We let in light, and banish shade: Helsinki, Finland

When I planned to spend some time In Helsinki, I kind of expected it to be a lot like Oslo or Stockholm. I was wrong. Helsinki may be like those other capital cities as far as geography is concerned, but it has so much more to do, and to see. Not only that, but the people here are just plain phenomenal.

My time spent in Stockholm was unfortunately short, but I will have one more day there on my return journey. I spent a large percentage of my time there exploring the old town (aka. Gamla Stan), and enjoying the Christmas street markets (I could spend all day in those markets, I swear). The smell of cookies and chocolate covered goods are perma-burned onto my sense of smell. I guess you could say that’s a good thing. While wandering the docks, I came across “the largest Christmas tree in the world,” which is called the Kinnevik tree. The Kinnevik is made up of 2000 branches (from various other trees), and is decorated with 5000 coloured lamps, globes, peppermint rocks, gingerbread cookies, and mirrored “disco” balls. I think the height of the tree (with star) was measured at 42 metres high.

Getting to Helsinki was easy, as I took an overnight cruise ship from Stockholm. The boat was quite a bit smaller than the one I lived in for the Caribbean cruise, but it was still quite large regardless. The ship had a shopping mall, supermarket, movie theatre, casino, sauna, swimming pools, and international airport. I had tons of time to burn, so I took in the “authentic” Swedish sauna and hot tubs. I’m not sure what made them different from saunas anywhere else in the world, but it was nice to just relax for a while.
Chilling can be fun, but the best part of the cruise was all the people I met. It would seem that my particular boat was a “party” boat. Once it dropped off all the boring people in Helsinki (this included me), it would be off to sea once again, and the real par-tayyy would begin. Half of the people on the boat were still Swedish part goers however, and I was quite popular (being the loner Canadian, WOOO!). The room across from mine had a laptop and external speakers attached to them. The owner was sooooo proud of how loud his music was. I didn’t have the heart to tell him his “loud” was my “LOL! I’VE HEARD LOUDER MARSHMELLOW GUN FIGHTS.”

Well now I’m in Helsinki, and my hostel is literally inside the old Olympic stadium building from 1959. I sleep probably 100 metres from the Olympic tower/torch, which is kind of cool in its own way. Since I arrived here, I’ve visited no less than 22 major attractions, and various other random locations I decided to witness on the fly. The absolute best story I have from Helsinki is of complete and absolute luck in timing. I was out in the dark (which it is at around 15:00) taking pictures of the big fancy buildings in town, when I noticed a line forming in front of the Helsinki Cathedral. Not only that, but it seemed T.V. camera crews were setting up all over the place, so whatever was going on must be a "sight to see". I applied my “when in Rome” policy, and got in line. Once inside I found a place to sit (the place was already nearly full), and waited for whatever everyone else was waiting for, to begin. There was some nice/dramatic organ music to begin, and then a choir made up of about 10ish girls holding candles. One girl in particular had a crown of candles on her head, standing in front of the rest, but I had not yet figured out what this ordeal was all about.
When I left the cathedral (now about one hour later), I very quickly noticed that there were about, ohhhh, 10 000 more people in the main square than I remember previously. The cathedral is up on a platform some 50 metres from the main square, so I had a near perfect view of all the people below. Then it all came together. The girl with the candle crown walked down out of the cathedral doors, down the main stairs, mounted her sleigh, waved to the many, many spectators for a few minutes, and then took off into the night. This “candle crown” girl is known as Lucia, and she is a holiday icon of the Swedish people (who have a major population base in Helsinki). “Lucia day” as I found out later, is a celebration of when the days finally start getting longer, rather than shorter. That is GREAT news to me, haha.
Great news.

It's been a while since I've had time to visit a decent museum, but I managed to visit two here in Helsinki. One of them was of a classical variety, spanning from the 17th century to the present. It was nice, and very stimulating for my mind. Even the modernistic art was fascinating. The second museum I visited was a "I want to rip out my hair, boil myself in oil, smash my head against the concrete floor, rip out my own heart, and then jump off the roof" contemporary style museum. I know, I know; it's no secret that I dislike contemporary art, but I always try to keep my mind open to new styles. This of course does not have any application towards: "flat block of wood lying on the ground," "pile of candy on the floor," "three sheets of plywood leaning against the wall," "painted wall in a single tone (yes-- like a wall)" and the surprisingly creative "small hole punched in plain canvas."
/facepalm
Not everything in that museum was half bad, however; most of it was. Haha.

-Kyle- bringin’ on the light