After
managing to turn off my alarm in my sleep I had to rush down to the 7am ferry
for Helsinki.
Luckily I made it with time to spare and, after sitting outside while we left,
I soon had to shelter from the cold wind and smokers on the deck and head into
the restaurant for the rest of the 2 hour trip across to Finland.
We arrived
in Helsinki
around 11:30am and I managed to find the tramline that ran into town and almost
straight to my hotel. I’ve managed to book hostels a few days ahead for most of
the trip, but my luck had to run out just before the most expensive country,
and I was forced to spend a couple of days in a hotel in one of the most expensive
cities. Though it is a nice change from bunking down in hostels. After checking
in, I walked down to the waterfront past the Senate Square and Cathedral and down to
the market square. It’s a lovely walk down to the park area on the point where
you can watch the night ferry to Sweden leaving through the narrow
channel. Just watch out for all the swan and duck poo! On the way home I
stumbled across a random Samba Festival and that was my entertainment sorted
for the evening.
Despite
wanting to sleep in I was up early to catch another ferry, this time to the
Island Fortress of Suomenlinna, which was soon packed with young army band
members on their way to a concert on the island to celebrate Helsinki Day.
As it turned out there were bands from the army, navy and armed forces putting
on an afternoon show. I had a little wander around the island and watched the
massive ferries chugging their way through the channel, before heading back to
the concert area and watching some of the amazing performances by the bands.
The navy drummers and riflemen were particularly impressive. If I thought the
ferry over was busy the ferry back was even more packed, and it was a regular
shoving match to get on board. After subtly elbowing a girl who was trying to push
me into the little old lady in front of me, we finally made it onto the boat
and back into town. Back at the indoor by the waterfront market hall I bought a
sandwich and walked out to the park where I sat in the shade on the grass
enjoying the Saturday afternoon sun with a bunch of the locals.
After two
lovely nights in the hotel I caught the tram across town to Hostel Stadion, a hostel set up in the
Olympic Stadium. After dumping my stuff I caught the tram out to a point close
to Seurasaari Island
where the Outdoor
Museum is located. I
walked through a local park and over the bridge to the island to discover that
the museum section was free to celebrate Helsinki Day. Sweet! I wandered
through some old log cabins, seeing how the Finns used to live (which looked
pretty comfortable) and ended up at the Festival Square where I decided to have
my picnic. I’d been wondering what all the people dressed up in traditional
dress were doing on the island, and I soon found out when the concert and
traditional dancing started. So that was my afternoon entertainment sorted. I
spent a good couple of hours watching about 50 people kicking up the dust in
the arena and it was a pretty impressive spectacle seeing them whirling around
in giant circles. After the show ended I walked to the end of the island, found
a nice warm rock in the sun, and basked like a lizard for a coupe of hours
without any noticeable effect on my tan (or lack of it).
