3 Days of Adventure in Helsinki: A Travel Diary (part II) is the second part of my travel blog post about my three day trip to Helsinki. The main reason for this trip was to finally meet up with my best Finnish friend. If you missed the first part of this adventure, click here.

Day 2: meeting my friend’s family & walking around Helsinki (part II )

After my delicious cinnamon bun at Café Esplanad I ventured inside the next door souvenir shop. To my delight, I discovered a whole lower floor dedicated to Christmas decorations and ornaments. Since I’ve already bought a Finnish Christmas ornament at a shop across Temppeliaukio Church (Rock Church) I just browsed happily. I had plans to meet up with my friend and her family after her work so it was time to head down to the Market square (Kauppatori) to catch a tram. But before that I had to grab something to eat. I decided to try something Finnish from one of the many food stalls. Since I’m not a big seafood fan despite living in a seaside city I decided to have a reindeer hot dog. It was very delicious but please don’t tell Santa that!

I got on the tram following my friend’s directions. Despite those detailed instructions I managed to get off on the wrong stop and I had to walk a bit longer than expected but I didn’t mind it. I met my friend at a park in her neighbourhood. Then, she took me to her home to meet her family. I was happy to finally meet in person her adorable twins. Later, her boys had to go to a birthday party and we headed back to the city center. We walked alongside a canal and we saw a swan with its cygnets. It was such a wholesome sight.

The goal of our walk was to reach the unusual Oodi library. The Helsinki Central library Oodi is a public library and cultural center situated in Kluvvi neighbourhood not far from the main railway station. I wanted to go inside the library but before that my friend took my photo with the large Helsinki sign near the entrance to the library (see above). The Finnish parliament building is just across Oodi library.

The Oodi library is quite large and has many special rooms. I took a look around the main floor with the books and I was surprised to see a big shelf with board games. As you might know, my husband and I often play board games so I suggested a few board games to my friend. It was possible to go outside on the sort of roof area so we did just that. There were a number of barefoot people who appeared to had been sunbathing. It was sunny but it was also quite windy up there.

My friend said that we should go for a drink in a cafe Blue villa in Töölönlahti Bay. We went past the Finlandia hall and a flock of geese. Alvar Aalto, a legendary Finnish architect and designer was responsible for every aspect of Finlandia hall. He’s also made some famous chairs that were in my hotel room too ( I presume those were fake, not original). There were signs and flags for some kind of a race on the grass near the bay. I was getting tired so we didn’t walk the full circle around Töölönlahti Bay. I liked this area of Helsinki. Pretty, colourful wooden houses made me think that I was in the countryside and not in the center of Helsinki. Blue villa cafe was busy so we had our drinks in Art Cafe Taideterassi. I gazed at the Opera house across the sea while chatting with my friend. It was a long day of sightseeing so I was ready to go back to hotel after our evening drink. It was a great second day in Helsinki.

Day 3: Suomenlinna island & samba parade

I was lucky with the weather because my third day in Helsinki was also quite sunny (OK, there was some rain during my first day). The plan was to meet my friend at the ferry port near Kauppatori market and to take a ferry across to Suomenlinna island. I decided to take another route towards Kauppatori so that I could see some more of Helsinki. In the end, I went past the Old Church park (“Plague Park” or Ruttopuisto) that I actually saw on my first day. It’s a small park with gravestones belonging to the plague victims from the early 18^th century. However, I noticed a few more gorgeous doors and other things while walking towards the ferry such as a building that had a kind of a tower almost like a castle.

I absolutely loved our half day trip to see the UNESCO site of Suomenlinna fortress. We spent a leisurely morning walking all around Suomenlinna island. You can read all about that here. I’d definitely recommend visiting Suomenlinna if you are travelling to Helsinki.

