Woke up once during the brief period of semi-darkness that passes for night (11pm to 4am), then again after dawn, but slept for the most part fairly well until after 8am after going to bed at 9pm! More importantly, Scott got some solid sleep at last, and was back to acting like himself again.
Oh, glorious sleep!
I woke up this morning shortly after 0800 and was a bit groggy, but none the worse for wear. We went back down to the hotel's restaurant, Lastu, for our breakfast, and it was a nice buffet, even if my stomach wasn't quite ready for it. We did discover a wonderful thing, though: Finnish Rice Pasties. They're these fantastic little pastry-type tartlet things made of a pouch of rye dough filled with what could be described as baked rice pudding, only not sweet, and served with an egg butter. They were very tasty and became comfort food rather quickly.
After breakfast, we set out to explore more of the city, and set off first to stow our luggage at the ship terminal since that was going to be our ultimate destination. I was oddly a bit mentally foggy (and therefore a little bitchy) at first, which caused a bit of concern, but we made our way aboard the tram and through town to the terminal.
Riding the trams we had seen zooming around the day before gave a very different perspective on Helsinki. Our tram took a route through previously unvisited parts of town, and whizzed us through familiar parts so that we had a good sense of how close most things in town were to one another. The tram took us past Kiasma and the Central Railway Station, which was literally just a block or two past where we had turned around yesterday, and then down past the big cathedral, then around the harbor market and up the hill to the Olympiaterminaali.
After a slight hiccup getting checked in at the empty terminal (a stark contrast to how it would look in the afternoon, the agent assured us), we were able to stow our bags in the storage room/office of the tiny convenience store in the terminal and head back to the tram. We decided to ride all the way back to the Central Railway Station and make our way back toward the harbor on foot. I had seen the Station in photographs, and briefly from the tram as we passed through, but seeing the masterpiece grow larger as we got closer made me realize how impressive and beautiful the structure really is. The style is kind of a fusion of Art Nouveau and Art Deco, and the proliferation of architectural styles in Helsinki makes everything seem kind of like a movie set, or like Ayn Rand wrote the entire city! Brick and granite, linear and geometric adornments…then turn around and the Neoclassical Ateneum is across the street!
Once again, the architecture really made this city stand out; there is art in its simplicity. That's not to say that it's dull, though. The railway station is red-brick Nouveau, with its neon signs, clock tower, and statue lights; Ateneum is neo-classical perfection, not unlike the NY Public Library; the office buildings surrounding the square are the typical sanitary, steel and glass monoliths, but as I said before, it doesn't seem to clash.
After some furious touristing and the clicking of many shutters, we meandered up the street ahead of us. We could have gone over an additional block to the main street we had seen on the tram, but it seemed like a very busy shopping strand and we didn't have time to get caught in crowds—the cruise leaves at 1700. We soon found ourselves on the western side of Tuomiokirkko, the Lutheran cathedral and dominant landmark of the city. To limit the flower prose, it was breathtaking. Verdigris domes adorned with golden crosses and painted golden stars, bright white columns (I'd say marble, but I didn't get close enough to know for sure), and some rather imposing steps. Inside was very staid and subdued, but undoubtedly a beautiful place of worship.
The striking beauty of Tuomiokirkko lies in its magnificent scale, rather than in the details, as with Gothic cathedrals. A few blocks away, in striking contrast to Tuomiokirkko, lay the equally magnificent Uspenskin katedralii, which also managed to tower over the city like a mighty fortress. It was truly breathtaking in its 19th Century grandeur and ornate Eastern Orthodox interior.
For as simple as Tuomiokirkko was, Uspenski was quite the opposite. Eastern Orthodox churches tend to be much more ornate, and Uspenski follows that tradition quite adequately with its golden “onion” domes and the intricate artworks within. Sadly, we weren't allowed to photograph inside, but it's quite inspiring. Uspenski is also atop a knoll with a fairly good view of the harbor and the southern parts of the city, so Liz and I paused in the grass to take it all in. Our agenda for the trip was quite ambitious, so it was imperative that, every now and then, we stopped what we were doing to remember where we were and why we were there.
