Photos here: Helsinki
***
Why
Helsinki?
My One World
around the world award ticket (see ATW blog entry) was a great deal, but I had a tough time
finding an award flight to take me back home.
Trans-Atlantic award tickets are notoriously scarce during the summer. British Air had availability, but their extra
fees were about $700. What’s the point
of using an award ticket if you have to pay that much for a single leg?
Luckily,
Finn Air had business class seats available (only on certain dates) from
Helsinki to JFK. I had no particular
desire to see Helsinki, but I needed to get back home somehow. Originally, I planned just to connect through
the airport.
Later, I discovered
that I could visit St. Petersburg Russia from Helsinki through a visa loop hole. I hadn’t considered getting a Russian visa, since
the process is both long and pricey. The
country is also so vast that I just ruled it out. Still, I figured St. Petersburg is Russia’s number
one tourist destination for a reason, and if I could visit there visa and
hassle free, why not? See the blog entry
for this leg of my trip.
So I ended
up booking an overnight in Helsinki.
Later, I also added Copenhagen and Stockholm to the end of my trip,
making for a neat Scandinavian side trip.
My time in
Helsinki was limited. I arrived in the
afternoon to a gorgeous day. Scandinavia
is the most expensive part of Europe, but I managed to find the Hotel Fabian without
bleeding through the nose too much. The
hotel was fine, as was the location. The
city is quite small for a European capital.
Between a late sunset (around 11pm) and the hotel’s free bike rental, I
was able to see all of the city that day.
Helsinki is
gorgeous, as are its people.
Scandinavians generally are a friendly, laid back, and good looking
people. When summer comes, bringing an
end to winter’s perpetual darkness, the locals open up with so much glee it
carries you away. I biked around Helsinki visiting the tourist
sights, but had the most fun just sitting around the parks watching, and
occasionally talking, to the locals as they celebrated the lovely day.
Taxes
throughout Scandinavia make bars very expensive, so most locals just buy
alcohol and food at the local grocery store and party outdoors. Helsinki is no exception. The area around the Esplanade in particular fills
up with good looking locals having a good time.
I keep emphasizing “good looking” not from any lascivious view. It’s just difficult not to be struck by how
blonde, healthy, vibrant, and for some reason young everyone looked. Not that everyone was a clone. I met the occasional punker and stoner. Still, I enjoyed my day in Helsinki.
My meals
weren’t as good. As I mentioned, the
city is quite expensive. The hotel
recommended a place around the corner.
When I sat down, the waiter explained they serve small courses and
suggested ordering at least six, at E10 per plate. Together with a glass of wine and some water,
I was looking at spending almost E100 (or about $140) at a place that looked
fairly average.
Perhaps I
should have tried it. I instead found a
Chinese restaurant nearby that had decent reviews. The place was full, and lots of Chinese
patrons were devouring plates of food. I
ordered a beer and a spicy chicken dish.
It set me back about E40, but the food was truly bad. They used way too much capsicum and overfried
the chicken. I would have walked away
but for the fact that I was famished.
Afterwards,
I tried a couple of bars, including a karaoke one where the locals were belting
out Finnish tunes with gusto. Finns like
to party late, especially in the summer time when it doesn’t really get dark
until the wee hours, and it looked like the fun was just beginning.
I didn’t
stay at either bar too long. For
whatever reason, I just didn’t feel like drinking that much. Sitting at the bar, I did meet a weird
Japanese woman. She was somewhat
entertaining just because she was so bizarre.
She would mutter some conversation, and then simply gaze out the window
blankly. Just when one got used to
ignoring her, she would interrupt people’s conversation by blurting out some
incoherent sentence in perfect English.
She would then tune out again. I
thought at first she might be stoned or drunk, but I ultimately labeled her as
just a weirdo. I beat a fast track out
of that bar before someone thought I was responsible for her.
(Separately, I wonder what the Japanese connection, if any, is to Helsinki. My flight from Paris to Helsinki was at least half Japanese! I assume some kind of connecting flight back home? Strange mystery...)
I headed
back to the hotel and slept well.
The
breakfast the next day was quite crowded.
I had the day free until the late afternoon when I would catch my cruise
to St. Petersburg. I had intended to
work out, but the hotel’s gym is actually located at its sister hotel’s
property. The weather was gloomy and
rainy, and I felt lazy. I wandered the
city just a bit, feeling glad that I saw almost all of it the prior day under
more beautiful conditions. For my last
meal, I ate at McDonalds, remembering my fiasco from the night before. I bought a sandwich and a drink for the
cruise, and headed for the boats saying goodbye to the city.
Helsinki is
a manageable, small, attractive city. However, it does not compare well to its larger
Scandinavian brethren of Oslo, Copenhagen, or Stockholm. I liked my short stay here, but I don’t see
any reason to return any time soon.
***
Photos here: Helsinki
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