Sunsets, Traffic Wardens, and Kaikki Päättyy!!

14th - 18th July 2011

We loved Helsinki!

We probably weren’t expecting much after an amazing few days in St Petersburg. It’s not a big place, but it has plenty to offer and a really good feel to it.

The city has 3 very different churches that are all worth a visit. The most obvious is the eye catching Lutheran cathedral, which dominates the harbour from its position on a spur overlooking the main square.



The interior is surprisingly plain which contrasts nicely with its close neighbour, the rather grand Russian Orthodox Uspenski cathedral – the largest Orthodox church in Western Europe...



The Temppeliaukio kirkko is a bit of a hidden gem. Set in the middle of an ordinary residential square away from the city centre, the architects carved this church out of the granite bedrock and placed a copper dome on top back in 1969, making it quite different from any church we’ve seen on our travels so far.


Wandering around the market down by the harbour we finally spent some time at one of the many great food stalls we’ve seen in Finland. We took the opportunity to sample some tasty sausages and meatballs made from Rudolph’s distant relatives!


Finland is quite a youngster, having only gaining its independence from the regional superpowers – Russia and Sweden - in 1917. The classical composer Sibelius was writing pieces such as Finlandia at the time, which helped push a sense of national pride and identity when the country was still ruled from Moscow. He’s seen as having a major role in the country achieving its freedom and is now a national hero.

The memorial to the composer in Sibelius Park is quite unusual; a cluster of huge steel tubes of various lengths, suspended above the ground next to a sculpture of the composer’s face.



One thing which caught our eye in Helsinki was the advertising for the new Harry Potter film (it means ‘everything ends’ apparently)...


Alex could have sat on the pavement for hours admiring the city’s central railway station! It’s a stunning building; an Art Nouveau masterpiece which has 4 masculine figures on the facade, each holding a glass globe.



From our wild camping spot by the water just beyond the harbour we had some great views of the boats coming and going, and of a stunning sunset over the city.



We would highly recommend Helsinki as a holiday destination and would love to go back one day. In addition to the city’s sights, you can take trips out to Saint Petersburg in Russia and to Tallinn, the capital of Estonia.


Heading west from Helsinki, we spent a day at the Nuuksio National Park. Charlie had spent a few days in kennels while we were in Russia and we’d done a lot of heavy sightseeing, so the walks through Finland’s familiar trees, lakes and mozzies, which we’ve now grown quite fond of, made for a relaxing break.



Our final stop in Finland before catching the ferry over to Sweden was Turku. In all honesty we didn’t spend a lot of time seeing the town’s sites, but we did manage to do the laundry and have a session at a proper Finnish sauna, something we were keen to try before we left.


Unfortunately we will always remember Turku for its traffic wardens! Firstly, we got a 40 euro parking ticket because, although we hadn’t overstayed our welcome, we didn’t have one of those cardboard wheels in the windscreen to show our time of arrival.

And 20 minutes later Alex was completely baffled when another traffic warden tapped on the window and told him he was parked upside down!! It turns out that parking on the opposite side of the road is illegal in Finland! Who knew!

So that was Finland, in just under 2 weeks. We’ve been surprised at just how much we’ve enjoyed it and are looking forward to going back at some point in the winter to see the northern lights and do a dog sled safari.

Talking of dogs – we need to get ours a haircut. She’s starting to look a bit like a wookie!!

Next time; we visit another capital – Stockholm – and see southern Sweden.

TTFN!

St Petersburg, the Soviet Cafe, and Service with a Snarl!

11th - 14th July 2011

Having packed Charlie off to kennels and parked the van at a campsite on the outskirts of Helsinki, off we went to Russia!

With this St Peter Line trip from Helsinki you can stay in St Petersburg for up to 72 hours without a visa. If you want to read more about the practical details (the ferry, the hotel, van storage etc) take a look at europebycamper.com. Adam and Sophie posted tons of useful information on their blog following their trip - thanks again guys!

The Princess Maria left Helsinki at 7:30pm for the 13 hour sailing, with its slightly dated decor and DFDS shower curtains hinting at its former owner.

The boat was full of Russian and Finnish holidaymakers, and the announcements in Russian, Finnish and slightly dodgy English kept us amused – each one ending with the words ‘you are welcome!’ in a thick Russian accent.

After a few beers and a couple of games of cards we tried to order some food. The response to each menu item we enquired about was ‘is finished’, until we heard ‘is potato’ and quickly ordered before that also disappeared!

To keep costs down (just €38 each!) we were sharing a 4 berth cabin with a friendly American, who we’d bump into a number of times, and a mystery man who we only ever saw asleep!

From the second we docked at the brand new cruise ship terminal just outside the city there was so much to take in. We boarded the shuttle bus and were whisked past grey communist era blocks of flats on the outskirts of the city, and immediately noticed the crazy mixture of vehicles lined up at the traffic lights – clapped out old Ladas, brand new Porches, and a surprising number of stretch limos and Hummers!

