I should start by admitting that Helsinki and Reykjavik were not part of the original plan. We were going take the train from St. Petersburg to Paris and fly home Westjet on one of their shiny new 737 Max flights. Boeing blew the guts out of our cunning plan when their airplanes started nose-diving into the ground, our flight was cancelled, and all of the flights out of Europe tripled in price because there weren't enough airplanes. After much thrashing around we finally decided that since it was going to cost $1000+ per ticket to get home we might as well add a few countries and take the scenic route. So we're taking a high-speed train from St. Petersburg to Helsinki and staying a few days, then flying onwards to Iceland for a few days and from there home via Edmonton.
This is a real train. It's big and bright and roomy and spacious and it goes like 300 kph and it's quiet and the food is indifferent and wine is $14 for a small glass. OK, you can't have everything, right? But they do have beer.
(pics)
There's a stop at the Finnish border, but no one has to get out of the train and the border guards are polite and efficient and it only takes a few minutes and we're on our way again. We are now in the European Union.
Finland reminds me of Canada. It's boreal forest and lakes. I'm sure there must be something else somewhere, but I didn't see it. It's all clean and well-kept (not the forest-and-lake-things, the people-things), there's no abandoned buildings or rusted-out hulks of failed industry or unpainted houses with sagging board fences that could be part of the Russian coat of arms.
Helsinki is a bright, modern city with lots of historic buildings (but not too historic, the whole place is less than 200 years old; another similarity to Canada), and it's situated on a complex of bays with dozen of islands. Very nice place! We get out of the train station, go straight into the subway, debouch a few minutes later at our stop, and it's a 3-4 block walk to a spacious and cozy apartment that costs a lot more than anything in Russia, but this ain't Russia. Prices just tripled. This, by the way, is the only time that the subway treated us gently. It works great, but the entrances and exits are indecipherable and the whole thing is on multiple levels and we honestly never knew where we were going to be when we emerged from the bowels of the Helsinki Underworld. We're still not sure if the women's washroom actually exists or if it's a cruel joke based on signs that lead you in a tortuous multi-level circle whilst your bladder threatens to explode. But that's life. Every trip was an adventure! Mass transit is the only way to go in this city as they have a ton of it; buses, trolleys, subways.
(pics of people sunning themselves)
Downtown Helsinki is quite compact, and is focused around Senate Square, Market Square, the Esplanade, and the Harbor. We're starting our first morning with a short subway ride and 5-minute walk down to Senate Square, where there is a Hop On Bus! We only have one full day to explore the city, so a bus tour and a boat tour will start off the day and then we'll decide where to go from there.
(pics from the bus tour)
Once we get off the bus on the Esplanade we stroll down to the Harbor to check out our tour boat, and it turns out we have time for lunch on the wharf. The harbor-side has a 300-meter-long open-air 'food fair' that also sells shiny things, and the food theme for the day appears to be the 300 ways you can prepare small fish without actually, like, cooking them.
(food fair)
Then it's off on the boat tour. Once you get out on the water it's really apparent how the Baltic Sea dominates this city. It's a bewildering array of bays, channels, islands, harbors, etc.
(pics of bewildering array)
Did I mention the Ferris Wheel? Debbi hasn't missed one all the way across Russia, and she isn't about to miss this one. It's called the Sky Wheel, which I thought was rather pretentious for something that maybe goes 200' in the air, but there you go. It is a very nice Ferris Wheel, and gives you a great view of the harbor and the city center!
Deb heard a rumor that there was an open-air market a couple of kilometers away, so it was time to figure out the trolley and bus system to get there, which basically meant a number of significant walks because we never did figure out the trolley and bus system. But they were very nice walks! And we got to the open-air market, which indeed did exist, just in time to watch them closing everything up. But it was a slice, and then we got to figure out how to get home...
Next morning after a leisurely breakfast we caught a cab to the airport which was much more of an adventure than we expected. The whole place is in a permanent state of construction like most western airports, there are two terminals within 300 meters of each other, it's a 5-kilometer drive to get from one to the other, and the cab driver always picks the wrong one. In this case twice. He took us to the right one, changed his mind, and then took us to the wrong one and went his merry way! I can only assume that this is the Finn's friendly way of saying "we don't want you to leave!" (I think the guy that designed their subway must have designed the airport too :|)
We had intended it as an opportunity to Get Off The Train but also as a chance to see a 'real' Russian city, and we were pleasantly surprised to find a very nice city with the buildings along the main streets refurbished, broad sidewalks, and lots of restaurants, amenities, and things to see and do.
