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| the one pretty building in helsinki |
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| yawn |
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| attempting (unsuccessfully) to live up to its 'design capital' reputation at the modern art museum |
what the hell-sinki is this place? that was the thought that immediately came to mind upon on arrival in the helsinki port. i guess i was expecting a little ikea village of blonde haired, blue eyed svens and toves wandering around in scandinavian christmas sweaters feeding reindeer and singing folk songs. instead i got an industrial looking city with soviet block architecture and not an ounce of charm. it was pretty brutal. we tried our best to explore different parts of the city to see if anything would captivate us, but alas nothing here seemed to resonate. my only highlight was visiting the merrimeko design studio and concept store (okay actually i went into every merimekko store in the town as emil patiently waited outside). i am hoping scandinavia gets better from here. off to sweden and not looking back.
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| the second pretty building in helsinki |
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| little islands in helsinki harbour |
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| coat of arms at the fort |
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| suomenlinna fort |
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| emil after mounting the cannon |
another example of coming into a country with just the wrong set of expectations. finland was my first visit to a scandinavian country and i was excited. i thought we'd be greeted by some mythical woodland creature or perhaps a hockey playing elf named after some unpronounceable modern lamp shade from ikea like fjornkl and that people would live in handmade lincoln log homes constructed of live christmas trees. alas it's a rather plain and tired looking town. maybe the proximity to russia (15 hours by boat) has lead helsinki to pick up some bad soviet style or perhaps people stay indoors for such a long duration of their lives that they don't much care what the facades of buildings look like. we took a forgettable boat trip to an island that acted as the principal fort guarding helsinki (it didn't work since russia attacked by land) and we checked out a forgettable museum or two. the best part of helsinki was the salmon which is served on nearly every street corner and it was truly fantastic. laurel just told me that ikea is in fact based in sweden not finland so alas i have something to look forward to.
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| laurel wishing she could sail away |
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| salmon, salmon and more salmon |
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