Helsinki, Finland

Today, we spent the day in Helsinki, the capital and largest city in Finland. Finland is a Northern European country of 5.5 million. Located on the Baltic Sea, Finland is known as one of the leading countries for building large, commercial cruise ships. And for its reindeer population, which is over 200,000. Also, believe it or not, they were the first country to allow woman to vote. Go Finland!

Between 1200 and the -1700s, Sweden and Russia went to war eleven times over the Baltic’s archipelago islands. In the early 1800’s Russia was dominating the area, and their primary port was in the nearby city of Tallinn. To regroup and build a new resistance, Sweden built the city of Helsinki as their naval port, and in within a decade was able to reclaim the islands, which have become part of Finland. 

Russia subsequently burned the city in 1812, and later rebuilt it. One hundred years later, Finland declared its independence, and the rest is history (so to speak).

Speaking of islands and such, two items of interest we learned about today. First, the Baltic Sea is known as an inland ocean. This is because of the narrowness of the opening to the North Sea. Also, the Baltic is not very deep (as far as Seas go).

Consequently, the runoff from Finland and the other counties along the coast dilute the salt content of the Baltic Sea, and it freezes up each winter. In fact, the ferries that run between the countries are ice breakers. 

Which brings us to point number two. Finland is known as “the land of a thousand lakes”.  This is a complete misnomer. The fact is, Finland has a whopping 187,000! Hmmm…

So, moving on to Helsinki. which is home to 600,000 fantastic super nice folks. 

So, I’ll bet you use a product of Helsinki every day, and you didn’t even know it. The truth is, later today, when you text all your friends about how silly today’s blog was, you will be using Helsinki’s invention. Text messaging! Yup. The inventor of texting lives right here in good ol’ Helsinki. 

So it is an okay city, with some cool Art Nouveau architecture, but mostly, the buildings are pretty boxy and plain with lots of windows. This is common in this part of the world, and (I understand) can be traced back to Sweden. It is common on Switzerland and Iceland. 

Also, the city is referred to frequently as a “public sauna culture”.  Apparently, they have a lot of saunas that are available for public use. 

We also noticed that they had an extensive public transportation infrastructure, including many “trams cars” (electric street cars) and rails systems throughout town. Also, all of their utilities are underground, so the city has a clean look. 

Also, I noticed here (and in a handful of other recently visited  cities here and there) that as one is waiting on a red light, it turns yellow for a few seconds before turning green. Kinda like “1, 2, 3, go!) I like it…

Speaking of clean, the city is billed as one of the cleanest cities in the world, and Finland is beloved to have the purest water in the world. 

Helsinki gets its power from hydroelectric plants, which produces hot water as a bi-product. The hot water is ran underground and made available to city dwellers, in their homes, at no charge. Nice! 

So, there is one a downside to their somewhat utopian culture. They have the highest tax on alcohol and some other items in the world. (Lunch with pizza and beer for two cost over $80.) Yikes! 

Okay, just a few more things. They have a park called Plague Park. Beautiful! But it is built on the graves of many thousands of folks who died from plague in the 1700s. One-third of the city’s population is in that park. Hmmm…

The city has a free amusement park near the hip “Bohemian” neighborhood, made legioned in song.  (Fans of Queen know what I’m talking about.)

They also have a unique rock church, carved out of stone, and decored with much copper trim. It has such good accustoms that it is often used to host large concerts. 

So, we spent our day on a city tour. (Hence, all this info…) Afterwards, we had a nice lunch at an outdoor cafe. Then strolled the extensive outdoor market on the boardwalk. It made for a nice day. 

Thank you for joining us. The epic stories of Stockholm will play out over the next few days. can’t wait to tell you all about it. 

– Mike
“The ones who push the limits, discover the limits sometimes push back” – Frosty Hesson, Chasing Mavericks