Helsinki, Finland

Saturday 19^th November 2016

The timing of this trip wasn’t really ideal and hadn’t taken into account the Nordic hours of daylight at this time of year. But the flights were quite cheap, and having now visited most of the mainstream tourist destinations, it gave us an opportunity to tick off another lesser known city.

Flying Norwegian, we took off from Gatwick airport a little after 9am, and three hours later landed in Helsinki. At this time of year, Helsinki was two hours ahead of London so at landing it was 2pm local time. Brendan learnt on-board that the estimated sunset for today was 3:40pm so already there was a small portion of day remaining.

Similar to other northern European countries, the city is itself fairly compact but the airport is located far out. We caught the train into the landmark Helsinki Central railway station and with our snow boots already on, decided to hike it to our hostel. It was cold.

Meandering through the shopping streets of town, we made it to the Kauppatori market square at the edge of the harbour. Around a bit further we could see the SkyWheel, which sits directly behind the modern looking Allas Sea Pool.

The Allas Sea Pool is practically a big pontoon with its great swathes of timber decking, and consists of three swimming pools. Two of the pools were a bright blue colour with steam rising from them, and the third was a much darker, gloomier colour. This pool was the closest to where we were walking and had nobody in it. We witnessed someone descend the ladder part way until they felt the water temperature and quickly retreated to dry land.

Onwards to our hostel, which was so aesthetically bland that in the corridors it had a gaol vibe going, while in the rooms the drab décor exuded hospital vogue.

We caught the tram back into town, passing by the huge red brick Uspenski Cathedral – the largest orthodox church in Western Europe. With glimpses back out to sea, the tram continued on past the Helsinki Cathedral and Senate Square.

We exited the tram (near a giant Mountain Dew bottle) and wandered the streets briefly, calling in at the Stockmann department store. We had seen favourable reviews for a nearby restaurant, Zetor, both in the hostel and on Tripadvisor so headed there for a hearty meal. Zetor’s interior design was also an odd mix, although much more inviting than our hostel. Dimly lit with lots of wood throughout, ski chalet chic had been thrown together with barnyard adornments including actual tractors with integrated bar tables. Despite the odd décor it was busy, we were lucky to get seated straight away even though we had no booking. Indeed by the time we left, there was a queue to get in.

On the flight over Brendan had read an article on a new brand of Finnish gin, Napue, that had recently been crowned the best in the world for gin and tonic. Despite our last experience with gin that tasted like poison, onboard the Etihad flight from Sydney to Dubai, he was keen to try “the best”. When in Finland… If you ever get the chance, we'd highly recommend trying it the "proper way".

The following morning we headed down to the port to catch a ferry out to the Suomenlinna sea fortress. Whilst waiting we went for a look at the nearby Vanha Kauppahalli old market hall though it is sadly closed on Sundays.

Built over a number of islands off the coast of Helsinki, Suomenlinna is a scenic ferry ride around 20 minutes from the mainland, and was originally constructed in 1748 as a military base. Today, Suomenlinna is UNESCO World Heritage listed, and one of Finland’s leading tourist attractions as well as being home to around 800 residents.

The ferry ride perhaps provides one of the best views of Helsinki, with many of the major landmarks such as the SkyWheel, Uspenski Cathedral, Helsinki Cathedral and Vanha Kauppahalli old market hall all visible. The Helsinki transport network is conveniently all linked, so the tickets we had purchased at the airport the day before enabled us unlimited rides on the trains, trams and ferries for a 24 hour period.

Had we more time we would have liked to take advantage of the close proximity between Finland and Estonia, and taken a ferry across the sea to Tallinn.

Back in the city and ready for lunch we decided to trust what we already knew, and head to Zetor again.

Soon enough, it was time to collect our bags from the hostel and head back out to the airport. At just on 24 hours in the city (with roughly only 8 hours of actual daylight) it was a shorter weekend adventure than normal, but we still managed to see and do a reasonable amount.

Highlights:

- Cobbled streets

- Kauppatori market square

- SkyWheel

- Allas sea pool

- Early darkness

- Rode the trams

- Helsinki Cathedral

- Senate Square

- Uspenski Cathedral

- Zetor restaurant

- Napue gin and tonic

- Vanha Kauppahalli old market hall

- Ferry ride to Suomenlinna sea fortress

- Dry dock