Helsinki/Turku - 10/22

Last day here. Well, half day. My train to Turku left at noon so I still had half a day to explore the city. After saying goodbye to Anna I headed to the city center. I realized I hadn't seen the southern part of the city and there is supposed to be a cool park there so I walked around a bit. Once again beautiful weather.

 
There was a recommended cafe on the edge of the water but there was no outside seating! Screw that, I want to spend my last hour in Helsinki enjoying the sunshine. After wandering around the park some more I went back to the fish market. There's a really cool tent set up that sells coffee. Sitting in the sun drinking really strong Finnish coffee and eating a traditional donut was a really good way to end my time there. The city is a lot busier when it's really nice out. Duh.

Crumb Thieves

Time to do some souvenir shopping. I really wanted to buy a corny 'traditional' Finnish hat from a vendor but they were actually really ugly, not cool for $30. Oh well, I have my postcards, memories and photos.

The train to Turku wasn't as spectacular as I had hoped for. Sure, the Finnish countryside is nice but it's not too different than Denmark; mostly farmland and fields. The most exciting part was listening to Finnish radio. I didn't feel like using the battery on my MP3 player so I plugged into the train. The first thing I hear: Nightwish! So cool being in a country that not only has no problem with metal but plays my favorite bands on the radio. Really exciting to hear it like that.

I didn't know what to expect from Turku. It's the second biggest city in Finland, but that really doesn't mean much. I had 6 hours there and I thought that would be perfect. Arrived at 3pm and the big castle closed at 4 so I ran to the bus and made it just in time. Castle was pretty cool, nothing too special but it's the biggest tourist attraction so I had to see it.

Made it back into the city to start exploring and look for dinner. Saw the Cathedral and the main square with the walking streets, and riverfront etc.Couldn't find the place I wanted to eat at and the recommended bar didn't serve food. Hadn't eaten in about 6 hours but still wasn't ready to go down the kebab path. Saw a Viking themed restaurant, really couldn't say no even though it was kinda pricey. For some stupid reason they didn't serve mead but the food was actually incredible. Goat cheese salad and game stew with rabbit, deer and bacon.

 

So, I've explored the vast majority of the city, seen the two biggest sites and eaten dinner....in 3 hours. Still 3 hours to go, great. It was getting pretty cold and dark so I just needed to find someplace to sit. Found the local mall and just sat on a bench and read for about an hour. Decided to walk along the river to the ferry terminal and still got there an hour before check in.

I had to make my reservation for the ferry by calling some office in Copenhagen because for whatever reason the ferry line doesn't do online booking, even though they are the biggest ferry line in the Baltic. The phone reservation gave me a bad feeling but I figured people are more trustworthy than the internet. Right? Nope.

The lady at check in told me the reservation was for the night before. Great. She had to ask her manager just if I could get on the boat...this doesn't sound good for getting a bed. She let me on and then I had to put my name on a waiting list for a bed in case someone didn't show up. Got a room! 'That will be six Euro' 'I'm sorry did you say six or sixty?' 'Six' For a 11 hour cruise with a room it cost me $30 total! That's cheaper than any of the hostels I stayed at. Nice surprise. I was imagining watching the islands go by while standing on the deck. Duh, it was night, couldn't really do that. Time for bed before Sweden!