Date of Visit : 21 - 24 November 2011
I had a funny experience when flying into Helsinki. I always like to observe the descent and the landing when I am sitting on a window seat. It was dark when we started descending, but I was able to see that we had dropped below the main cloud cover. After what felt like a couple thousand of feet of descending, where you would know the airplane is nearing touchdown, the plane went into what seems to be cloud cover again. I was very puzzle about this as it was rather impossible to have cloud at such low altitudes. Sure enough, before I knew it, we hit the runway, even though the view outside the window still seems to show cloud. It's my first landing in strong fog. It's quite amazing how modern technology has allowed such landings to be possible.
Alright, back on track to Helsinki. I am crashing at my friend's, Amelia, place. One of the first difference I noticed was surprisingly not the weather, but the train cleaners. The train cleaners are actually hot blond chicks! WTH? How come we only have Bangladeshis?
Helsinki does not have any famous buildings or attractions. It's all the usual churches and museums that is available in almost all European cities. There is one interesting fact about the two churches in the city, the red church and white church. They were built on 2 separate hills facing each other, and they were sort of "enemy" of each other as one represent the Orthodox Church while the other represents the Lutheran Church.
In my opinion, the white church clearly wins because it is much better lighted up at night. :)
There is also another unique church in the city. It is made entire of rocks and is dome shaped. When I went inside, there was someone playing the piano, so I sat down for a moment and just let myself be drowned in the music.
Being in Finland, I thought I will be surrounded by Nokia stores. Wrong again! I only went past one Nokia store in the city, so I took a photo of it, just for the fun of it.
I met up with my exchange buddy in NTU last semester, Mikko. He studies in Helsinki, and he decided to bring me around the city. One of the places we visited is the Olympic Stadium. It has a tall tower that overlooks the entire city and into the surrounding sea. There are no tall buildings at all in Helsinki, and the architecture of the buildings differs slightly from mainland Europe. It kind of felt more "soviet-y" to me.
Helsinki has a fortress island called Suomenlinna, and it is located about 10 minutes by ferry away from the city. The island is really quiet and peaceful, and it is not crowded with tourist at all. But I guess that's because it's the end of autumn now, the low season for travelling. I was able to walk undisturbed throughout the island. My favorite part of the island is the coastal part, where I can look out into the sea. I really enjoyed the serenity of that place. I feel that I can just sit there looking into the sea for hours, if the weather is good.
With that, I conclude my visit to Helsinki. I would say that this city is a good place to visit for a day trip, anything more and you might find yourself doing nothing, ok, maybe you can visit some museums or stuff. I shall end this post with random photos of the city.
I had a funny experience when flying into Helsinki. I always like to observe the descent and the landing when I am sitting on a window seat. It was dark when we started descending, but I was able to see that we had dropped below the main cloud cover. After what felt like a couple thousand of feet of descending, where you would know the airplane is nearing touchdown, the plane went into what seems to be cloud cover again. I was very puzzle about this as it was rather impossible to have cloud at such low altitudes. Sure enough, before I knew it, we hit the runway, even though the view outside the window still seems to show cloud. It's my first landing in strong fog. It's quite amazing how modern technology has allowed such landings to be possible.
Alright, back on track to Helsinki. I am crashing at my friend's, Amelia, place. One of the first difference I noticed was surprisingly not the weather, but the train cleaners. The train cleaners are actually hot blond chicks! WTH? How come we only have Bangladeshis?
(They are the 2 girls in visibility jacket. I tried to be discreet when taking the photo)
I was expecting freezing cold weather in Helsinki, but as usual on this trip, I was wrong. The weather this year is very unusual in Europe, as winter is coming late for many places. I was told there was meters of snow already in Helsinki at this time the previous year.
Helsinki does not have any famous buildings or attractions. It's all the usual churches and museums that is available in almost all European cities. There is one interesting fact about the two churches in the city, the red church and white church. They were built on 2 separate hills facing each other, and they were sort of "enemy" of each other as one represent the Orthodox Church while the other represents the Lutheran Church.
In my opinion, the white church clearly wins because it is much better lighted up at night. :)
There is also another unique church in the city. It is made entire of rocks and is dome shaped. When I went inside, there was someone playing the piano, so I sat down for a moment and just let myself be drowned in the music.
Being in Finland, I thought I will be surrounded by Nokia stores. Wrong again! I only went past one Nokia store in the city, so I took a photo of it, just for the fun of it.
I met up with my exchange buddy in NTU last semester, Mikko. He studies in Helsinki, and he decided to bring me around the city. One of the places we visited is the Olympic Stadium. It has a tall tower that overlooks the entire city and into the surrounding sea. There are no tall buildings at all in Helsinki, and the architecture of the buildings differs slightly from mainland Europe. It kind of felt more "soviet-y" to me.
Helsinki has a fortress island called Suomenlinna, and it is located about 10 minutes by ferry away from the city. The island is really quiet and peaceful, and it is not crowded with tourist at all. But I guess that's because it's the end of autumn now, the low season for travelling. I was able to walk undisturbed throughout the island. My favorite part of the island is the coastal part, where I can look out into the sea. I really enjoyed the serenity of that place. I feel that I can just sit there looking into the sea for hours, if the weather is good.
With that, I conclude my visit to Helsinki. I would say that this city is a good place to visit for a day trip, anything more and you might find yourself doing nothing, ok, maybe you can visit some museums or stuff. I shall end this post with random photos of the city.
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