After my friend and I parted our ways I decided to do some more sightseeing before I rejoin my friend again for the samba parade. I wanted to see the Sibelius monument dedicated to Jean Sibelius, the world renowned Finnish composer who lived in 19^th and 20^th century. The tram ride was long and then I had to walk a lot as well until I managed to find the Sibelius monument within Sibelius park. The monument is made of welded steel and it resembles organ pipes. It’s quite striking. I waited for a small group of tourists to go away before I could take a few decent photos. I’ve also noticed an ice-cream van so I decided to get a scoop of ice-cream. I chose licorice flavour because that’s a very Finnish flavour. My friend gave me a gift bag when I came filled with all sorts of Finnish sweets and products for me and my kids, among those things were licorice candies too. The taste is quite strong and even though I liked licorice candy I didn’t enjoy that much my licorice ice-cream.

With ice-cream in my hand I walked down to the seaside path. I went past the famous Regatta cafe but I didn’t stop for a drink. I felt again like I was in some small town or even in the countryside because I was breathing fresh air filled with sea and tree scent. It felt like I was miles and miles far away from the hustle and bustle of a capital city.

Eventually I reached my hotel and had a quick rest before I rejoined my friend and her family to watch a samba parade in downtown. It was extraordinary to see a samba carnival parade, a slice of Brazil in Finland! I liked the colourful costumes and the dances. The samba parade is held every June and it’s the biggest such event in all Nordic countries.

We all enjoyed watching the samba parade. My friend and I had a dinner reservation so we went to our restaurant when the parade finished. Unfortunately, this restaurant was a bit disappointing unlike the one where we had dinner the first night so we decided to have our drinks and a dessert elsewhere since it was my last night in Helsinki. My friend took me to the famous Hotel Torni which is popular for its panorama views of Helsinki. Sadly, its panorama bar was full and we didn’t really want to wait in queue so we went to Original Sokos Hotel Vaakuna which also has a rooftop restaurant/bar. I don’t usually go to hotel bars unless I’m staying at that particular hotel. So, we took the elevator to the restaurant/rooftop bar at 10^th floor. Despite the chilly wind all the outside tables were full so after I took a couple of panoramic photos we went inside. I had an excellent cocktail and some pancakes.

Everything was great and I actually made a quick phone call to my husband to talk to my kids when I had the shock of my life. I was on the phone with my almost 4 year old daughter when she suddenly started crying and then I heard a stranger’s female voice on the phone asking who am I. Long story short, my daughter temporarily lost sight of her dad and brother who entered a shop while she was still outside it and panicked and started to cry. This woman was passing by and helped my daughter to find her dad. I almost had a heart attack but luckily it all ended well. If this happened anywhere else, my daughter would be in the news but luckily in a small island town in Croatia people are more likely to be helpful than kidnappers.

After I recovered from this shock, I talked some more with my friend and returned to the hotel. Despite the blackout curtains I didn’t sleep that well in Helsinki because it was very bright in the night, almost until midnight. Nevertheless, I had wonderful three days in Helsinki.

Departure

I had a very early flight on Sunday morning so I took a taxi to the airport. The hotel provided me with a breakfast box and I gulped down a sandwich and drank the excellent blueberry juice before going through the airport security. Little did I know that that wasn’t necessary since Helsinki airport had a state of the art security system which meant that you could actually take your liquids on the plane. I saw the Moomins souvenir shop at the airport. As it happens, I saw a Moomins shop in Helsinki too but I didn’t buy anything since my kids weren’t familiar with those famous Finnish characters from books and TV series. My flight was all right and it surprised me again when the flight attendant spoke to me in Finnish initially and not in English.

All in all, I had three very busy days in Helsinki. I was very satisfied that I got to see so much of Helsinki and that I spent a lot of time with my best Finnish friend. Years ago I visited Stockholm and Oslo with my husband. I must say that I still find Stockholm to be the most beautiful city out of these three Nordic capitals. Oslo is like the cool, carefree youngest child while Stockholm is like the traditional firstborn son who’ll inherit everything. Helsinki is something in between. It’s got both regal and cutting edge architecture. I still have to visit Copenhagen though to see how that city compares to its Nordic counterparts.

I visited Helsinki in June 2023.

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