Flying into Helsinki, it was still pitch black and I couldn’t see any sign of life. The landing gear was down but no lights, nothing until just before we landed and I can finally see a few houses and snow on the tress and I was a little excited. The airport is 30 mins from the city so I decided to take the airport shuttle bus and I scavenged the front seat to get the best view and was nearly bouncing up and down with excitement at all the snow. I kept wanting to stop the driver for photo stops. The bus stopped at the main bus and railway station and i didn’t have a very good map so had no idea where the hotel was in relation to the station, so along with about 50 other people I joined the queue for the taxis. Snow loses its excitement factor when you have to stand in it for 45 mins waiting for a taxi. But I finally got my taxi, piled my stuff in and told the driver the name of the hotel, he repeated it back to me and I’m like, yep that’s the one and he tells me it’s a 100 metres up the road….doh!!!
Price for 30mins bus ride to city €6.20, price for 2 min taxi ride €6.70….go figure!!! and it was at least 300 metres up the road.
Thankfully the hotel had a room ready so I was able to have a shower after 24 hours in transit and drag out the rest of the warm clothes that I hadn’t been able to find at the airport. Feeling a tad like the Michelin man I hit the streets and it was nowhere near as bad as I expected. The only bits that were cold was my thighs and the lower half of my face, the rest of me was quite toasty. My jacket with the fur trimmed hood fitted in very nicely except the fur was frosting over. As besides, there’s the novelty factor of walking round while it’s snowing. It’s fun. Who ever thought they’d hear me talk about enjoying the cold. The only problem I have is that I can’t orientate myself and the street names are totally unpronounceable….why stop at street names….everything is unpronounceable…every other word has a multitude of vowels in it that just don’t belong and multiple dots (I think they’re called umlauts or something like that) over multiple letters so I’ve absolutely no idea how to start saying it. The other fun thing about meandering the streets when it’s been snowing a lot is working out where the footpath ends and the road begins because you can’t see any road markings. There were several occasions where I trod in fresh snow and forgot that there’s nothing under the snow (so to speak) and end up ankle deep in the stuff. I eventually found the Temppleliaukio Church (see, try saying that….yes I can get the temple bit at the front but that’s about it). Commonly referred to as the Rock Church because it was quarried out natural bedrock, with unfinished granite walls and a rolled copper domed roof, it was beautiful, very special.
I was intending to wander further and see a few more things on the tourist trail but the snow was getting much heavier and decided to give it a miss. Will have to try and see a bit more tomorrow morning before heading back to the airport. I wanted to get to the zoo and see the snow leopards and also to Suomenlinna (island sea fortress) but it hasn’t been feasible. I’ll just have to comeback some other time.
One of things I love doing in foreign countries is checking out the supermarket. Veggies are generally veggies but there’s alway a few really bizarre looking things, that I have no idea about. Like the thing in amongst the cabbages (so I’m assuming it’s from that family) but is bright green and has bits sticking up all over it….reminded me of Christmas Tree Worms, any divers will know what they are and the rest of you can google it because it’s not as disgusting as it sounds. But cheese, man I thought we had lots of cheese but the cheese aisle just kept going and going, along with the huge variety of breads (very annoying that I can’t work out sort they are) and the massive selection of package deli meats. It’s always intriguing to to wander the aisles.
The funny thing I’ve found today is that I’m not automatically recognisable as a tourist. In South American and Nepal, it’s obvious I’m a tourist and people speak in English first, here I’m just another white face and people speak to me in Finnish first.
Anyway folks, I’m sure that’s enough ramblings for one day……get used to it, unless I find other English speakers to talk, I’m going to ramble to someone!!!! 🙂
Hugs Lindy x