VISITING HELSINKI

HELSINKI

 

 

Last weekend I went to Helsinki with my spanish friend, he came to visit me and also to get to know Finland and Finnish culture.

We took the bus on saturday morning at 7:40 am, and we arrived to Helsinki at 9:00 am. We visited first the Hietaniemi Cemetery and the beach. We were very surprised how close each other are, in Spain the beaches are far away from cemeteries, in my opinion a beach should be a place where you can chill and relax, not a place where you can hear the bells of the church because of someone die. I seriously didn´t like the location of the cemetery, this fact could explain why there is so many Finnish tourist in Spain, besides of the weather.

We went next to The Rock Church ( Temppeliaukion kirkko). I think is a bit overvalued, is just a church made of stones nothing else special. After it we went through the Ullanlinna street to St. John´s Church (Johanneksenkirkko), it´s not the most popular place to visit in Helsinki but is very big and pinteresque, I liked it more than The Rock Church. Later on we visited  The Old Market Hall ( Eteläranta), I was happy to see a spanish shop inside selling Chorizo, spanish cheese and of coruse Jamón Serrano.

After all that walk we went to have lunch at a restaurant, it was a bit expensive but the food was delicious. After it we visited the port and the market.We also went to the Orthodox Cathedral ( Suomen ortodoksinen kirkko) and to the St Nicholas´Church ( Helsingin tuomiokirkko).    

This one looks amazing from the outside, is very big and impressive, but the inside is very normal, all the walls are white and there is not much old decoration. 

 

 

   

 

This one is my favourite one, it looks really nice from the outside, very different looking than catholic ones and the inside is even nicer, it reminds me the cathedral in Russia, is very colorful but a bit small, it looks bigger from the outside than from the inside.

  

Despite Helsinki is the only "big" city in Finland, the size of the city are quite small. When I was in Helsinki I felt like I was not in Finland anymore, the rest of Finland is full of nature and lakes, not so many people around, totally opposite of Helsinki, but it was really nice trip anyway.