finland: helsinki and suomenlinna

Finland is a country that has fascinated me for a while.  It's both Scandinavian, and not.  It has a very mixed history, having been part of different countries, as well as being an independent country.
Thursday night I hurried home from work, packed my bag, and took a taxi to the airport. Two flights later (via Riga, which is a very fast airport for me to get through) I arrived in Helsinki at 0030.
Before flying I'd opted not to book a hotel the night I landed, for a couple reasons. First, I wasn't sure there would be public transport for me to get into the city at that hour. Second, Helsinki is a very expensive city, and I didn't much feel like paying for a full hotel night when I wouldn't get to enjoy the whole night. Hotel prices are at least €60/night!!
Sleeping in the airport wasn't bad at all, I found four seats together and was able to stretch out. Plus the wifi was good, (and free!) and I found a plug nearby. Why aren't all airports this awesome??

The next morning I found the public bus that makes rounds between the city center and the airport; it's only 5€! The ride wasn't long, maybe only 30 minutes. The bus takes you to the central train station, which is very central in the city.
The place is booked for my first full night was only a 10 minute walk from the train station. My room was ready, I was able to check in straightaway, yippee!
During checkin I realized my voice was completely gone. I could whisper, but actual talking wasn't working, uh oh. If it didn't make communication so hard, I would have been laughing.

I rested up a bit, then started exploring. The first place I went was an old wooden church in a park a couple blocks from my hotel. Unfortunately the church was closed, I wish I'd been able to see the interior. Wooden churches aren't terribly common.  The next place I wanted to visit was closed too, a market hall that was supposed to be filled with old stuff. Argh. Then I tried to find a sculpture, but I missed that too! Argh.
What I did see was plenty of people out and about. 1 May is a national holiday, so EVERYONE was out and about. Apparently the traditional way to celebrate is to have a picnic with family and friends, I saw heaps of people in the parks all day.

I saw people wearing sailor like hats, I'm assuming those had something to do with the holiday. I also saw people wearing outfits that made me think of the uniform worn by people in car shops, or race car drivers; only these had patches everywhere, and were many colors. Some people wore red, others green or yellow, I even saw orange. Again, I'm assuming there is a tradition I don't know about.
During these first few attempts at sightseeing I stepped into a convenience store. I'd heard Finland is expensive, but some of these prices were a shock to say the least. On the happy side of things, I found some of the Icelandic yoghurt I loved so much when I lived in Iceland for a summer so many years ago. YUM!
I walked up another street to a park called the Esplanade. Heaps of people here, HEAPS. All the statues had been given those sailor like caps, I thought it was cute.

There were vendors walking around with giant bunches of mylar balloons, I saw several kids ask for them.
I walked the length of this park and turned onto a street where I thought I'd find a restaurant for lunch. I found the restaurant, but it was closed. Ugh. (At this point I was thinking 'dumb holiday'.)
At the end of the park I crossed the street over to an area on the quay, I think it's called the western port. There is a market of sorts there most days, you can buy fresh fish. Due to the holiday, there were more stands than usual, many of them selling food to be eaten straightaway. I was thrilled to sit down to salmon, veggies, and small potatoes. At only 10€, it was a huge bargain (by Helsinki standards!)

From my seat at lunch I could see Uspenski cathedral. It's an Orthodox church on top of a hill close to the port area. I walked up the hill, along with every other tourist in the city, only to find that the cathedral was closed for the holiday.
I'm happy to see businesses and offices and everything else closed on holidays, it's nice to know there are countries out there that take holidays seriously, that make it possible to celebrate (or honor, in some cases) the holiday instead of having to work. At the same time, as a visitor, it's annoying to find so many things closed while I'm traveling.

I walked from the cathedral to senate square, not too far away. Along the way I saw a shop that advertised Finnish traditional items, so I stepped in. I looked at many items made of wood, wool items, etc.... And expensive postcards. 1€ each!
Due to the holiday there were a lot of people in senate square. There was a jump house set up, and some stalls with food as well. It's a nice, large area, surrounded on most sides by government buildings. In the middle of the square is a statue of Alexander II. The statue was put there when Finland belonged to Russia. It's been a source of controversy over the years, but is still there.

Helsinki Cathedral is the place to which your eyes automatically look when you enter the square. It's a Lutheran church, way up on top of steps. It's grand looking on the outside, mostly white. I entered the cathedral to find a concert of some kind. A group of kids wearing identical shirts was singing in the front. Due to the concert, I didn't go very far in the church, but from what I could see, the interior wasn't nearly as impressive as the exterior. The outside is grand, but simple. The inside is big, or rather, the ceiling is high, but it isn't terribly grand, if that makes any sense.

I went back down the stairs, noticing that the jump house had been taken down, and the stalls were being cleaned up. I don't remember what time it was, but I remember thinking it was early to be finishing the holiday celebrations. (Especially since the sun doesn't go down until after 2100.)
I found an Indian place for dinner, and ordered one of my favorite dishes, bhindi masala, (okra curry,) but it was a bit drier than I like. On the other hand, the lassi was awesome!
After dinner I walked a bit more, to work off all the food. It felt good, and since it was still light, I felt okay staying out later than I normally do.

