29/9/09 - Helsinki

Today Tuomo took me to see Helsinki and the island Suomenlinna. Finding out price of publ ic transport is akin to a swift kick in the groin. A painful initial shock followed by a lingering sense of unease. Back home I could get around all day for the price of a one way bus ticket to Helsinki. I'm glad Tuomo has a car for the rest of the week. In contrast the food prices seem very reasonable. I got a full meal from a chinese that I couldn't manage to finish for the same price as the bus fare.

Anyway...

Helsinki itself is a nice place with a large number of beautiful buildings, the Cathedral shown being one of the most noteworthy. The weather was clear all morning so I managed to take a lot of photographs which I might put up later.

After showing me around some of the city we headed to the harbour to catch a ferry over to Suomenlinna. The island is a UNESCO world heritage site and I could see why as it had yet more beautiful buildings and scenery. More importantly, however, it has a statue of a lion stabbing its own head.

And yes, that did justify a large, centred photograph. It even looks in pain.

Once we had finished exploring the island we headed back to the city to meet Antti, but seeing as we were early Tuomo showed me some of his favourite shops. There we several cool ones, including the geekiest shop of all time (think games workshop combined with Forbidden Planet and a shop that sells gratuitous amounts of board games), but the small pick and mix shop was the best. It was glorious, on all the walls nearly to the ceiling there was tub after tub of sweets. I would have taken a photo but I was preoccupied. Perhaps if I go again...

In the evening we went over to Anni's parents house. In Finland the idea of a villiages comes across very differently than in Britain. The houses are very spread out and surrounded by forrests. It is a lot more isolated but a lot more peaceful.

Back at Tuomo's place I experienced my first proper sauna. I don't think my body has every experienced 95 degrees celcius before. I think Tuomo was enjoying himself. He explained that there were two ways to add water to the stove. Slowly pouring the water over causing a slow build up of heat, or dumping it all on at once. "Nothing hap...OH SWEET JESUS MY EYES!!!" We really should have these in Scottish homes.