portmanteau word variant is sometimes used, which is in Estonian and Finnish Hellinn Hellinna. In addition, Finns speak jokingly of " Helsinki -South " when they mean Tallinn.

History

The term Talsinki in 1992 first used by the Estonian writer Jaan Kaplinski to describe the emerging cultural and economic space between Tallinn and Helsinki. The idea of Talsinki based on a common Finno-Ugric language and a related culture. So have already received during the Soviet occupation of Estonia in the north Finnish radio and television, which many people learned Finnish. Since 1965, the two cities are also conveniently connected to one another after the ferry was reopened during the détente of Brezhnev and Urho Kekkonen. After the collapse of the Soviet Union helped the Finnish capital of Estonia in the construction of the state. Attracted by the lower price level considered many Finns Tallinn, not only as an attractive tourist destination, but also as a shopping paradise, while the Estonians went primarily to work in Finland. Meanwhile, the reverse situation is common, because the exodus of skilled workers to Finland has led to the shortage of labor income in Estonia have risen and the price level is largely aligned. Today, thousands commute between the two cities back and forth, which was facilitated by Estonia's accession to the Schengen area in 2004, the abolition of border controls in 2007 and Estonia's accession to the euro zone in 2011.

Planning for the future

Towards a common metropolitan area using the name Talsinki be cited as role models frequently Copenhagen and Malmö in the Öresund region. Planning for the future therefore see similar there with the Öresund Link a tunnel between Helsinki and Tallinn before, the same length as the Euro tunnel under the English Channel had approximately. He would bind together not only the two cities closer, but could also lead to the Finnish traffic flow to central Europe via the Baltic States increasingly take over Sweden. Currently provide daily in both directions for about twenty sea and air connections for passengers and goods between cities.

Further models for economic development include the entire region on the Gulf of Finland, ie Northern Estonia, Southern Finland and the Russian Leningrad Oblast.

Artificial island Talsinki

According to a study by the Finnish architect Martti Kalliala could be built on the track for the planned railway tunnel, an artificial island for 20,000 residents, for which he proposed the name Talsinki. The island is after his performance in the form of three letters TKI and apartments, summer houses, pyramid-shaped office building, a school, a park, a swimming pool, a small harbor, a conference center and a wind farm are home. For his idea, he was inspired by the construction Palm Islands and The World in Dubai.