all hail vic

Day 15 (revision) - Another City, More Wandering

there are many places in this world to see and i consider myself fortunate to be able to do what i'm doing at this moment. and i'm loving it. i would love to have company, of course, but sometimes that isn't always possible...

so, yesterday, i did nothing significant really, except wander around Helsinki. with all museums being closed and not getting some errands out of the way fast enough, i was unable to leave helsinki for the few out-of-helsinki day-trips that are suggested...

what i did see:

Helsinki has two lakes just north of its 'center'. the lakes are side-by-side, east-west and my hostel (in the Olympic stadium) is just off the northwest corner of the western lake. so, to start my day (at 11-ish - i got into a discussion with a scottish bloke for awhile that delayed my already late start) i walked along the western shore of the lake, which is a park. it was a nice little walk and takes you directly into the center of Helsinki.

once in the center, i had some errands to run - 1) to buy another memory card for my ancient digital camera and 2) find out about ferries to Stockholm for Wednesday evening. the former errand was a bane because nobody in advanced civilization starks the miniscule (memory-wise) but large (size-wise) smartmedia cards anymore. so i ended up delivering my two filled ones to have cds made. this was not an idea that i relished because it allows me no control if something happens to the photos and they're lost. the other option was filling up my current memory card, which is inevitable, and not being able to take any more photos. this was not an idea i relished either, and it was the more of two evils, so i had a cd made and the earlier memory cards wiped. i did double check the cd before leaving though.

the second errand was simple and i got it over with quickly. thankfully, both of these errands were in the center of town anyway.

so, i started wandering as a tourist, initially walking down to the Esplanade, a park that runs between two major streets. in the park were many things, including a woman with trained cats (who looked absolutely unhappy and miserable) and one trained poodle.

i wandered through the open air market and up to 'Senate square', which is surrounded on all sides by excellent neo-classical buildings and lorded over, in particular, by a fantastic neo-classical cathedral.

some history about finland: it gained its independence only in 1917. before then it was ruled by both sweden (for some 800 years) and russia (for a much shorter time period, wherein it was granted autonomy anyway). the original capital of finland was turku and it was as such up until the russians gained control of finland in the early 1800's. however, the russians wanted the capital of finland closer, so they moved it to helsinki. and that is when the city began to grow... but helsinki (and it's surrounding suburbs and cities) didn't really start booming (population-wise) until after the second world war.

after Senate square (which was built only after the capital was relocated to Helsinki), i walked up to Uspenski Cathedral, which holds distinction not just because it lords over the harbors of Helsinki but also because it's the largest Eastern Orthodox cathedral in Western Europe. i peaked inside and then hiked back down the hill, back through the market and caught a tram to another religious building, the Temppeliaukio church.

the Temppeliaukio church is fantastic - the design is absolutely unreal. it's a Lutheran church and it's made out of rock. no, scratch that. it is made in a rock. you see, the church sits on the top of another hill, but instead of building the church on top of the hill, they built it into the hill, which was solid rock. the roof is not made of rock, but the walls are rock. and it feels a little like a cave with no roof and a lot of religious things lying around. it's evident that it's like a cave partially because there are grates lining the walls to catch the water that inevitably drips down the walls. (again, photos are forthcoming..) definitely the highlight of Helsinki for me so far.

after that, i headed back into the center of town. it was already getting late and most restaurants close early, not to mention that i decided to check out of tourism for awhile and see what turned out to be a quite mediocre film. i grabbed some all-you-can-eat pizza buffet food (at a restaurant named Rax - i have a story about the name, but it'll have to come later) and went to the film.

after the film, i went back to the hostel, read some, walked around some and turned in early with the intention of getting a jump start on my day today.

Posted by iain at August 23, 2005 08:27 PM