The path up to Uspenski from the street was shaded with trees and lilac bushes, so we paused a while to rest on grassy slope and enjoy the lovely weather. The day was so perfect, with pleasant temperatures and a gorgeous blue sky with hardly a cloud to be seen. We ended up paying the price for this weather by sporting awkward-looking sunburns for the following few days, but it was completely worth it. After taking some artsy upside-down photos of the Cathedral, we made our way down to the market square and through the stalls of products for sale. At the far end of the market, vendors had fresh produce of all kinds, and we vowed to get some of the luscious looking fresh fruit to sample after lunch.
The harbor itself is a hive of activity, with ferries going in every direction and massive cruise ships seemingly at every turn, but the activity isn't all in the water. Kauppatori (Cow-pat-tor-ee: Market Square) lies on the northern shore of the main harbor, and it's a huge open air market for everything from fresh seafood and produce to handmade jewelry and artwork of all sorts. We wandered through the tents for a bit, just to explore what was being offered, before stopping for lunch at one of the food tents.
We found a row of stalls selling traditional dockside lunches, all prepared on enormous griddles with all the food sharing the same oils and heat. Thank God Scott decided to start eating fish, or this trip would already have proven difficult! He had read online about the salmon soup (Lohikeitto) available at one of the vendors, which he sampled with gusto. I tried the more standard offering of fried goodness piled high on a paper plate. My lunch included little anchovy-sized whitefish (fried up and served whole with a garlic cream sauce), a fish cake, huge salmon filet, battered squid rings, small yellow potatoes, snap peas, and paella! After lunch, we hit a few shops and stocked up on touristy essentials like t-shirts and hats, then hit the produce end of the market for the most delicious fresh berries. We sat by the fountain to enjoy our berries and marvel at the beautiful city, nearly losing track of time and having to rush back to the terminal (at which point, naturally, the tram took forever to arrive) to board the boat.
The boat.
I had been stressing about the cruises for a while now, given my tendency toward panic attacks upon leaving dry land. I don't get motion sick or anything, but I've never been a water person and being surrounded by it is rather unsettling. There was no turning back, though, so I stuck my chin out and boarded. Since we had checked in early, boarding was no problem and there was no real queue, so we got straight to our cabin (no evil room number this time). The only real downer here is that Liz and I will have to sleep in separate beds, but we kind of expected that. We cast off right on time (Liz said she'd punch me if I don't stop using nautical terms) and as we left the dock and headed out into open water, I waited for the panic to set in. It never came. Shockingly, I was really enjoying the cruise.
Finland has a stunningly beautiful coastline: innumerable rocky islands and outcrops roll by with staggering frequency. It was somewhat bittersweet watching Helsinki fade into the distance, because, aside from it being my first real European experience, it is a very friendly and engaging city that we both agreed was short-changed on this trip. I think that if we ever get back to this part of Europe again, Helsinki will most certainly get the attention it deserved.
The cruise ship was quite impressive: it had a massive atrium with cabins overlooking the promenade, which was lined with duty-free shopping, a full casino/nightclub and several restaurants and cafes. For dinner, we opted for the seafood restaurant, which had the not-at-all Finnish name, The Happy Lobster. It certainly made my mouth happy, though. I had parmesan-encrusted halibut with a port wine sauce, potatoes in a lemon-dill cream sauce and asparagus. I enjoyed seared tuna with wasabi butter, asparagus, parsnip puree, and black garlic. Fantastic!
Afterwards, we decided to take our notebooks up on deck, reflect on the day, and settle in to watch the Nordic summer sunset. As of 9:45pm, the sun had only just barely started to sink and turn orange. As we watched over the next hour, we were treated to a gorgeous sunset, and took dozens of pictures to capture the romantic moment.
No comments:
Post a Comment