Helsinki City – Finland
Helsinki – The Capital of Finland and it’s most cosmopolitan city was the next stop on my trip through Finland. I arrived at Helsinki via train from Tampere. The train station is distinctive and clad in Finnish granite. The big entrance to the station features two pairs statues of either side holding the globes in their hands and is featured on almost all Finnish travel brochures. Helsinki is flanked in the north-east and north-west by Vantaa and Espoo and though they are different cities, they are practically suburban areas of Helsinki. Espoo also is the headquarters of Nokia. You have to combine Tata + Birla + Reliance in India to understand the importance of Nokia to Finland as it seemed that every 3rd person in Finland was employed with Nokia (atleast in the cities I travelled).
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In Helsinki, my couchsurfing host was studying and working to become a nuclear scientist. It was interesting having conversations about physics, linux and other geek stuff with him. I would stay in Helsinki for 3 days eventually mostly walking around the city and taking pictures and talking to the locals. Helsinki is a pretty small city and it is possible to cover all the interesting places on foot and that is exactly what I did. It helped that most of the time I had a good company from local couchsurfers.
The Church in the Rock
The Church in the Rock (Temppeliaukion kirkkois - “Temple Square Church” in Finnish) one of the offbeat and must-see locations in Helsinki. It lives up to it’s name and looks like a a rock cave from the outside. From the inside, the huge roof looks like an overturned saucer and the from above it looks like a crashed flying saucer. Due to this, It is colloquially called as the “UFO church”. It has a minimalistic architecture and has great acoustics so concerts are held inside the church frequently.
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Töölönlahti and the National Parliament
Töölönlahti is a bay located norwest of the central station and is a jogger’s paradise. It is natural park that is surrounded by Finlandia Concert hall and the National Opera (see below for the photo of Hooks used to hang coats in the cold winters). Various ducks and birds abound in this rare natural reserve in the center of a thriving city. The National Parliament building is pretty massive and right next to the National Museum. The Parliament annex has metal sculptures of strawberry plants and magnolias (see below)
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The National Museum of Finland
Somone from Schmap noticed the photo below and it has was included in the schmap guide for the iPhone. Ironically I did not visit the museum as there were more interesting things to do that day.
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