Tuesday 22nd and Wednesday April 23rd Day 11+12
Got into Helsinki. Flew in over spectacular Norwegian fiords and snow and glacier covered mountains. Over Sweden flatter and less snow and then Finland. 188,000 Lakes, 1.5 million in Helsinki. The taxi is a late model mercedes with full leather interior. All men over 50 seem to have a beard. It is cold - about 0C. People very friendly and most speak a few words of english - more than our two words of Finnish. Hey -Hi and Kittas - thankyou. Many words are familiar though. Hjalp is help, battre is better. Street names are very long and sometimes very similar.
Like Verihaunihenkatu and Vantitornikatu or Kaisaniemenkatu Katalanrantuukatu and Kanavakatu Kirkkololatu. Well they seemed similar when we were lost! We threw the map away in the end and still made it home after noting the Texas Bar and Carlton Inn (with Fosters Lager) were near our hotel. Fosters Lager saves the day. There is a predominance of bars! It's a lovely town and Scando-Rusky design prevails.
The shops all have double doorways and it makes it much warmer inside. Good heating here.
If two people walk into a shop together they
say 'Hey Hey'. Then they kept talking to us in Finnish, we look a little Finnish!
Helsinki has gold and green trams just like us <: They seem like wide and very clean streets after NYC. Also very quiet! Nordic blue eyed blondes prevail, very little ethnic diversity.
Very stylish overcoats and all very neat and clean. We loved the design area and lots of homewares and arty shops. Walked around the docks and restaurants until about 9pm, still light,very safe. It is expensive, much more so than NYC. A fairly normal meal at a nicer restaurant starts at $50 a main. The cafes are expensive too, $5 for a cookie- well i guess it was quite a big cookie. Our Hotel's menu is 34 Euros for a dinner including Italian Wine from Umbria and Reindeer delicacies described in great detail.
Windchill keeps us wrapped up in our woollies.
Finland's Flag
Map of Finland