To Helsinki

Trip Start Aug 31, 2008

Trip End Oct 05, 2008

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Where I stayed

Scandic Marski Helsinki

(Helsinki hotels)

Flag of Finland Helsinki, Southern Finland, Finland
Monday, September 1, 2008

Finnair flight from Hong Kong to Helsinki - Monday 1st September 2008

Well only a couple of hours into this flight and - as the very polite and apologetic steward just told me "there is good news and bad news".

The bad news is that this time I have the picture for an individual "entertainment unit", but the sound doesn't work. 2 flights in a row! The good news is that Finnair has given me a 20 Euro voucher to spend either on the plane or in Helsinki airport as compensation.

More important though than whether I can watch a movie on the flight, is that we have a lot more space in the seat, we're provided with a bottle of water (David somehow lost the one he'd bought for the Cathay flight to HK) & there is leg room & generally it is just a much more pleasant experience than last night's Cathay Pacific flight.

Ironically I chose the aisle seat for the flight to HK, in case I wanted to get up in the night & go to the toilet while David slept.

Well a) neither of us slept much and b) much of that flight was so bumpy that the seat belt sign was on most of the time & nobody was allowed to get up, even to go to the toilets.

Anyway this flight I opted for the window seat (and drew the short straw with the sound system as it turns out). We're sitting over the wing so there's not much view there, but because I can't watch a movie, I have my screen set to show a downward camera from the plane, showing the hills and rivers etc as we fly over China (and later Mongolia and Russia).

En route Hong Kong to Helsinki

And I guess I have the guidebook on Finland to read before we get there. So I don't actually feel as badly done by as I might have done. But it is disappointing that on 2 out of our flights where there were movies I'd have liked to see, I can't. Never mind. We didn't just travel for the movies.

There are NO spare seats on the flight so no opportunity to move.

David has offered to swap seats later & we might do that. We tried sharing one headset to watch a Tourist presentation about Helsinki, but that wasn't really satisfactory.

More later.

Now - Helsinki - Scandic Marski Hotel
7.40 pm Finland time (2.40 am Sydney time)

I can't believe how much has happened in the last 24 hours (well 31 hours I guess if you add on the time difference). Firstly let me finish describing the rest of the flight.

The voucher I'd been given as compensation for the absence of movies had to be used either on the flight or in Helsinki airport. Not wanting a delay then we decided to find something in the "in flight shopping". I bought an umbrella - folds very small and has pictures of trees & Finnish motifs - and perhaps some kiddy-ish "Finnish cartoon animals". It is intended as an adult umbrella & it will be a souvenir as well as useful. It is very small.

I did swap seats with David long enough to watch the movie "National Treasure", but I thought that as I was getting the umbrella, he should have access to the movies.

Uspenski (Orthodox) Cathedral, Helsinki

So we swapped back after that. David dozed a bit while I was watching my movie, I read a bit & tried to doze much of the rest of the time.

I might have slept a bit - didn't feel like it - but that whole flight was just so much a more pleasant experience.

Oh at one stage the whole plane's movie system failed & was off for a while but then was reset. Mine still didn't work, and after the reset the "downward camera" didn't work any more. Could it be a coincidence that the camera could no longer look down around when we passed from Chinese to Russian air space?

Anyway - the last 4 hours I was getting uncomfortable & a bit restless, but that's not surprising after 24 hours of planes and airports.

When we landed at Helsinki (half an hour early, at 2.50 pm instead of 3.20) most passengers proceeded to the transit lounge. Only a very few of us were staying in Helsinki. The plane was completely full but there were only 3 people on immigration control & even so the queues were short.

Our bags came quickly & nobody stopped us so it was a remarkably painless entry into Finland. We'd read about an airport taxi shuttle & we saw the counter for that, booked & were on a mini bus with 2 other couples within 5 mins, headed from the airport to the city.

The couple behind us were young German backpackers, but the couple in front sounded Australian. Where are you from? "Sydney".

Tuomiokirkko Cathedral & Alexander II statue

"Where in Sydney?" "The northern beaches". "Where in the northern beaches?" - they were from Curl Curl. What's more they are flying from Helsinki on to Manchester, whereas we are eventually going to Preston.

Ours was the 3rd of the 3 hotels the shuttle bus stopped at, and by the end David had lost his place on the map (I'd picked it up at the airport). Lots of road works & little windy streets. We asked the driver could they do road works all year in Helsinki? No - only in summer.

Lots of rendered concrete buildings on the way into Helsinki. Lots of big square boxes with very little colour or interest - or was that the weather making them look like that? Only right in the middle of the Old Town did we later see more ornate fronts or stone buildings more like French or German cities.

