Navigation: Previous Day | Home | Next Day
Helsinki Day 18 - 29-June

Helsinki
The next morning is time for another round of sightseeing. My breakfast was quite nice, I had a sandwich with cheese (like usual) but this time decorated with tomatoes and cucumber, and they serve fruit salad as well. So with a full stomach I walk around town. The centre is quite compact so I easily reach the same places I have been before. I therefore decide to buy a Helsinki Card at the tourist office for 24 hours, and maybe do a day trip to Tallinn, those are not so expensive and then I would have visited another country as well.

The largest Orthodox Church of western Europe can be found in Finland, inside everything is written in Russian.

Museums & Suomenlinna
My Helsinki card costs 25 Euro and just like in Bergen I am going to try to take advantage of those 25 Euro as soon as possible. I go into the nearest museum, a small place about the history of Helsinki and afterwards I take the ferry (for free) to Suomenlinna. That's a must when visiting Helsinki so I give it a try. Walking towards the ferry I am being filmed by a Japanese TV Crew who is filming everything on the market.

Smile, you are on TV!

Suomenlinna is just a 10 minute ride to an isle a little further from Helsinki. This once used to be Europe's 2nd most defensive fortress after Gibraltar. Suomenlinna means Finnish Castle, and the Swedes call it Sveaborg (Swedish Castle). The original name however is Sveaborg because at the time the fortress was built, Finland was still a part of Sweden and the fortress was designed after Sweden was losing land in wars with Russia. The fortress was a successful way of keeping Russia out of the country. Though Russia managed to conquer Finland anyway. The island is quite peacefully now and I visit 2 museums on the island. One about cannons and the other one about the history of the island. This museum is quite interesting and also shows a familiar name. The boat I slept on in Stockholm was called "Af Chapman". I have wondered what it meant or who it was, and know there is a big painting of that person in the museum. Apparently he restored ship at a large shipyard and later designed a "modern" fleet of war vessels in the time that Suomenlinna was built. Besides a fortress for defense the Swedish army also needed new sea ships because their fleet was quite outdated. In the movie they show about Suomenlinna this is told as well.

Looking down
Back in Helsinki I take tram 3T, this tram drives an 8 round through the city and most of its sights. I leave the tram at the Olympic Stadium. The Olympics were kept in Helsinki in 1952 and the stadium is according to brochures one of the most beautiful in the world. Well I can assure you it is not. But the tower is quite interesting so I take the elevator to the 11th floor (the top of the tower) and have a nice view over the city.

The tower of the olympic stadium.

It's getting a bit late in the meanwhile and I have already had quite some free things to do. My next stop will be a big building nearby the hostel. There is a museum of cultures which I am going to try out, coincidentally the entrance is free anyway. And afterwards I decide to go to the modern art museum as well. I have got nothing with modern art, but if it is for free and just 3 steps next to the place I just left I could give it a chance. It's not very impressing, there are some painting and some beamers show projections of animals and skating people. The text with the skating people indicates that when people get lost they walk in circles automatically to find the way back. Well I got lost quite some times, but I didn't really walk in circles when I did. And although skating people skate in circles I don't really know why these people should be lost.

Back in the Hostel some Australians (they are everywhere) are the first to know the difference between Holland and the Netherlands. In Scandinavia everybody calls it Holland though I am used to saying "The Netherlands". They always end-up asking what the difference is. According to the Australians I am wrong with saying I am from the Netherlands, because the Netherlands includes Belgium and Denmark as well. A very funny answer, but completely wrong of course. The real answer is of course: Holland are basically the 2 provinces, North Holland and South Holland. The Netherlands includes the other 10 provinces as well. Though the 2 words basically have the same meaning now. It's just like Finland isn't actually a part of Scandinavia, and still people consider it to be a part of it (including me). To be technically correct I have been making a trip through the Nordic Countries. but that doesn't sound as funny as Scandinavia.




With the Helsinki card I visit 2 museums for free in this building, the cinema in the same building is a lot more expensive.