Helsinki - capital of Finland

After the capital of Sweden, it was time to visit the capital of Finland (again)! Before starting, a few information about Helsinki:

- (of course) capital of Finland
- 584.420 inhabitants (largest city)
- located in the southern part of Finland directly at the Baltic Sea
- Helsinki metropolitan area generates approximately one third of Finland's GDP
- main sight: Helsinki Cathedrale

We booked a 4-bedroom in the famous Omena hotel (=Apple Hotel), which is very popular (and cheap) in the Nordic countries. After arriving with the train...oh wait...one thing: I have no idea how we did it, but we got out the wrong station. The name of the station was 'Pasila Böle':

 

Yeah, but anyway, actually we made it to Helsinki main station. We stayed at the popular 'Omena'-Hostel (stands for Apple), which offers no reception (I guess this is one reason why it is so cheap), a lot of RED interior and a quite central location. First stop was the fancy street 'Norra Esplanaden' which leads to Helsinki harbour. It is one if not THE most expensive street in Helsinki. Next to it there is the Espanadi Park - a green oasis in the middle of the capital. After arriving at the harbour we made our way to the Uspenski Cathedrale.

What came next? Of course the most popular sight in Helsinki: the famous Helsinki Cathedrale! I guess you all have seen this big white building on pictures before which is located on the upmost point in the city.

Our next target was the 'Rock Church' - yes, you understand right: a church built into a big rock. Before we reached the church, we were approximately 5-7 kilometres on the wrong way. But with the help of some nice Finnish supporter, we finally found it after 1,5/2 hours. How should I describe the rock church? Imagine a rock in the middle of densely populated neigbourhood and inside a little, but impressive Lutheran church. At least for myself I can say, I have never ever seen such a church before. Even if the interior is not typical for a church, you can feel a mystical atmosphere in there. But because words can't describe it very good, please just have a look at the following picture of the interior of the church.

One of the most impressive landscapes in the Helsinki area is Suomenlinna. It is an UNESCO World Heritage site which former name was 'Sveaborg' (=Fortress of Svea). The meaning of 'Suomenlinna' is Castle of Finland, this renaming in 1918 had patriotic and nationalistic reasons. Swedish speaking people, of course, still use the former name. The Swedish crown commenced the construction of the fortress in 1748 as protection against Russian expansionism. Today, in peaceful Finland, the island is for sure no more used as a fortress. It is a tourist attraction - a great one! You can just take a 'waterbus' (a little ship) which runs there once every hour for app. 3€. The transportation to the island takes about 15 minutes while passing a lot of smaller islands on the way there. Arrived at Suomenlinna (btw: we had beautiful weather!!!) the first stop was an old church.

We made our way forward, seeing a lot of little fortresses and vaults, sometimes quite creepy and mystical. Furthermore there were some old military monuments and weapons, like cannonballs. Between those attractions, the landscape was enriched with green fields, trees, rocks and little hills :-) At one of the highest parts, it is possible to have a wonderful view at the sea: wind was blowing, sun shining, sea swooshing - what a moment!

But Suomenlinna is not just a tourist attraction - for some people it is their home. Nowadays there are about 900 permanent inhabitants on the islands, and 350 people work there all year round. So, it is not just an attraction, but also a living community! There is a minimum-security penal labor colony in Suomenlinna, whose inmates work on the maintenance and reconstruction of the fortifications. Only volunteer inmates who pledge non-use of controlled substances are accepted to the labour colony.

We had also a quite typical Finnish weather phenomenon in Helsinki. Beautiful weather (as you can see on the previous pictures), walk in a park, next to a lake. See the next picture:

 

Not even 5 minutes later, it looked like the next picture (no photoshop, no fake!):

 

Welcome to Finland! By the way, another 5 minutes later, it was like on the first picture again: sunny, almost no clouds, of course no rain and snow anymore - crazy! :-D

For another nice view, I can recommend the Olympic stadium in Helsinki. Pay 2,50€, go 60 metres up, see whole Helsinki and be astonished! You have two possibilities to go up to the top: elevator or stairs. Well, for me that means: 1 alternative = elevator! But I guess there might be also some (crazy) people going up using the stairs. On top I found a sticker that said 'Mannheim' with an eagle on it. Mannheim is not even 20km away from my home town, so I even had some sentimental feelings looking over the whole capital! :-)

On of the last stops was the shopping mile, including a Christmas shop. Have I mentioned that I am a big Christmas fan? Well, I AM! You will see more enthusiastic pictures and stories in the next post (Lapland post!). The Christmas shop was great, like a exploded Christmas package :-D You can even feel in Helsinki (more than 1000 km from Lapland away, where Santa Claus is living) that Finland is the mothership of Christmas feelings, hihi ;-)

Helsinki was a really nice trip - it is (for me) the 'Cosy Capital', because unlike other capitals, it is smaller, not so much overcrowded, not dirty or too loud - you feel homelike and adapted pretty soon!

