On Tuesday, December 19th, I had another early flight. I left the hotel, walked to the nearby subway stop, took that to the central subway station, walked over to the central train station, and took the Arlanda Express back to the airport.
Flight 5 of 7 if you are keeping track. Sadly, not an empty flight like my previous one.
I arrived in Helsinki at 10:20 (there is an hour time difference). I took the train into Helsinki from the airport which took around 30 minutes. I walked out of the train station and immediately noticed the sidewalks were (1) icy, and (2) had tons of sand/gravel on them which made walking and rolling a bag difficult. I made the decision to take a 6 minute taxi ride instead of making the 15 minute walk.
I got in the taxi, told him the name of my hotel and asked if he wanted the address. "No, I know this city. I have lived here for many years", was the response. We drove for a bit and I felt like we were not going the right direction (even though I've obviously never been to the city), so I pulled out my google maps. Sure enough we were driving away from my hotel. I said "I don't think we are going the right way." He was dismissive and told me he knew where he was going.
I let it go for another few minutes watching on the map as I got farther and farther from where I was supposed to be going. I thought he's either taking me to the wrong location, or I'm being kidnapped, so I leaned forward and stuck my phone up between the seats and pointed to my hotel on the map. I said "This is my hotel. This is where we are. You ARE NOT GOING TO THE RIGHT PLACE". Yeah, it turns out he got another hotel in his mind and it was way away from where I was really going. So my 6 minute taxi ride turned into about a 30+ minute ride. (And I don't think I even mentioned the fight I had with a taxi driver in Oslo. Y'all, I get in fights with taxi drivers every trip!)
I told the hotel about my ordeal and I'm not sure if that is why, but they upgraded me! I was able to get into my room early and a nicer room than what I had booked, so that was a happy turn of events.
Since I had to leave the hotel before they were serving breakfast that morning in Stockholm, I was starving and headed out first thing for some lunch. I went to Nasty BRGR which I had read was good and owned by a person that was on Finland's Top Chef TV show.
I then headed out to follow Rick Steve's Helsinki walk, although I was kind of doing it backwards.
I went to Kamppi Plaza and Kamppi Chapel.
Back to the Central Train Station. I honestly hadn't even paid any attention to what it looked like when I arrived there earlier in the day. (Lots of Ukrainian flags flying in Finland).
The Three Blacksmiths (1932)
You can see bullet damage from WW2 on the base.
I went through a big shopping district next. Stockmann is the biggest and oldest department store in Finland. It had really great animatronic holiday window displays.
I stopped in many stores along the way and every single Marimekko store at least twice that day.
Pretty architecture along the Esplanade.
Since I was leaving no food hall unvisited it seems, I ventured to Vanha kauppahalli.
If you wanted to buy reindeer or caviar, THIS was your place.
I went back to the room to sit down and rest for a bit, and then headed out to Senate Square. It's a very pretty square that includes the big Lutheran Cathedral, but also the senate building (now Prime Minister's office), University of Helsinki's main building, and National Library of Finland. But also their big Christmas market.
As soon as I walked up and saw the little huts, I knew this was going to be such a cute market.
Statue of Russian Czar Alexander II.
The yellow building is the Senate building (now prime minister's office)
I walked back to do some more shopping after I left the Christmas market.
I really wanted this, but I also really didn't want to have to carry it home, so that won out in the end.
Back along the Esplanade.
I walked to Market Square.
The Czarina's Stone.
The obelisk has a double-headed eagle of imperial Russia. It was erected in 1835 to celebrate the visit by Czar Nicholas I and Czarina Alexandra.
Uspenski Orthodox Cathedral
That was the end of my to-see list. I didn't have a ton of things to do in Helsinki. For years, this trip's itinerary was in my mind and Helsinki was more a spring board location to other stops like Tallinn and St. Petersburg. Obviously I had to scrap St. Petersburg from the plans.
I couldn't decide what I wanted to eat, so I ended up stopping in a place called Picnic where I grabbed a sandwich and this yummy pastry with lingonberries.
I stayed at Hotel F6. It's not the hotel I originally booked. It was one of the top two choices I narrowed down to when booking, but ultimately went with another hotel because I liked its location better and it was less expensive. But I book things way in advance and continue to stalk my hotels and flights to make sure there aren't any changes. Sure enough at some point, I realized the hotel I booked had completely closed for renovations. It was scheduled to open on December 1, but I felt uneasy about it and booked this hotel as a backup. As my trip got closer, I noticed the date for my hotel's reopening was bumped to March.
Now, mind you, they had never contacted me. This line of hotels has several in Helsinki and from what I could tell, would send you to one of their others at the last minute. I didn't want to stay at their other locations, so I cancelled that reservation and was happy I had made a backup reservation at F6.
I didn't take a pic of the outside, so I borrowed this one from trip advisor.
I was upgraded to a superior room and it was so spacious (especially coming from my tiny room in Stockholm!).
It had such a big nice bathroom.
I had one more day of vacation and it was a big one, so I tried to get a good night sleep.
Comments