As I mentioned, 0510 came disgustingly early, especially considering my internal clock still said Midnight. If there's one thing I'm good at, though, it's soldiering on when there's a task at hand. We mercifully left the cramped, stuffy cabin behind and headed for the flight. Thanks to some careful planning and skillful execution, we got checked in, through security, had time for a spot of breakfast (though I discovered that I'm still not ready for smoked salmon), and still reached the gate with twenty minutes to spare. The airport was so quiet in the early Wednesday morning. My day was made by the unexpected delight of two minutes outdoors under steely London dawn sky as we came up from one terminal to enter another. As I'm sure you know, I'm a major aviation geek, so I took some of the extra time we had to slink down the terminal a bit and photograph the Singapore Airlines Airbus A380 two gates down. What an incredibly large aircraft that thing is!
We boarded the flight to Helsinki, and it was pretty wide open; at one point, Liz stretched across the three seats opposite us and dozed for a few moments. I stubbornly sat next to my lovely husband in our ridiculously tiny seats for most of the flight before realizing that nobody’s feelings would be hurt if I stretched out in the empty row of three seats across the aisle from us. Too late did I lie down and doze off, since we began descending almost as soon as I got comfortable. The flight itself was uneventful, though I nearly left my passport in the seat pocket. Though I blamed this on sleep deprivation, it was one of three near misses with my memory. Thank God Liz has a good head on her shoulders, or I'd still be lost in Europe somewhere.
As we approached for landing, Scott and I crowded at the plane’s window looking down at the most incredible landscape. Dipping below the clouds it was like nothing either of us had ever seen – THOUSANDS of islands of all sizes and shapes for miles in every direction. I had read about Stockholm’s archipelago but hadn’t bothered to discover that the coast of Finland is just as amazing. We took a few pictures from the plane, but what we captured barely did justice to what it was like to see all these tiny islands feathered out across the sea.
After landing, we disembarked onto the tarmac and boarded a bus to be shuttled to the main terminal. The airport itself was surprisingly small – I guess because it was international, I expected Vantaa to be on a scale comparable with Dulles or Heathrow, but it was really more like Roanoke! We went through passport control, then picked up our bags from one of three carousels, going through a door marked “customs” but encountering no personel or questions…quite different from how it would be in the States. In truth we had no issues with security or customs at any of the three airports we visited – people really need to stop complaining. Of course, I do feel like I’m in some futuristic Orwellian film when I stand in those lines, take off my shoes, and hand over my papers to some government ape…but that’s beside the point.
Our first real challenge of the trip came at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport. Our travel agents, Nordic Visitor, arranged for taxi service from Vantaa to Helsinki, since it's about 17km outside of the city center, but, unfortunately, the driver they sent spoke very little English. Liz had to stop at the WC on the way out, leaving me with the poor fellow, and, being me, I tried to make conversation with the guy. After three tries at “How are you?”, I gave up. It made the ride into Helsinki a little awkward, although he kindly left the radio on an all-American disco station, presumably for our benefit (but who can be sure). We reached our hotel and found that the desk clerks were much more skilled in English.
Now, rewind the tape a bit to Heathrow and the YOTEL where we were given Cabin 13. I'm not much of a numerologist and I don't tend to be superstitious, so this didn't really strike me as odd. When we checked into our hotel in Helsinki, the Scandic Continental, and the receptionist apologized for the room number, I must have shot her a strange look. She handed me the key cards to room 666, and I started to fear a pattern.
Blearily, we ascended to the sixth floor and entered the room, which was very nice with a lovely view of Töölönlahti (Tuh-lun-la-tea: Töölö bay). When we reached the hotel room at last, I thought for sure that Scott was going to have a full on panic attack – once again, the room was hot and stuffy, he’d barely slept in two days, hardly eaten, and he looked like he would either pass out or cry. Luckily, showers are like reset buttons, and we both stayed human long enough to get rinsed off and head out to explore near the hotel. The park across the street and the bay were lovely, as was the skyline it revealed. Even Creepy Speedo Guy didn't spoil the scenery. It was beginning to hit me: I had finally really made it to Europe, and it was a nice place.
Helsinki is a very cool city with some amazing architecture. Blends of Old Europe, Art Deco and Nouveau, and modern Scandinavia seem to somehow meld into a very pleasing whole. We walked down through the park to Finlandia Hall, which is much touted, but somewhat bland comparatively. Up on the other side of Mannerheimintie (Mahn-er-haim-in-tyeh: the main boulevard through Helsinki) stood the National Museum, which was remarkable. It was never completely clear if it had been made out of a renovated church or had just been built to emulate one, but it was spot on either way. We got some great photos of the tower against the perfect blue sky.
Helsinki was odd but completely charming. Cars, trams, bicycles, buses, pedestrians and dogs filled Mannerheimentie, but a few steps further and we were in the beautiful park beside Töölö bay. Lilacs bloomed everywhere, and their scent mixed with the diesel fuel in the crisp air; cool breeze, clear blue sky, nature and city in harmony. We found ourselves drawn further and further, past Finlandia Hall and the National Museum, past the Parliament house, until we reached the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, where we paid too many € for lunch and bullshit disguised as art.
They had a cafe, which was fortunate, and the food was tasty, if small, and, like all restaurant food here, expensive. The museum itself, however, was quite a letdown. The exhibits were sparse and poorly arranged, and the art was, well, not that good. The one thing that stuck out in my mind was the video of an artist (a round woman with a blond bowl cut entirely too reminiscent of Augustus Gloop from Willy Wonka) sitting stone-faced in a chair, while two people misted her with water from spray bottles. It was supposed to extol the virtues of mist and fog which we're losing to global warming or some such hippie nonsense, but it was mostly just annoying. The one honestly cool thing in Kiasma was the “ribbon forest”. An artist had welded a number of metal grids together and strung multi-colored ribbons from the suspended grid hanging to the floor, and patrons were invited to walk through. It was like color attacking you from all sides, but softly. Definitely a highlight of an otherwise forgettable stop.
We trudged back to the hotel, kind of regretting having walked so far in our earlier excitement, and had a nice dinner at the hotel restaurant. I had a strange sort of upscale interpretation of a Big Mac with tomatoes and tsatziki, while Scott had a halloumi "burger." The day was still raging on, along with the traffic outside our window, at 8:30pm as we headed for bed. After our travels and the change in time zones (Helsinki is GMT +2), we were lucky to have made it that late!
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