Helsinki

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 Thursday, June 21

After checking out of the campground, we headed back into town to walk around a bit before we left on the train to Helsinki. We arrived in Helsinki in the early evening and took a bus to our hotel, which was situated in a northeast suburb of Helsinki known as Kotteby Kapyla. This particular area was an urban development area designed to be a garden city to house the city’s working class in a nicer and healthier environment. The architecture of the area is unique and ubiquitous—all of the houses are rectangular boxes with sloped roofs where the only feature distinguishing one from the next is the color of the house. The area is lush with trees and gardens. Today, the area is popular among artists and there is a waiting list for openings.

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We walked around the area and discovered that nearly everyone was gone on vacation. The following day was Midsummer’s Eve—one of the biggest holidays in Finland (and Scandinavia). It marks the middle of the year and the longest day of the year. Nearly 70% of Finns go on vacation to their summer home during this time. Because of this, we could not find any open restaurants in the neighborhood so we had to resort to plan B—raid the local gas station.

Friday, June 22

We headed to the city center in the morning and bought a tram ticket to ride tram 3T/3B. This tram takes you around all of Helsinki’s major sights and neighborhoods in about an hour, including the Market Square where we ate a delicious meal of paella, salmon steak, fried potatoes, and fried fish that looked like anchovies or sardines but had a very mild and pleasant flavor. Of course, everything has a dousing of the garlic sauce that the Finns seem to be very fond of.

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During lunch, we talked to a Finn who told us to visit Suomenlinna Island, an island that is home to a sea fortress built by the Swedes in the 1700s (when Finland was part of the Kingdom of Sweden), seized by the Russians in the 1800s, and is now part of Finland and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Suomenlinna Island was about a half hour ferry ride away from the Market Square. We had a coffee break at a charming café and took a nap on boulders overlooking a bay. Many people were having picnics or sunbathing on the various beaches and outcroppings of boulders dotted around the perimeter of the island.

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For the Finns who did not leave to go to their country homes and the tourists, there was a big Midsummer’s Eve celebration on Seurasaari Island. The celebration included folk dances, traditional handicrafts, food booths, and the lighting of several bonfires on the lake. I’m not sure what is all means, but it was good fun.