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Flight 666 to HEL
Helsinki, Finland
June, 2005
Helsinki in June is quite a nice place to be. The weather is warm, the harbor is calm and the people are happily gearing up for the coming summer. The monuments are clean after the long spring rains and the beer outdoor beer gardens are full in the late afternoon.
My original reason for visiting Helsinki was because I wanted to go to St Petersburg. I have always been a great fan of Gogal, Dosekevsky and Tolstoy who staged lots of their great works in the City of the Tzars. I yearned for a walk down Nevskiy Prospect and a stroll through Palace Square. But it was not to be.
I flew to Helsinki from Denmark. When I arrived at the airport and checked in I noticed that the flight number was 666. Destination HEL. I thought this quite humorous. Someone was playing a prank. When I arrived at the gate I said to the Steward, "Um, yes, is this flight 666 to Hell?"
He laughed and with a thick Russian accent said, "Hey, at least it not Friday the 13th!"
He seemed quite ready with this response.
I arrived in Helsinki around 4PM and went directly to the bus stop (Local Bus 612) that takes you to the center of town for cheap (3.40 Euro). When I approached, the bus the driver was closing the luggage doors on the side of the bus. I clearly saw some space, but when I asked the dirver if I could open it up and put my backpack in he said, "No, all full."
I thought, "Whatever," and went over to the line of about three people waitng to get on the bus. They all got on, the driver let me on, but when it got to the person behind me he said, "No, all full."
I had to laugh. There were at least 10 open seats on the bus. This was a useful term. I was ready for anything now with such a useful phrase. If someone approacheds me and I don't understand their tounge, or if I don't know what's going on, just say, "No, all full." Direct and too the point.
The bus dropped me off at the Central Rail Station and from there you can walk to most of the area hostels. The station is quite impressive, and dates from the late 1910s. At the main entrance, there are two giantic lantern-bearers that make a good photo.
It was 6:00PM by the time I arrived, so I decided to go to the info center to see if they could find me and available bed. They charge 5 euros to make you a reservation, but was worth it because almost every hostel in the city was full. It would have taken me forever to get this information on foot.
I could do the normal thing, you know, make a reservation on the internet before arriving, but that takes a lot fun out of the game. There is some mystery waking up in the morning and and saying to yourself, "Man,I hope I can find a place to stay in Helsinki tonight."
The thrill of the unknown. Show up and see what happens next. Also, I have found you have more of a variety of places to choose from and you usually get a better rate when you show up in person. Sometimes you can even negoiciate.
The girl at the desk at the info center finally found me a single at the Sakacuntatalo Hostel. It was expensive, 35 Euro a night, but the dorms were 25 so I didn't mind paying a bit more for my own room.
The hostel was great, very clean, central, so I booked it for three nights. The rooms are a good size with desk and refrigerator. After dropping my bags in the room, I went to the grocery store to stock up for the time I was there. Since I was paying 35 a night, I wasn't going to be doing any eating out while in Helsinki. So the first thing I did was go to the grocery store and stock up for a few days.
I had a nice dinner consisting of ham, cheese, onion and tomatoes, potato chips, a banana and a apple. This would be my food for the next few days. Cheap and good. Budget mode in Northern Europe. The Euro is killing me. Sucking my blood. Got to save for my future. Gotta save for my grand projects in Morocco! Gotta get back to the third world!
Thursday evening I decided to rest up for the big day ahead when I would tour the city and find out information about going to St. Petes.
I woke up early and headed downtown. My first stop was the Tourist Information Center. They gave me maps and told me about some budget travel agencies that could book my trip to Russia.
My attempts were all foiled. At every travel agency the price of a trip with visa included (the visa was about 80 euro alone) was about 400 euro not including any expenses. This was too much for me. I decided that instead of St. Petes, I would go to Tallin in Estonia. I heard that is was cheap and fun and no visa was required.
Helsinki is a very beautiful and clean city. I decided to spend a few days doing the tourist things before departing to Estonia for a week.
Estonia was very cool and cheap. I'm stayed at a youth hostel run by a Russian family that gets drunk everynight and then argues loudly from 11:00PM to 12:00PM. Really, it sounded like someone was going to die and then at Midnight, exactly, all is quiet! Now that’s entertainment!
Highlights of Estonia:
Dead drunks on the street – Dudes you could kick and they would feel nothing
Bike Rental – Only 6 dollars a day and wonderful trails near the bay
Library – Estonia National Library was great, spent many afternoons looking through the archives.
Best Moment – Walked into bar and guy was singing, “The Night Chicago Died” in Estonian.
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