Setting the scene
The conclusion of my EU trip was Finland. Having been in Tallin previously (you can read the post here), I made my way onto the Ferry into Helsinki. Way back in my university days when I had a full head of hair & weighed about 30KGs less, I visited Lahti. There was supposed to be a weekend trip out to Helsinki, but I’d overindulged in the Salmiakki shots & missed the tour bus. Ever since, I have aspired to visit Helsinki & by chance I met 2 awesome Finnish people in Alicante in February. I was able to practice some of my Finnish speaking with them, which subsequently got me excited to visit, so I booked it up & hit the road. This article will cover places to eat & drink, getting around, money & where to visit. Alongside a customary tale or two, including a calamitous attempt at charming over a local in a karaoke bar!
About Helsinki…
Helsinki is an interesting city with a unique history. Originally founded by Sweden’s King Gustav in 1550, it was supposed to serve as competition to the sea trading dominance of Reval (Modern Day Estonia). However, for the first 100-150 years it struggled, so was relocated to it’s current location in 1640. Then from 1748 to around the 1770’s the Soumenlinna fortress was built to defend Helsinki against Russian expansion.
In the early 1800’s in the Finnish war, the Russians took over, with Finland becoming an autonomous region in the empire. Towards the latter decades of the 1800’s Finland went through rapid growth in industrialisation etc. By 1917 Finland became independent from Russia but ended up in a civil war by 1918. During 1939-1944, Finland was attacked by Russia again, but the country wasn’t flattened due to effective air defences. In the 1950’s they hosted the summer Olympics (which is something of an oxymoron considering how cold it can be there). Since then they have been growing rapidly in terms of culture, politics & business. I owe a large part of my childhood to the Fins, they gave us the bulletproof Nokia phones & I spent many a nights playing snake on my 3310. I was still using my Nokia when my friends were onto their first, second & third I-phones 😂.
Some photos of the trip… 🤳🏼
Story time 📚
The backdrop to this story, as you can imagine, is a bar with cheap (well cheap for Helsinki) beers. It was an epic little karaoke bar, which only had around 15 people inside. There was a group of ladies, I think 7 or 8 of them taking turns at the singing. I love listening to songs in other languages & having no clue what is going on. One of the ladies absolutely smashed the karaoke, she was really cool, cute & quirky. Whenever you ask a married couple how they met, they often have funny & unusual stories, well why couldn’t it be me & the Finnish pop star to be? Rocking up to a group of girls when you only know about 25 words in the language & you are on your own is nerve racking & you also don’t want to look creepy! I am a big believer in that all it takes is 10 seconds of courage & you miss all of the shots you don’t take. In hindsight, It would have been preferable to have sat this one out 😂
The 10 seconds felt like a lifetime! I just went for it, “Moi, mitta kulu?” (That spelling is definitely incorrect but it means hi how are you). Standard intro really, then I didn’t get given my marching orders so moved onto stage 2 of Scottish charm & said “Mina Olet Kaunis”, to which she replied in English “No you are not”. It was like someone had shot a bolt through my heart, it took me a couple of seconds to realise what she meant. I hadn’t practiced my Finnish in a long time, I always get mixed up with mina olet & sina olet (You are/I am). Kaunis means pretty/beautiful. I had tried to say she was beautiful, but accidentally told her I was beautiful. She didn’t see the funny side of the language error on my part 🤭. It was going so well up until that point. Never in my life have I so desperately wanted the ground to swallow me up whole & fade into a perpetual state of obscurity.
There are free walking based tours, of course you should tip if you can, but they run regularly & are well worth joining. However, make sure you join one in your language. I joined one & the guy started talking Spanish, I tried to keep up. However, whilst Duolingo is a useful tool to learn some basic Spanish, It hasn’t equipped me with the skills to follow a tour. I didn’t want to interrupt the guy while he was speaking, so slyly slipped off at the first chance I got. I then googled it & there was an English one running from the same place a couple of hours later. Subsequently, I returned, low & behold it was the same tour guy! He asked me why I bailed & then we had a good chuckle once I explained to him the error of my ways 😂.
Useful tourist site information & costs🧑🏼🎓
Soumenlinna has to be top & centre of your travel itinerary. It is an old sea fortress covering several islands, boasting museums & fortifications you can visit. Aside from this, it has the most stunning scenery & topography for you to walk around. There are a couple of shops, cafes & a small amount of people live there now, so whilst it is remote, please be respectful to the inhabitants when taking photos etc. You get there by boat from the South Harbour, they run very regularly & cost around 3 euros. You can just pay for the ferry at the machine when you get there, don’t let a tour company rip you off. The island itself is free to enter. I would definitely suggest taking a map or a photo of a map, it’s easy to get lost which definitely didn’t happen to me (cough cough).
Other places I would recommend are the Rock Church, Uspenski Cathedral, Helsinki Cathedral, Old market hall & Esplanadi park. You can go swimming at one of the saunas but I didn’t get much free time & they were expensive from what I had seen.
Whilst it isn’t a site you might find on a tourist map, I would strongly recommend Hietaranta Beach to watch the sunset. On my first night I spent a couple of hours there just relaxing & taking in the scenery. It has a very special place in my heart!
Where to eat & drink 🍻🍽️
It’s important to note that food & drinks in Helsinki are expensive compared to some European countries. I thought I would crack the code & get something cheap from the food market in South Harbour. Do not do this, the food was an absolute tragedy & it wasn’t all that much cheaper 😂. If you want to try Finnish dishes I would recommend the Zetor, the food was great but a little pricey. I got a really nice reindeer starter & stew main, with a beer for about 50-60 euros.
For a beer, the best place I found that wasn’t too expensive was Eerikin Kulma in Kamppi district. A local beer was about 5.50 euros, although the locals call it reindeer wee, I quite liked it. They have karaoke in that bar, it is also the scene of my failed love escapade.
A lot of restaurants do lunch buffets at around 15 euros, there are several in Kamppi district. This is a great option if you do not want to break the bank & get a decent meal to set you up for the day. The best one I found while there was Kimchi BBQ Asian Buffet.
Getting about
Helsinki is pretty flat, so easy to walk everywhere. However, they have excellent public transport, the trains, trams & buses go everywhere. They also have Uber & if you want to visit the Suomenlinna fortress you have to take the boat, it operates in pretty much the same way that a bus does, it just goes back & forward on the one route.
Within Helsinki everywhere is in walking distance, the cycle lanes etc are great too, so you could always rent a bike. If arriving by ferry it’s about 30 minute walk to city centre, if arriving by flight you can easily get a train into the centre of Helsinki.
Where to stay 🏨
The hotel I stayed in wasn’t fantastic (which is me being diplomatic) so I am not going to recommend it. However, the area was lovely, easy to get to from the train station or port, with plenty of bars & restaurants. The area is called Kamppi district & there were lots of hotels I spotted that looked good.
What is coming next? 🤔
My next post will be about Croatia, which was one of my favourite solo trips ever. I tried to swim to an island, lost most of my stuff & made a nuisance of myself in a bar by telling everyone a local fighter had won in the UFC match, which he didn’t. It also have me the opportunity to go into Bosnia & visit a couple of places there.
Hit subscribe to get notified when the next post goes live, thanks for reading through & as always, if you have any questions drop me a comment & I will get back to you as soon as possible ❤️
Tyler's Travel Tales 