Tag Archives: Finland

Jun25

Exploring Helsinki!

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Saturday, 01-June-2024, through Thursday, 06-June-2024


Helsinki. Capital of Finland, and my final stop of both the Nordics and the Scandinavian countries before forging south toward the Baltic region.

When I first planned this trip, I freely admit that I came into it with certain preconceptions. Particularly salient to this post was my vision of Finland as another of the Scandinavian countries… technically a correct assumption, but after wandering Helsinki and learning a bit more about the country’s history… I’m not quite so certain.

See, I learned that while Finland currently belongs to the Nordics, its history is a bit more unique – The Finnish language, for example, has roots as a Uralic language similar to Estonian and Hungarian… and frankly sounds similar to Slavic languages to my untrained ears. Culturally, Finland has been its own country, part of Sweden, part of Russia, and even sort of part of Germany during World War 2.

Complicated.


Exploring the city, however, was quite a bit less complex than the history. It was lovely – I found Helsinki to be similar to Oslo and Portland in that there were quite a few small parts scattered about, in contrast to Reykjavik or Stockholm that seemed to have larger homogenous sections of either big parks or big concrete. There was some street art, mainly on electrical boxes, but not nearly as many murals and such as in Reykjavik… but it still felt like more than I saw around Oslo or Stockholm.



As with all European Cities so far, Helsinki was extremely walkable… seriously, I think I walked around 10 miles every day, just wandering around and visiting near spots!

For food – everything was delicious, to the surprise of absolutely no one. After eating at Aifur in Stockholm, I finally broke through my mental barricade against going to “tourist restaurants”, and so started exploring some more clearly touristy venues in Helsinki… Which, as it turned out, was a really great idea! I was able to find quite a few great spots, ate some more traditional Northern Finnish cuisine, and got some options that I definitely wouldn’t have if I’d stuck with being a “cool” tourist:

  • Saaga – This was a tourist-focused place, but ohh man it was good! Focusing on Northern Finnish / Sami food, I fully recommend it for someone wanting to try out a traditional Finnish meal, like you’d get in a cabin up North in the deep winter.
  • Lazy Fox – Turns out, most Finnish places don’t really do breakfast. From the Finns that I met, it seems that most Finns simply don’t do breakfast, or have it at home, so that makes sense. I, however, wanted a hearty breakfast… and Lazy Fox provided that exceptionally well!
  • Lie Mi – A Thai spot I went to on a date! It was neat- I had a lot of Thai while I was living in North Portland, and this was… similar. Less spicy, but definitely good. Full recommendation.
  • Bastion Bistro – A nice and fancy bistro on Suomenlinna Island, with an excellent chicken cesear salad. The downside is that the outdoor seating is overgrown with stinging nettles, which I learned about the hard way. My leg stung for the rest of the day, which kind of outweighed the good food.
  • Woolshed Helsinki – an “Australian Gastropub” that I went to, because they were the only spot in town that served Chicken Parmesan. Like… what? None of the Italian restaurants had it… and what Woolshed had was an abomination – but an absolutely delicious abomination. Served over crispy French fries, with ham thrown into the Chicken Parm because why not, it was delicious and abominable.
  • La Lasagne – A full-day Lasagna restaurant that I went to for breakfast… and had breakfast lasagna (made with eggs and bacon instead of beef and ricotta). It was amazing.
  • Lappi Ravintola – Another amazing touristy-restaurant that I went to on a date, this was my favorite restaurant in Finland… and possibly my favorite on the whole trip so far, in terms of decor and “fun”. Aifur, ROK, and Cafe Unicorn were great (Stockholm, Reykjavik, and Nuuk, respectively), but Lappi Ravintola basically took a New Hampshire ski lodge and stuffed it into a building in the middle of Helsinki. Good food, great decor.
Jun24

A ferry ride to Finland

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Friday and Saturday, 31-May-2024 and 01-June-2024


I left May, and entered June, on my first cruise.


True story – going on a cruise has never been a goal of mine. I can see the attraction, logically, but they just don’t quite do it for me for one reason or another. Both “one reason” and “another” generally being the fact that I get seasick, and don’t like being stuck in one area without the option to just kinda wander off like a weirdo. I mean, I guess technically I COULD wander off like a weirdo on a cruise ship… but chucking myself overboard doesn’t feel like a good career advancement move.

All of which is to say – My first cruise was one of necessity.

When I first planned this trip across Europe, I used the Eurail map to chart my general course. A map showing a connection between Stockholm and Helsinki. I, obviously incorrectly in retrospect, assumed that meant a train. Why I thought a train could go across the Baltic Sea, I couldn’t say. I trusted the Eurail Map, and didn’t think more of it.

When I went to book the tickets, the Eurail system noted that there was no connection via Eurail, but that I could book an overnight cruise instead… for a significant fee on top of my Eurail pass, of course. Without diving into my frustrations with the Eurail system, suffice it to say that I found myself unexpectedly booking a cruise.



That’s a bit of backstory.

For the cruise itself, it went simply and cleanly. I scouted out the terminal the day before, checked with the docents about how boarding would go, and then arrived the day of departure. I left my bags in a locker, explored Stockholm one last time (Ed Note: This is Ben was at the Nobel Prize Museum!) and then arrived back about 30min before boarding. I had learned that, while the ships listed departure was 4:30, boarding actually began around 1:30, and was a sort of “at your leisure” anytime until 4:10. I arrived, grabbed my bags out of the locker, boarded through security, and was happily ensconced in my room by 2:30… with, of course, a good dosage of 24-hour Dramamine in my system.


From there, I explored a cruise ship for the first time in my life. It was… eerily similar to exploring a new town – I wandered through the decks, looked at restaurants and shops, saw empty dancefloors and casinos, and finally found myself a seat on the top deck in the sun. I edited some photos, relaxed, and soon enough the ship was on its way to Helsinki.




This was an overnight cruise, which meant I had a lovely cabin about halfway up the ship, with a nice view and a “cozy” bed. To be frank, it was tiny… but then again, it was more luxurious than I was expecting, and far nicer than anything on an equivalent overnight train.

It also meant that I’d be having two meals aboard – a buffet dinner, and a table-service breakfast. Both of which ended up being absolutely excellent! The buffet dinner was my first exposure to pickled herring, which I absolutely (and unexpectedly) adore! The buffet dinner was also my (not first) exposure to all-you-can-pour wine… which I sampled very sparingly, to avoid seasickness. The combination of wine and good food did set me pretty well sleepy, though, which I took full advantage of to sleep quite a bit earlier than normal as a way to limit the risk of any vertigo.


I slept well… surprisingly well, for how bad my motion sickness had been on the train from Oslo to Stockholm. The Dramamine was doing its job, I guess, and I was able to get a good 10hours of sleep … just enough to give me time to shower, wander the top deck and enjoy the sun, and then make it back belowdecks in time for breakfast.



Which was, similarly to the dinner buffet, excellent. And, thankfully, well-received by my stomach… so well that I was able to get some more time editing the last of my Sweden pictures! I enjoyed the sun, took some photos of the islands passing by as we entered Helsinki Harbor, and before I knew it I found myself walking back down the gangway into Finland!