Helsinki!

This weekend I travelled to Helsinki, Finland to renew my Russian Visa. I had passed through Helsinki before, briefly, but had never had a chance to walk around and familiarize myself with the city. I was impressed. Those Finns have really got it together. Here are photos to document my journey.

This is the Helsinki Railway Station. It is imposing, handsome, and well kept...easily the finest train station I have seen in Europe, maybe in my life.

Need to do some shopping, quickly? No problem...ascend from the efficient Helsinki Metro directly into the mall. While I was walking here, a fire alarm went off. There was no panic. Instead, a friendly voice on a loudspeaker in Finnish and then English, told us 'not to panic yet, an investigation is underway as to whether or not this is a legitimate alarm...until a true emergency has been established, please enjoy your shopping"....and we did.

I must say the Finns have a truly exceptional sense of design and style. The city is divided into the charmingly antique, and, as we see here, the ultra-modern. The impressive thing is how smooth the merge between the contrasting styles is accomplished.

Here we see the classi Helsinki. It's a dream! This is what St. Petersburg must have looked like 200 years ago when the paint was still dryin on Peter's dream town. The Finns know how to maintain!

A well kept, brilliantly white, orthodox church just opposit the row of houses from the previous picture. If you notice, the Finns have even shoveled clean a little walkway up the snowy steps. How considerate.

Of course, every culture has it's eccentricities and the Finns are no exception. Here we have a delightfully odd window for a second hand clothing store downtown. The manequin is wearing a garbage-bag dress.

Probably the most Russian thing I saw in Helsinki was this stone mural. I don't know what the Finnish means, but the style seems rather socialistic. However, its much too well kept to be a Russian monument...that's the giveaway.

For a European capital, Helsinki is actually not a large city. If you walk all the way to the edge of the center, you will find the vast frozen expanse of the Nordic Sea. An hour to the south lies, Talinn, Estonia. I contemplated jumping a barge and sailing there, but alas, time was not on my side. Enjoy the photos...