Helsinki

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Day 1 - May 3

Early morning taxi to Finland Station. The taxi was an ordinary new car (no taxi markings) but the driver was friendly and had some English, we even managed a joke over the exchange of fare and receipt.

The train journey was 6 hours, including the hour for the Russian and Finland immigration checks (the Finnish officials wanted to know why I was travelling alone, a rather odd question I thought from the broad minded Finnish people).

On the train we were given an unusual breakfast of yoghurt, chocolate coated sponge cake with jam and cream, and juice. Unfortunately, no coffee so by the time I reached Helsinki I had a coffee headache.

I spent a while looking for the hotel, as I only had a photograph of the streets taken from my pc using google maps. This was a good idea at the time but I needed to take a wider view.

Eventually I returned to the station, and bought a map. The hotel was really close and I’d only been missing it by a small block. The hotel was called Cumulus and had funny painted clouds and blue sky on the ceilings.

Before long I met three of the people in the group and we walked around Helsinki for a while, looking at the port area and the local square with a Lutheran church and then over to the Orthodox church.

I finally got a coffee and then we headed back for our group meeting. We have a group of 7 plus our leader and two trainees. We were basically from Australia apart from the leader and trainees who were English, New Zealander, and Polish respectively.

After the meeting, we went to a local Finnish restaurant and I chose the local fish which was like white bait, with mashed potatoes and beetroot (my favourite vegetable at the moment, we really should have more of it at home).

Others ventured for the other local dish, Reindeer. I had a taste and it was quite like veal, and I probably would have tried the meal myself if we were there longer.

We were all tired after our various journeys to get to Helsinki, so we had an early night (10pm and still light). The next morning was a reasonable start of 9.45 catching a tram to the port where we caught our large ferry. It was only a 2.5 hour journey, after waiting for an hour or so once we checked in, but interesting and comfortable enough. Great to have no more customs and immigration checks as we are now in the Shengen area.

Watching from the back of the ferry we passed the Islands that dot the bay, and waved goodbye to Helsinki after too short a stay.

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Photos

Statue of Mannerheim
complete wih fresh hay bale..

Comments

[tezzakezza]

helsinki
We also enjoyed our time in Helsinki a lot... I've found some of my diary entries from our visit there. And i quote" We found some local markets at the waterfront harbor and spent some time looking at the local food and crafts...Huge mega woks with lots of kippers, herring and other fish. Hats and gloves trimmed with mink and reindeer fur and skin. Lots of leather products made from reindeer and elk. Terry bought a coin purse made from reindeer leather. The White Cathedral was a magnificent building, lots of people sitting on the steps leading up to it(It was mid summer). In the main square the Helsinki Festival was on, with bands playing, and about 15 restaurants set up. We tried reindeer crepes and sampled the local beer. it was all very expensive!! Or were we just poor!! We also visited the orthodox church, with lots of icons, mosaics and exquisite pictures in gold. We then waited till 10pm that night when the local car wash was half price after 10pm and I could ring Mum, it was 5am for her. We camped that night in the local city campsite, where it rained heavily all night!!" So there you go Sharyn, our Helsinki adventure...just quite a few years ago though, its probably changed a lot since then!! A unique place, thats for sure. Sorry for boring you with those details!! X Keri x