Blue skies in Helsinki

After spending two full-on days of touring in St. Petersburg, we made our way to Helsinki, Finland for a day.  Helsinki was clean, calm, and cool.  I really liked this city and I think it was John's favourite one that we visited on our trip.  We spent our morning riding street cars and walking around the downtown area.  Our first stop was Temppeliaukio - aka "The Rock Church."  This Lutheran church is a round shape built into solid rock, with skylights and a large domed roof.  It was pretty cool to sit in there and listen to a musician play the piano despite all the people snapping photos around the place.

After finding the Rock Church we walked around town, making our way back towards the harbour.  We passed by this big crane which was holding a table of people in the sky.  It was an attraction aptly named "Dinner in the Sky."  We tried to sign up for it but it was all booked for the day.  Basically you book a time slot and then you get taken up in a crane to have a meal in the sky.  It is so odd but looks like it would be a cool experience.  We were sad that it was booked, but we had no idea that it existed before we stumbled across it.  Maybe we'll find a "Dinner in the Sky" again some day soon!

Later on we eventually found ourselves at Esplanadi, which is an area of the city with a park and streets lined with a bunch of restaurants.  We strolled on through to the waterfront area where we found some type of beer garden and spent a while using their free wifi and drinking a beer called "The Midnight Sun."

Just up the road from there was the huge Helsinki Cathedral which seemed to hover over the waterfront.  This Lutheran cathedral has a huge dome and from the outside is quite impressive.  On the inside it is fairly plain in comparison.  I liked walking up the steps and then looking back at the city.  The sky was so blue that day and the weather was warm and perfect for wandering around outdoors.

The best part about Helsinki was its relaxed vibe.  We found the Market Square near the harbour, bought some souvenirs, and ordered food from one of the stalls.  We tried some roasted potatoes and reindeer meatballs with ligonberry jam (apparently a popular meal in Finland).  It was ok but I'm not a big meat-eater so I didn't love it!  I felt a bit weird eating Prancer!  :(

I would like to visit Helsinki again some day.  It was too bad we didn't get more time in the city, but that's how cruises usually are.  Even though you get to see a lot of places, you have limited time at each port of call.  When we were sailing out of Helsinki the water was so calm and there were so many islands that were part of the Finnish archipelago.  Finland is a lovely country with friendly people.  Hopefully one day we can go back and explore some more places there!