Travel report: Finland

Country ranking by area: #65
Country ranking by population: #115

Date of visit: June 2018

Last country Finland

Finland was my last country in two ways. It was the last of the mainland Nordic countries I’ve visited on the one hand, and also the last remaining country I could visit without taking a day off from work on the other. Traveling to new countries becomes more and more difficult.

I’ve already been to Sweden, Norway and Denmark (in that order), and I have to admit that I really like the Nordic countries. I like the architecture, the people, the nightlife… I like almost everything except for the weather. Traveling to Northern Europe is only a good idea in summer, and even then it’s not guaranteed that the weather will be nice. A trip to Finland in June was perfect therefore.

Do you remember Tobi? He is the main reason why I started the road to 197 project. He is my travel competitor, as both of us want to visit every country in the world. The winner will get a free flight to a destination of choice from the loser. Well, things have changed and Tobi already gave up more or less. Although he will go on a world trip in four months with his fiancée Jasmin, his priorities in life are not the same anymore. Family will be his next top priority. Obviously, you don’t travel that often when you have a baby and you neither travel to certain questionable countries when you have the responsibility for a child. Still, it was Tobi’s country no. 60 and my country no. 74.

Anyway, Tobi and I decided to spend a weekend together abroad and it had to be a new country for both of us of course. It was our third trip together after travelling to Palestine in 2016 and to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro in 2017. But this time, it wasn’t only the two of us but also his fiance Jasmin. She is a very easy-going person and it didn’t take me a second to say yes when Tobi asked if she could join.

Three nights in Helsinki

When you talk to people who have been to Helsinki, you mostly hear the same bottom line: worst Nordic capital! People claim that Helsinki is not pretty and that’s why not a worthy travel destination. Moreover, a friend of mine said that Helsinki was “the shittiest city in Europe” when I told him that I was going there. You can also google “most boring city in Europe”, and Helsinki is one of the most common results you will find. A guy writes this on TripAdvisor:

Finns are rude, drunk and very loud. Do not waste your time traveling to this country! It is not only expensive but everything to buy (food, souvenirs) is of low quality. Helsinki is a boring city, almost nothing to see and what you see is only average and not worth the long traveling. Go to Copenhagen. There you find nice, friendly and funny people.

I corrected the spelling mistakes. Nevertheless, my expectations were very low, which was actually the best thing that could have happened.

Tobi, Jasmin and I landed in the capital of Finland shortly before midnight. It was almost 1 AM when we arrived at our apartment, which was perfectly located in the city center. The first thing we noticed was that the sky was still bright although it was night. It’s never really dark in summer, and it’s dark most of the time in winter. Visiting Finland between November and February must be terrible.

The long darkness in winter might be the explanation though why you see so many drunk people in Finland. We went out for one or two good night drinks, and I have to say that I have never seen so many wasted people like in Helsinki. Not even in Northern England. But what else can you do when you have sunrise at – I don’t know – 10 AM in and sunset at 3 PM in winter? I mean, it’s a common thing in Nordic countries. People were drunk too in Sweden and Norway. A good way to keep yourself warm in winter. Maybe it’s also because of the Nordic character. People from the Nordic countries have the reputation of being cold and distant. Drinking can help to break out and rise the level of enthusiasm.

Helsinki – beautiful or not?

It didn’t take long until the first in our group remarked “I really don’t understand the people who say that Helsinki is ugly. The city is a beauty!” Helsinki might be less beautiful than Stockholm or Oslo, but we all agreed that the city is pretty. First, the city is located at the sea and you have different ports near the center. Second, it’s a colorful city with beautiful Nordic architecture style buildings. Third, you can use Suomenlinna, a fortress built on six island, as a getaway if you need to be in the nature. The ferry will take you there in 15 minutes.

Helsinki is rather a small city. The city is compact and most of the sights are within walking distance from the city center. However, it’s not that Helsinki has as much attractions as Stockholm for example. You could easily visit all sights in one full day. We took it a bit slower and spent a lot of time having coffee and checking out shops. The World Cup was another reason that our pace was not the fastest, as we were watching one or two matches.

Suomenlinna is the only attraction that you cannot reach by foot. You have to take the ferry. We entered the island fortress in the late Saturday afternoon. It must be a good getaway for people who want it to be a bit quieter. Some people were swimming in the ocean, other people were strolling around. So did we. It’s actually bigger than you think and we only stayed for one hour. Not enough to see the whole island, but we wanted to be back in Helsinki before 6 PM.

We were also lucky to have almost perfect weather. The sun was shining, the sky was blue and temperatures were above 20 degrees. They dropped to 12-13 degrees at night, but it wasn’t cold during our stay.

