Our hotel packed us a "breakfast" to go. Cream cheese, ham and cheese sandwich, Apple and water. I choked down half of the dry sandwich, and we bought coffees on board.
The trip over took two and a half hours, and was uneventful. We just settled in to read. About halfway through the trip, three kids started running totally amuck throughout the ship, playing hide and seek, crawling under tables and tripping people. I guess the parents sent them out on a day trip, alone?
When the ferry docked, we set out walking to our hotel in the center of the city. Helsinki is so compact that from the "way out" docks to the deep center only took us about 30 minutes. It was about a mile and a half, if that.
We have an excellent room in the Hotelli Helka. Top floor, windows, view, modern and spacious and most importantly, just down the hall from the sauna.
The sauna, you know, is to be taken in the buff. Just wrap a towel around your waist. While no one even pauses or thinks twice, it is a little easier to just walk down the hall in your towel, as opposed to riding the elevator.
We dropped our bags and set out to explore.
Turns out we arrived on Helsinki day, so there was a huge celebration going on the main park, the Esplanadi; the grand way of Helsinki. And, there was a table set for thousands, running about a kilometer right down the middle of the main street.
We walked past the famous fountain, one of the landmarks of Helsinki, called the Havis Amanda.
It is a naked woman fountain.
A woman named Havis.
That would be a great book title.
So, we ate lunch along waterfront in a seafood tent. Moose meatball with lingonberries, salmon, chunky, creamy salmon chowder and small fried crispy fish that you just crunch up whole.
It was all good, but the chowder was the best.
Helsinki.
Lots of brick, green roofs, more modern architecture.
It is filled with beautiful, young people.
Quiet. Subdued. Understated and peaceful.
When the sun is out, it is very warm.
Here's the thing: Oslo has a lot to see, Tallinn is old and cute with great food, Stockholm is OK.
But Helsinki.
Helsinki is understated, and a surprise because of it. It is charming in a subtle way. Helsinki has a quiet confidence. And I think it has won the northern Baltic war.
Besides, Gail says the shopping is good.
We walked and saw all two (OK. All four.) of the sights in the city.
Stockmann is the big store, their version of Paris' LaFayette Gallerie. There is a big food court and store in the bottom. We bought wine and snacks the second day, and smuggled them up to the room for a picnic dinner.
The Lutheran Cathedral, a huge, but plain white church with green domes. It is very open and very stark inside.
The Uspenski Orthodox Cathedral looks Russian, but is actually Finnish. A brick cathedral with gold domes.
The Temppeliaukio Church is carved out of solid granite. We joined the crowd inside, and a church official yelled, "Silence please." Immediately everyone is talking, muttering, saying "Hey! They said silence. HEY! Shhh!"
We ate a forgettable dinner. The restaurant serving Lapland cuisine was closed (Sunday night) so this was more of a late choice. We did, however, pick up a little useful information. We ordered a bottle of Italian wine with dinner, intending to take the leftover to our room to enjoy after the sauna. When we told the waitress, she let us know that, in Finland it is illegal to take leftover (outside, even store bought) wine to your room. Keeps a lock on sales to a captive audience.
"No problem," says I.
So we drank what we wanted, then I emptied the rest into our suddenly empty water bottle.
"Clever," says the waitress.
"Experience," says I.
But I am thinking, this is nothing. Compared to Morocco during Ramadan, these Finns are lightweights.
Besides, one man's rules are another man's challenge.
We returned to the hotel to use the sauna. It was wonderful just hot enough, when I suddenly found myself in a Sauna War with a Finn.
You see, he walked in the same time as I did. I showered and took a seat up high, on the side. I was alone, and thought the temperature was just right.
He came in right after, took a seat up high on the other side. With a glance at me (Sizing me up? The feeble Americanski, yes?) he nodded, half smiled and dumped a full ladle of water onto the rocks. The steam rose, singing my skin and lungs, but it felt good so I closed my eyes and relaxed.
The Finn waited till just past the moment the heat subsided, then I heard Schlunk! Hisssss! Schlunk! Hissss! Two ladles of water. This time the heat was more intense, lasting longer. The tips of my ears started to burn.
It was just dissipating when I heard the next Schlunk!
I cracked open an eye, and saw the Finn watching me as he threw three ladles onto the rocks this time.
I knew immediately what was up. He was trying to steam me out.
Unfortunately for him, I live where 105 degrees is considered a normal summer day, so I just settled back and sighed.
Not the reaction he had hoped for.
Ladle after ladle, it was pretty intense now. I had to avoid breathing deeply.
Hell, at times I just had to avoid breathing at all.
The sweat was pouring off me, I couldn't open my eyes, the inside of my nose felt hot, so I breathed through my mouth.
Still, I relaxed. No flinching.
Ladle after ladle until...
CLUNK!
He ran out of water.
I looked up. He muttered something, got up and took the bucket out with him to the shower. The sauna was cooling; it must have dropped to a chilly 150 by this point. I was wondering if I could really outlast him when he stuck his head back in, plunked the full bucket down by my feet and said, "For du."
"Danke" I said (figuring German is close to Finnish or whatever). He ducked back out to the showers, and I cleverly slid down to the lower bench (out of the heat) and made a point of throwing more water on the rocks. I know he could hear the sizzling.
Just to prove the point.
Don't mess with us Californians. We can do some crazy shit!
I got a lead about a laundry at Tin Tin Tango Cafe.
