'I went to the museum where they had all the heads and arms
from the statues that are in all the other museums.' -Steven Wright
Day 1- Jan. 2nd: Well, the second day of 2013 did
not start off entirely the greatest. It was a very early morning- the alarm
clock was ringing at 3.30 and then it was time to finish up packing and head
off to the airport. Aimee was not feeling very well at all this morning so we
took it a little slower when walking to the bus station to pick up a bus to the
airport. The bus station is connected to both the metro and the train station
as well and we got there rather quickly…or so we thought. We arrived at the
bottom train station, but we needed to get above to the bus station. So we
found some signs pointing us in the right direction, but they were locked. So
we decided just to follow the exit signs to get back out on top and come in a
different direction, expect the signs did not lead us anywhere and all of the
doors we did find were also locked. We were completely trapped in the bottom of
the train station with nowhere to go. So what do all smart college students do?
Of course you run across multiple sets of train tracks. And if anyone was to
ask us, of course neither of us saw the multiple signs listing how severe the
danger and fine would be if we were to get caught. So now on the other side of
the tracks our luck should have picked up, but it didn't. We followed the exit
signs that lead us downstairs, but every door we tried again was locked. Luckily,
we found a maintenance man cleaning up part of the area we were near and
thankfully he spoke English. After asking him for help, he lead us back to all
the same doors we tried and was equally as confused as to why they wouldn’t
open. Finally he lead us back to a door and used his key to let us through and
we literally ran from there to the desk in the bus station and quickly bought
our tickets and hopped on the bus. We got the airport and through security with
no problem, but Aimee was still not feeling well. We got on the plane and I was
instantly asleep. About half through the flight I woke up to Aimee shaking my
shoulder asking if she could go to the bathroom, and as I was letting her pass
she informed me that she had puked and was taking her little white puke bag to
the bathroom. Thankfully after that she felt much better. We landed all too
quickly and hopped on a bus to the hostel. Our hostel is incredible. It’s a
little farther away, but we get to stay in the old Olympic Stadium from the
summer Olympics of 1952. It was originally built for the 1938 Olympics, but
because of World War II, it was never held. We’re surrounded by all of the old
fields and right outside our window is the soccer stadium. Also, our room is
absolutely huge, especially compared to our hostel in Stockholm. We arrived at
the hostel around 10.00 and instantly crashed until 2 o’clock. Then we slowly
awoke and found a grocery store and stocked up for the rest of our time. We
then made a nice stew, well really I should say Aimee made a nice stew and I
helped cut up veggies. The evening was spent planning our few days we have
here, as well as a ferry day trip down to Tallinn, Estonia on Saturday! So it’s
an early night tonight and a busy day tomorrow!
Day 2- Jan. 3rd: Today we got up and after a
quick breakfast headed down towards the center of the city. We first stopped in
the central train station to buy tickets to Tallinn and sign up for a bus tour
in the afternoon. We bought a ‘Helsinki Card’ which gave us free/discounted
entrance to a lot of museums and free public transportation. Due to the
absolutely freezing weather and some more rain, we really got our money’s worth
out of the free museum part. We spent the rest of our morning walking around
the Museum of Cultures and another free art museum right by it. In the art museum,
it was pretty funny because the whole upper floor was dedicated to a sci-fi
movie called “Iron Sky”, which is all about how the Nazi’s have a military base
on the dark side of the moon and are planning on taking over the Earth. The
best part was messing around with the green screen there. After a quick lunch
we headed back for a free audio bus tour. We were driven all around the city
for about two hours and saw lots of monuments/ buildings- the Grand Cathedral,
the house of Parliament, the President’s Palace, the Rock Church, Sibelius
Monument, etc.
Next we headed off to the Finland Photography Museum, but
unfortunately they were moving the exhibit, so at the time it was quite small.
But connected to that was the Theater Museum, which was actually quite fun
because it was quite interactive and lots of costumes to dress up in!
We then headed back to the hostel for some pasta to warm us
up and a quick break before we headed back to the Contemporary Arts Museum,
which was closing so we did a very quick run through. The night was concluded
with a stop at Molly’s- an Irish pub with some good live music and then it was
off to bed.
Day 3- Jan. 4th: Today we spent the morning at
Suomenlinna- one of the largest sea fortresses in the world and it’s on
UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites. It was built in the 1700’s when Finland
was a part of Sweden and today is home to about 800 permanent residents. We
hopped on a ferry in the morning and spent the day there going through the museum
and walking around the small island. It was really quite peaceful and
beautiful.