Cultural Finland: Reindeer, heavy metal and saunas

Other activities we planned to do were having Finnish food for dinner, going to a heavy metal bar and to a sauna. I always eat local food when I’m abroad so that the first activity was a no brainer. Finland has the most heavy metal bands per capita in the world, and you see a lot of long haired people with black shirts in the city. Therefore, it was almost mandatory to drink a beer in a heavy metal bar. And Tobi’s comment about visiting a sauna was “going to Finland without seeing a sauna is like going to Russia without drinking a vodka”.

I didn’t make a lot of effort to find a restaurant to be honest. I just checked out the top three ranked restaurants on Trip Advisor with Finnish cuisine and eventually booked a restaurant named Ravintola Kuu. Usually, I prefer normal restaurants over fancy places, because I believe that you get e better and more authentic impression of the local food in regular restaurants. In up-market restaurants you often have geniuses in the kitchen, who would make every food taste delicious but don’t tell you anything about the average food of the country.

Actually, I didn’t know in which category Ravintola Kuu would fit. The prices looked like Swiss prices when I booked a table two weeks before the trip. That’s why I thought that it would rather be a normal restaurant. When we got our starters we found out that it was an up-market restaurant though. What a bummer! 🙂 No, of course not, it was absolutely fantastic. I can only speak for my food but the reindeer filet on e berry sauce with fried celery and celery puree was one of the best meals I had this year. “How does reindeer taste?” Tobi asked. I took another bite and tried to describe it precisely: “I’m not sure, but maybe like a mixture of beef and deer. The taste of beef and the tenderness of deer.”

The restaurant was located outside of the city center and we headed straight back to the areas, in which all the bars and pubs are. The next stop was a heavy metal bar. A few hours ago, I asked a group of metal heads if they can recommend a heavy metal bar. As faith would have it, we were standing right next to “the best heavy metal bar in Helsinki”, as the metal heads claimed.

The bouncer doubtfully scrutinized us when we walked into the bar. We didn’t look like the other people in there and no one of us wore black clothes. There wasn’t much going on in the bar though. The music was also soft and quiet. “Let’s order a beer and drink it outside,” Jasmin suggested. “Well, we can go directly to another bar then,” I said. The bar looked like every other bar from the outside so that we wouldn’t have gotten the heavy metal feeling anyway. There was no point in staying in that half-empty bar though. The bouncer grinned when we left the bar after two minutes. “Tourists who got lost in a metal bar. Goodbye you pussies!” he probably thought.

We neither made it to the sauna. Although there is a very beautiful looking sauna called Löyly, where you can take a dive into the Baltic sea after taking a shvitz, we didn’t find the time to go there. We spent one day by exploring the city and we went shopping the other day. Most importantly, we wanted to watch the World Cup as Germany and Switzerland had their games on Sunday late afternoon and evening.

Two days and three nights were enough in the end. We could have gone to the sauna if we stayed longer, but the length of the trip was just perfect. I woke up at 5 AM on Monday morning and went to the airport, while Tobi and Jasmin slept a bit longer, as their ferry to Tallinn left a few hours later. Estonia is another new country for both of them. My flight departed at 7.55 AM and arrived at 9.20 AM in Zurich. I went directly to work. It was actually the first time I did that, but I will consider that every time in the future, especially if the flights back are in the early morning.

My travel experience in Finland

Is Finland really the boring country many people claim? I don’t think so. I had a great weekend in Helsinki and cannot comment on other parts of the country. However, Helsinki doesn’t have a great popularity either. I can understand that the city might be a dull place in winter, which is almost year-round, but we found it to be a lovely city in midsummer. Therefore, Finland is definitely not the most boring country in Europe. That honor would go to another country – maybe to Liechtenstein.

Perhaps, Finland’s bad reputation is also because of the people. If you talk to someone from Denmark, Sweden or Norway and ask them about the Finns their answer is not very flattering. It’s true, the Finns are different from other Nordic people. They are louder and wilder. It’s not a surprise that Finland is the border between Northern Europe and Russia. However, I like people with character and the Finns definitely have it.

Will I ever revisit Finland? I wouldn’t rule it out. Helsinki was fun and I believe the chances are good that I will be back someday. The more important question is if I will ever visit another area in Finland. And which one? To be honest, it doesn’t have a high priority right now. I think I will rather opt for Norway or even Sweden, if I want to experience the rural areas of Northern Europe, as the countryside in these countries looks more appealing than in Finland. But never say never.

Find the travel reports of the other countries I’ve visited here!