Helsinki, Finland

Fresh berries at the harbor market in Helsinki

Land of reindeer, lakes and bear paté. Olaf and I visited Finland at the end of September. When we left, London was experiencing a slight Indian Summer, but we said adios and took off for the Arctic Circle, where winter was already arriving. 

Finland is surprisingly far from England- three hours northeast. When we landed in Helsinki, all we saw were trees and lakes. 

Flight from London to Helsinki

On Saturday we explored the city by bike. Helsinki is right on the Baltic Sea, so the air was incredibly fresh and crisp. My thin trench coat was embarrassingly inadequate. Most people were wearing parkas already. 

Olaf getting our bikes ready for us.

This is right before we got lost in the industrial part of the city.

The people in Helsinki were extremely relaxed and friendly. Not a whiff of snobbery. It helped that everyone spoke perfect English. It's funny that English is everyone's common currency. We saw Russians, Germans, Spaniards and Italians all speaking English with the Fins. Really cute :)


Olaf's colleague is from Finland and was kind enough to suggest a few restaurants for us to try. The first one served real, traditional Finnish food. Olaf had reindeer and I had fried fishies. Little, head on, fried in a pan, bigger than sardines, smaller than mackerel, fishies. I closed my eyes and swallowed them them head, tail, skin and all. 

After our chilly bike ride, we warmed up with salmon- salmon filet, salmon soup and salmon cakes.

We thought these apartments by the water were awesome. Each was decked out with a glass enclosed balcony, some of which had hammocks for napping. 

Me getting ready to ascend and count the steps. 48, I think.

We had a really nice time in Helsinki. I enjoyed perusing the shops full of Scandinavian design. Some say Finland is not part of Scandinavia, but the aesthetic sure is (for example, the McDonald's was entirely wood paneled inside). The coolest clothes were of Swedish design, like Tiger of Sweden. I really would like to visit Norway soon, which is where Grandma's family is from.