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Helsinki The Miniature Metropolis

By Belkis Kambach

Summer is the perfect time to visit the country that perches on Europe’s roof, when its extreme northern locale provides 23 hours of delightful daylight. The days seem almost endless, and after a long, dark winter, Finns stay awake for most of it while celebrating this rejuvenating season.

Only 6,600 Km. from NYC lies the seventh largest country in Europe. Most of Europe's final unspoiled wilderness is contained within its 338,145 square Km. One of the uppermost places in Europe accessible by car.  Sandwiched between Sweden and Russia. Finland is the only country that lies almost entirely north of the 60th parallel of latitude, and after Iceland, it is the northernmost country in the world.

Finland is famous for its countless pristine lakes and long summer days under the Midnight Sun, its tumbling rivers and forests of birch and pine that remain much as they have for untold generations. This is a country of unique and breathtaking beauty. Finland is home to a mere 532,053 people -- Finns are so few in number, they are the least conspicuous feature of their country.

Why go now? Helsinki swings in the summer when the interminable nights of winter have given way to the long white nights of the Finnish summer. The sun remains above the horizon all night, allowing both the Suomalinen (Finns) and visitors additional hours to enjoy the outdoors. Summer is brief and tends to make a late entry, but by the beginning of May, as the weather warms, few other cities on the Continent match Helsinki's riches -- a symphony of spires, palaces, hidden gardens, saunas, islands, Orthodox churches and Art Nouveau facades. Wherever you've come from, Helsinki will be a visual feast.

One of the many things I love about Helsinki is the pace of life and the balance of this city -- not overly cosmopolitan and yet not a rural European capital, either. With a delightful mix of Scandinavian, European and Russian architecture, Helsinki was established in 1550 by the Swedish King Gustavus Vasa as a market to compete with Tallinn, across the Baltic Sea. Then conquered by Russia in the war against Sweden in 1808.  Today it is held by many to be the real gateway between east and west, offering the best of these three cultures.

Because the compact city center grew up around the port and market area, Helsinki is easily walkable, as all the cultural offerings in Helsinki are within walking distance, so setting out on foot is the best way to wander, walking through the harbor area to see the sights and enjoy the clean air.

Start your walking tour at the waterfront market at Eteläsatama, where you’ll be greeted by seagulls flying over the market square. You’ll gaze at the jigsaw puzzle of tree-covered islands offshore (30,000 of them!) that look like giant stepping stones. They border the 3,000 miles of Finnish coastline, inviting sailing and swimming. The country reminds me of a sponge, where the lakes and islands are represented by the holes.

Helsinki's harbour with its endless encounters with the Baltic has been nicknamed "the Gibraltar of the North," an archipelago where land and sea unite in singular beauty.

It is here you notice the vastness of the Silja & Viking cruise lines and how they dwarf the harbour. What a port-of-call! Ferries head for Tallinn, Estonia (a mare 80 Km away) and also to St. Petersburg and destinations in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. If you have time, join the ranks of over 5 million passengers who take the Silja Symphony to Stockholm to enjoy one of the most beautiful cruises in the world. Charter boats also await to take you around the city's smaller islands.

If you visit Finland during the summer, you won’t want to miss the markets, as this time of year is punctuated by festivals, open air concerts, tall ship celebrations and other events. The market is like a theater of food where the rich colors and perfumes come from the impressive Finnish fruits and vegetables, ripened by the long days of summer and tasting fresher than you can remember. The dominant scent is bright green dill used to flavor (fish dishes, boiled new potatoes), red Rapu /crayfish and berries.

You will swoon at your first spoonfull of succulent berries served with sugar and cream. Finland is a berry heaven where billions of the succulent fruit grow in forests throughout the country. My mouth waters as I remember eating litres of wild berries in Helsinki. Finnish liqueurs capture the aroma and sweetness of the fruit, and you can select from an impressive variety.

In the market, fresh fruit and fish stalls do a roaring trade; bear salami, fresh and smoked fish, bread and pastries are year-round offerings. You'll find also coffee tents and the favorite Karjalanpiirakat, a thin rye crust shaped like a moccasin baked and stuffed with rice. Locals prefer their Finnish luchbox, Kalakukko, a whitefish and pork loaf-shaped pastry baked into a rye dough shell. Sample the music of violins, piano, accordions of street musicians saying Terve! as small crowds gather and disperse in small waves.

The city's charming inner harbour market with indoor and outdoor arkets provides an appetizing preview of the delicious array of delicacies and traditional Finnish handicrafts. The covered Market Hall is a spotless fresh fish and cheese emporium.  Trams clang amidst the cacophany of church bells pealing and cyclists drill their bells at pedestrians while weaving their way to the market. 

If you prefer a cultural afternoon instead of a walking tour of the city, invest in a Helsinki Card for unlimited use of the city’s well-run public transportation. This card allows you to jump on and off trains, metro and buses as often as you like (including the ferry to Suomenlinna) and also provides free tours and admission to most of the 60  museums.  The tram system allows you to see a lot in a short time, and you can pick up the "Helsinki Sightseeing 3T" at Market Square.

