Happy volcanic ash week! The last one of these, and we can get back to where I actually, you know, live.
The train to Helsinki was uneventful but pleasant. Every finnish train I went on was extremely comfortable, very nice cushions for the head among other things. I just sat there and watched the trees and lakes slide past. I was looking out for a reduction in snow and although there was a bit, mostly it still looked pretty darn snowy all the way...
I got out of the station, found a free (if unwieldy) map, booked a hostel and then thought about what I should actually be doing. I was pretty darned glad to have a hostel to be honest, even though one night in Helsinki in Spring was never exactly going to be a huge problem... The romantic explorer part of my brain was rather taken with the idea of an island fortress out to sea, so I decided that this would be my first port of call. The place is called Suomenlinna, originally a giant Swedish naval base (Sveaborg) from the 18th century and generally strategically important all the way through history. Today a surprisingly large number of people live on the island(s), it is like a village connected directly to Helsinki by a 20 minute boat ride. Apparently though, Helsinki really owes its existence and expansion to the fortress, rather than the other way round. On my walk to the harbour I was struck by how much more swedish Helsinki is, although there are two official languages in Finland I hadn't really seen such an obvious swedish presence before, with swedish theaters, bookshops, dual text on everything, and of course swedish written or carved on the older buildings.
The view when I got there was pretty amazing. I hadn't for a moment considered that the sea would freeze over, and coming across the whole harbour filled with ice fragments all bobbing and clinking and crunching against each other was definitely exciting. The bright sunshine of course helped! In the distance I could make out some tiny islands in the bay and the tall blocky shapes of the ferries, and looking inland the towering Orthodox and Lutheran cathedrals were just sitting there against the blue sky! Noice. The ride was windy and cold and incredibly incredibly bumpy, but very fun. I guess it was us pushing ice fragments under our hull and them scraping under us that caused all the noise and shuddering, as the ice ahead was very well broken up for us already. Whatever it was, it seemed pretty routine.
I got out of the ferry and looking at the map I realised that this place was huge! Its not really a single castle type fortress but a big sprawling ex military village/ town with bits of walls and bastions all around it, all meandering confusingly and seemingly the result of many many layers of building. The walk to the southern point of the island was about 2 km I think. All kinds of different buildings, big granite walls and gates, small houses, wooden huts, and some people who definitely looked like locals rather than tourists. They had that semi resentful look I imagine they reserve for out of season tourists disturbing their peace. The whole island is really just a smoothed out lump of bedrock from the last glaciation, very low down indeed. The ragged edge means you can pretty much always see one or two bays and bits of sea but it was only when I reached the Southern point and gun batteries that I got a really good view back towards helsinki and out towards the little swarms of other islands on the horizons. As usual, my photos of the place maybe make all this pontificating pretty pointless. I tried to imagine what it would have been like being a swedish guard there in winter, but I really couldn't. Too cold.
I managed to go down to the still partially snow covered beach, where I indulged in some brief geological exploration, before realising quite how late it was getting. I found time for a beer that had been brewed on the island, but my enjoyment was dented by the (typical) €7 price tag!
Back in town I wandered around the outside of the brilliant red brick Orthodox Cathedral (sadly closed for easter things) and then up to the big landmark Lutheran cathedral opposite it. Inside it was pretty minimal, big but not that impressive, but the big swathe of steps and square leading up to it looked great in the sun. The first boombox wielding teenagers of the year had just taken up residence on the steps, lovely to see the circle of life continuing.
Afterwards I went to look at the natural history museum, which was free, but actually not as great as the Jyvaskyla one because it was less specific to Finland and I had in any case seen all of the stuffed fauna before by this point. Still, a competent exhibition about the evolution of life, I just wish there had been more about actually finnish rocks. Sadly these are very poor at portraying the history of life, I think there was a quote in there that Finland's geological record is like the covers of a book with no middle, ancient rocks and rocks from last week and almost nothing in between!
My big plan was to explore the city further by going on a big walk, the purpose of which would be to find some kinda finnish food. Sadly this was not to be, there were only chinese, thai, nepalese and italian restaurants, with the occasional closed tapas bar or fast food shop. Weary from my semi aimless wandering in the geometric streets (grid patterns still freak me out a little bit...) I settled for an actually very good indian restaurant, rationalising that I hadn't actually had an Indian since the last summer, so it was still unusual enough. I consumed a delicious spinach soup and cheese (Paneer?) food which I am sure Claire would A) scoff at the inauthenticity of and B) know what to call.
My hostel bed was as all hostel beds are, pretty poor really, I have no idea what happens in winter. I had selected it though because it was a brief walk from the bus, airport and freedom! To cut a long and tedious story short, I woke up and then eventually landed in Vienna. And there you go! More than you ever really wanted to know about the furthest north I have ever been!
Der Tomppa
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