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| Helsinki,
Finland July 7th, 2005 |
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Rating:
 (4.8) (5 votes)
Copenhagen, Finland
July 7th, 2005
Pros:
Great place to visit
Cons:
Helsinki is quite expensive
Today i wanted to go to Helsinki in Finland. The catamaran of Nordic
Jet Line is a bit expensive (43 euros return ticket) but since it
is only a 90-minute ride I decided to go there with Matthew.
We met at Fat Margaret in Pikk Street (a big guardtower) and relaxed
in the comfortable seats of the Catamaran. We looked at some pictures
from the HC Midsummer Baltic camp (the uncensored version, so it
was really cool !) and just hoped that the rough weather on the
boat would disappear when we got on land. When we arrived in Helsinki
the sun was shining and we headed towards the Railway station to
meet Jutta (Matthew's HC host).
I went into town on my own to find something to eat but when I tried
to take a picture of a police man, there was an obnoxious American
guy telling me it was illegal to take pictures of people without
their permission. Not only in Finland, but in the whole world! He
told me he knew everything about the law, because he studied it,
and you cannot take a picture of a group of people without asking
each INDIVIDUAL person their agreement first. So if you are wondering
why I haven't posted many pictures lately, you now know ! :)
Anyway I didn't feel like argueing because he became quite aggressive
and after meeting some Tourist Information Girls they sent me to
my best culinary experience so far : Bank Restaurant. It was delicious,
nutricious, fabuliscious... for only 8 euro I had the best soup
EVER (yams with ginger mmmmmhhh) and a gigantic Wok Dish, all the
drinks I wanted and TWO desserts... who said Finland was expensive
? (ok, I only found this through some inside tips, because otherwise
Helsinki is very expensive).
You can find some nice pictures of the restaurant (an old converted
Bank from the 50's, it looked a bit like the bank where my father
used to work) on http://www.palace.fi/etusivu.asp?rest=bank&lang=fi.
I went Fish market called Kauppatoni.
Afterwards I met up again with Matthew and we walked to some nice
churces : Uspenski Cathedral (the largest Russian-Orthodox curch
in Western Europe), Helsinki Cathedral and the amazing Rock Church
(Temppeliaukio). It is a church built into a rock underground with
a sober interior and a wonderful transparant roof.
At the end of the day we just walked through the cemetary and looked
at the Delicatesses in Wanha Kauppahalli, a covered market.
Then we learned about the tragic events in london. Only three weeks
ago i was there with Ingrid and Patrick and Claudia... it is too
unreal to imagine what it must be like.
Matthew stayed in Helsinki, I took the ferry home and met Florian
and Dani from Switzerland on the boat and we went together to a
birthday party at Kaisa's place. It get's dark in Tallinn around
23.30, and the sun starts rising around 3.30 again. I'm not going
to say how late it was when we got to Hanna's place to sleep, but
let me just say that the sun was shining already :) |
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