Helsinki, Finland

We had one day in Helsinki while on our Baltic Sea cruise.  It was a neat city to wander around and everyone was very pleasant.  Everything was very expensive from the food to the taxis.  However, it’s not like there’s anything to pay for activity-wise and it was expected since it is the Baltics after all.

^Above is a shot of us in front of the Lutheran Cathedral.  Below the many stairs is Senate Square.  These were the most “touristy” of all the spots and not even remotely crowded (how refreshing!)

  

 

We were so fortunate to have great weather almost every day of our time in the Baltics (we visited in August).  The Esplanade  is a historic walking area that offers beautiful views.  It was another great port to roam freely once you reached city center.

We found a delicious lunch stop at Karl Fazer Cafe.  If I had to liken it to an American chain, it is sort of like a bizarre cross between the Cheesecake factory and a Luby’s.  It was very formal and expensive but you pick out your food in cafeteria fashion.  The atmosphere was great and service was decent; the food was delicious.

^In front of the Uspenski Cathedral (very neat little stop).

It was really bizarre when we first arrived and we looked off our cabin balcony:

^This was our exact reaction.  Hideous right?!  Unfortunately this is one stop where you really do need to just suck it up and pay for transportation.  You can’t really just walk from the port to the city.  We walked for a while until we could get wifi at this electronics store less than a mile away.  But once we got there and downloaded our maps from the amazing TripAdvisor CityGuide app, we realized we were still a good distance away from the city center.  We made our way to the tram station and purchased tickets in the somewhat difficult to use self-service kiosks.  I only knew how to order them because of my research prior to the trip.  You can check out more info on Helsinki public transit here.

We visited a few markets with everything from fresh produce to fully prepared meals and desserts – I enjoyed a delectable warm belgian waffle!  Like all places we’ve visited in Europe, the markets blow our hometown’s farmer’s market out of the water.