Blogs from Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland, Europe
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Architecture in... Helsinki!
Published: January 6th 2013Europe » Finland » Uusimaa » Helsinki » VantaaWow, the last week has been a bit epic. It’s hard to believe that one week ago (Thurs) we were frantically rushing around looking for Dave’s passport as he’d left it somewhere after hiring a van on Monday. Not an experience we want to repeat anytime soon I assure you. I’m sitting here on the ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn which as you can imagine is fairly huge and full of people heading over to Tallinn for cheap booze. Not that I blame them, Finland is ridiculously expensive. So, to follow Dave’s previous entry, we had just boarded the plane to Helsinki, albeit 9 hours earlier than expected. And we found snow! Helsinki had it everywhere although as the warmer weather seemed to be following us, it also was melting relatively fast. The lovely people at ... read more
We left the City Backpackers Hostel on Saturday (after a 500m sprint for the boat, backpacks and all) we boarded the Viking Ferry to Helsinki. We either got lucky or had actually paid for it but we managed to get a luxury cabin on the Captains deck (nothing but the best for us of course). The cabin rocked - it was basically a hotel room with tv, balcony and best of all a mini bar - result! We headed down to one of the fancy restaurants and treated ourselves to a lovely meal - no cheese sandwiches today!! After that, we took a trip to the duty free and stocked up to calm the sea nerves lol We had some light refreshments ;) on the balcony, watched the sun go down and all the thousands of ... read more
Now sitting at Helsinki airport after our 23 hr stopover on our whirlwind circumnavigation of Europe. Budapest to Istanbul via Helsinki and London. It's'confused a few including me. It was very interesting flying over Poland and Latvia, you could see the fields and towns quite easily. Anyway, driving out of the airport at Helsinki you could easily think you were in New Zealand, overcast, cloudy, the trees and vegetation look the same and the cars even look the same. Until you read a sign..... We had a hotel right in the middle of the city so we did a bit of a look around. It is quite chilly and everybody is wearing coats so it feels like winter to me but its very light until late. The shops are full of serious winter clothes. Very stylish ... read more
On the way to Riga we visited the Hill of Crosses and stopped at Rundale Palace, similar to the design of Versailles. We wandered around Riga in the dark, visiting the Town Hall and various cobbled streets. For dinner, Ann had the "Key to Riga", a key-skewer of meat and veggies that filled us both up. The next day we did a free walking tour which took us to see the "real" Riga. This included areas such as the Central Market, Little Moscow and Stalin's Birthday Cake. We went out for drinks and dinner with some new backpacker friends and ended up at the ballet to see Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty. We caught the train out to Sigulda and spent the day visiting castles, Good Man's Cave and learning about the legend of the Rose of Turaida. ... read more
September 2011 Helsinki, Finland was the second stop on our 11 day Scandinavian/St. Petersburg cruise aboard the Emerald Princess. Our tour of Helsinki began at 10:30 A.M. when we boarded the tour bus. We were driven to Senate Square where the Helsinki Cathedral was located. We had one hour to explore the downtown area. We walked to the local "farmer's market" and craft fair. Many of the craft booths had women knitting caps and scarves. In hindsite I wish we would have tried the fried fish that were being offered at many booths. From the market we walked down Esplande, a tree-lined park-like street bordered by stores, and then back to Senate Square. Next came a photo stop at the Church of the Rock-Temppeleaukio. Because of its location, it was very crowded with cars, tour buses, ... read more
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Day 39 – Tuesday 25th July to Day 45 – Saturday 31st July 2012. Latvia, Estonia and Finland. Days 39 through 45 saw us arriving by ferry into Riga Latvia, driving through Latvia and Estonia and then catching another ferry to Helsinki Finland. Arriving in Riga, Latvia on Day 39 of the Team Free adventure was the first real step east and the first country where English isn’t freely used as much as other parts of Europe to date. The weather for this stage of the trip was absolutely amazing with the temperature ranging between 25 and 29 degrees each day. We even managed a few hours at the beach for a swim in Estonia. We were told if we were here one week earlier, it would have only been between 10-15 degrees. Riga saw us ... read more
Helsinki Summersound Festival and Suomenlinna
Published: July 31st 2012Europe » Finland » Uusimaa » HelsinkiWhile waiting for the trip to Helsinki Summersound Festival, I also decided to see Suomenlinna fortress and looked up information about it. The Unesco World Heritage list came to the fore and so I had an idea that the aim of my trips could be to see all the almost a thousand sites (enough for my lifetime, I guess, if not for several ones). It is true that I have already seen a lot of them, such as St. Petersburg, Kazan Kremlin, Yaroslavl City centre, Altai Mountains, Moscow Kremlin and Red Square, Riga centre, Baku Icheri Sheher and some others. But later I realized that I’ll have to be selective about the sites, because, for instance, not all sites could be easily accessible and imagine how much money would that require. Helsinki Summersound Festival was all ... read more
For the last full day in Finland we were planning a day trip to Tallinn in Estonia reachable as a day trip by ferry from Helsinki. After waking up early and with almost no breakfast we rush to the Linda Lines terminal which is the fastest of the different ferries to Tallinn (1 1/2h one way) while all the other ones take 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 h. We are the first in line and then we get the bad news - the only return available is at 9 pm with the latest ferry. Given that we are flying out the next day this is much too risky so we decide to try for the other lines. After running from terminal to terminal we come to the conclusion that all the other lines leave too late ... read more
After the long drive through Finland this was thought of as a resting day where we can prepare for our planned trip to Tallinn the next day and our return to the US the following day. After waking up the first thing we do is a quick stop at the nearby supermarket to buy different provisions including Karelian pastry for breakfast. And then it's out to stroll through downtown Helsinki and take a closer look at the many and expensive stores. First stop was the old church close to our hotel that we could visit only from the outside as there was a wedding inside. Continuing down the Bulevardi we arrived at the Stockmann department store, one of the major stores in downtown Helsinki. Went inside and took a look at the products on offer which ... read more
Took yesterdaymorning the 7.30 ferry to Helsinki. Arrived at 9.30 and took a taxi to the Glo hotel Art near the centre. Fortunately they had already a room available. Starting price of a taxi in Helsinki is euro 5,90 . Asked the driver if that was the fixed price to the hotel. It was not. Not to far to drive so it ended at euro 10.-- Never been in Helsinki before except to change plane. Strange to see that all streets has the name in finnish and swedish. Probably still to thank that they belonged 500 years to Sweden. Also at schools Swedish is the second language . Temperature is around 20 degrees and for them it s really summer. If it comes to 25/28 degrees they talk about a heat wave.Made a tour around Helsinki ... read more
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