Helsinki - Part 3: Oddities and a far from perfect ending (6 pictures)

Closing out my series of posts on my trip, I thought I would include a few random pictures from Helsinki.  These are things that caught my eye or that didn't fit elsewhere.

One of the things that caught my eye was this young woman walking her cat like a dog.  You can't really tell from this picture, but the cat below is on a leash.  And it strolled right by me next to it's owner just a dog would.  I was so surprised I had to snatch out my camera, turn around, and take a picture.

Helsinki - Part 2: Suomenlinna (11 pictures)

On my second day in Helsinki I went to the UNESCO World Heritage site of Suomenlinaa (which means Castle of Finland).  This fortress, built across 6 islands, was built by the Swedes to guard against Russian Expansionism, but was captured by the Russians in 1808.  The capture paved the way for the occupation and annexation of Finland by the Russians in 1809.

It's a popular site for both visitors to Helsinki and natives, and is only about a 15-20 minute ferry ride from the harbor.

As you come into the dock, this is one of the views.

Helsinki - Part 1 (8 pictures)

The last city I visited on this trip was Helsinki, Finland.  Helsinki is a bit of an odd city to me in that it felt like it belonged in a former Communist country in some ways.  The city is not dirty (unlike Copenhagen), but for the most part it is quite drab and nondescript.  I don't think there are any buildings over 10 stories tall, and most seem to be 8 stories or less in the downtown area. 

On the other hand the people are incredibly nice and in many ways it felt like "home".  Maybe that's because so many people I saw looked like me or like family members.  I saw one old woman on the bus who if she was about 70 lbs heavier would have been a spitting image of my grandmother.  The exact same hair (some color, same curls, etc) and a very similar face.  Just a lot lighter.  :)

So despite having to take a bus from the airport (a train into the main train station downtown should finish sometime in 2014) and the general lack fantastic old buildings (with a few exceptions below) to take pictures of, I actually enjoyed my stay.  It also helped that I was there for the beginning of the 2013 IIHF (International Ice Hockey Federation) World Championships and managed to get a ticket to the USA vs. Austria game on the Saturday before I left.  It was my first taste of live hockey in several years and was fun to go see.

However, when I arrived, this was the view out my hotel window, which isn't exactly inviting.

However, in this post I am mostly going to focus on some pictures of the "big 3" (my term) churches in Helsinki.  Two of which dominate the skyline, and one of which dominates the tourist crowd.  :)

Stockholm - Part 2 (10 pictures)

One important thing to realize about Stockholm is that it is an expensive city to be in, but this can be a bit deceptive given the exchange rate between the Swedish Krone and the US Dollar.  When I was there it was around 7 Krone to the Dollar.  So when the equivalent of a medium Starbucks latte (no Starbucks that I could see unfortunately) costs 40-50 Krone, it doesn't immediately strike you that you are paying $6-8 for a drink that costs $4 or less (if I remember right) in the U.S. 

Why do I bring this up?  Because museum prices in Stockholm are just as high.  Expect to pay at least $15 to visit a museum in Stockholm, and possibly $20 or more.  So my main piece of advice is to buy the Stockholm Card.  A 3-day card will cost you a bit over $100, but not only does it include free admission (one time only) to nearly every museum in the city, it also includes free use of all of the mass-transit options (metro, tram, bus, and even some of the ferries). 

Unfortunately for me, I bought just the 3-day transit pass which was much cheaper, thinking I would want to visit many museums (I usually don't).  But Stockholm has a number of museums that looked quite interesting and if you are going to be there and like museums, the Stockholm Card is a massive bargain.

There was one museum that I HAD to go to though, and that was the Vasa Museum on Djurgarden island.  It is the most-visited museum in all Scandinavia and displays the only 17th-century ship that is almost fully preserved.  The Vasa was a Swedish warship that finished construction in 1628, and due a faulty design sunk barely a nautical mile into its maiden voyage.  It lay lost in the harbor for 333 years before being found and recovered.  The Wikipedia article makes for interesting reading on the loss, sinking, re-discovery, raising, and preservation of the ship.

Like a lot of folks, I found the museum fascinating and spent a couple hours there (maybe more).  Unfortunately, the museum is a bit dark and the flash on my little camera wasn't up to lighting that much space, so I didn't get a lot of great pictures.  But some of the better ones are in this post.

