I read on the 'sleeping in airports' site that Helsinki Airport was a good airport to sleep in. We saw a bunch of people in Athens airport with sleeping bags and such, but here at Helsinki, you don't even need a sleeping bag. The seats are perfect for sleeping on -- well-cushioned and no armrests or gaps between connecting seats. Not only that, but they turn out the lights in the check-in area, so there's little ambient light to disturb your quality of sleep (and no middle-of-the-night announcements either). By the time we arrived (nearly 2am), the check-in area was pretty much full, but I did manage to find probably the last set of three connecting seats. Using K's fluffy jacket as a pillow and bundled up in my own jacket, I slept for a few hours until the lights turned on and the airport 'woke up'. Our check-in counter was still unmanned, so I joined K at the cafe.
Helsinki to a connection in Dusseldorf to Zurich. Air Berlin served drinks and a sandwich on both legs of the flight ^-^ Everything balances out... our suitcase was the 2nd one of the shoot at Zurich at the start of our trip months ago; this time, it was the 2nd to *last* one out of the shoot ^-^''
Rather than playing the standard "ding" to indicate a stop has been reached, the shuttle line that runs between the different terminals in the Zurich airport plays "mooo". Also, you can "watch" the various Swiss mountains "passing by" as you look out the shuttle "windows" ^-^
Our apartment is a 6-bed, 3-bath, much further out of the center this time. K's commute is going to be half an hour or so on the tram. The nearest grocery that I could find is a few tram stops away and it closes at 7pm. By the time we got to the apartment, ate a late lunch, and settled in, I was tired again. K napped and I fell in right after him, not waking up until after 7pm. Remembering the Migros in the train station was open during a holiday day last time when all the other groceries were closed, and knowing that shops in train stations don't have to follow the 'shops must close by 8pm' law, I took the tram all the way to the train station. Migros is open until 9pm ^-^
Showing posts with label Finland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Finland. Show all posts
Day 89: Helsinki, Tallinn day-trip
We chose an early 7:30am departure for the boat to Tallinn, which meant leaving our hostel in time to catch the 6:26am bus. I basically ended up sleeping almost the whole two hours at sea.
I didn't really know much about Estonia until planning the trip. My knowledge of geography and world events is quite poor, but I'm happy it's perhaps slowly improving as we travel. Estonia, Latvia, & Lithuania sit on the Baltic Sea. Estonia was ruled by the Danes, then the Swedes, then the Russians, then gained independence after WWI, only to be back under Russian power after WWII, finally gaining independence again after the USSR fell. Like many other countries under Soviet rule, the country didn't move much during those 40-50 years. Visiting Tallinn, you'd hardly know it. Some parts of it (the worn down buildings) reminded me of Bratislava. The old town is well-preserved and I think now being a UNESCO World Heritage site probably means they can't change it much. It was strange to see sometimes worn down buildings right across the street from seemingly newly-painted ones.
RS walk through the old town ^-^ We saw many tour groups during more than half the walk. In that way, it reminded me of Prague's old town center, except we only saw one Asian tour group. Considering these groups are probably doing a day trip just like us, it'd be interesting to see what the area's like at night, once all the day-tripping tourists leave. I'd imagine we'd like it ^-^ But, we didn't stay overnight.
The whole medieval theme is played up a bit. All the people selling drinks on the street are dressed in plain medieval garb, selling their drinks out of a barrel filled with ice. There's roasted, spiced almonds all over town with free tastings (a bit like what ginger snaps mixed with almonds would probably taste like), and these almond merchants are also dressed in medieval garb.
I loved this one exchange we overheard -- When asked how much the almonds cost, the merchant replied "We got a discount on today's batch, so it'll be two and a half rabbit skins. But if you don't have rabbit skins, gold coins will also do", as he pointed to the sign saying how many krooni.
We wandered out of the old town a bit, into the Balti Jaam Market behind the train station. It reminded me a bit of the Albert Cuyp market in Amsterdam; not only were there produce merchants, but also merchants selling clothes and household goods like soap, shampoo, etc. We saw a little eatery where we combined the 'what do you recommend' with point at someone else's dish technique to get a yummy meal ^-^ Large bowl of sausage and vege soup, chicken main dish, hearty meat dumplings, and pancakes came out to 98 krooni (~6 euros!). We also visited a bakery with possibly the lowest prices we've seen in all the bakeries during this trip.
Actually, the place we ate at was signed "kohvik", and according to RS, "Just outside the market at the end of the train station is Kohvik, an unimpressive-looking diner with a bustling stainless steel kitchen cranking out traditional dishes...", but we saw several kohviks. Apparently "kohvik" means "cafe" in Estonian O_o
On the boat back, I visited the 'supermarket' on the boat, which turned out to be similar to half of the duty-free shop on our Stockholm-Helsinki boat -- lots of alcohol and candy, and a few other snacks and drinks. The checkout lines were quite long.
