Helsinki Part 1

Helsinki is one of those cities where time never seems to pass. Eternally calm, the city has a blissful pace and outlook on life. Much of it has wide open pavements and boulevards, plenty of green space, and the Finnish seems to enjoy the simple pleasures of life. The city has a classic, yet fresh and new vibe to it, and that simply makes it a joy to visit.

The zoo is a very well looked after and well thought out zoo. It was calm, quiet (possibly due to the fact it was September) and a really pleasant way to spend the day. And in true Finnish style, why catch a bus, when you can catch a boat there!

Just a little side note. I'd been having problems with my phone in Turkey, I'm not sure if it was because it got to hot, or that something was wrong with it. Hence I got a new phone in Finland. All the photos from the old phone I have moved across to my laptop, which currently I do not have access to (as I'm on the road travelling again) so I can't get them. I will endeavour to upload pictures when I get home, and then I can also do two posts about Porvoo and Suomenlinna, two great and easy day trips from Helsinki. (UPDATE!) - It turns out I had dropboxed them to James, and luckily he still had access to them, so I've just uploaded the pictures now and posts will be coming soon! :)

Also worth a visit is the Helsinki city museum. It's a fairly run of the mill museum, with your usual city history, culture and social areas, but at the time Helisnki had an exhibition on about Finland's LGBT history, called Helsexinki. It was very interesting to see how socially progressive Findland was, in comparison with my native England. It was a highly intruding and thought provoking exhibition.

One other fun little site is the marina and local docklands in the centre of Helsinki. Here, you can catch ferries from just about anywhere, but also there's a little pop up market where you can buy all kinds of things. From tourist trinkets, to cloudberry jam, to reindeer burgers to Finnish booze. You'll be surprised at just what you can get, although I have no idea how easy it is to take a full size reindeer antlers on the plane home with you!

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