Gettin 'sinki wit it

Friday, 27 July

We only got to spend an afternoon in Helsinki, which is devastating because it seemed like such an awesome city and I really can't do it justice since we effectively only had 3hrs max to do our own thing and explore. 

We tried to get into the iconic rock church, but it was closed to the public for a funeral. I suggested that we could all buy flowers and sob quietly at the back,but no dice. 

What the rock church would have looked like, if we've been allowed in. Photo credit:  http://planbox.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/interior-rock-church-temppeliaukio-kirkko.jpg
The church is actually built into the rock face (duh, you say), but what is supercool is that the architects originally wanted to leave the rockface natural, but were afraid that the board who needed to approve the design wouldn't like it, so they lied on the application and said they were going to render the walls. When the building was almost complete, the choirmaster/conductor came into the building and upon hearing the acoustics, insisted that the walls be left untouched. 

After a bit of a stroll around the city, we decided the rest of the afternoon was not, indeed, lost, and caught a ferry over to Suomenlinna Fortress instead. 

On the ferry

The fortress was built from the 1700s onwards on a group of islands just off the Helsinki coastline. It's been listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO due to its architecture. Because the Scandinavians hate to see any old fortresses go to waste, Suomenlinna is still used today. The naval training academy is based there, and there is a thriving residential community that lives on one of the islands. 

Anchor

Again, due to the lack of time, we couldn't really appreciate the fortress for its history. We only saw two of the islands, and those, only briefly. What I did notice however, was how remarkably open it all was. We were able to go right inside the fortress walls, and into what I assume to be gunners trenches without having a guide or anything with us. I assume we were able to because no one appeared to yell at us or anything. 

Again, if no-one yells, it's ok, right?

After we missed our ferry back and had an unexpected extra hour to wander around, it was time for dinner. We had our hopes pinned on going to a traditional Finnish restaurant, but unfortunately by the time we got back to the mainland they had closed, so we settled for a restaurant that had been voted as having the best mexican food since 2006. It was possibly the best nachos I've ever eaten. Although, to be fair, I had been having massive nachos cravings all the way through Norway back again, with no say of satisfying them since the Norwegians don't believe in interesting food. 

Norwegian supermarkets are definitely an experience. I think they must have really strict trade restrictions or something, because there are hardly any foreign brands in their shops. And as for "exotic" foods. Nuh-uh. We asked for some falafel mix for the vegetarians in the tour group, and the shop assistant looked as us like we'd just asked for frogs testicles or something. No noodles. No stir fry stuff. No souvlaki mixs. We did flip out with excitement somewhere because they had taco mix. 

After that, we moseyed back to our hostel with a bit of a stop at the cathedral which was positively spooky at 11pm at night.

The President's Palace - this looks right out onto the harbour, and it's kinda amazing how close you can get. 

For Fruitloop - the snap peas are huge! Easily the width of a thumb. 

Where we wanted to eat dinner...

'sif you wouldn't sit on the seals. 

'sif you wouldn't ride the turtles...

They're pretty obsessed with tea-lights over here. Seriously, they are everywhere. No matter how light/dark it is. 

Helsinki by night. 

It was meant to be a bit more like I was riding the bike... but I think I'm a bit too tall to pull it off properly. 

Beautiful moon

Creepy Cathedral

The carpet in our hostel. 

Me + Olympic Stadium

More bee surveillance

At the Sibelius momument

Sibelius Monument

Sibelius his such a babe. 

We found an english-language book store. They had a snake. This is the sign on his tank.
No idle chit-chat. The snake is an intellectual. 

 

So the stairs going down from the cathedral (pictured above) are locally called the "edge of the world" or something like that because you can't see them until you get within 1m from the edge. 

My face at the end of a canon barrel

More pretty Helsinki moon