We were only leaving our plane at 3 pm, we arrived at our hotel at 4, and were out walking by 4.15.

It had been drizzling with rain a bit when we landed and that is forecast to get worse, so we left with umbrellas but decided to go for a walk tonight in case tomorrow is worse.

It's now 8 pm & still not dark. While it wasn't exactly sunny when we were out, it could have been worse. We walked down in the direction of the old town. Through the Esplanad Park - which used to be fenced so only the nobility could go there, and down to the harbour.

I was taking lots of photos, David only a few, but nevertheless he finished off his batteries & my spare ones.

Inside Tuomiokirkko Cathedral, Helsinki

Something wrong there - either with his camera, the use of it, or the age of the batteries.

Before leaving home, we bought 4 Nickel Cadmium rechargeable batteries & a small recharger & were uncertain about whether they held their charge, but that's what I've used for the last 24 hours & they seem fine, so we have now recharged the 4 of them & will use the "disposable" batteries we have as backups.

Anyway ... We walked down to where the markets are - they were just finishing nearing 5 so we'd hope to look at them tomorrow. Saw the huge car ferries and the jet cat we'll be on tomorrow.

We walked up the hill to the Orthodox Cathedral - very Russian looking. It was closed but still nice to look at on the outside and gave a great view over the presidential palace and the old town.

Then we walked back down past the palace (rather uninspiring looking actually). Our guidebook had referred to the "colourful guards" there, but when we saw them they were dressed in grey uniforms. And standing under an umbrella.

From there we walked around to the other "cathedral on the hill" - this time the Lutheran cathedral, all white classical style building with gold crosses on top. This stands overlooking Senaatintori Square - a huge square dominated by a statue of Tsar Alexander II. Then there are a large number of stairs leading up to the cathedral - reminiscent of the Spanish steps in Rome, with quite a number of people still sitting on the stairs.

Iitala shop, Helsinki

We took some photos around the square, then walked up the stairs to the cathedral, took some more photos looking DOWN on the square, and then went in to the cathedral. There was a wedding rehearsal going on at the time, but also tourists moving around. The bride's father (I'd guess) was taking photos of the couple while tourists were photographing the building & its (elegant but simple) decorations.

After the square we wandered back down to near the water and then were heading back towards our hotel when we walked down one of the side streets (several of which are pedestrian plazas) and found a café - called Karl Fazer - obviously quite an institution. David described it rather as the Harrod's of Helsinki. On one side was a café & hand made chocolates & cakes - but further along the counter from them, one could buy exotic fish treats - unusual breads topped with prawns or eels or ... (Very Finnish!)

On the other side of the shop there were various breads - loaves and rolls and David bought a very multi grained roll. I tried to ask the lady what do you call this roll? She looked at me blankly. I tried again with "what is its name?" We were getting spoilt with people here often speaking some English.

Anyway after that we walked back to near the hotel looking at various cafes & restaurants. There seem to be lots of pubs where people sit outside & smoke & drink beer. Here I was in my coat (it was by then less than 10 C) but the hardy Finns were sitting in tee shirts at outdoor cafes.

Railway station, Helsinki

David said that he was starting to feel "jaded". Now this was after 6 pm on Monday and around 6.15 pm on Sunday we'd still be home in Narraweena having a snack dinner before going out to the airport.

We saw lots of sushi places, pizza, mexican, several italian places - but I said I'd like something "Finnish". There was a "sports grill" we considered briefly, but ended up in a place recommended by our guidebook - a Lapland restaurant, with foods from the north of Finland.

Inside you felt you were in a log cabin. We chose to have the mixed platter of meats. There was roast elk, reindeer steaks, deer sausages, a sort of baked potato, and vegetables were all red but in addition to beetroot there was capsicum, carrot and parsnips.

I went to take a photo of David sitting in front of the photo of reindeer - people at the next table offered to take a photo of us together. I asked them "nihon-jin?" (Are you Japanese?) Yes they were. We told them that we had lived near Meguro eki (station) at Kami-Osaki. They knew the area. They only had a little English & we had less Japanese but we exchanged a few pleasantries and when they left we each wished the others a good holiday.

Anyway, I was still wearing the white airline compression stockings & my feet were starting to scream at me when we got back to the room. Now I have finished writing a long daily report, while David has been checking emails. I'm not going to try to master the wireless internet here but will transfer this file to his machine on its SD card.

I'm looking forward to a shower & then hopefully bed fairly soon. My PDA tells me that it is 3.36 - am I guess, and Sydney time. It's been a very long "day".

Good night from Helsinki - from Kerry & David