Finland: Helsinki

Wed 26th July

Up at 6am today to catch our ferry to Helsinki. Two bleary eyed travellers left the hostel not having had too much sleep last night. Our dorm was filled to capacity plus we had a couple of exceedingly heavy snorers! Even earplugs did not help. These are sometimes the negative parts of travelling the way we do but there is always time to catch up later on... The ferry took 3 hours to reach Helsinki and David managed to sleep most of the way. We had left our backpacks in the hostel as we are coming back there and it was such a pleasure not to have to lug them around for a change. We arrived at Helsinki through a stunning stone gate entrance where the harbour was filled with cruise ships and ferries. The walk to the hostel, situated in the walls of the actual Olympic Stadium, was full!! We had to traipse back a long way into the city again to find something else and the place we found was a mini hotel. Great place. My feet were killing me by this stage and it was as if they did not belong to me anymore.

City of Free Expression

We arbed around the picturesque harbour for ages, then sat in the Esplanade Park for hours watching the passing parade, and what amazing sights we saw!! It is the first place we have visited where people watching has produced some incredibly colourful and amusing experiences. This town is totally alive with locals, hobos, students, buskers galore, music, dancing, tourists, goths, gays and eccentrics. There does not appear to be any rules about drinking in public in Helsinki and I would estimate that at least 90% of the people walkingaround have beer bottles in their hands or even stronger stuff. At one point a really old, drunken man planted himself on our bench and he started playing his out of tune clapped out guitar, trying to imitate Eric Clapton. On the other side of us were some West African drummers and we reckon this old geezer was trying to "out do" them. All very amusing until his even more drunk friend tried to squeeze onto the bench between David and "Eric Clapton", just about planting himself, and his bottle of pink poisen (!) onto Davids lap!!! We moved to the next bench only to be entertained by a tall, lanky specimin, obviously high on something, sitting with his head in his hands, blocking out the drummers rhythms. Next thing, he jumped up, irritated, and tried to stop the drummers in mid performance. A psycho dude hearing voices in his head maybe!!! Weird. All around us were the "bottle people"!! All competing against each other to collect the hoardes of empty beer bottles lying around for their deposit money. At least they clear the parks of litter but what an eccentric bunch of hobos they are!! Scandanavian countries have a reputation of being highly liberal, free and individual and we certainly witnessed a part of that here today. A lesson in free expression second to none.'

Thursday 27th July

After doing a self guided tour around the city, taking in the breathtakingly beautiful cathedral which dominates over the city, we returned to the Esplanade gardens for some more entertainment. We found ourselves entranced by a South American panpipe group playing the most impossbly haunting sounds. I have always loved South American music but hearing this today has almost made up my mind for me that South America will be my next travel destination, the only continent I have not visited yet!! Will the travel bug ever leave. Do not think so!!

Our ferry back to Tallinn only left at 8pm so we spent the entire afternoon chilling out in the totally contagious atmosphere of Helsinki. Experiencing more of Finland would be gret one day but it is really really expensive here... The ferry trip back was way better than the first trip over. Being a night boat it kind of turned into a party boat for 3 hours. Live groups in one room, kareoke in other, slot machines, food and drinks. A great vibe. We pulled into our hostel again at about 12.45am and who should be sitting in the lounge but an Aussie couple we had met way back in Riga!! Such a tiny world! Needless to say, we caught up for a bit before hitting the sack at 2am