A brief look at Helsinki, Finland: part I

After not being sure whether we would even make it out of Heathrow to go on our much-anticipated Christmas holiday (check out the chaos here), we ended up having a very smooth check-in, stepped over a bunch of people sleeping on mats and boarded our plane on time, while most of the other flights on the information boards were being cancelled or at least severely delayed. It felt like a Christmas miracle (or perhaps it was just wise to fly somewhere that’s set up for snow), and we were over-the-moon to be travelling to Finland. We took off past a queue of grounded planes and landed a few hours later in Helsinki, ready to spend a day in the Finnish capital city.

Our first view of Finland; landing at Helsinki airport

We caught a bus from the airport (a mere €4), which dropped us right in the middle of the city at the VR (train) station. As we were only spending the afternoon in the city before catching a train up to Lapland the same evening, we chose to store our bags in the lockers available at the station for €4. The lockers were huge and our luggage easily fit; so with our belongings safely stored, we were ready to see the sights of Helsinki! With our stomachs demanding attention before anything else, we sat down at a restaurant recommended by a Finnish friend of one of our travelling companions: Ravintola Lasipalatsi. At first we were a bit doubtful, as we were all wearing thermals and snow gear and not feeling too fresh, and this seemed like a fancy restaurant, but as we were all in the same situation we relaxed and ordered our meals. I chose the reindeer starter (I didn’t want too much in case I hated it), and Brendan ordered the Finnish salmon soup with toasted rye bread.

Finnish salmon soup with rye bread

I have to admit; after tasting some of Brendan’s soup, I had complete food envy. This may just have been the best soup I’ve ever tasted! Rich, creamy and hearty, the flavour was not too fishy, the consistency not too watery, the herbs were just the right accompaniment and the earthy, nutty, cutely-shaped rye breads were delicious. Not that the reindeer was bad; it consisted of very small, thin, cold slices resting on salad with a fruity relish – quite tasty, but hard to define the flavour of the reindeer, not hearty enough, and certainly nothing in comparison to that soup! All of the meals ordered around our table were delicious and memorable; if you’re ever in Helsinki, give this one a try!

By the time we got out of the restaurant it was pitch dark (although only about 4pm) and quite cold (roughly -5ºC), but we really wanted to see the Christmas Markets, so we walked down to Pohjoisesplanadi (the road where the Christmas Markets are set up in December), passing snowed-in cars and bikes on our way!

The fun of living in a snowy city!

Statues in the park where the Christmas Markets are held

After we’d perused the crafty (lots of woollen knitted items) and touristy (i.e. an abundance of reindeer-antler paraphernalia) offerings at the markets, we took a short walk down to the harbour, where the ships were anchored and frozen into an ocean of snow!

Nikolai II

It was a stunning sight, but being exposed to the wind made the cold even more biting, so we decided to pop into some of the design stores, also along Pohjoisesplanadi. My favourite was Iittala, which made this stunning crockery design: I liked to call the foxy fellow a peafox; I desperately wanted to find an espresso cup with this cute creature on it, but alas! He only featured on larger items.

Eventually we decided to go in search of a hot chocolate, and ended up at Stockmann (it was described to me as the Harrods of Finland by a girl from Helsinki, but I’d probably say it’s more like John Lewis); where we enjoyed a lovely hot chocolate and some gingerbread before we had to venture back to the train station to catch our overnight train to Kolari, in Lapland. At first I imagined the journey to be somewhat like Audrey Tatou’s in the Chanel No. 5 advert, but the reality was *ever so slightly* less glamorous! Not only did we not have a sleeper carriage, but our seats didn’t recline, the fluorescent lights didn’t get turned off and we were seated right next to the door, through which people were hauling luggage in and out all night. It was an awful journey, but after 16 hours on the train (including a much-appreciated 3 hour delay), we had finally arrived in Lapland. Now we just needed to catch one more bus…

Not sure if they correctly translated the word 'Express'