Helsinki

Food.1

After long and tiring days in St. Petersburg, we opted for a more relaxing day in Helsinki. We took a shuttle into the downtown area and just wandered around the city. Not far from they dropped us off was something that could have been called a “Taste of Helsinki”. There were hundreds of booth selling food from every part of the world. We saw Finnish (or course), Vietnamese, Congolese, Spanish, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, American burgers, etc. The booth in the picture was probably selling Latvian food. When we got there at first, it was busy, but when we walked back that way on our way home it was very crowded. 

FinnishFood

Near the water there was a set of more permanent food stands that were selling a more traditional Finnish menu. Typically they had salmon, reindeer meatballs, reindeer sausage, small fried fish (what we would call smelt maybe), and of course potatoes. No meal in Scandinavia is complete without potatoes. 

It was Sunday so there were lots of people in the streets. Besides the tourists, there were many Finnish families out for a Sunday outing. The weather was perfect for spending time outside and people were taking advantage of it. 

PeeingStatue




At the water we came on a statue of—well you decide what it is. It is vaguely reminiscent of the famous Norwegian painting “The Scream.” It was certainly attracting lots of people posing for photographs. It was certainly a unique public statue in our experience. 

WaterWay

On a hill nearby was a beautiful Orthodox Church. The cross in the interior picture below is reflecting sunlight from a window to the camera. By moving just a few feet, the reflection went away. It made for a dramatic picture.

Church.ext Church.IntPalace

After seeing Catherine’s summer palace, Peterhof—Peter the Great’s summer palace, and the Hermitage—the winter palace in St. Petersburg, the Presidential Palace in Helsinki was quite the contrast. The people below are waiting for a Tram, or just whiling the day away. 

You just never know what you will see in a big city place.

HearSeeSpeakNoEvil Pig

We looked for a place to eat lunch but most of them didn’t open until 1:00 or even 2:00. We found a nice hotel (Kämp) restaurant, but they were serving brunch for about $55/person. We weren’t interested in that much food and that many dollars. But, they were serving a bar menu and we chose to eat there. It was very nice, the food was great, the Finnish beer was decent, and it was expensive. We didn’t know until after we got back that eating at that restaurant is in the book “1,000 Things to Do Before You Die.” We crossed that one off our list <grin>.

CookieGirls

On the way back we bought some desert from the food stands. The cookie these girls sold us was not all that good, but they were cute. In Finland, even the statues drink beer.

StatueBeer

Helsinki was a beautiful city. As we sailed away we had this view of the city.

HelsinkiFromSea

© Charles Eklund 2012