Helsinki – A Traveling Fool

The country we now know as Finland has been inhabited since the end of the last Ice Age, which was about 9000 BC. The 12^th and 13^th centuries saw a lot of crusades by the Danes, Swedes and Norwegians to the various “pagan” tribes that lived in Finland. Ultimately it was the Swedes that conquered and colonized the region. Finland became part of Sweden. In the 18^th century, due to wars between Sweden and Russia (with Finland lying between them), Finland ended up as part of Russia. They didn’t become independent until during World War I.

The northernmost province of Finland is called Lapland. Most of the population there consists of the Sami People, who inhabit large areas of northern Norway, Sweden and a Russian peninsula as well. In addition to fur trading, coastal fishing, and sheep herding, a major profession of the Sami is reindeer herding (which is legally reserved exclusively for them in most regions of the four countries they inhabit).

Helsinki was founded by King Gustav I of Sweden as a trading town in 1550. During the plague of 1710, the vast majority of the population died. It wasn’t until Finland became part of the Russian Empire and Helsinki was made the capitol of Finland, that the city began to thrive again.

After driving past the harbor, our first stop was at the Olympic Stadium from the 1952 Summer Olympics. Next, we visited the Sibelius Memorial. Jean Sibelius was a composer most famous for his seven symphonies and a piece titled “Finlandia”. I thought his memorial was very pretty. The wind also blew through the pipes of the memorial and so created some lovely music of its own.

Temple Church was chiseled out of stone and is partially underground. Someone was playing the organ when we arrived and the place was filled with music.

Senate Square included the Finnish Parliament, the President’s Residence, Helsinki Cathedral, and a statue of Alexander II. He was the Russian Czar who was blown to bits in St Petersburg. We had our group photo taken in front of the statue (I’m just behind the lady in the red jacket on the front row). During our free time, Heike had other plans, so Debbie and I toured the interior of the Lutheran Cathedral.

We also joined up with a British couple, Linda and Nigel, and took a harbor tour by boat. Every house we saw had a sauna house down by the water. Some of the saunas were small and simple; others were quite elaborate. The photo I included here, is of a middle class sauna.

There were several tall-masted schooners in the harbor. One had a pirate theme and was apparently being used as a party vessel. I caught a pretty decent photo of Uspenski Cathedral, which is a Cathedral of the Orthodox Church of Finland, from the tour boat.

Back at the harbor, Debbie and I had reindeer sausages. Mine is on the right with lingonberries, ketchup, mustard and onions.

We rejoined the rest of the group at 3:45pm to board the overnight ferry to Stockholm. After leaving the port, Heike and I explored the ship and had a pint in the pub. Debbie was my roommate for the ferry. Heike was rooming with two women. The cabins were really tiny.

Debbie, Heike and I had dinner together at the 8pm buffet. Although the other two made an occasional venture to some of the other areas, after getting some shrimp salad in the Salad Market, I pretty much stayed in the Seafood Market, dining on salmon mousse, caviar (two kinds), smoked salmon, and herring. I did get some chocolate mousse for dessert in the Dessert Market. They had all the wine you could drink too.

The weather began to act up as we were having dinner and the crossing ended up being pretty darn rough. Andrej said it was the worst of the 35 times he has done it. The seas were choppy with lots of wind and rain. We were tossed around in our beds during the night, making it somewhat difficult to sleep.

Maybe it was the seafood, but Debbie, Heike and I seemed to be among the few who weren’t seasick the next morning at breakfast. After breakfast, Andrej had us all meet him in a special spot with our cases and he led us to where we were the first people to get off the ship. We thought that was a pretty good perk.

Next time – Stockholm, Sweden.