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Published: October 24th 2007
The Cathedral & Senate Square
Helsinki's mighty white Russian-baroque cathedral and the statue of Emperor Alexander II in Senate Square in the foreground.Have you heard the new album from Architecture In Helsinki? It's fantastic. Will defiinitely have to get a copy when I get back to London.
Anyway, the actual architecture in Helsinki is not bad either. A lot of baroque, as tends to be the case in Scandinavia, as well as many neo-classical buildings. In a nutshell, it's part Scandinavian, part Russian, but definitively Finnish ;-)
The same thing can be applied to the culture here in general too - more liberal and westernised than Russia, but not quite in the same way as Denmark and Sweden. The constant clash of the "two cultures" though, for me anyway, makes Helsinki a fascinating place. The language is a bit funny too - lots of k's, p's, double k's, double p's, double i's and loooong words. Where Danish and Swedish are almost identical in many ways, Finnish is definitely unique.
Getting off our cruise ship at around 10am, a short walk brought us to our hostel - Hostel Erottajanpuisto. For those of you with a dirty mind, there was nothing erotic about this place whatsoever. Sorry to disappoint ;-) What there was though was a cosy hostel built into the floor of
The Fishmarket
On the left is a nice row of buidlings including the Presidential Palace. an old apartment building with plenty of toilets, and with an lounge-like dining room/kitchen. Our dorm even had a TV in it!
Whenever you arrive anywhere, you are always tired. I don't really know why, since all you do is sit and maybe sleep for a few hours before lugging your luggage a short distance to where you are staying - what's so tiring about that? Anyway, we were tired, so we chilled in front of the TV for a couple of hours, where while watching Finnish MTV, I saw and heard for the first (of many, many) time(s), Sean Kingston's "Beautiful Girls", which is annoyingly catchy and just refuses to leave your head. They also love their death metal over here too.
We then thought we'd take a walking tour of the city - just as the rain started to bucket down. Luckily Davies had an umbrella which meant I could borrow his waterproof jacket.
Our first port of call was back out to the waterfront from which we came to where the fish market resides. Raw fish sandwich anyone? Well, that as well as fresh fish soup was one of the many delicacies on offer at the
Uspenski Cathedral
Beautiful, gold-domed cathedral close to the Presidential Palace. fish market. It was tempting too (the fish soup) as it was a wee bit nippy - the coldest place we have visited so far, although not by much - and the dark grey clouds overhead were looking ominous once again.
Everything was reasonably priced too. This was the nice change from the mad prices of Sweden and Denmark, and it was also nice to be able to use our Euros again.
Although the neo-classical facade opposite the fish market was nice, the reason we came this direction was to visit the gold-domed and red-bricked cathedral we had seen when we got off the boat - Uspenski Cathedral. Perched proudly on top of a small hill, the inside of the church was also rather impressive with red carpet and gold placards.
As we came out of the church it, the rain started to absolutely bucket down. This was the worst rain we have encountered on the trip so far. On the way to finding shelter, we just happened to walk past the Presidential Palace, where the president must've just arrived with guests, as the was a full-on guard change that I managed to get a picture of, whilst getting soaked
Finnish Parliament
the statue in the foreground is of Marshal C.G.E. Mannerheim, the most revered of Finnish presidents. by the rain.
When the rain finally subsided, we took Lonely Planet's advice and had some lunch at the Helsinki University cafeteria for 6.50€ which was pretty good value for bread, salad, a hot meal and juice. The students got it for 3.50€.
Just round the corner from the university is arguably Helsinki's most famous sight, the Cathedral and Senate Square below it. The cathdral is massive and chalk white, and is a beautiful example of Russian baroque.
We then took a walk past through the Esplanade Park and Helsinki's modern centre, and past the art deco main railway station to the Parliament building and it's 14 Corinthian columns.