Kids on slot machines? Whatever keeps them out of trouble, I guess.
When we got back to Helsinki, it was interesting to see all the people departing the boat with several Costco-sized boxes of beer and other drinks. Maybe the day-trip boat provides a bit of Costco substitute here?
And so, we're nearly at the end. We're flying back to Zurich on a 6:30am flight. There's still a few day-trips and a last couple of days in Ireland before we head back to the States. In one way, it seemed like it just flew by so fast. In another way, when I think about each place and all the memories, it feels like we've been traveling for a long, long time. Thinking about the end brings a touch of sadness.
I didn't really know much about Estonia until planning the trip. My knowledge of geography and world events is quite poor, but I'm happy it's perhaps slowly improving as we travel. Estonia, Latvia, & Lithuania sit on the Baltic Sea. Estonia was ruled by the Danes, then the Swedes, then the Russians, then gained independence after WWI, only to be back under Russian power after WWII, finally gaining independence again after the USSR fell. Like many other countries under Soviet rule, the country didn't move much during those 40-50 years. Visiting Tallinn, you'd hardly know it. Some parts of it (the worn down buildings) reminded me of Bratislava. The old town is well-preserved and I think now being a UNESCO World Heritage site probably means they can't change it much. It was strange to see sometimes worn down buildings right across the street from seemingly newly-painted ones.
RS walk through the old town ^-^ We saw many tour groups during more than half the walk. In that way, it reminded me of Prague's old town center, except we only saw one Asian tour group. Considering these groups are probably doing a day trip just like us, it'd be interesting to see what the area's like at night, once all the day-tripping tourists leave. I'd imagine we'd like it ^-^ But, we didn't stay overnight.
The whole medieval theme is played up a bit. All the people selling drinks on the street are dressed in plain medieval garb, selling their drinks out of a barrel filled with ice. There's roasted, spiced almonds all over town with free tastings (a bit like what ginger snaps mixed with almonds would probably taste like), and these almond merchants are also dressed in medieval garb.
I loved this one exchange we overheard -- When asked how much the almonds cost, the merchant replied "We got a discount on today's batch, so it'll be two and a half rabbit skins. But if you don't have rabbit skins, gold coins will also do", as he pointed to the sign saying how many krooni.
We wandered out of the old town a bit, into the Balti Jaam Market behind the train station. It reminded me a bit of the Albert Cuyp market in Amsterdam; not only were there produce merchants, but also merchants selling clothes and household goods like soap, shampoo, etc. We saw a little eatery where we combined the 'what do you recommend' with point at someone else's dish technique to get a yummy meal ^-^ Large bowl of sausage and vege soup, chicken main dish, hearty meat dumplings, and pancakes came out to 98 krooni (~6 euros!). We also visited a bakery with possibly the lowest prices we've seen in all the bakeries during this trip. Actually, the place we ate at was signed "kohvik", and according to RS, "Just outside the market at the end of the train station is Kohvik, an unimpressive-looking diner with a bustling stainless steel kitchen cranking out traditional dishes...", but we saw several kohviks. Apparently "kohvik" means "cafe" in Estonian O_o
On the boat back, I visited the 'supermarket' on the boat, which turned out to be similar to half of the duty-free shop on our Stockholm-Helsinki boat -- lots of alcohol and candy, and a few other snacks and drinks. The checkout lines were quite long.
Kids on slot machines? Whatever keeps them out of trouble, I guess.
When we got back to Helsinki, it was interesting to see all the people departing the boat with several Costco-sized boxes of beer and other drinks. Maybe the day-trip boat provides a bit of Costco substitute here?
And so, we're nearly at the end. We're flying back to Zurich on a 6:30am flight. There's still a few day-trips and a last couple of days in Ireland before we head back to the States. In one way, it seemed like it just flew by so fast. In another way, when I think about each place and all the memories, it feels like we've been traveling for a long, long time. Thinking about the end brings a touch of sadness.
Day 88: Helsinki
The day's sightseeing summary:
- market
- Uspenski Cathedral
- RS walk
- Lutheran Church
- Temppeliaukio Church
The boat gave us a good night's sleep; I just wished I'd gone to sleep earlier! We finally left the boat at 10:30am and headed directly to the TI. After getting info, booking our boat for the day-trip to Tallinn tomorrow, and putting our things down in the hostel, we headed out first to the market. It was after noon and I'd read the food merchants close up shop around 2pm.
It's the first time we've ever seen fruit sold by the liter! The produce that couldn't be sold by the liter (many veges) were sold by the kilo. The liter bit made my comparisons a bit tough actually -- is that how many cherries x-euros should buy me?
The tents are color-coded, orange for food and white for crafts and other things. Maybe the best part of the market (aside from having decent-quality produce) was all the hot food being sold.
