Around the World in (Approximately) 80 Days: Day 44: Day Trip to Suomenlinna Island, Finland

Saturday, October 29, 2016

A school friend recently went to Helsinki on business, so I asked him for any tips or recommendations. Without hesitation he said, Suomenlinna Island.

I looked it up online. Suomenlinna Island is only a 15-minute boat ride away and free with an all-day bus pass. Brilliant! I'm in! The next morning I found out that my hostel sells the day passes. After yesterday's wild goose chase, it was nice to see things falling into place this time.

In fact, the whole day worked out great. I arrived at the port with plenty of time to look around Market Square. I met another Mexican guy there named Elvis. He sells Peruvian handcrafts and alpaca sweaters. He's been to 37 countries and speaks several languages.

The island was really interesting. Only I was sad to see how a beautiful Russian Orthodox Church had been simplified and converted to Evangelical Lutheran by removing the five onion domes. There's a fort and dry dock. You can walk the whole island in about an hour or two. About 900 people live there permanently, mostly in historic houses.

My mom's cousin suggested I ride Trams 2 and 3 which pretty much cover all the most famous sights in Helsinki, which is exactly what I did. The funny thing is, on my wild good chase the day before I had walked most of the route already. I was disappointed that the Linnanmäki Amusement Park (and the view tower, which is something I wanted to see) were closed for winter season.

For dinner, I invited Elvis and his Peruvian friend Federico to join me at a Nigerian-owned vegan restaurant called African Pot buffet. After barely eating all day, it was just what I was craving. The guys had to leave right after dinner, but I hung out and chatted with the owner. She moved from Nigeria to Helsinki about 20 years ago and loves it, even the cold weather. She says you don't really feel the cold because you're indoors a lot and the city provides many winter activities.

A beautiful young Somalian girl who also ate at the restaurant came back looking for her bus pass. I gave her mine since my hostel was only a couple of blocks away, and it was already dark and cold, time to head home and get cozy with my laptop.

On Suomenlinna Island it was easy to get away from the many tourists. I read that in 2009 a record 713,000 tourists visited this island, mostly between May and September. Even in November there were quite a few tourist braving the cold.

The boats to Suomenlinna Island run about every hour.

Photo of a photo of Suomenlinna Island. You can see how close it is to Helsinki.

Winter time on Suomenlinna Island. This is one of the reasons, I'm traveling quickly across Europe this time of year.

The "before" and "after" picture of the Suomenlinna Church, originally built in 1854 as an Eastern Orthodox church.

A dry dock where boats can be repaired and maintained.

View from the castle.

Part of the castle, built beginning in 1748 by the Swedes to protect against the Russians.

An older local woman riding on her bike, while a Spanish tourist takes a selfie.

Suomenlinna's Military Museum is one of six museums on the island.

Signs are posted around the residential areas asking tourists to respect their privacy.

On your marks, get set, go. Ready to open the ferry gates.

Finnish kids are just like any other kids -- in love with video games.

Arriving back in Helsinki, I used my day bus pass as a cheap way to visit many neighborhoods around the city of Helsinki.

I've done the Hop On Hop Off buses in Berlin, Havana and St. Petersburg, but an all-day bus pass is much cheaper, $33 vs. $10.

Helsinki Cathedral

Helsinki had more diversity than I expected. Somehow I thought everyone would be tall and blond and Christian.

The Linnanmäki Amusement Park was closed but I walked around anyway.

Entry to the train station.

I don't know if Burger King used these ads in the U.S. also, but somehow the image of the skull on top of their burger made it look like a bad idea to eat one.