Finland for a Day

After a thankfully uneventful and sleep-filled flight from New York’s JFK, we landed in Helsinki at 9:00am on Wednesday morning. Ready for a day of sightseeing, we got the stamp in our passport and headed into the city on the Finnair shuttle.

At the shuttle we met two fellow Americans on the same 12-hour layover – Sam from Penn who is doing a summer internship in Delhi, and Stephanie from Rochester, NY who came for a friend’s wedding. Between the four of us we were able to come up with a plan for the day and we set off. Helsinki is a great little city, and it has made me very interested in getting back to Scandinavia in the future… It was the perfect combination of Europe and the North Woods.

We started at the Helsinki Cathedral and Senate Square.


















Then headed to the ferry to take us to Suomenlinna, one of the largest maritime fortresses in the world. It was built of six islands just off the coast of Helsinki in the 1700s and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We walked around the two main islands and had a great afternoon. Here are some highlights:

Vesikko Submarine – originally launched in 1933 for experimental purposes for the Germans.

The soldiers homes.

Near the visitors center.

We took the ferry back and grab lunch in the Market Square. We hoped to get some traditional fare, but didn’t see it until after we grabbed some crepes. It’s probably for the best, I don’t know if I could have eaten an entire plate of sautéed sardines and onion rings. I wish I had taken a picture of the massive wok FULL of whole mini fishies!

We went inside the Uspenski Cathedral, the largest Orthodox Christian church in Western Europe.

Then we walked through Old Market Hall, a food lover’s paradise that included reindeer gyros, every fish and sausage imaginable and the tiniest cauliflower I’ve ever seen.

I searched all day for my Finalnd charm, but couldn’t find anything. Heading back to the shuttle, we stopped into a gift shop where I had seen a small Russian Doll earring that I thought could work and would be appropriate given Finland’s history with Russia. I bought it and then of course in the airport found the perfect shop that sold charms of native Finnish designs. I bought a small bear, so now I have two charms for my 8 hours in Finland!

Exhausted from traveling and sightseeing, we found some great lounge chairs and camped out until we boarded.