Hello Helsinki

I'm not totally sure why I went to Helsinki.  All I know is that the first evening was unreal.  I arrived at my hostel exhausted but curious to see what the city had to offer, so I decided to take a jog and cover some decent ground.  I found myself running along the oceanside in gorgeous summer weather, noting the lack salt in the air; apparently the Baltic is way less salty than the Pacific.  The more you know.

Running was a good and bad choice.  I don't know what was in the air that night, but every other runner I passed was the human equivalent of a barbie doll.  Mouth agape, I pushed on until dusk - I couldn't stop.  This was a poor decision: my calf decided to give out, and I was gimped for the next two weeks of travelling.  Worth it.

The next morning (August 2) I grabbed a tourist map and went for my usual sightseeing trip.  Here are the highlights:

This is the Train Station.  Neato.

The harbour, which is not where I went running.  

Another harbour picture

Tuomiokirkko (Lutheran Cathedral)

I stopped for the first fresh salmon I'd had in a looong time.  The coffee was good too.  

Mo' harbour

Reindeer sub.  

They have some cool architecture

Helsinki was being featured as the Design Capital of the World for 2012, so they had the odd event going (that was a big reason I came in the first place).  I eventually made my way over to the Cable Factory, where they had a bunch of the latest in Finnish design.

HI Design at the Cable Factory

They had some cool exhibits, but it was a little underwhelming as a whole.

Fancytram

 I took a quick jaunt from my hostel late that afternoon to Church in the Rock.  I was pretty Churched out by this point (7 months in Europe will do that to you), but the architecture of this one left a lasting impression.  It was gorgeous:

Temppeliaukio Church (Church in the Rock)

 After eating, I saw hints of a beautiful sunset.  I limped up to the highest point I could find near my hostel and enjoyed the beauty of it.  My hostel was boring and there was no partying or young people, so this was the extent of my night:

A sunset.  

On Friday I went on a Design Tour.  I was hoping for something more related to Industrial Design, but instead I saw a bunch of furniture, jewelry, and grandfather clocks.

My thoughts exactly.

Some furniture tricks you into thinking it's comfortable

A fine example of Finnish design.  

During the design tour, I finally met another person my age.  Julia and I hopped over to the fortified island of Suomenlinna, where we explored old settlements, strongholds and salty candies.  Salmiakki is a traditional Finnish candy of similar texture to wine gums.  The best way I can describe it is as a mouthful of sweet seawater.  Addicting and not overly pleasant in my books, it wasn't my favourite.

Salmiakki (traditional Finnish candy)

We strolled around, eventually reaching the end of the island.  There was a gap of what looked to be about 100 metres to the next island, and a cruise ship was steaming towards it.  I watched as this behemoth of a boat navigated the narrow channel with what was probably 25 metres on each side.  Damn impressive if I do say so myself.  Oh, and an airplane came by doing barrel rolls and flips.

Gosh darn Silja Line, you're uncomfortably close

Julia and I grabbed dinner, sampling some of the local fruit wines and hiding from the torrential rain that decided to make an appearance.  With an early flight the next morning, I packed my bag that night and retired, excited to see what more Scandinavia had to offer.