Halcyon Helsinki

Back at the beginning of the pandemic, I had to cancel a trip to the Baltics that I’d had booked. I’d planned to resume that trip these holidays, but I was lucky enough to win a scholarship to attend a summer school and conference in Europe this month, so I cancelled the Baltics again… but kept the first leg, which was Helsinki.

I set off on a Qantas ticket PER-SIN-HEL, with the second leg on Finnair. I haven’t travelled much with Qantas, and they were fine – the flight was delayed but made up most of the time, and was very full. The lunch was tasty – the GF option was beef curry. I started the flight without any IFE, but the cabin crew found me an ipad from somewhere.

The Finnair flight I’d upgraded to premium economy, which was definitely worth it. More legroom, width and more recline (but not lie-flat like in Biz). We had a few unhappy small people on the flight, so I dozed for a bit but didn’t really sleep. Watched a couple of movies and read a book to while away the time. The dinner was quite nice – GF was a curry again, but breakfast for some reason was bland steamed chicken breast rather than the omelette everyone else was having. I knew I’d be able to have brekky when I got to the hotel, so I left it.

Passport control at Helsinki included a discussion with the agent about how happy I was that Finland still gave passport stamps, and where I was heading this trip. I then headed off to collect my bag and find the train. The train station is in the depths of the airport – literally, the escalators drew down at least 10 floors before my fear of heights stopped me counting! The train was easy to manage – pick up a ticket at the station, hop on to the first train that arrived. The trains were pretty quiet and I got a seat all the way, then followed the crowd out of the huge deco/brutalist style train station to find the tram. Yay for google maps!

Hotel Indigo is walking distance from the esplanade and harbour areas and it’s very comfy. Being Finland there’s even a sauna in the basement for guests to use, although I didn’t organise myself enough to take advantage of it. The staff have been very pleasant and helpful, and the curtains are heavy enough to block out most of the light during the non-existent night (I’m writing this at 11.30pm and it’s not even twilight yet!)

After availing myself of brekky (there’s a dedicated GF corner of the buffet, and delicious things like beetroot fritters and berry compote) I napped for a few hours to catch up, then headed out to explore the city. I got lost pretty quickly, turning one street before the one I meant to, and keeping going because it was a pleasant walk. It was easy enough to recalibrate though, and I found the National Library building and the Helsinki Cathedral, before wandering down to the Market Square on the waterfront.

Every day there are stalls of fruit and veg, cooked food and souvenirs laid out on the wharf, mostly for tourists now rather than the original city marketplace.

I’d booked a boat tour this afternoon too, which headed out to the archipelago to explore some of the islands around the city. I tried the “long drink” – gin and grapefruit soda. Apparently it was invented for the 1952 Olympics – a good invention and I give it two thumbs up!

Once I’d returned, I walked back to the hotel and decided to have dinner there. There was a “Finnish tapas” on the menu which included reindeer meat, local cheese and the local whitefish. I ordered a non-alcoholic cider to go with it and sat in front of the street window of the dining room, watching people walk their dogs and wander in the evening light.

My second day I’d booked a tasting tour with Heather’s Helsinki. Heather is an Aussie ex-pat who’s been in Helsinki for 20 years or so, and absolutely loves taking tourists and others around to show them food and history. We stopped at multiple cafes, a supermarket, Stockmann Department Store, Alco the single alcohol company, the Market Hall and the Market Square, as well as a ceramic design shop. We tried liquorice, rice pies, salmon soup, chocolates, berry jams, smoked fish, and cakes. Yum!

I’d planned to head to the zoo island next, so I worked out which bus I needed and wandered the train station bus links to find the right one. The zoo is on a rocky island so it was quite warm even in the later afternoon (it closes at 8pm in summer). It’s a lovely walk around, although given the weather some of the animals I’d been looking forward to seeing (cloud leopard!) were having naps hidden in their enclosures. The Red Panda was having a good wander around though, and the wildcat and lions were happy to watch the visitors from a suitably superior position.

Instead of the bus, I took the ferry back to Market Square and walked back to the hotel, stopping to have more of a browse through Stockmann. I had a deeper browse through the supermarket in the basement, locating some non-alcoholic Long Drink (yum!) and frozen gluten free rice pies (double yum!) that I took back to the hotel for a late dinner. The staff very kindly microwaved my rice pies for me and I can totally see what the fuss is about — savoury carb overload.

The next morning I waved goodbye to Helsinki, catching the tram and train back to the airport to catch my flight to Frankfurt. I really enjoyed Helsinki and I’ll definitely be back. The city is beautiful, well laid out and the people are welcoming of tourists and kindly understanding of my lack of Finnish language.