There's really not much I can say about Helsinki, partly because I was only there for just over a day and partly because there's just not much TO Helsinki.
Now, if you have been to Helsinki and found it enrapturing, enchanting, intriguing, or even just alive- I would love to hear about your experience because we clearly saw a different city.
I found Helsinki to be...
- Clean
- Empty
- Uniform
- COLD
- Plain
- Boring
- Rigid
- Pretty
- Nice
- Passive
The three bright spots of the city were:
The Lutheran Helsinki Cathedral
And this little Nepalese restaurant around the corner from EuroHostel where we stayed that was the best I've ever had!(Nepalese is, to put it simply, kind of a blend between Indian and Chinese cuisines)
Helsinki wasn't a bad place, I just didn't see any vibrancy there. No life, no excitement. There weren't many people out (granted it was really cold), and the few that were walking were not very friendly. Everyone and everything seemed to be that kind of bland, cold, conformist Stepford kind of pretty- but it was pretty))
I think I'm really glad I went to Helsinki, though, because it gave me a city that I don't particularly like. In my opinion a tourist will say every place was "great" or "beautiful", but a real traveler is someone with enough experience and learned discernment to be able to say- "You know what? It just wasn't my kind of city, I didn't like it." and I think at this milestone I am slowly moving up the ladder to true traveler (or, as I like to say, tourista) status!
We hoped on a small bus to St. Petersburg around 6:00 at night and rolled on out of Finland...St. Petersburg is yet to come!
