Keetos Helsinki

So here is our first big blog post on our time in Helsinki, Finland. We are writing this whilst travelling by Ferry to Sweden, from what can only be described as the world’s most compact room on our fold down single bunk beds. 

First Impressions

We loved the scenery coming into Helsinki airport. The sun was setting over the islands making this beautiful orange cast glow over the water and highlighting the islands like some scattered ancient jigsaw puzzle. We found our hotel easily, thanks to Simon checking Google street view the day before. High on excitement and perhaps somewhat over tired, the walk felt almost effortless even carrying our full packs. Checking into our first hotel, given it was unmanned, we were pleasantly surprised to find it well equipped. Following possibly one of the best showers we’ve had all year, we fell asleep before our heads hit the pillow.

Day 1

After being awaken at 6am by the laundry next to our room, all things are made right again by the forecast of 20 degrees and sunny. We headed out for our first foray into Finland. Seeking nourishment we wandered somewhat aimlessly looking for some brekky, there was a lot of choice, but we weren’t quite sure what was good value, so we headed to a supermarket. The supermarket was exactly like in Aus, except for nothing being in English, but thankfully bananas are bananas anywhere, so we grabbed a bunch along with some various pastries from the bakery.  Hitting the checkout we were quickly schooled that shopping here was not the same as in Aus, you must weigh your own bananas and tag them before coming to the counter. With the help of a stranger and some broken English the bananas got tagged and we got breakfast.

Looking like perfect tourists with our camera over our shoulder and day pack with water bottles on the side, we did what all tourists do, we headed to the nearest little i we could find, im talking about the tourist information centre. After quickly deciding that the hop on hop off bus was not for us with its $75 price tag we took to the streets, armed with only a map, a guidebook, and some good shoes. 

The highlights:

The Esplanade and Park

The esplanade and park is a short divided road filled with a beautiful park and lined with high end shops, boutiques and design stores. There are ice cream booths, high end cafes to stop and have a glass of bubbly and bench lined centre path were you can stop and people watch and enjoy the sun. 

The Market Square

The market square is mix of food and craft stalls set up right next to the local ferry terminals selling all sorts of amazing fresh produce, cooked food, handcrafts, furs and plenty more. The smells were intoxicating as we wandered from stall to stall looking at the fresh salmon cooking away or the beautiful punnets of fresh raspberries, strawberries and blueberries. It’s also a great place for a big, cheap and decent feed. It was a hit with us and we visited every day of our stay in Helsinki.

The Red Church

The red church is a traditional Orthodox church near the market square, situated on a hill the views across Helsinki are excellent. The intricacy and complexity of the interior decoration along with the high domed ceilings was to us amazing. I’m sure over time and we see more and more churches and cathedrals this wonder will start to dim but for the first one we saw we were impressed. 

The White Church

The white church is a very impressive Lutheran church a bit further from the centre of Helsinki. Walking in with swathes of other tourists we liked the high ceiling domes and found the minimalism of the presentation impressive and very contrasting to the red church we had just seen. Just around the white church was some of the most beautiful architecture that we just happened to stumble upon, I would say the most beautiful part of town. 

Temppeliauko (The Rock) Church

Walking back across town and up to other side through beautiful old buildings, pretty parks and green spaces we made our way to The Rock Church as it is known. This church is hewn from rock and covered in a dome. Its really something special to when you walk in and are surrounded by bare rock. The ceiling is a copper mesh which gleans brilliantly contrasting the dull rock face. Soft music plays and you can understand why this place is a popular concert venue.

Sibelius Monument

Pushing even further outside of town we went towards the Sibelius monument. As you can see in the picture it’s a little bit different and very very cool. Stanhopes litter around Canberra has nothing on this thing. You can knock the pipes and make different sounds which is meant to be good fun but we didn’t realise until after we’d left you were meant to do that. Go team! We both really liked this bit of art.

Café Regatta

We passed this cute and quaint little bakery on our way to the Sibelius Monument and the wafting scent of cinnamon sent our saliva glands into overdrive. On the way back from the monument we pulled in to sample their wares and bask in the glorious sun the day way giving us. The cinnamon bun at 2.90 Euro was heavenly. We could have bought three more and skipped dinner but thought better of it. This Café was simple but perfect in its style position and execution. Love love love.

Getting proper lost

On our way back to town we misjudged where we were and made some bad turns. We ended up on the other side of the CBD having zig zagged our way through backstreets for about an hour. We finally wandered into a Holiday Inn and asked the receptionist where we were and how to get back to Central, again marvellously her English was excellent and in 15 minutes we were back at the hotel quite exhausted from our days effort.

Day 2

Kamppi Chapel of Silence

Situated the middle of town, the Kampii Chapel is place for quiet reflection and mediation in an otherwise busy and bustling area of town. The design of the chapel has won several awards for wooden architecture and the interior of the chapel is simple and beautiful. Its not called the chapel of silence for nothing either, inside you could hear a pin drop and just taking the two photos we did  felt offensive to the silence of the place.

Suomenlinna

There are little words to describe the beauty of Sumoenlinna and the envy we have of those fortunate enough to live on this island. It is fair to say Suomenlinna was the favourite of Helsinki. We will let the pictures do the talking, but essentially it was a fortress built 300 years ago and now is home to 850 people and a 15 min ferry from Helsinki. 

Day 3

Deciding a 3.5km walk with our packs was out of the question we took the tram to the Ferry terminal and locked our bags up for the day.  Plan A was to catch a bus to Poorvu, after what could only be described as an ordeal we made it to the bus with 4 mins to spare, beaming with pride on our exceptional navigational skills, our dreams of Poorvu were squashed when we turned down the 50 Euro bus ticket.

So we went to plan B. We posted a postcard to ourselves (coming your way Sue and Dave) and headed towards the design district. The area contains over a hundred different shops, studios and galleries dedicated to Finnish design. We spent a great morning and early afternoon poking through incredible interior design places mostly gasping at price tags and dreaming of what we could fill our future home with. After we had our fill we went back towards the Esplanade for an ice cream and sit on a bench and people watch for a while to catch our breath and recoup.

Our last Helsinki experience was Stockmans department store which Simon described as “DJs and Myer had a baby and the result was the best of both parents.” This place has everything. We ended up in the food hall which like Melbourne DJs has an incredible array of gourmet food available but also regular fare for lunches and the like. After avoiding buying anything, somehow, we left headed to the Ferry terminal.

Parting thoughts

We liked how pedestrian and bicycle friendly Helsinki is. Crossings are frequent and quick and cars are patient with crossings. Cycle lanes and pedestrian lanes are distinct and easy to tell apart.

We loved the Finns cool, elegant, mature and what looks like effortless style, this is evident not only in peoples clothes, but from every part of the city. 

Lessons learnt about Finland.

• Cars drive on the right side of the road, so people walk on the right side of the footpath.
• Preschool children wear hi vis vests when playing and out in public.
• Bag, weigh and sticker your fresh groceries before checkout.
• Go to the supermarket to get cheap hot food and salads from the deli (budget saving tip!)
• Bananas are available and cheap, thanks Columbia.
• Helsinki is flat and has no high buildings to use to orient yourself making getting lost easy.
• There are two kinds of traffic crossing, controlled and not controlled. Still somewhat confused.
• Pretty much everyone speaks English which is incredibly helpful. Feel lazy not knowing another language.
• Coffee is filtered black coffee, Latte is coffee with milk. Latte is twice as much as Coffee.
• Toilets in department stores are free, public toilets are 0.50 Euro and toilets anywhere else are free with a purchase or 1.00 Euro.

Keetos/ Thankyou Helsinki,

Simon & Amy