Arrival to Helsinki

Sunday, July 21, 2013
Helsinki, Southern Finland, Finland
We have finally arrived to Helsinki after a long, long day. We started at Pearson Airport in Toronto, continued to JFK Airport at NY (with dirty run-down bathrooms and overpriced food), then after a long and sleepless flight arrived to Helsinki-Vantaa airport, took a bus to the central train station (päärautatieasema) and then a tram to our hotel. The hotel is located in a building of an old red-brick prison, and its rooms are converted from two or three prison cells. The walls are thick and widows are small, it's quite an interesting experience.
We could only check into the room at 3 pm, so since we arrived at 10:30 am, we left the luggage at the hotel and went to explore Helsinki . We walked from the hotel located in picturesque neighbourhood of Katajanokka, past beautiful Uspenski Cathedral to bustling Market Square, where local merchants sell fried food (I had reindeer meatballs, Julia had another local staple: fried vendace (muikku)). While exploring the market we were surprised at the abundance of Russian speech: from both tourists, vendors and a lot of signs. After having finished our lunch (and an unsuccessful seagull attack), we walked to Senate Square dominated by Lutheran Cathedral, grand and imposing on the outside, austere and simple on the inside. After we walked to Havis Amanda, the statue that became the symbol of Helsinki, the city dubbed The Daughter of The Baltic. While we were walking down the picturesque tree lined Esplanade, it started raining and we hid from the rain at several stores and checked out some examples of famous Finnish design, then had some tea at Stockmann department store, walked to the train station and finally returned to the hotel just in time when the room became available. Exhausted, we immediately collapsed and went to sleep until 11 pm, then Julia had some hot chocolate and read the information booklet about the city, while I was writing the first blog entry.
Presently, we are going back to sleep until sun rises at 4:30 am, at least, to get ready for another day of city exploration!
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Comments

Irina
2013-07-22

Good start, do not forget pics

2025-02-08

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