From Old Town We Travel To New Town

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From Old Town We Travel To New Town

Helsinki is the only capital city in Europe to have no medieval past. This modern Baltic city was originally formed in the late 1700’s as a supply depot for a fort. Later, when the Russians took the country from the Swedes, the capital was moved here so that it could be closer to St. Petersburg.

For more than 100 years the Finns were ruled by Mother Russia until all of the Baltic states won their independence in 1917. During WWII Finland was the only of these Baltic countries that managed to fend off the Russians as they made a land-grab just prior to entering WWII. Throughout the years 19039-1944, Finland’s white clad ski troops fought successfully against the huge might of the Soviets. Traditionally anyone who has attempted to fight the Russkies has perished in the miserable winter chill but the Finns have dealt with cold winters just as long as the Russians have. Fighting for their own freedom and with knowledge of terrain and weather, the Finns kept the Russians at bay.

Unfortunately for Finland, when the Allies won the war, Finland was forced to pay for fighting against an Allied country. Parts of Finland were ceded to Russia and Finland was forced to house Russian military bases. Only adding insult to injury the government of Finland had to pay Russia the equivalent of US $300 million. Adjusting for inflation this would amount to $3.3 billion dollars in today’s money. Needless to say the reparations and other injustices felt by Finland set them back decades.

With their focus on architecture, strong government which believes in equality (Finnish women were the first to vote in Europe in 1906), and their incredibly difficult language, the Finns are a different breed from many of the other peoples in Scandinavia. Theoretically Finland isn’t part of Scandinavia at all, it is rather a Nordic country due to its vastly different language and its difference in government (Denmark, Sweden and Norway are constitutional monarchies while Finland is a republic).

So, enough of the history lesson, let’s get to what we did over the last few days. We left Tallinn by ferry since it is a mere 50 miles across the Baltic to Helsinki. The weather was fine which I was thankful for, my seasickness did not become a problem for the hour and a half journey (all my seasickness medicine bit it along with my lost bag. BTW, still no sign of the bag more than three weeks after British Airways lost it in Heathrow. BOO!!!).

We had to wait around quite a while at the ferry terminal to get a cab but after about 45 minutes of waiting, off we went to our next temporary home. We ended up playing it pretty cool since it was already past 5pm when we arrived at our hotel. Instead of going out and exploring we set up camp in our room, Kel did some trip planning, and then we walked a few hundred meters down the road for dinner.

We were perplexed about one fact as we wandered through Helsinki on our first night. While, as I’ve already mentioned, we expected Finns to be a bit different than their neighbors, we were surprised to see tons of people walking around with long hair, dark clothes, wearing heavy metal t-shirts. I knew from my interest in music that this part of the world is really big into heavy metal music in all its guises but we had yet to run into this many people looking the heavy metal part. After being thoroughly puzzled for a while we finally asked someone if something was going on in town. At this point the clouds parted, the light shone down and our confusion disappeared. Metallica was playing that very night about 300 meters from our hotel. Everywhere you looked “metal-heads” from all over this part of the world had converged to hear one of the greatest heavy metal bands of all time practically next door to our hotel. AWESOME!!

Later after dinner as we walked back to our hotel we were able to hear the band and the people chanting. Moments like these are some of the biggest joys of travel. When you just happen into something as extraordinary as heavy metal music and followers at their finest, you just have to sit back and enjoy. I wish I had my camera with me because it was a sight to behold when everywhere you looked everyone was wearing black except for us. FUNNY!

A Cloudy Day of Sightseeing

Since breakfast wasn’t included at our hotel we were free to sleep until we woke up. I love it when this happens since I’m always the first one up in the morning. Even without a reason to awake we were still up at about 9:15, but that was still later than usual. We immediately headed into town to see what there was to see.

While Helsinki is interesting and definitely worth seeing if you are in this part of the world, I wouldn’t say it is a major sightseeing destination. Unlike Paris, Rome, Munich and many others, we were able to see most of the main Helsinki sights in about half a day. The big sights here consist of three churches (the Lutheran Cathedral, the Orthodox Uspenski Cathedral and the Church of the Rock). I would personally scrap the Church of the Rock off the list because, other than the fact that it was carved into a big rock in 1969, it is pretty boring. The other two are definitely worth stopping by, which of course we did.

