Local specialty

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Geo: 60.3741, 25.0154

We drove 3 hours this morning before we reached Helsinki. Kosta took us on a driving tour of the city. We saw churches, a modern art monument to a Finnish composer, an underground rock church, harbour side markets and parliament house. Helsinki is on the coast and the port of full of many cruise boats and ships. Went to check into our hostel. We had twin share rooms and they were very spacious. Anita, Bridget and I walked into town. We browsed shops, market stalls- where we bought yummy cherries from. Checked out the restaurants for somewhere for all of us to have dinner, then it was cider time. We met the rest of the group and ate our last meal as 9 of us. Ate a great Finnish restaurant. I ordered salmon and tasted some reindeer. We then went for a walk and found a cafe to try the local desserts. I had rhubarb and strawberry cake. While we ate, we people watched, just like the locals do! Chairs are organized into rows that face the footpath.

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Photos

01 Walking with sticks
Saw many locals doing this, walking with sticks. They are in training for the snow to fall again!

02 Long words
The Finns are well known for their long words. The longest word I found today had 25 letters! This is part of a menu from a fast food restaurant.

03 Monument
This is a monument to a famous Finnish composer, Jean Sibelius.

04 Close up
Close up of the monument while I stood underneath it.

05 Underground rock church
The outside of the underground rock church.

06 Inside
Inside the underground rock church.

07 Church
A church.

08 Waterfront at sunset
View of the boats and buildings we saw after we ate dinner and on the way to find desert!

09 Russian Church
The red building is the Russian church.

10 Desert
My yummy desert of strawberry and rhubarb cake with custard!!

11 People watching
Watching people while eating and drinking.