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 Turku in south-western Finland has a large student population whose offbeat exuberance is reflected in a selection of unusual bars and restaurants. Words by Tim Bird
IT'S SATURDAY NIGHT IN Turku but there's a big, enthusiastic crowd making its way towards the school building. Inside, a boy and a girl seated at a wooden desk survey a huge map of the world on the wall. Another young man is doing his sums, flicking through the contents of his wallet. Other couples are ascending the wide staircase, happily anticipating school dinner. School is cool, it seems in this very student-oriented city.
It's no normal school, of course. In fact, it isn't really a school at all any more. Panimoravintola Koulu (Eerikinkatu 18, +358 (0)274 5757, www. panimoravintolakoulu.fi), as it is known in Finnish, meaning 'school brewery restaurant', started life as the Swedish-language Cygnaeus girls' grammar school more than a century ago and switched to its contemporary, more refreshing function in 1998. It's now one of Finland's biggest brewery pubs, serving a variety of great beers made on the premises as well as a terrific food menu.
 For a lesson in top class pub brews, try one of the three standard beers on offer through the year: Ope (slang for 'teacher') is a refreshing light lager; Maisteri ('master') is a potent, dark lager; and Lehtori ('lecturer') is an unfiltered lighter brew. For those who take their beer studies more seriously, Koulu produces a variety of seasonal brews, including summer beers, bitters and Christmas ales. The German purity law is followed to the letter: that means only water, malted barley, hops and yeast are used in the brew. Prices per half litre, at Koulu and in the other venues mentioned below, vary from between €4 to €6.50.
Upstairs, a menu that includes salmon and pike-perch from local waters, as well as smoked fillet of beef or roast lamb with red currant sauce, with prices varying between €17 and €22, makes it worth staying after lessons. If beer is not on your personal curriculum, there is also an excellent wine list. On the long light summer evenings, school convenes in the spacious courtyard, with a separate bar and plenty of tables.
Koulu is one of several buildings in the city where mundane daily functions have made way for more convivial pursuits. In Aurakatu, not far from Koulu, for example, there is a cheerful clamour for deposits and withdrawals at the bar of the Old Bank (Aurakatu 3, +358 (0)2 274 5700, www.oldbank.fi), where 120 different beer brands line the shelves. The switch was made under the watchful eye of the local museum authority in 1992, and the granite façade, marble pillars, leather backed furniture, sturdy vault door and stained glass windows maintain a sense of early 19th-century fiscal gravitas in the décor, if not in the late night atmosphere.
Draft and bottled Czech and British beers supplement the local brews. The Swedish-speaking archipelago of Aland is close to Turku, and the Old Bank is one of the few Finnish mainland outlets for the Aland Stalhagen brewery's dark lager. It makes a very attractive short-term investment at an alcoholic interest rate of six per cent.
 After securing your overdraft at the Old Bank, follow Aurakatu down to the banks of the River Aura that runs through the centre of this attractively compact city. Cross the bridge and head up the slope of Kaskenkatu a short distance and you'll come to another of the city's quirky bars on your right. Whatever your poison - or antidote - you'll find it at the Uusi Apteekki (Kaskenkatu 1, +358 (0)2 250 2595, www.uusiapteekki.fi), or 'new pharmacy'. 'New' is a bit misleading: this art nouveau building first housed a chemist's shop under apothecary Frans E Ditzler in 1907, and the current bar contains much of the original furniture and handsome wooden fittings.
You can choose your medicine from a good choice of beers, ciders and malt whiskies, and take it out to the pleasant terrace above the river in the summer. This is one of the most keenly anticipated pleasures of the summer in any part of Finland, but Turku, with its riverboat bars and waterside lawns, has perfected the art of terrace drinking.
ADDRESS BOOK
Panimoravintola Koulu (Eerikinkatu 18, +358 (0)2 274 5757,
www.panimoravintolakoulu.fi)
Old Bank Public House (Aurakatu 3, +358 (0)2 274 5700,
www.oldbank.fi)
Uusi Apteekki (Kaskenkatu 1, +358
(0)2 250 2595, www.uusiapteekki.fi)
Puutorin Vessa (Puutori Square, +358
(0)2 233 8123, www.puutorinvessa.fi)
 Spory odsetek mieszkańców fińskiego miasta Turku stanowią studenci, których temperament przekłada się na charakter tutejszych barów i restauracji.
Jest sobota wieczór, w stronę szkoły płynie rozentuzjazmowany tłum młodych ludzi. Masz wrażenie, że w tym studenckim miescie szkoła musi być naprawdę fajna. Ale to nie jest normalna szkoła. Własciwie, to już w ogóle nie jest szkoła. Panimoravintola Koulu znaczy po fińsku „szkolny browar z restauracją". Lokal powstał w1998 r. w miejscu otwartej tu ponad 100 lat temu szwedzkojęzycznej szkoły dla dziewcząt.
Koulu nie jest jedynym budynkiem, którego funkcję zmieniono wraz ze zmianą zapotrzebowań rynku; wpłatom i wypłatom w barze Starego Banku w Aurakatu towarzyszy sporo smiechu i wrzawy, a jego półki uginają się pod ciężarem butelek z piwem.
Kiedy już zabezpieczysz debet w Starym Banku, udaj się w stronę wzgórza Kaskenkatu po drugiej stronie rzeki. Czy szukasz trucizny, czy antidotum na nią, wszystko znajdziesz w Uusi Aptekki, czyli w „nowej aptece". Choć słowo „nowa" może być trochę mylące: prawdziwą aptekę otwarto tu w 1907 r.
Czas na największą atrakcję. Przy placu Puutori Tak znajduje się bar Puutorin Vess, czyli inaczej Toaleta. Na pewno nie jest to najwygodniejszy bar w miescie - w czasach, kiedy przy placu znajdował się dworzec autobusowy, ten niewielki owalny budynek służył jako wychodek dla kierowcy. Teraz, usiadłszy na sedesie, możesz rozkoszować się smakiem piwa, które podawane jest tu w nocniku.
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