... Continued from part 1.
The ferry was cozy to say the least. (Note to all who are reading and live in very small spaces: talk to a ship designer to figure out how to fit a four-person bedroom and bathroom into 20 sq.ft.) Though our room was small, the ship was actually pretty huge. 8 decks maybe, two levels of parking for cars, trucks and semi-trailers, something like 7 restaurants, 4 bars, a night-club, spa, shopping center, casino, arcade, and more. It was really just too vast to fully explore!... I honestly spent most of my time outside overlooking the water. After spending the night in a relatively comfortable fold-down bed listening to the perpetual hum of elevators go up and down, we arrived in Helsinki a total of 18 hours later.
The ferry was cozy to say the least. (Note to all who are reading and live in very small spaces: talk to a ship designer to figure out how to fit a four-person bedroom and bathroom into 20 sq.ft.) Though our room was small, the ship was actually pretty huge. 8 decks maybe, two levels of parking for cars, trucks and semi-trailers, something like 7 restaurants, 4 bars, a night-club, spa, shopping center, casino, arcade, and more. It was really just too vast to fully explore!... I honestly spent most of my time outside overlooking the water. After spending the night in a relatively comfortable fold-down bed listening to the perpetual hum of elevators go up and down, we arrived in Helsinki a total of 18 hours later.
Welcome to Helsinki!
Our disembarkment process was just about as long as the embarkment process. The ramps and moving sidewalks went on for literally a half mile. After that, we hoofed it up town 14 blocks to our hotel. I don't remember much of that evening I think because we all took a nap for the rest of the day-light hours. We did finally wake up and stroll around town in the dark. We wandered down by the harbor and ended up ditching in to a restaurant that had the most amazing salmon soup ever made, topped off with a fantastic unfiltered wheat beer. The next item on the agenda was to head home to get some more sleep and fight the lingering jet lag.
Morning came way too soon, but we suffered through it. Breakfast at the hotel was excellent though. The rest of the day was filled with lots of walking. Seeing all the bike lanes made me really want a bike (again).
Helsinki is of course a port city and it's pretty picturesque down by the water. The old state buildings are pretty ornate and western looking as you would expect. The rest of the buildings such as apartment buildings, shops, etc were largely build in the same 20-year span right around the turn of the 20th century so they all look similar. Kinda bland, but functional. Helsinki really likes muted pastel colors apparently.
Morning came way too soon, but we suffered through it. Breakfast at the hotel was excellent though. The rest of the day was filled with lots of walking. Seeing all the bike lanes made me really want a bike (again).
Helsinki is of course a port city and it's pretty picturesque down by the water. The old state buildings are pretty ornate and western looking as you would expect. The rest of the buildings such as apartment buildings, shops, etc were largely build in the same 20-year span right around the turn of the 20th century so they all look similar. Kinda bland, but functional. Helsinki really likes muted pastel colors apparently.
Almost everyone is fluent in English, especially the younger crowd, and that made traveling around pretty effortless. One night we ditched into a local pizza place after consulting the Design Week brochure that highlighted all the cool/artsy/hip spots in town. It was being manned by a guy originally from Alaska. He didn't speak any Finnish and said he managed just fine. How cool is that?
My overall impression of Helsinki is that it's very livable and has kind of a small town feel even though it's capitol city. It might not be the absolutely most beautiful place you've ever seen, but if you're into design at all, certainly not a place to be ignored.
Enjoy the pics! There's no particular order.
My overall impression of Helsinki is that it's very livable and has kind of a small town feel even though it's capitol city. It might not be the absolutely most beautiful place you've ever seen, but if you're into design at all, certainly not a place to be ignored.
Enjoy the pics! There's no particular order.
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