Photos : Helsinki, Porvoo and Suomenlinna
Easter by the bay
For Easter we decided to round off our Scandinavian foray when we headed to Finland, or more accurately Helsinki (we call it Hell for short but that’s coz we be lazy not coz it is hell). Due to time constraints we couldn’t see much of the country so limited ourselves to Helsinki and Porvoo.
Our first day was per the forecast. Cold, grey and drizzly. We opted to slowly walk around the city and the coast with no clear idea of exactly where we were going or what we were going to see. As with all other Scandy countries we’ve been to, the city is clean, people polite and prices aren’t cheap. What I didn’t know about Helsinki was how many times it had been ruled by invading countries. You might expect it to have an identity crisis! The city is located on a peninsula on the Baltic Sea. It’s been around for over 400 years and during it’s checkered history has been occupied between the Swedes’ and Ruskies. This struggle/occupation comes to the fore in Helsinki’s architecture and character. There’s a blend of Slavic and Scandinavian culture that provides a welcoming melancholy (you like my verbose drivel?).
When Old Military Bases Die
On our second day, the weather had improved so opted for the short ferry ride to Suomenlinna. It’s a small island that rose to prominence due to the military presence and using it as a fort. Under Swedish rule it was built in the 18th century and was one of the biggest dry docks in the world. Suomenlinna has survived intact primarily due to the military and in 1991 it was included in UNESCO’s World Heritage List. Today you can see some remnants of the military namely the gun turrets, cannons, ramparts and defensive walls (8km in total).
So what do you do with such a site? Renovate the old barracks and ramparts to create a suburb of Helsinki of course. Today there’s a little under 1,000 people living here with many working in Helsinki itself using the tourist ferries as their local transport. Suomenlinna is one of Finland’s most popular tourist attractions. At the same time it is a suburb of Helsinki, with 850 people living in the renovated ramparts and barracks.
In almost a heartbeat the weather changed from glorious sunshine to grey skies and rain. You could watch the fast moving clouds eerily slink over the sea and engulf the island. Luckily for us we had taken most of our pics. As fast as the clouds came they disappeared and again we had sunshine for some final shots as we headed back to the ferry.
Food For Expensive Thought
For some strange reason we almost always eat Japanese when we travel. Helsinki was to prove no exception. Two doors up from our hotel was a nice looking Japanese restaurant which almost seemed like an omen. This was to prove a decision to provide good food at an expensive price. The meal sizes were deceptive and whilst not large, eating enough of them we were full, well full enough. Can’t say I’d recommend eating here as it doesn’t provide any real value for money. The quality of food and restaurants is a high standard so it seems hard to go wrong but obviously at a price.
Sorry Mr Priest
For our last full day we headed to Provoo by bus. It’s a small town that’s renowned for its colourful buildings and the old section of town. Being Easter we weren’t sure what was going to be open and when but we gambled the tourist town would be chasing the tourist dollar therefore a safe bet. The claim to fame for this town is the old colourful buildings. It’s like the small boxes at Brighton beach (in Australia) but on steroids. The old town is essentially 1 street of brightly painted buildings and a church at the top of the hill.
Inside the church a few worshippers were atoning for their sins or maybe ours. There were a few tourists inside plus the local believers. The person I was following I believed to be a tourist and was lead to a small room near the front of the church. Inside was a priest chatting to a sinner/worshipper, a table, some books and a small staircase to the left. I figured I’d gone this far so kept going and descended the stairs. What I found was the priests private chambers complete with PC’s and an array of books.
The books had titles I’m going to say were like
- Preaching for dummies
- Holy water cocktails
- How to make preaching fun (for us and them)
- Crucifix building in the modern day
- Hashish Christmas pudding recipes
- Robe wearing styles – out or in?
- When good nuns turn bad
- Ark building – the comprehensive step by step guide
- The great debate : virgin pregnancies V the stork
There was also some wicked games for the PC like
- Satan V UFC (Ultimate Fighting Church)
- Sinners are winners (I think you have to commit as much sin as possible to win the virgin)
- Sim City Vatican Edition (you have to conquer all other religions)
- Grand Theft Pope (you have to steal him and his Pope mobile and drive from the Vatican to Israel)
Obviously this was not somewhere I was supposed to be so stealthily climbed the stairs and darted out the door back into the main church.
From the church we wandered around town a little and stopped in a cool little bar by the water for a hot drink. It was shortly after lunch and we’d pretty much seen everything, which wasn’t that much, so we followed the waterway for about 1km then figured we should vamanos back to Hell.
Our final day was spent getting up late and then wandering around the streets of Hell, checking out some statues and big square buildings. Again the sky was overcast and a small amount of rain but considering the time of year, I think we did well to get decent weather.
We have to get back to Finland at some point to check out the rest of the country however as far as Scandy capital cities go, it was number 4….I’m sure all Helsinkian’s are reeling from this rating 🙂