Bored in Finland

Today’s stop was Helsinki, Finland. Rob and I signed up for an excursion that included a drive around and out of the Scandinavian city to a rural, “vintage” train. After a diesely ride on a 1960’s era train (excuse me, 1960s is vintage?!?) and a tasty chicken lunch that provided me the unexpected opportunity to explain risotto to a confused Australian, we went to Porvoo. Billed as “breathtaking, fun, and romantic,” Porvoo is Finland’s second oldest city and was THE harbor city in Finland before Helsinki.

I’m bored just typing that.

It is with great disappointment that I admit: Finland was a big yawn.

After our 5-hour bus tour was officially over, we still had 3 more hours we could have spent on our own exploring Helsinki on foot. Instead, we stayed on the bus and let it drop us off at our ship. We found our cabin’s air conditioning and Wi-Fi coverage much more captivating.

There wasn’t anything wrong with what we saw of Finland today. It just wasn’t that interesting.

Helsinki was a blend of old-ish and new-ish. The city was pretty much wiped out by Russia during World War II and had to be rebuilt, so the “old” parts are more Mid-Century Modern. It was a pretty city with wide, clean streets and lots of trees and monuments and cool architecture with simple lines. But, it just didn’t have a sense of place. I couldn’t get a pulse on Helsinki’s personality. It was just…there.

View from the port. I could research and tell you
what the baked ham and air filter buildings are,
but I bet they are boring. So let's just enjoy
the ham and filter as is.

Lovely day, pretty buildings, a nice
fountain. Nothing wrong with any of it.

A little old, a little new.

I saw this a few times -- animal skins on
restaurant seating. It looks very...Nordic.

As we drove through the Finnish countryside on the way to our train, Rob and I instantly understood why there is a large Fin population in our part of the Pacific Northwest. What we saw in Finland looked a lot like home. I could see how the similarity would entice migration. Lots of trees. LOTS of trees. Rivers. Super green. Pastures. It was beautiful. But it was just…there.

Very pretty! Just add a volcano in the
background and I can find this about
20 minutes from Woodhaven.

Our train ride was mostly forgettable despite our seatmates doing their best to fascinate us with their lists of allergies and blurry photos of random flowers (the wife thought I was practically a botanist because I identified a lupine).

We sat next to one of the two windows
that opened. No AC in the olden days.

Conductor's area. We strangely went one direction
for about 5 minutes, stopped, changed conductors,
and then went the other direction for the rest of the
ride. We later found out it was because the tour is
billed as being 45 minutes and the route doesn't
take that long, so they start backwards to add time.
This was the most interesting feature of the ride,
notwithstanding Donna's gold allergy.

The town of Porvoo tried so very hard to be charming and quaint but instead it felt forced and clunky. Nothing like the enchanting Visby, Sweden of yesterday. Instead, Porvoo’s shops were odd – antiques, second-hand clothing, and quirky souvenirs. We circled the town three times (2.9 miles on the pedometer today), and ended up leaving the historic part to wander around a Finnish Target-like grocery store. Sadly, even the whimsical beverage I bought there was a disappointment.

Very quaint. Just out of camera range: 
Jehovah's Witnesses with a display.

The red buildings used to store supplies when
Porvoo was a shipping metropolis.

One of the nicer souvenir stores where
I found a bookmark for a friend. Most
of the others felt like that back corner
of an old hardware store that has
Made in China souvenir magnets and
thick t-shirts with only black print.

Very similar to some of the older Fred Meyers
in Portland, if you are a PNWer.

It's the Smurfs!
And it's disgusting!
It might have been kiwi strawberry.
It was gross.

In between bus naps, I noted a fair number of Finlandia tidbits provided by our tour guide whom I eventually decided must get paid by the word. Things like Finland has six meters (about 20 feet) of coastline for each person, and one sauna for every two people. Reindeer are raised like cows and dominate the northern parts. The darkness of winter is worse than the coldness of winter. Finland used to be part of Sweden before Russia took over. Finland has been independent since 1918. Finland has no natural disasters or dangerous bugs or animals, as long as you don’t tick off the moose.

Yep, bored again.

So yeah, glad I got to see Finland. Probably won’t go back.

A little extreme, but not bad advice.

The best part about Porvoo was saying it.

Next stop: Tallinn, Estonia!