The information was half correct. It is a cafe. It is not a laundry. She does have one washer and dryer in the back corner, and was surprised when I showed up at 7:00 and asked to use it.
I quickly surmised from her look that:
A. This is more of a locals thing and
B. I needed an appointment.
But, 7:00 on a Monday...
She checked the book, the time is open, so seven euros and I am in business. It is not a coin op machine, I just paid her direct to use her machine and soap.
As our clothes washed and Gail slept in, I sat at a window table drinking cappuccinos, people watching and reading The Girl In The Spider's Web, the newest of the Lisbeth Salander series, set in Stockholm.
The book is a much better read after visiting Stockholm.
Anyway, if you are in Helsinki and need to do laundry, there is one laundromat way across town, or check out Tin Tin Tango. Call first!
Point of information: there are no laundries in Tallinn. Need something washed? You will pay the big bucks, per piece. That can easily be over fifty euro.
I was sad to see the headline of the local paper about yet another mass shooting, in Florida, killing fifty, injuring 53.
And there is a travel advisory issued for Europe?
Spare me.
Sad to see the headline. But feeling sorry?
No.
I am tired of all the false sorrow, all the "thoughts and prayers" which do nothing. We actively choose to not do anything at all to control even one little aspect of gun ownership, like any little common sense thing means the government will come take away every gun from every person, everywhere.
OK. That's fine then. That is America, love it or leave it.
So this shooting is just the cost of that freedom.
But spare me the crocodile tears.
Or stand up and do something about it.
Just some damn little thing.
Good thing. I never would have remembered it, and it turns out to be a great tip. So I am passing it onto you, my loyal readers.
If you find your way to Helsinki, be sure to go to the island of Suomenlinna.
We took the public ferry. It cost €10 for two, round trip tickets. The ferry runs early morning till two in the morning.
The ferry leaves from the harbor on the east (Uspenski Orthodox Cathedral) side, as opposed to more expensive tour boats on west (esplanade ) side. That information alone saves you €15 or more per ticket.
Plus, on the public boat you get to see things like the guy who works on the ship wearing roller skates.
Oh these wacky Finns.
Suomenlinna is a charming island, with old brick buildings, and other interesting buildings like a small, square church with a tall tower that doubles as a lighthouse and a chain fence made of cannon barrels.
The fortress was built up in the 17 and 1800s.
We wandered into the church and happened upon a guy playing guitar and singing. We didn't understand the lyrics, but the music was good. The ceiling inside the church was a weird, high high dome inside the lighthouse tower, and the acoustics made it possible for the guy to harmonize with himself. He would belt out a low note and as it echoed he would sing harmony to it.
There are lots of flowers planted in just the right places to make it charming, and actual residential areas because 800 or so people live there. The roads are more like gravel paths, and we saw maybe three cars and two tractors while we were there. There are lots of cafes to get a glass of wine and hot soup, or coffee and brownie, sitting in the sun and listening to the quiet, interrupted by the breeze.
It was a blue sky slash puffy cloud sort of day, and we baked in the sun and froze in the shade. There are a lot of birds; some sort of goose that groaned more than honked, and one brown bird that clattered like a machine.
We spent a slow day just exploring. There are maps available, and the main route is marked out by blue street signs (follow the blue and you'll be all right) but we rejected the maps and just set out on our own, wandering here and there. Besides, the lack of a map gave us a good excuse when we "mistakenly" wandered into the residential areas.
I slurped up the best bowl of steaming salmon chowder, sitting in the cool breeze on a porch overlooking a grassy intersection of brick buildings.
We walked along the water, then into big tunnels, deep into the thick stone walls of the fortress itself. I explored each little opening, looking out of gun portholes and dead ending into gunpowder storage rooms. Folds of yellow mustard made me sneeze, and the seagulls whirled and cried on the breeze. We got to the far end of the island where giant cannons pointed out, ready to defend the stone fortress with sharply angled corners.
For more information on Suomenlinna, go here. It is an UNESCO World Heritage Site.
We came back and stopped at Kappeli for water and a glass of wine. It is this fantastic looking, steel-frame and glass café along the esplanade. I can only imagine it in the dark winter, covered with snow, the lights glowing.
There are a lot of sidewalk cafés, people sitting out right now, in the warm weather. I am betting it is not like this in the winter. But now, everyone is out. It is like Paris.
Except for the coffee quality.
These people up North, the Swedes, Finns, Norwegians, and Estonians do NOT know how to make a decent cup of coffee to kill them. Weird. I would think, where it is so cold, that good coffee would be a necessity. Like air.
Can't wait to get to France and a decent coffee.
I have not been wearing my coat for two days now. It is pretty warm. The bartender at Kappeli said it is beach weather.
We laughed walking by some guy on the crowded sidewalk, riding on a stick horse. He would charge up to people and ask them to "pet his horse."
If you can't figure it out, there is a photo of him below.
I am surprised nobody punched him.
For dinner we decided to become scofflaws and flout the law. We stopped in the basement of Stockmann. I bought Finnish meatballs, a skewer of chicken, some smoked horse and reindeer, and a raspberry torte. Gail got couscous and a roll. We split a bottle of Bordeaux wine.
We had to smuggle the wine into the room, then dispose of the evidence.
I have never had horse, that's why I got it. Smokey sharp taste, very lean.
The reindeer is also lean, and tastes like gamey prosciutto. I wonder who I am eating: Dancer or Prancer or Rudolph?
We wrapped the evening up with another visit to the sauna.
No challengers this time.
Tomorrow: France.