The real joy of Helsinki, in my opinion, is Market Square and the Esplanade. While most European towns have an old town, similar to Tallinn which we just visited, Helsinki has a couple of more modern shopping areas which are really nice. Market Square, which is one of the first things anyone sees when they get off a boat, is filled with local produce and vendors selling all sorts of stuff. After checking out the nearby churches we decided to stop for a snack. Kel had commented on it earlier as we had walked past the square that some of the vendors here sold some of the most remarkable berries we had ever seen. We, of course, couldn’t hold back and purchased ample quantities of blueberries, strawberries and raspberries. Check out the pictures, the raspberries in particular were the largest we have ever seen. We also picked up a great looking yellow bell pepper to eat as well, yum.

After a break to sit by the water and eat berries we moved on throughout town and did a few more useful things with our afternoon. We stopped at the TI and bought a public transportation card which gave us access to busses, metro and trams that ran throughout town. Our next stop was at the biggest book store that we have seen thus far in Europe. With a few more guidebooks, a ton more fun books and a lot less money we moved on to our final destination before we went back - the grocery store. Thankfully we have had no difficulty finding cornstarch for Kel in this part of the world so, with a few more boxes in hand, we headed home.

We have spent more time in our room in the last few days than we normally do. Kel has been really busting her behind on travel planning. We had a minor setback a few days ago when we realized that we were mistaken about the exchange rate in Iceland. As with all other currencies in the world, Iceland’s money has gotten stronger against the US dollar. When we went back and checked our booking for Iceland, we found out that we were in way over our heads for our hotel reservation and were worried we wouldn’t be able to find something reasonable that was within our price range. Due to this added problem, Kel has spent just tons of time on the computer over the last few days fighting to make plans for our next few weeks. Thankfully, she was able to work through it, but it has not been easy. I owe her a ton for all the work she does.

More Sightseeing and More Planning

For our second full day in Helsinki we decided to play even cooler than we did the day before. After a late breakfast we hopped on one of the trams and rode around town for about an hour and a half. Kel and I are very different travelers when it comes down to it. I am a very active traveler who wants to walk a lot, take tons of pictures and constantly move about town. Kel is more of a passive traveler who would enjoys the chance to just take in more of town and absorb it by sitting back and relaxing. There are plusses and minuses to each approach. In my approach I often get some pretty good pictures and sleep well each night due to the large quantity of exercise but I can miss things or pass up good sights because I’m too busy focused on what’s right in front of me. In Kel’s approach there is more of a broad overview which includes all sights and allows one to relax and observe the world. This too has its negatives in that you often get few opportunities for good pictures through a tram window.

Kel Note - While I’ll take a good tram ride or two, they’re not my favorite. I do love any sort of transportation that allows you to be in the open air and just absorb what’s going on around you in the sunshine (doesn’t work in rain) - my favorites are horse & carriages, pedicabs, boat rides, camel/elephant and mopeds too. I love the chance to just devour everything with my eyes and ears and let the transportation take care of itself. It’s the best.

Either way by taking the tram through its whole course, we were able to see large parts of the city that we wouldn’t have otherwise. It was a bit hot in our tram but otherwise it was comfortable and very clean, unlike some trams we have been on. By time we got all the way around I was starving again for some reason so we stopped and got me a snack before moving on for more activity.

During her planning marathon the day before, Kel had decided that we were going to do some train travel when we got back to mainland Europe from Iceland. This meant that we were in need of travel agent who could get us a Euro-rail pass. After doing some poking around, we found out that an office at the train station was able to help us get passes for Benelux and Germany for later in August. The only catch was that Kel had to head back to the hotel to figure out all the dates we needed tickets so that she could get all our planning done in one swoop.

We decided to part ways for a little over an hour so that Kel could do yet more planning and I could take pictures. I subsequently ran around town (remember: active travel style) and took a couple of decent pictures before meeting Kel back at the hotel room so that we could go to the train station and get all our train travel finished. Thankfully, the agent at the train station was able to book all our trains and tickets and get us a Euro-rail pass.

With tickets in hand we returned to the hotel where I bogarted the computer for the afternoon to blog (which I’m doing right now.) Tomorrow we are taking a short bus trip out of Helsinki to see a little more of what Finland has to offer.

Hope you are all happy, healthy and having fun at home!

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Photos

Three Blacksmith Statue
There are some things that I am willing to do naked but swinging a big hammer is not one of them!

HUGE Raspberries
Check these things out in relation to Kel's finger.

Rainy Day Sailing
It was a little rough out on the day we took the Harbor Cruise but that didn't stop intrepid sailors.

Waterside Sauna
This may look like a boathouse but it is actually a sauna. There are over 2 million saunas in Finland. People like to jump from the hot sauna directly into the cold water. Crazy!

Modern Architecture
Finland is renowned for its modern architecture. This esoteric style has trickled into everyday living with houses and buildings all over the place that are incredibly modern.