Finland - Helsink

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Wake up at 7am and head to breakfast at the hotel. It was a decent breakfast. We have been used to all these continental breakfast so it was great to see actual fried eggs on the buffet. After breakfast we check out and do the dreadful task of carting our luggages to the City Terminal to hop on the Flybus back to the airport.

Wait in line to check in. It was when I arrived at check in that my nightmare began. I had mistakenly booked our cheap airfares with SAS airlines online but booked the wrong dates. I booked to travel the next day. I figured this could be easily fixed as I waited at their customer service counter, only to be told the horrible news that the tickets are not refundable nor can you change it. Which I thought was ridiculous. They left me no alternative but to cancel and forfeit the airfares which was about $300 AUD and rebook it for twice the cost. Because we were scarce with accom it was our only chance to head to Finland today so I had to wear the cost. So paid another $600 AUD to get on the next flight to Helsinki. Total rip off and not what I needed. The flight does not leave for another 4hrs so we sit and wait at the airport. Somehow we managed to keep sane and surfed the net. Warning for anyone travelling, to make sure confirming. SAS airlines don’t care and have conditions that apply their tickets. So be aware. It’s a costly mistake. We finally get on board and the flight takes 45mins. We land and head towards the exit and head towards the Airport taxi stand and arrange for a taxi for euro 22. This is cheap as this is for the both. The drive to the airport it 50mins away. We are dropped off at our accommodation. Hostel Lonnrot. Our plan today is to walk about town and find accom for the rest of our stay. We check in and head off into town. The hotel is close to the city and it only takes 5 mins. However, we then spent about 2 hours walking through all of Helsinki popping into all the hotels to find accom. All is booked out. No where, Not even other hostels or five star hotels. It was later we found out that there is Nordac conference so all the hotels were booked out  for the rest of the week. We decided to give up and headed into internet café and spend some time searching on the web for flights out of Helsinki to Denmark. After our ordeal , we head to the Aussie Bar. The bar is decked out with aussie things so to make you feel right at home. They have the good old aussie music playing. We stay in there for a couple of drinks. It was a relaxed environment. We move onwards to the next few pubs which include, Pickwick bar which was a nice irish feel with great comfy chairs and a relaxed environment. There after Molly Maloneys which I found the best. They had a great band playing. The last stop was Henry’s Pub. The city was naturally bare being a weekday but we managed to stay out until 2am. We met a few locals who we chatted with for a little while until we decided to head back to the hostel. The walk was nice and relaxing as we strolled through the streets. I felt safe so it was a bad thing walking through town at 2am in the morning.

Our short visit to Helsinki , made us crave for more

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Early wake up for this morning as we get out of bed at 8am. Head into town. It’s a cold day in Helsinki as we rug up and walk down to the main streets. It is very busy and plenty people are up and about. Today we are on a mission for souvenirs. We only have half a day in this beaut town as we are bound for Denmark next. We head through the mall Zampi. Then head down towards Stockmanns which is a department store. I grab some Helsink tshrts. Mission accomplished. We cruise over to the see some landmarks of Helsinki, then make our way to The Esplanade. This are of Helsinki is pleasant as there are plenty cafes and great gardens. Inclusive of the statues that line up the pathway in this particular park we were in. We walk about Helsinki visiting markets and shops, then soon we ran out of time and head back to our hostel to grab our bags and head to our next destination. We get the hostel to book our taxi for a price of 1Euro. The taxi arrives on time but we find that we pay double the price of what we did arriving. But for the convenience , we just wore the cost. We have a few hours to kill until our flights departs so Ed and I find a comfy seat and have a sleep. Soon enough the flight is called and we are on our way to Denmark.