Thursday 17th: Walking around Helsinki, catching train to Kolari

[ all photos I took on the 17th (110) : https://picasaweb.google.com/110144623598348247797/20110217?authkey=Gv1sRgCMakhIjO2pXPHA# ]

I got up quite late due to waiting for the Russian guy to leave and just naturally feeling like a sleep-in. Check out was 12. I got out at about that time.

The view from the window. First view of Helsinki during the day.

I was on a section to the south east of the main city that juts out into the bay a bit. I walked south, then up along the western side of this thing. Although, I was feeling very hungry, so locating a food source was a priority.

There were a lot of trucks driving around with people in the back being very vocal and enthusiastic. I have no idea what they were doing.

This street has no snow. I don't know how it manages this. Every other street is smothered in either snow or ice, with grit rock so you don't slip.

In the picture above, at the corner of the building in the middle, I found a Sicilian restaurant. Excellent. I went in and got a kind of spaghetti with tomato sauce. It also had chili in it. Lots of chili! I almost choked at times. Chili and a slight cold don't mix very well. Before finding this I was also quite dehydrated. No one else bought a drink. They all had glasses of water. Drinks were about 6 euro, so maybe that was why (the pasta was 11.5 I think). They refilled my jug of water about 4 times, so I was very happy at this. They also had a section where I could help myself to bread and some strange salads. Eventually I moved on.

Right across the road from the restaurant I spotted a music store. So I went in. They had a large selection of mesa boogie amplifiers. Quite expensive and sometimes with a very high gain sound. One day I will build a copy of this design.

This is some building in Russia. I've forgotten the name. I think it is actually a lutheran church. To me, it doesn't look like one from the outside. I really like the look of it.

The inside was a bit bare. However they had this awesome amassing of organ pipes. ... one day I will build one.

After that I went wandering for a bit. I had been surviving with just the gloves from the 1 pound store in England which were not doing much for the cold temperature. Since I was heading to the arctic that evening I decided I really needed to get something better. Along my wanderings I entered a store which seemed to sell camping stuff. But when I entered I realised they sold mostly bbq's and the like. I loitered around for a while, savouring the inside heat so that my hands could regain some heat. A guy tried talking to me, but he seemed to not speak english. I gesticulated that I wanted some gloves by pointing to my hands a bit and portraying a sense of "brr my hands are cold!". Then I said "gloves" as if he will somehow know that one word. To my amazement he said "ah! Gloves! We have those." Then he showed me a box, with a "warning, this is very flammable" indication on the outside. He lifted out a small metal can. It really didn't look like gloves! He called his friend from the back who spoke a little english. He told me they don't sell gloves, but that I can get some at Sokos down the road a bit.

Sokos was just 50 metres or so away. It was a kind of department store. I went looking around in there for a while and then found some gloves. 8 Euros for some that are windproof, water resistant, and claim the technical classification 'warm'.

I went out and did more looking around. Then I realised that the gloves stretch quite a lot and so they were way too large. I decided it really wouldn't work, so I had to go back and ask if they could be exchanged, or else I would just buy a different pair at the right size. There was a lady there who spoke english quite well and was really nice and helpful. She let me change the gloves. Yay! On the ground floor I bought some nuts and toothpaste for the journey.

During the last ramblings, I had seen a river that was frozen over. There were lots of footmarks on it so I decided to have a closer look. I found the concept really bizarre. When I got there I decided it looked safe enough. People were very casually walking around out there, so it should be kind of safe. I walked across it.

Climbing down to the side of the river.

Feeling a little nervous about this!

Looking down the river.

Up the river.

Previously I'd been walking on cleared out paths. Here I had to crunch my way through. It was very fun.

I reached the other side and continued randomly walking around being amazed at all of this. At one point I went into the train station to see if I needed a ticket. They had a system where you needed to get a number to wait to be served. A nice man gave me his number that he apparently no longer needed. yay. According to the lady, I didn't need a ticket. The printout from the email was enough.

Down through the sloped glass windows I could see there was a restaurant with people eating.

Very slippery stairs.

I went back to the same restaurant where I had lunch and this time got a margheritta pizza. It was pretty good. After that, the time until the arctic was getting very close. I was really happy with how warm the gloves were keeping me, so I decided it might be a good time to upgrade my 1 pound store beanie. Unfortunately beanies were more expensive than the gloves. I bought one for 20 euros, but it might buy me some warm ears. (ears seem to get really cold if not covered well).

At some point I went to the Helsinki City Museum. It was free entry and was open until 7pm for Thursday only. It is thursday! Great place to escape some of the dusk chill. It was pretty interesting. I learnt a lot of stuff about the city.

After that I headed for the train station. It was supposed to leave at 9:23pm. It was delayed coming in, and eventually left at about 10:20. I didn't mind too much, but it was very cold after the sun went down!

I had the top bunk. I didn't want to take too many pictures of the cabin since I didn't want to disturb the people below me. I got better pictures the next day after they left.

I shared a cabin with a Finnish man and his young daughter. The guy spoke english very well. I forgot his name. He was travelling to the city of Oulu, about halfway between Helsinki and Kolari.

The sheets and quilt were very clean and warm. The bed was very comfortable too. I had a great sleep this night. I really enjoyed travelling with the train bumping around and the strange noises. It was also very exciting to be travelling north to above the arctic circle. According to google earth, I think the trip to Kolari is about 900km north from Helsinki.