Day 43: Helsinki, Finland? Hel Yeah!

Friday, October 28, 2016

My first border crossing from Russia to Europe happened on the Allegro high-speed train between St. Petersburg, Russia and Helsinki, Finland. Very civilized, no issues, no bribes. They even have money exchange onboard, so I changed my last few rubles to euros. But when I heard the rate for dollars to euros, I decided to wait until I got to Helsinki.

The walk from the Helsinki train station to CheapSleep Hostel is about a half hour. I didn't exactly follow the google map directions I planned to, but I like my route better anyway. I went on smaller streets through a more Bohemian neighborhood. The good news, almost everyone speaks good English!

CheapSleep Hostel can accommodate a lot of backpackers. I was in a room with 20 beds, and I believe there were 10 rooms. I definitely felt like I was in Scandinavia with the Ikea-look of the furniture, modern, simple, functional. The people who work the front desk were from India, Vietnam and Russia...at least those are the ones I met. The first friends I made were a Mexican guy (are you lost?) and a Brazilian, speaking in Spanish, who let me in the front door downstairs. Turns out, the Mexican guy had fallen in love with a young Finnish woman two years earlier. She'd been back to visit him in Mexico a second time and met all of his large, extended family. But this would be the first time for him to meet her family. They were both nervous about it. I recommended the classic Sidney Poitier movie, Guess Who's Coming To Dinner.

I needed Euros to pay for the bed, since I was still trying to use up my cash. But the weird thing about Helsinki is there aren't any casas de cambio to exchange money. The only one, especially as the afternoon got later, was at the train station where I had just come from, according to the check-in guy at the hostel. I like to walk, and I didn't have enough euros for bus fare, so I set back out, this time trying to take the google map route.

Several hours later, I had succeeded in my assignment. Somehow I got myself twisted around and walked an hour in the wrong direction after I'd passed the right road to go to the station. It was cold and gray and not the funnest walk I've ever done, especially retracing my steps for an hour down a main street. But I do feel like I really get to know a city on foot.

Helsinki impressed me with its ethnic diversity, acceptance of refugees from around the world (I met Burmese and Nigerians among others), and the place is so clean and safe and attractive. Sure, it's expensive for me, but the Finns and the immigrants aren't complaining because they're well paid and have wonderful benefits from their government, like education and healthcare and affordable public transportation. Someone told me they have a high tax on automobiles. Well, that's good because there were few cars on the road, no parking structures, no traffic cops, no traffic jams, and the buses run frequently and efficiently.

My only complaint was the exchange rate was not even close to what I'd seen online first. The woman at the train station's Western Union office gave me some story about why that is, but in other countries I received almost the same as the online rate, without a commission. I had to pay 5 euros commission here, so with her encouragement I exchanged $500 since I'll be using euros in several other countries, including a couple of weeks in Germany.

Back at the hostel finally, I visited with the Mexican and Brazilian guys who had found a drinking partner from Japan. The three of them were so cute and funny. They even invited me to go to a party with them, but I declined. I was warm and dry and happy, with fast wifi and a comfy bed.

The Helsinki train station is used by about 200,000 passengers a day.

It was a bit cold and drizzly, but that doesn't stop the Finns from going about their day. I noticed a high number of men taking care of their children. Impressive.

Even the dogs have to bundle up in Finland. I saw a lot of cute outfits on canines.

The Ateneum Art Museum, located across from the station, isn't prudish.

Definitely seeing signs of Scandinavia.

With so much written in English, there's no excuse to get lost in Helsinki....even though I did.

Nice public art and many parks.

It seemed like mostly there were hair salons and coffee shops along the way to my hostel. I loved this funky salon.

This gum ball machine full of old-fashioned hair rollers was outside my favorite salon. Tempting to get a haircut, but in the cold weather I couldn't imagine going any shorter.

Another welcome sight was second-hand stores, although the prices were about the same as new merchandise in the U.S. because of the price difference between euros and dollars.

Here's something I don't see in sunny California, boot cleaners outside stores. They were everywhere in Helsinki. Very tidy people.

This guy was amused that I took a picture of his bicycle, but I just liked the European style. And I love bikes.

Finally, my own sweet bed, the bottom bunk on the right. No one had the bunk above me, so it was like I had my own little cubicle with plug, reading light, locker. and a little privacy

I ventured back out to exchange money at the train station. I figured I'd be adventurous and try a different route. Nice to see the bike lanes and pedestrian zones, safely separated from the cars on the street.

Again, wishing that tourists had the ability to rent these bikes to cruise around town. An advantage is you can pick one up and drop it off at any bike rack.

I had meant to take the center route between the train station and CheapSleep Hostel, but I ended up on the one to the right, which I liked more. I tried again to take the central route, but ended up needing north on Mannenheimstr. (top left) and walked an hour past the Olympic stadium. Whoops. I was too stubborn and euro-poor to take a street car back down to the train station.

Doesn't look like I'll be learning any Finnish in my two days in Helsinki. I've heard it's one of the more difficult languages to learn, right up there with Polish.

Heather seems to do well in the cold climate. Nice to see some color.

More hair salons. This one called Glow looked very chic.

I assume this is a Salvation Army thrift store. Hopefully their prices are a little more reasonable.

Helsinki at night was beautiful and safe. I always enjoy seeing my daughter Maya's name.

There are several bridges in Helsinki, which is a port city.

A sweet little Japanese cafe in our neighborhood seemed to have more staff than customers.

Hanging out with Mexico, Japan and Brazil. The Mexican guy Daniel was going to bed early because he'd drunk too much the night before, but Japan and Brazil were ready to go.