 This is looking down the hull from the front of the ship towards the rear.

Stockholm - Part 1 (11 pictures)

I left Copenhagen by train, going over the Oresund bridge to Sweden and up the coast to Stockholm.  The trip took about 5 hours, but the ticket was very cheap (about $30 for a non-refundable 2nd class ticket) and it gave me the chance to see a bit of Swedish countryside on the way.

Stockholm was an absolute delight, and my 2 and half days there weren't nearly enough.  It's a large city of around 2 million residents (in the greater metro area), with the main city area spread out over 14 islands connected by over 50 bridges.  Of the 5 main districts in the inner city area I only managed to see Gamla Stan (the old town), most of Norrmalm, and part of Ostermalm.  I also made a visit to the eastern end of the Djurgarden island on my last day.  However, the city is huge and I think I could easily spend a month or more exploring.

One interesting way of getting an idea of the scale and layout of the city is to check out the Stockholm scale model that is in the cultural building in Norrmalm.  Here is a picture of part of the model.  It's built at a scale of 1cm of the model equals 10 meters in reality.  It's very cool in that it not only shows current buildings, but is many places shows future developments (the white buildings).

Copenhagen - Part 3, "Graffiti Time" (6 pictures)

One of the things I noticed about Copenhagen is that there is a pretty large amount of graffiti.  Most of it is of the tagging variety and sucks both artistically and in it's presence.  But in some places you come across some really cool graffiti artwork.  The main place I saw a bunch of really cool stuff was in the "Free City of Christiania".  Unfortunately, I couldn't take pictures of a lot of the good artwork because it was on buildings located in the "green zone", which is where all the hash sellers have their stalls and where people come to smoke marijuana.  And in that area they have a strict no camera's policy (no surprise, as it's illegal).

I'll include pictures of a half-dozen of the cooler graffiti I came across in this post, both in Christiania and in the city.  Eventually (this weekend sometime probably) I will create a Copenhagen section on my photo site.  But for now, this will be the last of Copenhagen photos.

 This was in Christiania.

Copenhagen - Part 2 (8 pictures)

I normally don't go to a lot of museums when I travel, but luckily I decided to go to the Thorvaldsen Museum when I was done visiting the palace, as it's right next door.  Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844) was a Danish sculptor who lived in Rome for over 40 years, who gifted his entire art collection to the city of his birth before he died.  This included not just his own artwork, but that of many of his friends and students, as well as a few antiquities he had collected.  When it was opened in 1848, it was the first public art museum in Denmark.

I have to say, I was blown away by how good the sculptures that Thorvaldsen did are.  There are plaster copies of his "drafts" (used to finalize the design of a sculpture before creating it in hard stone) which are usually bright white.  And then there are the actual final sculptures which are usually darker.  The level of detail he put into his work is really incredible and you can't get the full effect via pictures.

However, I hope some of the examples below give you an idea of how good the sculpture is and convince you that if you ever go to Copenhagen, to put a visit to the museum on your list of places to go.

This lion is one example.  I have a full body picture that I will throw on my photo site later.

Copenhagen - Part 1 (10 pictures)

I took what will probably be my last extended vacation trip in Europe before returning to the U.S. from April 27th though May 5th.  I had looked at a number of options and decided to do a Scandinavian capitols trip and go to Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Helsinki before returning to Poznań.

The first city was Copenhagen.  I had a 6am flight from Poznań that arrived at 7am, which unfortunately meant getting up around 2am.  Transportation into the city was easy, as there are both a train line and a metro line that run from the airport to the Central Train station downtown.  From there it was a 2-block walk to my hotel.

One thing you notice very quickly about Copenhagen is that they love their bikes.  I got my first clue of this when I walked out of the Central Train station and saw this.

This is just part of the bike racks in front of the Central station.  There are dedicated bike lanes that run next to the sidewalks throughout most of the city (that I saw), and a dedicated bike line through the center of the old town.  The local English-language paper even had an article while I was there on a plan to build two "bicycle highways" that would improve bike usage from the suburbs by building dedicated routes that avoided the roads where possible so that bike riders would not need to stop at lights and stop signs.