Helsinki Again!

 

Helsinki Again

Finally time came for us to actually wake up, and we were all ready for breakfast.  The Finns take breakfast extraordinarily seriously.  We hadn’t slept, and had nowhere else to be, so we got to the breakfast room ten minutes before it opened and there was already a line.  So we played next door in the kids playroom.  

Every hotel should have a kids playroom, by the way.  Once the doors were opened we were treated to an unmatched buffet.  No joke.  An entire room full of food (with a beautiful view at that).  Eggs.  Bacon.  Potatoes.  Porridge.  Bread in whole loaves that you just cut a slice from.  Marmalade.  Fruit.  Fresh juice.  Coffee.  Riisipusti which are a kind of crispy pastry that you spread an egg-butter mixture over.  A veritable smorgasbord. 

But the real and surprising star of Finnish breakfast buffets are cold cut deli sandwiches.  They have a bunch of deli meat, and cheese, and bread, and pretty much everybody makes themselves a sandwich.  Most do it open faced with a cucumber and some lettuce as well.  My body was feeling all sorts of weird, so I decided to play it safe and only have four of them.  It always drives me nuts that American hotels advertise a “continental breakfast” and then give you some tasteless honeydew chunks, stale cereal and powdered eggs.  Well, I’ve been to the continent, and this is the proper way to do breakfast.  And everyone in the hotel eats it.  When we look up hotel reviews for our trips, the top negative comment is something like “breakfast was too small.”

Once we were good and full we took a take away coffee and explored Helsinki a bit.  Helsinki is Finland’s capitol, and was the host of the 1952 Olympics.  It regularly ranks as the most livable city in the world.  It rose to prominence in the 1600s while Finland was still a part of the Kingdom of Sweden.  It was a trading hub that did business with various members of the Hanseatic League, especially neighboring Estonian Reval (modern day Tallinn).  Interestingly it only became the capitol somewhat recently.  Historically the Swedish administrative center of Finland was in Turku on the western side of the country.  After the Russian annexation of Finland they moved the capitol (and royal University) to Helsinki as part of an effort of de-Swedishization. The architecture is largely neoclassical, and many of the buildings are this lovely Finnish yellow.

We walked along the water to a beautiful open air market.  Finland has these all over the place, especially during the summer.  

We bought some fresh plums to eat on our stroll.  We went to the same market last year and had freshly grilled salmon from one of the booths, and then bought some raspberries.  

We then walked over to Senate Square.  We didn’t have much time to explore but when we were here last year we went to a fantastic museum that had an entire floor of interactive exhibits for children, and a “time machine” exhibit where you could see the same view of a neighborhood Helsinki at different points in history, and a walkthrough exhibit showing the evolution of the city.  It was all top notch.  Like many of the museums in Finland it was also free.

Since we did not have as much time today, we instead explored a part of the city we hadn’t been to, and stumbled into the first of dozens of parks we’ve enjoyed in Finland.  It feels like there is a park every other block or so.  This one was “Tove Jannson” park, named for probably the best known Finnish author.  We later learned the park is named for her because her childhood home was very nearby.  

Soon it was time to collect our luggage and head to the train.  The walk back to the train station felt easier than the night before (might have been all the breakfast sandwiches) and the Finns do a very orderly job with their trains and platforms.  So it was relatively easy for us to find our train and take our seats.  Most trains here are double-deckers, and every intercity train has a playcar – with books and toys and a built in slide.  

What a great idea!  It turns a two hour trip – that children often dread – into something that they look forward to.  It feels like if you just try to create kid friendly spaces, it makes life so much better for everyone.  Especially for the kids.

All settled in, we were ready to head off to our next destination:  Turku!  Which promised to be stress-free, restful, and most of all easy.

Hei Hei