Saturday, July 28 – Churches and Parks

Today is my second to last day in Helsinki :-( . So, I spent it checking out new places, which were actually the super-touristy places. I’ve generally avoided most of tourists, or at least the high-tourist concentration places, so it was a bit of a culture shock, to say the least.

I started at the Uspenski Cathedral, which is a Russian church on Katajanokka. Sadly, I wasn’t able to go inside, but I got to spend lots of time admiring it. Plus, it’s really high up, so I got to look down on a lot of Helsinki, which was fun

Then we went off to the Stone Church, which is a classic example of tourism and popularity ruining a wonderful place. It’s a church built into a rock face. So first of all, there’s this random rocky hill in the middle of Helsinki. That’s probably the best part.

Inside is rather church-like. Its circular, though, and has lots of roof windows so the light does cool things on the walls, and it was fun to think about the fact that I was inside a rocky hill in the middle of a city. It also has amazing acoustics, which is generally great, but not so much when millions of tourists don’t know how to read the “silence please” sign. Grawr.

Tourists are only allowed in for 15 minute intervals, and then, in 45 minutes, they do ceremony stuff. I saw a wedding leave right before I entered and another entering as I left. It felt more like a machine than a church, despite the beauty (end whining).

Next stop was Sibelius Park to see a super-weird monument to Sibelius, which also turned out to be a major tourist destination. (though, when I arrived, it was fun, because there was a group of francophones playing soccer in and around the monument)

We spent a lot of time in parks today, walked through one to get to Uspenski, walked through the one on top of the Stone Church, walked through one to get to Sibelius Park…just a lot of parks. Moomin’s favourite part of the parks is the playground, though he gets scared when there are lots of children around.

Our final stop for the day was the Opera (and another park). Apparently Boston Ballet is coming to Helsinki? You’re not allowed in without a tour, but its an interesting enough building from the outside

So, I went to the market on my way back to the hostel to buy strawberries and a card as a thank-you for my roommate, but when I got back to the room, she had left! She left this morning and checked out before I woke up! I don’t even know her name. It makes me super-sad that I never got the chance to tell her how wonderful she is, but at the same time, it makes her almost magical, like a guardian fairie or something…oh well, more strawberries for me…