We got a yummy half-jam, half-choco covered Liege waffle ^-^
And then, we got a mixed grill plate of different fish with veges. Yummy! The hot food stands actually had covered tables -- good thing, too, because there were a bunch of seagulls flying overhead. We even saw an aggressive seagull grab a fried small fish out of someone's hand! And the lady who handed us our dish covered it with a napkin, saying 'be careful of the birds'.
We didn't plan on visiting the Lutheran Church, but passing by was part of our walk, and after reading that the interior was 'pure architectural truth', we went in. Austere interior. K says he preferred it to all the ornateness we see in many other churches.
When we came out of the church, it had started to rain, and then rain even more. We stopped by Stockmann's department store, the Finns answer to Harrods. But Stockmann's grocery section seemed to have much more reasonable prices than what I remembered seeing at Harrods. The grocery was huge with lots of choices! In the produce section, we saw an orange tomato for the first time and bought one to try.
Coming out of Stockmann's, we realized it was already 4:30pm and the Temppeliaukio Church closes at 5pm! We rushed to find a tram stop to take us there. And then getting of the tram, we dashed through the rain to reach the church before it closed, running this way and that to find the entrance. We were in luck though. Apparently this day, a small children's choir was having a rehearsal, so the church was kept open past 5pm ^-^ The inside of the church is unique -- it was blasted out of rock and has a *huge* copper dome. We also got to hear the choir's rehearsal for a while as we walked around. I'm not religious or anything, but I like church music. Maybe not just that, I think I like choral music. The harmony of voices coming together is... well, something.
Our hostel is actually a dorm of the School of Economics which becomes a hostel during the summer months. K joked that "we've resorted to living in actual dorms!" But really, the room is much nicer than our Next House rooms -- larger, en-suite bathrooms, decent-size fridge, and in-room mini-kitchen with stoves, oven, and sink.
There are some cities that I get a good feeling from pretty quickly, and despite the rain, Helsinki is one. I can't place my finger on why it is though and we're only really here for a day, so I'm not sure how it would be if we were to stay longer, but for now, I like it.
- market
- Uspenski Cathedral
- RS walk
- Lutheran Church
- Temppeliaukio Church
The boat gave us a good night's sleep; I just wished I'd gone to sleep earlier! We finally left the boat at 10:30am and headed directly to the TI. After getting info, booking our boat for the day-trip to Tallinn tomorrow, and putting our things down in the hostel, we headed out first to the market. It was after noon and I'd read the food merchants close up shop around 2pm.
It's the first time we've ever seen fruit sold by the liter! The produce that couldn't be sold by the liter (many veges) were sold by the kilo. The liter bit made my comparisons a bit tough actually -- is that how many cherries x-euros should buy me?
The tents are color-coded, orange for food and white for crafts and other things. Maybe the best part of the market (aside from having decent-quality produce) was all the hot food being sold.
We got a yummy half-jam, half-choco covered Liege waffle ^-^
And then, we got a mixed grill plate of different fish with veges. Yummy! The hot food stands actually had covered tables -- good thing, too, because there were a bunch of seagulls flying overhead. We even saw an aggressive seagull grab a fried small fish out of someone's hand! And the lady who handed us our dish covered it with a napkin, saying 'be careful of the birds'. We didn't plan on visiting the Lutheran Church, but passing by was part of our walk, and after reading that the interior was 'pure architectural truth', we went in. Austere interior. K says he preferred it to all the ornateness we see in many other churches.
When we came out of the church, it had started to rain, and then rain even more. We stopped by Stockmann's department store, the Finns answer to Harrods. But Stockmann's grocery section seemed to have much more reasonable prices than what I remembered seeing at Harrods. The grocery was huge with lots of choices! In the produce section, we saw an orange tomato for the first time and bought one to try.
Coming out of Stockmann's, we realized it was already 4:30pm and the Temppeliaukio Church closes at 5pm! We rushed to find a tram stop to take us there. And then getting of the tram, we dashed through the rain to reach the church before it closed, running this way and that to find the entrance. We were in luck though. Apparently this day, a small children's choir was having a rehearsal, so the church was kept open past 5pm ^-^ The inside of the church is unique -- it was blasted out of rock and has a *huge* copper dome. We also got to hear the choir's rehearsal for a while as we walked around. I'm not religious or anything, but I like church music. Maybe not just that, I think I like choral music. The harmony of voices coming together is... well, something.
Our hostel is actually a dorm of the School of Economics which becomes a hostel during the summer months. K joked that "we've resorted to living in actual dorms!" But really, the room is much nicer than our Next House rooms -- larger, en-suite bathrooms, decent-size fridge, and in-room mini-kitchen with stoves, oven, and sink.
There are some cities that I get a good feeling from pretty quickly, and despite the rain, Helsinki is one. I can't place my finger on why it is though and we're only really here for a day, so I'm not sure how it would be if we were to stay longer, but for now, I like it.