Pori-Turku-Ferry Craziness-Stockholm-Again Ferry Craziness-Turku-Pori

One trip almost every Erasmus student is doing during his time here in Pori, is going to neighboring country Sweden to see the capital Stockholm. I am not an exchange student, but nevertheless, I did the same :-D In the last weekend of October, 9 Erasmus students and I decided to go to Stockholm by ferry, because normally it is the most popular and cheapest way to get there. The journey started on Thursday afternoon with the bus to Turku harbour - nice ride, nothing special. At the harbour, first I was very impressed about the size of our ferry. It was a very big ship, the Europa of Silja Line, here is a picture of it:

Then on the ferry, crowds of people, not always 'standard', means: dressed crazy (or maybe it has been costumes, I do not know), kind of tipsy movements, loud and sometimes scaring ;-) Yeah, the ferry was a adventure for itself! Happily we had our cabines right above engine room, so we REALLY had the 'seaman-feeling', the whole night it was vibrating and loud. And for the loud atmosphere we also got some help from our drunken Russion neighbours on our corridor. What a feeling! Okay, I guess, everybody can realize than I am ironic now... But well, we survived! :-D

After arriving in Stockholm in the early morning (it was around 6 o'clock), we made our way to the city center to store our bags in the trainstation. First, we had a nice breakfast with super-big muffins. Then the sightseeing started: Royal Palace - Old Town - Cathedrals/Churches - Museums and so on. Stockholm is really a ferrytale city: a lot of water, green area, old buildings, narrow alleys, a lot of café and restaurants - NICE! In addition we had sunny weather and mild temperature, what more could we ask for? Another thing which being quite impressive was the unbelievable cleanliness of the city - even the area near the trainstation was shining! Less enjoyable were the prizes: Finland seems after Stockholm quite affordable. But hey, it was a vacation, so of course, we allowed ourselves some nice things! :-D Delicious food - funny souveniers and some drinks.

 

Maybe the most impressive attraction we saw, has been the Vasa Museum. Here a short extract from the Wikipedia quote: 'The Vasa Museum (Swedish: Vasamuseet) is a maritime museum in Stockholm, Sweden. Located on the island of Djurgården, the museum displays the only almost fully intact 17th century ship that has ever been salvaged, the 64-gun warship Vasa that sank on her maiden voyage in 1628. The Vasa Museum opened in 1990 and, according to the official web site, is the most visited museum in Scandinavia.' First I thought: 'What a strange building. Is that a museum?' Inside it is really overwhelming! The ship is so big and normally you are not used to have a big ship inside a building. The restauration of the ship, obviously, went out great, like it has never been on the sea bottom for so many years. The light is dimmed and in that way, it emphazises the magical atmosphere! In the entrance ticket included was a short, guided tour: our guide was funny in a way that he seems very serious and pationate about really everything and you could realize that he told some of the story like 1.000-times.

After another day of excessive sightseeing, the ferry was waiting for us around 19.00 at Stockholm harbour. This cruise was even weirder than the first one, because it was time for Halloween! Some men dressed up as 'professional' women, some girls as bunnies and a couple (my favorite!) dresses as Beetlejuice and his wife - very nice!! :-D Unfortunately we had our cabin right above the concerthall of the ferry. So, imagine: staying or lying in the cabin was like sleeping (or try at least) in the middle of the concert stage! What a feeling! Therefore some of us decided to go to the concerthall until the early morning to see the rock band playing, because it would have made no difference - staying in front of the stage or in the room --> same volume! ;-) To sum up the time on the ferry: weird, but funny, a lot of drunken people, loud --> different, but interesting! When we arrived in Turku on Sunday morning, we immidiately took the first bus available to get to Pori. Then sleeeeeeeeep! But in a nutshell: a unforgettable trip!

Naantali - or the beautiful Moomin Island

There are so many places in Finland that show nature in the most beautiful way possible...for example the small island Naantali! This little town is one of the main attractions in whole Finland and is located app. 14 km west of Turku. The biggest part of the Naantali area is located on small, separated islands - most of it beautiful farmland and forest, just like a Finnish fairytale!

 

At that special day, we had even the perfect weather to visit Naantali: the sun was shining at its brightest, blue sky and mild temperature! The picture above shows a typical view of Naantali: blue water, an island part with green forest and reeds moved by the fresh wind - a scenario just like on a perefect holiday postcard! :-D 

As already mentioned about Reposaari, so is Naantali a place of silent and quiet atmosphere as well. In this way you can enjoy the beauty of nature in Naantali in an even more intensive way. But to be clear, Naantali is not quiet, silent and pretty lonely all the year... In summer, the Moomin World opens his doors to worldwide visitors! First for all who do not know Moomins, here is a extract from the Wikipedia quote: 'The Moomins (Finnish: Muumit)(Swedish: Mumintroll) are the central characters in a series of books and a comic strip by Swedish-Finn illustrator and writer Tove Jansson, originally published in Swedish by Schildts in Finland. They are a family of trolls who are white and roundish, with large snouts that make them resemble hippopotamuses. The carefree and adventurous family live in their house in Moominvalley, in the forests of Finland, though in the past their temporary residences have included a lighthouse and a theatre. They have many adventures along with their various friends.' Today you can find Moomins themes everywhere: on clothes, cups, toys, candies, papers...the list has no end. Moomins are really, really popular here in Finland. There is no stay in Finland (no matter how long it is) without getting in touch with the Moomins. But the popularity of Moomins also affects the price of Moomins articles: it is really expensive! There are e.g. cups (and they are rather small) whoch costs about 15 euros or even more. And now, I introduce you the world famous Moomins:

Well, now, to come back to Naantali: on one of the islands there is the Moomin World. This theme park is completely based on those Moomin stories by Tove Jansson. The park consists of different Moomin houses, playgrounds, a stage and some cafés. The most popular building is the blueberry-coloured Moomin house which is, of course, open to all visitors. Unfortunately, the park was closed when we visited it, but still we could walk through the whole area, but without visiting the interior of the buildings or seeing any shows. Nevertheless we got a good impression of the 'magic of Moomin World'! And for me (in Germany Moomins are not well-known, if even at all) it was quite new and funny to see such kind of theme park. The Finns really must love Moomins - they even give them a whole island for themselves ;-) But to be honest: for children (and I guess for some adults) it must been one of the best days in life to visit their 'popular friends', the Moomins! To wrap it up: Naantali and Moomin World were great, like a journey to a magical place in the westcoast of Finland!