The next morning I woke up to the news of a major, devastating earthquake in Nepal, and also found out one of my rugby friends was there and survived and was safe.
I didn't sleep well, since it was light so early, my bed faced the wrong way, and the curtains didn't block the light at all. Plus, I had even less of a voice, argh.
This day had the worst weather of the whole trip. Overcast in the morning, then the rain started before noon and kept going most of the day. YUCK. Rain is the one type of weather I hate while traveling. Thank goodness I had my waterproof (but really ugly) boots with me.

My first stop of the day was a random tea shop. Not that I needed any tea, but I couldn't help myself.
My next stop was a rock church. It is well known, but when I saw it I couldn't figure out why. It's just a church partly carved out of rock. The inside is rather plain. The church is only open a few times a day, about an hour each time. I didn't know this ahead of time, I got lucky in arriving about 5 minutes before one of the open times.
Side note: i found the cheapest postcards in the city at souvenir shops near the rock church.
From the rock church I walked to Sibelius park, to see a monument. Very nice, totally different from anything I've seen before.
From the park I walked back toward the city center, making my way to a cemetery. Hientaniemi cemetery is the Finnish equivalent of Arlington national cemetery in the states. I was the only person there at the time, it truly felt like hallowed ground.

I got back to my hotel, warmed up and charged my phone, then moved me and my stuff to a new hotel. (Slightly cheaper, and had a room available for the rest of my visit.) No one answered the bell for five minutes, which was really frustrating, since I was sick, and tired.
After settling in I went back to the Indian place for dinner, ordering a different dish this time, and repeating the lassi. Again I walked out feeling fat and happy :)
The next morning I woke up to a beautiful sunny day. I managed to get myself up and out the door before 9am! No one was around the Cathedral, so I took a few new photos with a blue sky and no one else in the photo. Much better than the flat grey background of the past couple days.

I got to the ferry terminal 15 minutes before the next ferry was due to depart. Yay for convenience! Surprisingly, a ticket good for 12 hrs on the ferry was only 5€. That might be the only time in the whole trip when I didn't feel like I was emptying my bank account.
The ferry took me to the island of suomenlinna, the ride was only 15 minutes. The island has a fortress (or what remains of it) from back when Sweden and Russia were involved in Finland.
I wandered all over the island. Unfortunately the mitary museum (the museum I most wanted to see,) wasn't open yet for the summer, booo.
I also discovered the church (built by the Russians as a military church) is only open for special occasions. More booo. How do I get a list of when EVERYTHING is open?

A most excellent discovery was the ability to walk through the tunnels in the walls of the old fortress. Some are pitch black! Voices echo, very cool. While it was excellent to walk through in the dark, my camera is not good enough for that situation. Oh well, not every experience needs to be documented.
I got to see some of the big guns still there, from Russian days. Seeing how different parts of the island came from different parts of history made me a very happy geek. I loved how there were signs explaining all of this in various parts of the island.

I ate lunch (which is brought with me, knowing food prices at the two cafes on island would be super high) sitting on a small cliff, my view overlooked a small beach. LOVELY.
The island is hilly, the paths and such go up and down. I walked across a small bridge to an area marked on the map as a naval academy. After wandering around that area I saw a small sign saying it was an active military area, and not open to tourists. I'm not sure if that meant the academy grounds, but it was too late to do anything but walk back to the ferry terminal.
After taking the ferry back to the city, I walked up the hill the Uspenski cathedral. This time it was open, yay! I got an external photo with a blue sky, and an internal photo with sunlight streaming in. Yay!

My next stop was the Finnish national museum. There are permanent exhibits on all aspects of Finnish history (geological, cultural, etc...) and it was hosting a temporary exhibit on religions around the world. My favourite exhibit was that of currency and medals from all through the history of the country. It included Swedish and Russians currencies from the appropriate times. Awesome. The front door of the museum still has a bullet hole from the 1918 civil war. Hmmm.
The next morning I used my new favorite travel app (triposo) to create a path around the city to see what I wanted during my last half day in the city. I started at a supermarket to buy chocolate. Great big bars of chocolate. Yum. Why haven't I seen Finnish chocolate anywhere else? I bought postcards near the rock church.

The first church I wanted to see was closed, boo. I saw the 'sight' of an intersection with five streets. Why was that listed as something to see?
I was happy that St. John's church was open. I really liked it, especially the organ, and it had great stained glass windows. Stained glass windows in a church always make it feel more friendly and welcoming; I feel more like I want to worship in a church when it has stained glass windows.
My last church of the day was closed as well. Oh well.
I got another lunch of salmon by the water, YUM!
From there I practically ran back to the hotel, grabbed my backpack, and hoofed it to the train station to catch a bus to the airport.
Another side note: the next day I went to the doctor in kyiv and was officially diagnosed with laryngitis. Four days later I could finally talk again! Sortof.