Munich to Moscow Meander - Part VI:

HEAVEN AND HELSINKI

Sunday, August 26, 2012

From the morning mists of Tallinn I boarded the ferry that would take me across the Gulf of Finland to Finland itself...

I had bought my ticket online (as I did all my bus, train, and plane tickets) weeks before in Munich. I wisely decided at the time to add the breakfast buffet to the ticket as well. Thus, as soon I boarded the ship I bee-lined it to the restaurant and waited in line for them to open.

Interestingly, they let the truckers go first through the buffet. They were already sitting down to eat when I moved through the line. Truckers are a breed that doesn't change much around the world. The only difference with these ones were they spoke German or Swedish or British and some of them ate beans for breakfast (I'll let you guess which).

The buffet was good! I loaded up on fresh smoked salmon and raspberry herring. No pics. Sorry. But here I am on deck...

The trip was two hours in total. I ate for the first hour and for the second I found a soft couch in the forward observation lounge and fell asleep.

View Munich-Helsinki in a larger map

I awoke to the sight of Helsinki harbor growing larger out the enormous observation windows. I got all my stuff together and went to disembarkation.

Once I got off the ship I texted my ride and soon enough two young men and a young women dressed in Sunday clothes picked me from the terminal.

I have several Finnish friends and had asked around if any of them knew of a place where I could stay while in Helsinki. Two of these friends referred me to the same place: an apartment with four young single LDS guys, a guest bed, and a guest couch. I was set.

We drove to church not far from the harbor. The chapel was full and so I we sat in the overflow and I got translation through a headset. There was an English-speaking Sunday school for the several non-Finnish speakers in the ward and the guests. I wasn't the only one visiting that day. There were a few others, including a brother who introduced himself as Brother Rader, a judge from Washington DC.

Between meetings I got talking with Brother Rader and found out that he is also Chief Justice Rader of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. He specializes in patents and copyrights and it turns out, my cousin Blaine did an internship with his office last year. Though I wasn't sure it was the same judge when talking to him, I did mention Blaine to him but I think he thought I said, "Wayne," and didn't recognize the name. It wasn't till later that I realized it was indeed this judge he had worked for. Brother Rader served a mission in Helsinki years ago and was there on some sort of business. He and I were the only ones at church wearing sneakers that day.

After church a couple of girls in the ward invited us over for lunch. Elisa, in whose room we ate, had to clear away some campaign stuff as she is running for Helsinki city council.

Now, let me tell you something about Finns: nearly every Finn I met (especially in the Church) spoke excellent English. Also, I was pleasantly surprised at how easily they started interesting discussions. For example, while we were eating lunch we didn't spend much time with small talk and instead got into a fine discussion turned friendly debate about healthcare, US politics, Finnish politics, and the socialized state. It was really fun...

After lunch the boys took me back to their apartment to set my stuff down and change. They were amused as I informed them that with each step I was walking further north than I had ever been before.

They gave me a key to the apartment and I left to go explore a bit of the city. I took the tram into town and went first to the harbor because I like harbors...

Helsinki is built on massive stones of granite...

The Helsinki Cathedral on Senator Square...

Dramatic clouds over the train station...

When it came time for dinner, every Finnish restaurant was prohibitively expense (though the grizzly bear ragout did sound good!) I went instead to a burger joint that had surprisingly good fries.



The next day I woke up to cloudy skies and I resigned myself that maybe this day I wouldn't have such exciting photos. I went back into town and took a ferry across the harbor passing small rocky islands...

To the island fortress of Suomenlinna....




An island and the mainland from the dock...

The old fortress has been in use for several centuries. Some of it is a UNESCO museum, while the other part is still used by the Finnish navy.

I wandered the old stone fort walls...

The grave of some old naval hero...

Finnish Hobbits?

Actually these are the bunkers on the open-sea-facing side of the island.

By the way, Finnish is closely related to Estonian and distantly to Hungarian (in the Finno-Ugric language family). There are only a handful of words that are even remotely similar, however. So even though Finnish is Hungarian's closest linguistic relative in Europe, they are still about as closely related as English is to, say, Hindi (both in the Indo-European language family).

View of the mainland from the fort...

I wandered into the part of the fort still in use and saw signs telling me to go away. So I did. Not before snapping a pretty pic, though...

I rode the ferry back across to the mainland...

And I met up with Ilka, one of the guys from the apartment. He had time to kill before catching a train and so he showed me around a bit of the city...

The National Theatre...

Nationalistic architecture at the train station...

For lunch we went to the cafeteria at the university, where we were able to get the cheapest meal in town. Here is part of the university library...

One of the main boulevards...

This modern church is built into the bedrock of the city. A pianist was giving a recital when we walked in...

And of course the cathedral...

Protestant - and so inside is very simple and elegant...

On the steps there was some sort of Finnish saga being recited aloud over speakers...

The surrounding square was built along Neo-classical lines with the great cathedral (religion) at the head. To the east is the former Senate now Presidential offices (government)...

And to the west is the university (learning).

Nearby is the Russian Orthodox Uspsenski Cathedral...

Did you know Angry Birds is a Finnish invention? The official store...

I saw Ilka off at the train station and then I went to the top of a nearby hotel tower for a view over the city. The train yard and northwards...

Sunlight on the cathedrals...

And looking south towards the harbor...

I was getting tired and so I went back down towards the harbor and found a grassy hill. I read my book for awhile and had a nap.

I woke up from my nap with the warm afternoon sun shining down on me.  I had a great view of the Suomenlinna fortress, where I was earlier that day...

I looked around and saw that, not only was the sun out, but the surrounding clouds were putting on a dramatic show....

The fears I had that morning of bad weather all day were gone. It was a perfect afternoon on the waterfront...

Sometimes life is like that: we find the sky covered with thick gray clouds. There is no blue sky anywhere in any direction. We resign ourselves to the cloudiness and wait patiently though with regret for what the day might have been.



And then as the day wears on we see, here and there, some thinning of the clouds. Perhaps we will see the sun after all.

The clouds cover up again and we feel fools for having hoped.



We start ignoring the sky altogether so as not to get our hopes up and then, without realizing, we find the sun already emerging from behind the clouds.

Then something wonderful happens: those dirty clouds that once hid the sun now serve to create a stunning backdrop to a sunlit world. The sky becomes more beautiful than it would ever have been with no clouds at all.




So it was, that day in Helsinki. And the evening was magnificent.

Night...

Coming home...
 

I ate a Turkish kebab-döner at a local mall food court and then traveled back to the apartment. I stayed up late chatting with the roommates and then it was time for sleep.

Tomorrow I would go east and get a new alphabet.

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