(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

After a very enjoyable trip to Estonia, we hopped on a ferry from Tallinn to the Finnish capital of Helsinki.

We only stayed for two nights in Helsinki before moving on to Stockholm, so I can’t pretend that we truly “experienced Finland” based on our brief stay in the capital.  However, we also felt very much at home there, possibly because both the climate and the landscape were so similar to what we have in Canada.

We bought a transit day-pass and traveled on what was essentially a “Hop on, Hop off” tram route that circled the downtown core and passed by all of the major sights.  We started with a tour of the Olympiastadion (Helsinki hosted the 1952 Summer Olympics); there was a great view from the top of the tower.

From there, we visited a monument to Jean Sibelius, probably Finland’s most famous composer.  I was not familiar with his music but the monument was still worth a look anyway.  We moved on to the Temppeliaukion kirkko (“Church in the Rock”), a very modern structure built (as the names suggests) right into a massive slab of rock.

Every tourist in Helsinki visits the Helsinki Cathedral and we weren’t about to break with tradition.  Despite its imposing exterior, it is very spartan on the inside:  there is no fussy ornamentation anywhere.  Sadly, we couldn’t compare it to the (Eastern Orthodox) Uspenski Cathedral as it was being used for a private function that day.   However, we did experience a bit of the Russian influence by visiting an interesting Russian bookstore (where I picked up a scary but fascinating collection of Soviet propaganda posters).  Helsinki is only about 300 km from St. Petersburg and it has been used on many occasions as a movie substitute for Soviet or Russian cities.

The most enjoyable part of our visit was probably our trip to Suomenlinna, a sea-fortress complex (see photo at the top of this post) built on six islands just south of the city.  Ancient fortifications remain in place here and it is also the site of parks and al fresco restaurants.   We had fun climbing and exploring the ruins; in fact, we stayed much longer than expected and ended up eating dinner on the island rather than in Helsinki itself.  We even saw the last surviving Finnish submarine.

Finland’s long struggle for independence was quite evident at Suomenlinna.  Finland has only existed as an independent country since 1917:  for the previous century, it belonged to Russia…and it belonged to Sweden for the 6 centuries before that.  To this day, about 5% of Finns still speak Swedish as their first language.

I haven’t talked much about the food in Helsinki.  After the extremely low prices in Estonia, almost every Finnish menu induced a serious case of sticker shock and, as a result, we didn’t eat out very much.   This was perhaps a blessing in disguise, as we were taking an overnight ferry to Stockholm that included an all-you-can-eat smorgasbord!

I’m really not a fan of all-you-can-eat buffets, but the one on this ship was excellent.  The food was of a very high quality and the price reflected the fact that you were expected to eat a certain amount of seafood, etc.  All drinks (including beer and wine, although these were dispensed from kitchen-sink-style taps and didn’t look very appetizing) were included too.  Sadly, we were so caught up in the experience that I forgot to take pictures!  Anyway, after a breakfast on board, we arrived in Stockholm the next morning and didn’t need to eat for a long time afterwards.