Anyone know where you can get frogs' legs in Melbourne (Australia), come to think of it?
The North
I took the train to the airport early Sunday morning. There was a chap playing an accordion on the train, which sounded lovely and was a nice finish to my time in France. So I gave him the €2 in my pocket.
It's pretty confusing for a first timer at CDG, as many of you can imagine. However I soon found my way onto the plane. Don't really remember much of that flight, but found my hotel in Helsinki and had a magnificent curry down the road from Hotel Cumulus Hakaniemi. After the busy hustle and bustle of Paris, even for a Sunday night, Helsinki seemed remarkably quiet.
I peered through the curtains from my room at the hotel gazing out at the open world. It's an overcast Monday morning as Finns move to and fro on their way to work, and the market across the street grows busier, as locals seek out their daily necessities and tourists browse through postcards upon which to write home. Mounds of lingonberries, mink-fur shawls, apples, reindeer-skin wallets, wooden handicrafts, reindeer-antler bottle openers, rabbit-fur gloves, knitted slippers, dolls and polo-neck jumpers. Sure, there are places where you can acquire such regular touristy crap as printed t-shirts or a plastic "I-♥-Helsinki snow-dome. But what first meets the eye in Helsinki is often more interesting that what many other large capital cities of the world appear to have to offer.
A tram rattles past the window, suddenly sending me back to reality; my mission: a mere twelve hours in which to make the most of this city, before having to bus back to the airport for my flight home to Australia, on the other side of the globe. This was it, this was the end; this was the beginning of my final day in Europe.
After an enjoyable, buffet-style Scandinavian breakfast complete with yoghurt, fruit, lingonberry jam, cereal, herrings, sausages, eggs and several large glasses of apple juice (which the Finns seem rather fond of), I set off to explore. It was by now late-morning and the air quite mild, and, first, I wanted to find the Greek Orthodox church to see if I could track down a good friend whom I knew was touching down sometime that day too, all the way from Essex. However, most unfortunately, the church just so happened to be closed on Mondays and although I knocked loudly on every door, including the crypt itself, the cleaner vacuuming the inside seemed totally oblivious to my desperate cries for help. So it was that I crossed the road there and discovered the South African Embassy, of all places. Surely, they might at least know their way around the city and would be able to direct me as to the location of the monastery which I knew could not be all that far away. Yet even the South Africans and two nearby cafés turned out to be as knowledgable as the hoovering-cleaner.
Throughout the day, as I walked around, it slowly dawned on me that here I was in a place quite unlike any other place which I had visited during the last two months. Helsinki is one of a kind, distinct from either Rome or Paris, Barcelona or London. The architecture and many of the buildings suggest that here lies a different nation altogether. It feels inviting, in a sense.
The locals have an interesting sense of fashion, for example, subtly different from the rest of the world. During the cold winter months in Melbourne it seems that most have taken a fancy to those long, military-like trench coats. In Helsinki, however, the locals have found their style in fur-lined hooded jackets, which can be worn both in a formal fashion at work, or informally at home on the weekend with the family, when the boss isn't around as you let your hair down. This is perhaps no surprise when one realises that Finland is one of the coldest countries in the world, and its capital, although situated in the Southern most part of the land, is still further North than Scotland. Even in September, it is obvious that Finland is beginning to brace itself for the onset of the harsh winter climate. When in Malta at that time of the year, shorts and shirts are more than adequate. But here I was thankful for long pants and a woollen jumper. Yet just because it may be cold enough to suffer from frostbite at the best of time, the Finns, like the Parisians, don't take the cold as a chance to dress in their daggiest.
Just East of the main centre of town, Helsinki's Lutheran cathedral towers overhead, much like some huge Rome statue, as if it has been standing there ever since the dawn of time. (Although I think St. Peter's wins that one) Not exactly the most elaborate, but its subtle beauty is... well, beautiful.
Some claim that Helsinki is hellishly expensive. That may be true in some cases, but, considering the price of some European cities, when it only costs €4 to get from the airport top the Central Station downtown, it's not overly that bad. The €12 public transport tickets last twenty four hours and even include a ferry ride over to a nearby island. Admittedly, being my last day, I wasn't exactly budgeting hard anymore. My hotel was comfortable, I was well-fed, wearing clean underwear, and still had plenty of money to relax and enjoy the place with.
The island, which goes by the name of Suomenlinna, was one of the many fortified island off the coast defending Finland's capital. Today, one can walk all over it (or hire a bicycle of you feel so inclined) and see up close the remains of the soldier's barracks from the Crimean War of the 1850s. While the island is mostly visited by day-tourists there are a few scattered houses, a supermarket and a boatyard for those who do actually live there.
It is as easy to get around from place to place as it is here at home, in fact, since not one person did I meet who could not speak English. Everyone is extremely friendly and one cannot but notice the warm friendly spirit, despite the cold weather. The hotel, for once, looked exactly like the picture on the website.
Suomi. Someday I hope to go back there; to experience again that interesting land of cheerful coolness and to explore the forests further North en route to Santa's home in Lapland. But, for now, I am simply a student and that Arctic travel will have to wait.