We were dropped at St Isaacs Cathedral and, after a quick detour to the tourist information office and to wait for a ‘hop on, hop off’ bus that never turned up, we climbed to the top of the cathedral’s golden dome. The views over the city from the top were magnificent.

St Petersburg was founded in 1703 by Peter the Great, and was the capital of Russia for over 200 years. The city feels very European and is stuffed full of grand baroque and neoclassical buildings, many of them designed by Italian architects.

The interior of St Isaac’s cathedral is just as impressive as the views from the top...

We’d had pretty good weather that morning but just as we emerged from St Isaac’s, the sky went black and a huge storm blew in complete with torrential rain, thunder and lightning. Taking shelter in the cathedral entrance, we were a little surprised when the man next to us leaned over and said ‘we could have stayed at home for this couldn’t we!’ It turned out he was on holiday with his wife and on the same ship as us.

It was now 2pm so we headed to our hotel to check in and have a quick lunch (which largely consisted of things lifted from Princess Maria’s breakfast buffet!)

The SKY hotel is cheap and basic but it’s in a fantastic location, just off Nevsky Prospekt, and some of the city’s main attractions are just a few minutes away.

We headed next to the Church of Our Saviour on the Spilt Blood. Built on the exact spot where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated when a bomb was thrown at him in 1881, both the exterior and interior of this church are stunning. The interior is completely covered in colourful gilt mosaics and the exterior... well, it’s probably best just to show you the photos...

St Petersburg was built on a marsh and the river Neva, which connects Lake Ladoga to the Gulf of Finland, and a number of canals cut through the city.

Our next stop was the Peter and Paul Fortress and cathedral, just over the river Neva. The cathedral houses the tombs of nearly all of Russia’s emperors and empresses. The last tsar and his family were only interred here in July 1998. Nicholas II and his family were assassinated by the Bolsheviks in 1918 but their remains were only discovered in 1979, and officially identified in January 1998.

We continued our walking tour, stopping to admire the striking blue dome of the St Petersburg mosque, the battleship Aurora, St Peter’s Log Cabin, and the Rostral Columns.

By now our feet were complaining quite a bit, so we made our way back to the hotel via the local supermarket where we picked up a selection of Russian beers. We had been looking at what we believed to be Russian wine, when a fellow customer pointed at it and wagged her finger as if to say, ‘no, really, you don’t want to touch that’!

We spent the evening in a local Italian restaurant – not authentic Russian cuisine we know, but the food was good even if it was served with a snarl! This was in sharp contrast to the authentic Russian lunch we had the following day at the Soviet Cafe. We stumbled upon the place quite by accident but it was fantastic, and came complete with middle aged women chatting and knocking back vodkas at 3pm!

That night we pretty much passed out while watching American Idol dubbed into Russian!! This is perhaps one of the many signs of how Western, and particularly American, cultures have moved in over the past few years.

The next morning we were up early and happened to visit the Kazan Cathedral during mass. The sound coming from the small group of singers on a balcony high above the congregation was beautiful, and made the whole thing quite magical. It’s certainly an experience we won’t forget in a hurry and was one of the highlights of our trip.

The Hermitage is one of the world’s greatest museums. It’s an immense collection of art and historical artefacts, first collected by Catherine the Great and now housed in a huge complex which includes the Winter Palace.

We should probably say at this point that we are not particularly into art, but when in Rome....

We spent 3 and a half feet-aching hours getting lost in the maze of corridors and highly decorated rooms, which are just as impressive as the art itself.

So what were the highlights? Well it all becomes a bit dazzling in the end and you do get a bit blasé about it - ‘oh, it’s another room of priceless Picasso’s’ etc!
We did see the grand 18th century Peacock Clock ‘do its thing’, which only happens once a week!! And we were trying to find the exit when we stumbled upon a fantastic exhibition of Annie Liebovitz photos.

With only a couple of hours left, we wandered around a bit more of the city hoping to cram in as many sights as possible!

It’s fair to say the most dangerous element of our visit to Russia was the shuttle bus trip back to the ship. Ladies clung to their handbags for dear life as we were swung around corners at breakneck speed!

Once onboard we watched the other cruise ships set sail before settling in to enjoy the ships colourful and slightly strange cabaret show.

The energetic dancers were great, but after each number a curtain would slowly open to reveal an ageing saxophonist who would anaesthetise the audience with his renditions of cool classics! We particularly enjoyed the singer whose accent made for an interesting interpretation of some songs; our favourite being Shakira’s, ‘Un Denise Yor Closs’!

So that was Russia in a nutshell – a crazy and amazing whirlwind visit. It took a couple of days for our feet and brains to recover!! To anyone thinking of making a similar trip – do it; you certainly won’t regret it.

In the next post we eat some Rudolph, experience a proper Finnish sauna, and are completely baffled when a Turku traffic warden tells us we’re parked upside down!!