Helsinki

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Arriving in Helsinki, we were greeted with some glorious weather as we set about walking to the hostel. Imagining that we would make it part way across the city before we eventually had to stop and get some sort of public transport we soon realised that, with Finland having half the population of Moscow, Helsinki is a substantially smaller city than we were used to. It was therefore no time at all before we had checked into our hostel. Even better, we had a kitchenette so, for the first time in 4 months we could actually cook something!

After we had settled in we headed over to the completely unpronounceable Temppeliakio Church a.k.a the Church in the Rock. Built by hollowing out a large rock and then enlarging it, this church felt completely unlike anything I had ever been in before. The rocks gave it a uniquely natural feeling whilst you could almost get lost by lying back and looking up at the copper ceiling. We were really lucky as, whilst we were there, someone struck up the organ to demonstrate the good harmonics in the Church. Granted he got it wrong every now and again as he didn't speak Finnish so couldn't quite understand all the buttons on the organ, but it was still a really good greeting to Helsinki.

After the church we had a bite to eat at Chez Steph – who after months without practice had not lost the art of opening the pasta sauce and plopping it in the pan. We then headed out for a nice after dinner stroll around the Helsinki area, doing one of the guided walks that we had picked up earlier. Billed as the “Green Walk” around Helsinki it was rather more blue as we found that pretty much all the parks in Helsinki are near some form of water. Whilst this was absolutely no problem it did present a slight problem with the Finish as the guide book took every opportunity to pick the most boring, bland, uninteresting and functional buildings going as a classic version of “the Finnish Romantic Style.” Clearly romance is a little more boring in Finland!

The next morning we woke early to take advantage of best part of our hostel; the free sauna and swimming pool! Granted it was split into women's times and mens times which meant, with much grumbling, that Steph had to head down earlier than I did. After a rather more energetic early morning then I am used to, we had another home(ish) cooked breakfast and then we headed out to see even more sights of Helsinki. This time we were going to take in the main sights of Helsinki. However, first we were going to sell some of the library that I had been carrying around since we were on the Trans-Siberian looking, and failing, to find anywhere to swap them.

Alas, this plan should have to stay well and truly on the drawing board as, after trying four second hand book stores, we abandoned any chance of selling the books and I ended up carrying them for the rest of the day as we walked around Helsinki. That said we had a really good days sightseeing - starting off in the Marketplace by the docks we headed round taking in the Helsinki Cathedral and the Uspenki Cathedral before stopping for a bite to eat.

There was quite a marked contrast between the two cathedrals, with the Usepenki very much in the Russian Orthodox style, whilst the Helsinki cathedral was probably a little more understated in its grandeur. Between the two I preferred the Helsinki Cathedral, but having seen a lot of Russian Orthodox churches in the past few days I may just have been a little bit jaded by the time I arrived at the Uspenki.
After lunch we continued the walking tour. It may be a great injustice to Helsinki to say that the main sights of the afternoon were a myriad of statues designed by someone with an unpronounceable name to commemorate another Fin who we had never heard of nor whose name I could pronounce. Alas, by the end this is very much what it felt like.

We did however, manage to learn a little bit about the “Jugend” architectural style. Billed as the locals looking to animals and nature as influences for their designs I was expecting some odd shaped building in the shape of a hedgehog. Instead I was greeted by a perfectly normal looking building with some small animal designs and sculptures around the windows and doors. Some may say that my hopes were a little ambitious, especially in light of what I had already seen... I like to think I was duped.

We also had the chance to view the Burger's House. The oldest wooden building in Helsinki, this is an original wooden building owned by one of the more wealthy members of Helsinki's middle class. That he had 2 servants speaks something of his wealth. That they slept in the kitchen, whilst his three children slept on the living room floor of the 4 room small house says more about what was deemed well off in those times. Given that they had seven in the space of our former small flat in London, made me think it wasn't so bad after all.

The day ended on a bad note when I put the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream in the fridge instead of the freezer. This meant we had to drink it as some sort of chocolate smoothie with brownies in. It was very nice, but I wouldn't advise melting your ice cream to try it. Well..only if you have more ice cream on hand!

Now, we had heard from reliable sources that there wasn't much to do in Helsinki and that one day would probably be enough. Whilst this is probably right, we ended up prolonging our stay in Helsinki by an extra day. This has everything to do with the sheer amount of things to do in Helsinki, and not that we had been too lazy to sort out our ferry tickets to Tallinn!

Therefore the first port of call on our last day was to the ticket office to book our tickets to Tallinn. In order to save time, and further delay later on we booked our return ticket and then the onwards ticket to Rostock, in the North of German, as well.

After doing the practical stuff we spent our last full day in Helsinki doing the final long walking tour of the city, the enigmatically named “Enjoy the Smell of the Sea Walk”. Anybody who has been up North and pictures Whitley Bay, will be expecting a lovely salty smell mixed with sewage, and be reaching for the gas mask. However, it was a much more enjoyable affair around Helsinki.

Starting off down by the docks we headed over to the Old Market Hall. Billed as the “Best in the World” a more accurate description of its award would be “The Best Old Market Hall in the World (as voted for by store owners in the Old market in Helsinki)”. However, it did sell good chocolate muffins.

This was probably the highlight of the walking tour, apart from the fact that we were just having a nice stroll around the place in some glorious weather. We also saw more of the many statues in Helsinki, but by this time they were largely all beginning to become a blur.

Our final day in Helsinki started as all the others had with more swimming and saunaering. Afterwards we just about had enough time to see one of the other major attractions in Helsinki – The Sibelius Monument. Looking slightly like someone had tried to build an organ without reading the instructions this was a vast collection of pipes in the park. I understand, again from my reliable sources, that you can blow into it to make a noise. All I know is that they must produce a lot more hot air than me!

After that it was time to grab our bags and walk on down to the ferry terminal, stopping briefly to point some lost tourists in the direction of the Sibelius Monument, before hopping on to a ferry and heading off to Estonia and Tallinn.

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Photos

Train Station
"Great Example of Functionalist Architecture"