Not far from the Parliament building is Temppeliaukio Church, also known as the "rock church". This is because the church is built into the natural bedrock on the site. From the outside you wouldn't know it was a church, rather just a mound of earth, but inside it's really cool as the interior walls are created naturally from the rock. Many concerts are held here due to the excellent acoustics the church offers. Davies reckon it would make an awesome nightclub, and I would have to agree with him - it
Inside The Rock Church
If this was to be a nightclub, I would christen it Jesus' Disco. is definitely a unique and kick-ass setting, although drinking and debauchery in a house of God may be a little sacrilegious ;-)
The clouds then suddenly cleared up and the sun shone through allowing my rain-sodden jeans to dry up. It also allowed us to walk through some beautiful parks and greenery on route to our next stop, the Sibelius Monument. With the autumn leaves falling, and the air clean and crisp, and the harbour water cool and clear, it was a pleasant stroll indeed, and we both certainly realised that Finland's natural landscape is indeed quite beautiful, comparable with the north-east coast of the United States. We also passed by an outdoor ice hockey turf - too cool!
The Sibelius Monument itself is an abstract monument dedicated to Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. Unveiled in 1967, it sparked much debate due to the work's abstractness (is that a word?). A series of 600 steel pipes welded together in a wave-like pattern, the monument weighs 24 tons and "captures the essence" of Sibelius' music.
On the way back to the hostel, we passed the Finnish Historical Museum and Finlandia Hall. Davies' "is that it?", summed up his feelings on Finlandia Hall,
Sibelius Monument
Abstract monument dedicated to Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. but I think the main attractions lies in the acoustics and the Venetian staircase inside, where we couldn't get to. In my opinion though, the white marble walls and the towering auditorium on the outside aren't that shabby. Primarily a concert hall, it also has a congress wing where many important political meetings have taken place.
Before we got back to the hostel, we bought some dinner at the supermarket including "karjalanpiirakka", a pastie made of rye with a rice filling. Wasn't very tasty, but the microwave chicken burgers I bought weren't as bad as they sounded. They were in fact quite nice. The roskie (sweet-ish bread filled with potato and meat) that you used to get at the tuck shop in high school, I'm pretty sure came from here too.
The nightlife in Helsinki is apprently quite progressive and vibrant and after our regular evening siesta cultivated while in Spain, we were keen to see what is was all about. Warming up in the dining room, we got talking to two Germans, Frank and Torsten, and Pedro, a medical student from Chile. Before we knew it, it was yet another hostel expedition with people we had just met,
Finlandia Hall
The important, marble-clad and functionally-designed Finlandia Hall. again. One of the best things about travelling.
We were a bit worried that we might not get into places with 30-year old Torsten - in Helsinki, they have maximum ages as well as minimum ages, and the two ages are often close together. Most of the places we were keen to go to have age brackets of 22-27. This could be a good thing as you won't bump into your mum while out here, but at the same time won't have to put up with snotty teenagers.
The first plac we wanted to go to, Den Kungliga Klubben was closed, as was the second one with a 21-24 age bracket, Helsinki Club. More disappointment was to follow when Stockholm Diskotek was also closed. Although it was a Thursday night, we were certainly expecting a city with Helsinki's nightlife reputation to have places open. We then settled for the one club that was open - Fever. The place wasn't quite packed out, but it was reasonably full, probably as a result of the 1€ beers on offer. It was R&B night, so everyone was bouncing, but people didn't seem to keen on mingling except for two local girls we started
The Hostel Crew
From left; Rino Gattuso - actually no, it's not the Italian World Cup-winning midfielder, but Frank, Torsten, Davies, me and Pedro. talking to, one of whom was originally from Malaga, Spain.
However, it didn't look like there would be much doing tonight, so we upped and left around 3.30am (a relatively early night for us on this trip!), mindful that we had a ferry to catch to Tallinn the next day.
So this concluded our one-day stay in Helsinki, but we will be back here in approximately 3 days time. A nice city, I definitely want to come back, so luckily for us, we are!
But for now, we will have to satisfy ourselves with Tallinn - everyone has said good things about it, that it is a diamond in the rough. So we go with our expectations high. Will our expectations be met? Find out in my next blog entry!
Nähdään!
Derek
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Al
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Nah Architecture In Helsinki aren't that good. Not that bad admittedly, but not that special.