HELSINKI, FINLAND

2015-11-20, 21:15, THORIN

STAY: CHEAP SLEEP HELSINKI

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Finland Finland Finland. We found bizarrely cheap flights on BalticAir (which is a real provider) from Vilnius to Helsinki, so decided why the hell not! The plane was 1x2 (yes, 1x2!!!) and we had to walk what seemed like a kilometres across the runway at Vilnius airport to reach it! We actually transferred bizarrely in Riga, Latvia, where we would end our trip, for reasons as of yet unknown. Anyway, we touched down in Finland and we surprised how different it was from the other countries we had been to. It looks quintessentially northern European, with a squares in the city similar to Sweden, Norway or even Belgium, but there was something about it the made it seem distinctly Finnish.

The hostel we stayed in was the biggest so far - we stayed in a room of 28 bunks! And it was one of the most expensive at about €28! Finland is quite expensive (as is most of scandinavia) so we promptly made our way to the local supermarket to buy lunch. Scandinavian supermarkets are actually real cool, and they have tons of fresh local food in the deli - maybe one of the best places to get good local food at cheap prices in the city! We feasted on local yoghourt (which is always tasty in Scandinavia) and rye bread. Not together mind.

We spent the day exploring Helsinki. It is not the most tourist friendly city, but we had absolutely glorious weather and were able to cover just about the whole place. We even made it out to the weird island just off the mainland with some cool ruins on it. Score! Neither Jason nor I were particularly blown away by Helsinki, but next time we would have to come back and hang around the country a little more I think. Still, it was an interesting place and the language sounds very interesting!