"Peace Love and Flowers in Finland"

First a brief explanation of the title for this blog post.  In response to criticism by a Ms. Alexandra Carter of Huntington Beach CA, who stated my titles where too related to conquering things, I have attempted to at least once be more happy and at the same time counteract her assertion.

Stage one of the day began at the lovely, very dark hour of 5am.  It was pouring rain, sunrise almost 4 hours away and we set off for Finland train station on the metro.  Happily everyone woke up at the right time and made it with the group or alone to the station and our chronically on time departure.  Once again my 6 hour ride on the Russian train system did not disappoint.

While Russian trains are not as new or have the amenities of French trains, like what I traveled on last month.  They are clean with wider seats and more leg room then a plane, none of the hassles of Airport security, plenty of room and time to get up and walk or even stand up for extended periods talking with people.  I was interested by the way they handled customs and passport control on the train (this was my first international land border crossing).  At the last stop before the Finnish boarder the train took on a team of Russian customs and border guards who processed our passports and visas, swept the train with the cutest little drug finding terrier I have ever seen.

Once we crossed the anticlimactic boarder fence (it was a 5 foot snow fence) and entered Finland and had the same process with the Finnish customs and immigration service.  I found it slightly humorous that American citizens crossing into Finland (a European Union country) have less hassles then Russians leaving Russia do at the border. Now with 2 little stamps with trains in my passport I was all set to enter a Scandinavian wonderland.

While the forest and fields we passed on either side of the boarder looked identical there where many little differences between the countryside of the 2 countries.  Finnish barns where all freshly painted in bright colors, Russian ones are bare wood, Russian country roads dirt (now mud) and Finnish roads perfectly flat white cement but the climate was the same for both.

The second I pulled into the quite modern looking railway station (despite its antique brick construction and art deco clock tower) I realized the Finland is going to be a bastion of Western Europe in the north (albeit with the accompanying prices).  We had a 1,5 hour bus tour to get the highlights of the city and to see some of the biggest sights out of the way right at the beginning.  We saw a really interesting Lutheran church built literally IN a rock, the Finnish parliament and Senate buildings and statues of most famous Finns (Their national athlete, hero, composer and author).

Memorial to Finnish National composer Jean Sibelius

Church built in a Rock!

After that we checked into our hostel and this was the most disappointing part of the trip for me.  It was a very nice place, but too similar to our living arrangements back in St. Petersburg, I was looking for more of a hotel like the very nice ones we had in Moscow and London.  Regardless we hit the town, did some sightseeing, watched sunset start around 3:30 and enjoyed the clean, safe and welcoming streets of the city.  All official building and street signs where in Finnish (an impossible language) and Swedish (easy enough for English or German speakers to fake) but literally everyone we encountered spoke English and we very happy to help.  I observed cashiers at retail stores switch between Finnish, English, Russian and German in a 3 min period.  And also for the first time I observed English being used as an intermediate language among Europeans who did not speak each other’s mother tongues.

Conveniently, as a rather small city most major sights of the city are easily reached by foot or the very efficient light rail system which is equip with free, fast Wi-Fi in every tram! and operating on what amounts to the honor system for payment.  I loved the many lakes waterways, canals, harbors, inlets and bays around the city as it meant that I was almost never out of sight of water.  After the early sunset we went off for a dinner of Finnish food but not before I think I saw the northern lights.  While I am not sure that is what I saw, I do clearly remember seeing about 6 parallel green lines briefly in the sky.

Finlandia Hall

For dinner I decided to go as Finnish as possible and had reindeer with elderberries, pickles and potatoes!  While it will not go down as my favorite meat it was very good and part of the experience at Zetor, our eclectic restaurant similar to Joe’s Crab Shack for décor.  And with that we called it a day, but not before setting plans to explore the island and fortress of Suomenlinna on Friday.