After a few more hours sleep and a long shower, our ferry deposited us on the shores of Finalnd.
Although I swear to you it felt as if we had never left land. The Stockholm archipelago, consisting of some 24,000 islands, kept close company to us throughout the first part of the journey, then after a small crossing of completely empty sea, it was back through an archipelago on the Finnish side.
All of this meant that our journey was incredibly smooth, In fact the Baltic Ocean has been incredibly flat wherever we have been near it’s shores. This ocean is so tucked away that it does not have a tide. It’s incredible ice blue waters seem to invite you in at every chance, though those that take the chance at this time of year must ensure that there is a sauna nearby to survive without getting hypothermia.
We headed into Turku, the old Finnish capital during the time when the Swedes owned most of the lands we have travelled through.
We’re hoping to get a hostel here and join what looks like a parade of boiler suited students. This is actually their “drinking dress” and it allows them to do silly stuff such as rolling in the grass and getting covered in beer without destroying any of their normal clothes. I think this throws the Finnish hurtling into first place for practical yet crazy Scandinavians.
Unfortunately all of the hostels are booked, the campsites are shut at this hour and we have little choice but to roll on towards the heady lights of Helsinki.
It is late at night by the time we arrive at our hostel in Espoo, a late night made later by the fact that we have jumped another time zone, now being two hours ahead of London – oh and it is only just getting dark at half past 11. Which is really screwing with our body clocks.
THe next morning brings a day of just chilling out, enjoying the brilliantly beautiful beaches of Espoo and the Baltic Coastline, the pine trees add an exotic, almost meditterainean feel the just seems out of place in a country where there are only two months that are called “summer”. The sandy beaches also look out of place, it is only the giant rocks, seen strewn about the landscape and forming cliff edges and formations almost everywhere (our hostel has a roundabout around one such rock in the car park, it’s just too big to be moved), yes – it is only these that remind you that you are in a country more used to snow than sun.
After a day of doing, well not much really, we head into the city of Helsinki. We took the van. Not a good idea. Sat Nav does not cope with small streets. We do not cope with cobbles. Van does not cope with tight corners. We all fall out, but make amends once we find a cool car park. Apart from the Sat Nav, that has got a lot of apologising to do.
The first thing that surprises us about Helsinki is the incredible, imposing and – in this sunlight – bloody reflective, Cathedral.
It sits up on a plinth, it’s own small plateau in the rising above the streets of Helsinki and commands every tourist to climb the seemingly endless amount of steps up to it.
The interior is lavishly decorated with gold dripping down from every chandelier and up from every candlestick. It is in stark contrast to the red building sitting on the other side of the river. The Orthodox Cathedral looks very formal, though its own imposing power is most definitately there, it does not command such a large square or plinth for itself.
We are meeting up with another person from Couchsurfing.org. This website is a must for travellers, we have found so many different people already and always had a good time.
Sara meets us outside of the white Cathedral and takes us across on yet another boat to the small island of Suomenlinna, literaly translated to Finnish Fortress.
There are two sides to this place. One is the newer looking Russian side, with small garrisons, shops and other administrative wooden huts dotted around. Across a small wooden bridge is found the much grander and larger castle. Our view of this is distracted though by the hot weather and the view of the Baltic, so blue, lapping against a small sandy beach and our destination is set.
The afternoon passes us almost without saying a word, then Luke and I return the van to the youth hostel (sat nav is still in the dog house) and travel back into Helsinki by bus, for tonight is Eurovision night and Luke, Sara and I have a date with a large tv screen and a large, cold beer.
