Helsinki 17 December to 18 December 2019
The alarm went off at 4.30 the following morning, some 8 hours before our flight was meant to leave some 45 minutes away in ‘normal’ traffic. Unfortunately these were not the days we were living in and up we got.
Ellie and Anthony braved the cold, pre-dawn rain to pick up the car by e-scooter, something we’ve been promising her to do again since last time we were here and something that is much easier to do at 445am down the Champs Elysee than in normal traffic!
From the carpark it was around the already busy Etoile roundabout once again (this time with more confidence) to pick up the family and start the journey through a rain soaked, pre-dawn, early morning peak Paris to Charles De Gaulle airport. We successfully missed the worst of the traffic jams that were just building up as we left the peripherique, but somewhat ridiculously landed at our parking station by 7am, some 5 hours before our flight. Plenty of time for a car nap, dropping kids and bags to the terminal before parking the car and heading back to terminal in time for breakfast… all the time thankful that we were stuck in 5 hours traffic on the autoroutes!
Thankfully, it seems that most international flights except AirFrance and EasyJet are operating OK and we took off as planned for Helsinki.
Strike successfully busted. At least in this direction. We still have to get home!
We were somewhat intrigued about Helsinki. For some reason it (and to be fair, most of Scandinavia) had never really hit the top of our ‘to do’ list, and so remained the one area of Europe that was largely unknown to us. Not really sure why this was (possibly the region’s reputation for being really expensive didn’t help), but our preconceptions had already been proven badly wrong this trip with Lisbon, and we were ready to be proved wrong again.
We knew that Finnish, as a language, was almost impossible to learn and related only to Hungarian, that the education system was the best in the world and that it was dark all the time in winter. What little research we had done in preparation for our brief stopover here suggested that one day wandering the compact city centre would be enough for us to take in the major sites. Still, probably because it was largely unknown to us, we were oddly excited as the plane landed. We were set to discover this at the same time as the kids.
As the stereotype suggests, the airport was wildly efficient, and our bags arrived as we did to the baggage carousel. Within minutes we had made our way through the spotless airport to the left luggage, dropped our bags and made our way to the train station to make our way into the town centre. The only thing familiar about the Finnish language on the signs around us was the script itself. Coming from a Latin background you literally get nothing ‘for free’ in Finnish. Luckily everyone seems to speak better English than we do and is incredibly welcoming. It was 4pm and it was already pitch black outside.
Our train deposited us at the central station and we made our way outside into the cold late afternoon air. We were greeted with a Christmas wonderland. The stunning buildings felt more like Saint Petersburg than Paris and the whole area was literally lit up like a Christmas tree – including with more Christmas trees than we could count. It was quite a first impression, and one that was to be reinforced through our time here. It turns out than when you have some 20 hours a day of night, you start getting fairly creative with how you can light up your towns.
As we made our way towards our apartment, we passed a massive, outdoor ice skating rink, more stunning (but slightly austere) architecture and gardens lit up with lots and lots more Christmas lights.
Looking to avoid the high cost of eating (and particularly drinking) out in Finland (and not really wanting to eat out with our children after getting them up way too early 2 days in a row), we stumbled into a David Jones/Harrods like food court in the centre of town. The food we were greeted with was largely unfamiliar and we eagerly explored the vast array of local food options available. We settled on reindeer balls, smoked fish pasta and beetroot salad (Helsingin keskusta rosolli) for mains with an array of Finnish pastries for dessert.
The kids, it turns out, have no problem eating Rudolph. No issues at all. And this was not a ‘hide it and see what they say’ scenario. We were straight in saying that they were basically eating Christmas, and in they tucked. Yum they said. No issues with Christmas arriving with a limp then.
So our first impressions of Helsinki (after 3 hours on the ground) were that it was turning out to be another Lisbon. An undiscovered gem. Why had we not come here 20 years ago again?
The next day, our only full day in Helsinki dawned, well, dark. Even in southern Finland the sun wasn’t coming up until after 9am. At least it was above freezing (but not by very much).
Anthony started the day with an exploration of the streets on foot, tracing around the port, the beautiful Uspenskin katedraali cathedral and foreshore of the city.
