Helsinki!

At the risk of sounding like Maria from The Sound of Music, bright sunny days, boat rides, big cities, and scenery are some of my favourite things. Which I suppose is why Helsinki was so much fun. We did, however, have a sort of rocky start. I woke up in plenty of time to pack and meet Kevin so we could get the bus to the harbour. I even had time to stop for coffee. I met him on the right side of the street, at the right time, and got on the right bus. In the wrong direction. We only went one stop before realizing the problem but it still took us far further away then we wanted to be. This is what I get for letting Kevin check the bus schedule. Anyway, we called a cab and made it to the ferry at it's last boarding call. With literally a minute to spare. Aahhh...

So slightly sweatier than necessary, but with no harm done, we embarked on our 2 hour journey to the land of reindeer. Not that there are reindeer in Helsinki, but rather in Finland generally. Sorry.

After disembarking from the windy ferry, loaded with caffeine and curiosity, we took a bus to where we thought was the city centre. Turns out we were wrong and it had taken us to the outskirts of town, but there was a metro right across the street. Kevin then decided that it would be an opportune moment to take off without saying where and left me waiting on a set of stairs for twenty minutes. I was very annoyed. We got over that little blip eventually and sorted ourselves enough to get on a subway and get off in the heart of the city. It was beautiful, I have to say. Central Station was an attractive building on a busy street positively teeming with people. We stare around a little with slightly glazed over eyes before moving on to our next project. Our bags are heavy and I didn't pre-book a place to stay. According to the guidebook, two beds in a hostel is a comparable price to splitting a double bed hotel room. The hotel is just off of Helsinki's central street so this appears to be the best option.

As an aside, I have a question about European hotel rooms, or hostel rooms. Rooms where sleeping happens in general, actually. North American hotel rooms only come with double beds. But the European ones come with two single single beds.. does that mean they don't sleep together? Have I uncovered a possible reason for the decline in birth rate?? Hee...

Ok, after getting somewhat settled we went to forage for food. My God, Helsinki is expensive! To keep things cheap, we split a pizza and head to the harbour for some sightseeing. We wanted to go see an island called "Suomenlinna" which has a fortress and crazy views. We spent a very long time on this island, which was absolutely stunning. I love, love, love to hike and the rolling grassy knolls directly by the seaside with all of these historical sites was someplace I could roam for hours. I left Kevin behind in my eagerness to explore and met a nice Spanish family who took my picture in front of the sea. A few hours later we were cold and hungry so we ventured back to the ferry and rode into the harbour again.

Food was again an issue and I took to my enormous guidebook for help. It said to check out a pub/restaurant that was only a street away from our hotel and was apparently "ironically decorated in a tractor theme". Well, it was right. There were tractors, and wire fencing, and barrels, and strangeness everywhere. I didn't get while it was ironic until after leaving the bar. I blame it on being flabbergasted as it was rather obvious. Soviet era propaganda included a lot of tractors.. and this was a tractor bar. Right. Got it. Anyway, the food was delicious and after that bed was calling. Good night, Helsinki!

The next day dawned bright and beautiful. It was as sunny as the day before and so after breakfast we hopped on a bus that would take us all around the city, just so we could take a peek. It was a welcome rest from all the walking the day before and was also nice and warm, which despite being sunny, Helsinki wasn't. After catching a glimpse of the most important sights we got off at the large Cathedral close to the Harbour and took a look inside. It was surprisingly austere with little in the way of the traditional excessiveness that large churches usually have. We walked and walked again until we had exhausted most viewing possibilities. It was a Sunday so mostly everything was closed but that didn't stop us from finding a charming tourist shop, a great park to sit in (I watched two old men sit on a bench for a while), and just roaming the streets aimlessly. The day passed quickly and after our last meal at the most charming cafe, it was time to gather our things and get back on our ferry.

It was a pleasure to visit Helsinki, but Tallinn had started to feel a lot like home and we missed it. It was a relief to see it's spires in the distance as our boat drove into harbour. If I can't leave for two days.. how am I going to go back to Canada?