We headed back into Helsinki in the early afternoon and went
to the Kumbukumbu or the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission Museum, which was
basically a museum about some of the culture of China and a tribe in Ghana. We
then headed back to the central train station for a quick break, some donuts
and to warm up. After that we wandered to the Geological museum and Finland’s
National Museum for some more cultural stuff. Trust me, by this time,
everything starts to look the same. Luckily we switched things up that night
and tried to take a tour of the Lux Helsinki. Lux Helsinki is a festival going
on from January 4th until the 8th, where the city had
hired artists to decorate certain parts of the city’s buildings or parks with
the theme of ‘light’. Total there is about 12 displays. It is all to add a
little bit of light during this very dark time of the season. We started at the
Grand Cathedral and met up with our tour group and watched this wonderful
display on the Cathedral. We then proceeded down through the city towards the
Contemporary Art Museum. Here we saw a few more light decorations, both of
which were not very impressive. But then we were able to see one which consisted
of a fire show. My camera died, but I was able to capture this short video of
it. It was so impressive. Unfortunately after that we decided to head back homeà
it was way too cold and our tour guide was not very knowledgeable about any of
the displays. We warmed up with some food and then planned our day tomorrow in
Tallinn!
Day 4- Jan. 5th: Whoop whoop! Spent this very
cold day in Estonia today! We had to get
up super early to catch our 8.30 ferry into Tallinn. Since being here in
Europe, I’ve taken plenty of ferries, but never one this big! It was huge, but
unfortunately, I was way too tired to go exploring and spent the two hour ride
napping. Soon we arrived in Tallinn and, after seeing the size of the city,
realized all of our planning and timing was pretty unnecessary. It is quite
small and in fact, we got everything we wanted to do done by 2 o’clock in the
afternoon. We walked around all of the Old Town and saw St. Olav’s church, the
Town Hall Square, the Christmas Market, Freedom Square, St. Catherine’s
Passage, the Great Coastal Gate, parts of the Town Wall, lookouts over the
city, the Cathedral of Saint Mary the Virgin, and the Palace. And of course,
our day wouldn’t be complete without at least one museum to warm us up, so we
headed to the Museum of Occupations, and learned all about Estonia’s occupation
by the Nazi’s and the Soviet Union> Our afternoon was spent satisfying our
consumer side as we wandered through the more modern side of the city and spent
a few hours in a mall. After a really satisfying and cheap meal at a restaurant
in the more modern city, we headed back into the Old Town to have a look of it
at night. To be honest, I felt like I was entering an amusement park. The tower
gates’ were lite up, there were people in costumes and souvenirs booths all
over. We meandered through the market once more and headed up for a nice night
look out over the city. We then slowly made our way back to catch our 9 o’clock
ferry back to Helsinki. Now, it’s off to bed.
Day 5- Jan. 6th: Last day in Helsinki and now I’m
in the airport waiting to leave for Norway. This morning was pretty slow. We
packed up and ate some breakfast. We then headed off to the Grand Cathedral to
attend a Lutheran service in Finnish. We were given a bulletin in English so we
could follow along, which was nice, because Finnish is a very strange language.
We then made our way down to the market right on the harbor. We spent some time
looking over all of the different booths, but the cold air and wind from the
sea soon lead us back to the tram stop and some nice warm food at the hostel.
Soon enough it was time to head to the airport. Aimee was hopping a plane to
Denmark and left an hour or so earlier than I did, but I was way too cold to
even think about exploring the city more, so I headed to the airport with her.
After my flight gets in, I’ll get on a train and be back in Bø at 12.30
tonight!
Here's some pictures from Helsinki
And here are a few from Tallinn-
Sweden and Finland were very wonderful, but I’ve come to two
conclusions about the cities. 1.) They want your hands to suffer from the cold
as they love to eat your mittens/ gloves. I lost one of my mittens the first
day in Sweden and Aimee lost one the first day in Finland. All over the ground
too we were finding single gloves/mittens lying around. Often we were tempted
to pick them up to make a full pair, just to keep our hands warm. 2.) I am
going to start a charity to collect shovels to donate to the city. NO ONE KNOWS
HOW TO SHOVEL THEIR SIDEWALKS HERE!! It is so ridiculous! I have never walked
through so much slush in my life! Good thing I brought my boots :)
Tomorrow I start up classes again and also meet all of the
new international students coming in for the spring semester. Time to be on my
best behavior as I have to make some new friends- going to be hard as I’m so
stinken tired. Anyways, I hope you all had/ are having a wonderful Christmas
break! Love and miss you all so much!!
-Marissa
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