From there, it was back to pick up the family, progressively dressing them in multiple layers to protect them from the Scandanavian winter (side note: there is a saying in nature-mad Finland that there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing. Wandering around the streets here you will see lots of school kids bundled up like little Michelin-men children in full onesie-ski suits and hi-vis jackets, allowing them to enjoy the great outdoors even in the middle of winter. I guess it’s no stranger and takes no more time than Australian’s covering kids in sunscreen and hats to enjoy the outdoors during our summer…)
We had a really lovely day wandering the streets of this beautiful small city in the winter sunshine.
Our first stop was the old port before we made our way to the Senate Square and the 19th Century Lutheran Helsinki Cathedral which overlooks it and much of the rest of the city). (Fun fact – as seen in the 1999 video for Sandstorm by Darude), exploring the strikingly beautiful interior. We were lucky enough to arrive just before a round of Christmas Carols, so we ended up spending the next half an hour belting out Christmas classics in Finnish. The language barrier did not seem to curb the girls’ enthusiasm.
The Senate Square hosts the city’s main Christmas Market, which included the ubiquitous little huts that pop up all over Europe at this time of year, along with the equally ubiquitous mulled wine (called glögi here, and, in our increasingly educated opinion, way better than its German equivalent). Building on this strong foundation, however, this market differentiated through free carousel rides, free gingerbread and hot apple juice. Being Helsinki, we also felt very safe, and let the kids run amok whilst we sat in a heated wooden cabin on reindeer fur and enjoyed the aforementioned glögi. We then hit the food stalls and went hard at both some amazing local smoked salmon served on local rye bread and potato pasties. Family lunch for 15 euros. Done.
Powered by Christmas Carol inspired goodwill (not to mention the glögi) we wandered through the centre of the town which was already sparkling under the twinkle of thousands of Christmas lights. We eventually made our way to the enormous outdoor ice-skating rink by the central train station where we spent the rest of the afternoon trying to (unsuccessfully) emulate some amazing figure skaters who were sharing the ice with us.
We made our way home via a rejuvenating coffee and hot chocolate stop (the Finns seems to have perfected the cosy coffee shop and serve excellent coffee, a welcome change from most of our recent travels), a quick visit to the food market for supplies (dinner tonight was hot smoked salmon pasta with a side of reindeer balls, of course) and a much anticipated play around the Esplandi central park on the electric scooters that decorate this (and most other European cities).
We sat enjoying a bottle of wine in our apartment at the end of the day, doing a bit of research about the Finnish culture (the saunas, the cleanliness, the love of nature, the strangeness of the food and language etc – almost all of which we had noticed ourselves within 24 hours of being here). We reflected on the awesome day that we had had. It wasn’t like we had seen or done anything spectacular, but we had just had a really good time hanging out and wandering the streets and exploring somewhere that felt very different from other European countries we had visited.
Helsinki and rocketed up towards the top of our favourite cities in Europe.
Enough gratefulness and on to more critical matters. For the last several years we have been joined each December by our trusty elf, Izzy. In Australia she has developed a particular penchant for showing up every (or at least most) mornings in December, in the budgy cage and doing snow angels in flour on the tables. After her appearance in Berlin the tradition has continued over here, and the kids have remained true believers. Their belief was, however, shaken by the shocking discovery of Izzy in the top of Daddy’s bag in transit to Finland.
“Why was she riding with Daddy? We thought she could fly?” They said. Ellie looked worried. She asked for a ‘private conversation’ with us to discuss the matter of her belief system being shaken to the core.
“She must just be feeling lazy” we said, and “maybe she wanted to hang out with us”.
Izzy needed to prove that she wasn’t a toy. Her smiling face looked determined. This is what she’d trained for in elf school. She would prove to her bunch of doubting girls that she was real.
That night, Ellie locked Izzy in a cupboard and took the key to bed. There was no doubt that she was secure and only an act of magic could set her free. We all went to bed, worried about what would happen next.
Would she escape and be found overlooking the children whilst they slept?
Would she escape and leave, heartbroken, to find another family who believed in her and the joy of Christmas?
The following morning, Izzy was still in the cupboard.
But she was amazingly joined by Wilfred (Ellie’s prized elephant), panda (Sena’s prized toy), half eaten chocolate bars and a deck of playing cards.
Izzy had proven beyond any reasonable doubt that she was magic. And faith in Christmas was restored, only minutes before we made our way into the dark, wet pre dawn morning for the final stage of our journey to the Artic Circle, Santa and (hopefully) some Northern Lights.
Joseph Family Adventure 