Travelogue, Day 2: Helsinki

Well-recovered from our early morning burger run and long walk by what we’ve now found out is a graveyard, the day started well.

Mr. Torsten slept until I took him in for a shower at around 10, and I got a great deal of sleep last night myself, so all was good.

We met up with a secretive and mysterious Finnish friend of ours, who cannot be named lest he be revealed as a betrayer of the secrets of Finnish culture, and headed out for a walk across Helsinki and a cruise to Suomenlinna, with a stop by what he labelled the “doom church” (apparently, it’s probably closer to “judgement church”, but “doom” and “judgement”, we are informed, are the same word in Finnish, so “doom” sounds a lot better (and reveals something interesting about Finnish speakers, if you ask me . I didn’t take a picture, so daunted by the stairs was I, but it was sort of anticlimactic – very spartan, on the inside, for my taste. Maybe those who are not doomed see more, who knows

Little guy was off-and-on fussy throughout the day, although he did sleep pretty much through the night with a two-hour break in the middle. Nothing to complain about – the fact that he’s actually doing longer sleeps when it’s nighttime, in spite of the fact that the sun sets about 10 pm and is up again by 4 or so is pretty freaking awesome. Did I mention we have a superbaby?

Anyhow… I have to admit, I was a little too tired to enjoy much, though our friend was very generous in his tour guide capacity and added his typically wry wit to the day. I was just sort of a grump because it was hot, I was tired, and I’m still pretty out-of-shape from the pregnancy. I’m sure a week in Turku, our next destination, will sort that all out.

But I do like Helsinki – it’s a lot like most other larger European cities, but I happen to like them, so that’s fine by me. Really good public transport, nice nature within the city, and right on the Baltic sea – all good. The only thing I’ve really got to complain about is the weather – coming from a place with 300+ sunny days a year, we were hoping for some nice “crappy” cold and rainy European weather, and instead we got so much sun that I got a rather nasty sunburn. That said, we have another month here and will be in lots of typically rainy places, so I’m sure we’ll get our chance. One of my CELTA trainers is a Brit who relocated to Colorado and says he’s addicted to the sunshine – I, on the other hand, miss really miss weeks of rain. To each his own, I guess… (and the sun is nice sometimes, it’s just too bloody intense in Denver, being a mile closer to the sun than most places… I guess I just underestimated it here

We really only had a full day here to look around, and since packing up to go to the next place takes a while when you’ve really only got one suitcase (ok, and several smaller bags for baby stuff) and have to pack tightly, we’ll see little tomorrow before we leave. We did bring along a crap suitcase C’s parents had left for us so that we’d meet weight requirements on the plane (transatlantic weight limits are now 50 lbs. instead of the old 75), but we’re planning on ditching that here because it’s a bear to transport, so repacking this morning is fun. (I’m only blogging at the moment because the boys are napping and me repacking clothes into Space Bags makes too much noise…) I came back early y(after a yummy Thai dinner) to crash with Torsten while C and our Finnish friend walked to the beach, but I was honestly so sapped I wouldn’t have enjoyed it anyway. There’s plenty more beach and sea to be seen before we leave Scandinavia in a week and a half.

But anyway, I’m a little sorry we don’t get to spend more time here – we did get to walk through some nice areas yesterday, and I wish I’d had the presence of mind to take more pictures. I always feel like a dork taking touristy pictures, but I always wish I’d taken them when I don’t. So lame.

Anyhow, this was really just a waystop to recover from the flight – tomorrow afternoon, we’re off for nearly a week in Turku, the old capital of Finland. Christian will be at a conference, and Torsten and I will explore. Little guy is turning out to be a great travel companion – his curiosity level is perfect for seeing new places, and I think he and I will have some fun. I plan on taking it mostly easy during the next week with him, but since we’re there for several days, there’s no rush. Today is Torsten’s first time on a distance train, so it should be fun. I think he’ll like it.

Tomorrow is unlikely to be all that exciting, given that it’s mostly dedicated to leaving one hostel, hopping a train, and checking in tomorrow, but all the same, more then