2019 Russia #18

July 11, 2019 – Helskinki

The travel gods appear to be with us today. Our Yandex trip to the train station was uneventful, the train was on time, the trip was quick and very comfortable, and the public transit to our apartment was mildly bewildering but completely successful!

We did not intend to visit Finland and Iceland on this trip. Our original plan was to take a series of trains from St. Petersburg through Western Europe to Paris, and take a shiny new 737 Max non-stop to Vancouver, and thence home. Then they started falling out of the sky, the flights were cancelled, and we needed to find another way home. We decided to view that as an opportunity, and have added two new countries to our list!

Our train, the Allegro, is a joint venture between a Finnish private sector group and Russian Railways. It’s new, fast, and comfortable. There is, of course, a stop at the Finnish border, but it’s quick and painless.

Our car’s interior.

It’s got long legs!

Once we disembark in Helsinki, we have to sort out how to traverse the roughly ten kilometers to our apartment via public transit. This shouldn’t be a problem, as Helsinki has buses, trams, streetcars, a subway, taxis – probably hot air balloons – all leaving from the train station. We opted for the subway, as there is a stop only 300 meters from our apartment and that will be a good opportunity to get acquainted with the neighborhood. Everything worked fine, except we couldn’t find a way out of the subway! This turned out to be a normal thing; for some reason all signs – including the ones to the washrooms – were impenetrable to Canadians. We invariably had to resort to finding someone who spoke English and asking them for directions.

But there you go. It wouldn’t be a trip to an exotic foreign land without SOME difficulties. Once we got, like, back on Earth’s surface everything went smoothly until we got to the apartment building, and then we couldn’t find a way in. Sigh. Eventually a nice lady emerged from the building and, assuming we were mildly retarded, escorted us to our apartment door.

Steve hunting for our apartment. That’s it, that yellow thing right there.

Other than looking vaguely like an IKEA showroom, a perfectly nice apartment.

Scrambled eggs, french rolls, and wine for dinner!

That big “M” is apparently Finnish for subway.

The next morning we’re back on the subway, hoping to take it downtown to explore the waterfront. After the usual confusion, we manage to board the right train going in the right direction, and it poops us out at a lovely spot just a two-minute walk from the harbor.

This beautiful spot is a combination subway, bus, and tram stop.

A panorama of the main square.

And there’s a Hoppy Bus!

One of the first things we noticed about Helsinki is that it isn’t very old by European standards. Canadian, yes – European, no. It was only established in its present location in the 17th century, and most of the building dates to post-1812. Everything is clean, everything works, and it’s all arranged very sensibly except for the subway signs which we won’t talk about any more, I promise.

Orthodox church.

Debbie is all smiles. We’ll do this as soon as we got off the Hoppy Bus.

The harbor-front, with what appears to be a semi-permanent Farmer’s Market. There’s a ton of amazing food in there.

Another view of the harbor from the bus. We quickly learned that Helsinki has a bewildering assortment of bays, harbors, inlets, and channels.

A public marina. The ocean is heavily used by the locals, the water was always busy when we were there.

The streets clearly weren’t designed for modern traffic, but they’ve made everything work by making most of the older sections of the city into one-way streets.

I love the way the balconies get smaller on successive floors, like the taper in a stone column.

Public gardens and greenhouses.

Once the Hoppy Bus took us back to the main square, we (of course) did the Ferris Wheel, had a lunch at the Farmer’s Market, and then took a tram AND a bus around town, just because we could. We only got semi-lost twice, it was fun, and eventually we found ourselves at a sidewalk restaurant for dinner, just a few blocks from our apartment. Tomorrow, we’re going to do a harbor tour!

We did a serious amble around our neighborhood the next morning, and then headed downtown to get tickets for a harbor tour. We’re getting better at using the subway now (dead-reckoning works), and once downtown, we arranged a 1 pm tour boat. That gave us plenty of time for an extended walk along the harbor front, which is always fun.

The boat has beer and wine! And some kinda weird nut-things, which I’m sure the alcohol will render harmless.

The outer wall of Suomenlinna Sea Fortress, which is a Unesco World Heritage Site.

Built in the 17th and 18th centuries by Sweden, it is a massive fort covering 8 islands, and was known as The Gibralter Of The North. Promptly captured by the Russians, it eventually ended up in Finnish hands. Very cool place to spend an afternoon.

Back in the main harbor, a few of the icebreakers that Finland is famous for. These are both built by Aker, I believe.

This isn’t a guy pretending to be a statue; it’s a real statue. Or maybe not.

The Elias Lonnrot monument. He is famous for having written their national epic poem.

And that’s it for Helsinki, we fly to Reyjkavik tomorrow. We very much enjoyed the city, and could definitely have spent at least two more days exploring some of the sights in depth.