The trams are quiet, smooth, comfortable and inexpensive. A tram tour, lasting about an hour, goes for the price of a tram ticket. The tram does a figure eight, passing by all the major city sights and through posh neighborhoods, along the waterfront and alongside Kaivopuisto.  In any other town you'd swear the drop-dead-georgeous blondes driving the trams were peroxide mutants.  But this is Helsinki where beauty leaps at you from every corner.

From the market, cross over to flip a coin into Havis Amanda, a bronze fountain designed by Ville Vallgren in 1908. There is a view of the Säätytalo House of Estates built in 1891 by Gustaf Nyström, originally used for assemblies but today houses Finland’s scientific society. A two-minute walk will, bring you to Senate Square, a whitewashed, handsome neoclassical mansion in lemon, ochre and white that makes up the city's finest and perhaps most photographed square.

Around the square is a diverse array of buildings and architecture, including the intriguing rows of bright pastel houses by Engel that create a warm, welcoming atmosphere.  Beyond the square, you’ll find narrow streets that meander between old homes. Lose yourself in the maze of cobblestoned lined streets until you’re ready for  a rest stop at Cafe Engel.

Here stands the equestrian statue of Czar Alexander II and the dazzling Petersburg look-alike white Lutheran Cathedral, which was built between 1818 and 1852. Its interior is simple, providing a backdrop for statues, a copy of the first Finnish bible (1642) and an altarpiece painted in Moscow as a gift from the Tsar. Camera in hand, climb the stairs in front of the Cathedral for postcard views of the waterfront and a fine vantage point for a panoramic view of Helsinki's roofs. There's no better view of  the port and the city.

For an even more sublime view, from Senate Square wander the streets until you come upon the striking red-brick Uspenski Orthodox Cathedral, where you can attend a traditional Russian service at the largest orthodox cathedral in western Europe and admire its architecture. There is no organ (only the human voice is used in an Orthodox church), or pews. Between these two churches runs a ragged skyscape of spires, witches’ hats and domes. The view from here is bewitching and an inspiring setting in sunny summer weather.

A third house of worship, the Lutheran Temppeliaukio Kirkko, often called the Rock Church, is worth a visit for its unusual architecture. Built in 1969 by brothers Timo & Tuomo Suomalinen, it is embedded directly into a rocky granite hillside outcrop on a hill in Töölö. With 180 concrete beams supporting a 40-foot-high glass dome festooned with 14 miles of copper strips, it looks as though you're inside a downed UFO. It is one of a kind.

Continue your stroll along Esplanadi, the coastal road that will take you to Kaivopuisto park. Here you’ll discover imposing homes built as weekend villas where Russian nobles spent their holidays until 1918, and whose wooden villas and handsome brick buildings have been today requisitioned by foreign embassies. At 80F, locals are usually washing their carpets in the lightly salted sea. It is a park of lime trees and maples where roller bladers lead you back to the shore (you can rent roller blades here).

At the western end of the market, Esplanadi becomes a wide boulevard with quaint streets lined with maple trees and some of the best shops, boutiques, galleries and cafes. Kappeli, a cafe-brasserie-terrace full of patrons willing to pay nearly 10$ for one of its large home brews, is a great place for dinner or tea or to spend an hour with a stein of Koff. Pick a table facing the street and watch the parade of Finns go by. Tourists and residents alike enjoy this daily parade.

One of the treats of having time to wander the streets in Helsinki is the people you see. In July, many of the city's inhabitants are absent, having bolted to their log cabins in the forest. But pretty soon they'll be back, reclaiming the cafe terraces.

Continue your stroll down Esplanadi and you'll discover cupolas, intriguing roof lines, marvelous detail around doors and windows, or wind down the narrow lanes between rows of cafes.  Keep an eye out for the small treasures such as stone foundations washed by centuries of rain and snow; for the lace curtained windows, crooked chimneys and unique weather vanes.

Also of interest here is Aleksanterinkatu, Helsinki's "Fifth Avenue," where the most upbeat addresses, stores and restaurants are found including Stockmann's, Finland's most important department store. Across from Stockmann's, in front of the Old Student House and the statue of the three Blacksmiths, musical groups perform al fresco.

For those in search of peace and quiet, wanting to make a parenthesis in time, the mythical qualities of Finnish nature are no myth. Year after year, the number of travelers flying to Finland to enjoy its untouched beauty increases. You may want to take a walk in the park, there are bits of green throughout Helsinki, but to get away from it all - or from what passes for hustle and bustle in Helsinki - head straight to a wild island where you're immediately immersed in the quiet of the countryside (except weekends, when you're immersed in crowds of Finns also looking for the quiet of the countryside and stunning beauty of the outermost isles!).

The ideal voyage for those who turn into neurotic wrecks when they are more than an hour outside a city or more than a minute or two out of sight of land is Helsinki's offshore stone island fortress of Suomenlinna. This idyllic little island at the city's south intrigues with its romantic views, cannons and fortifications and hosts celebrations and special events throughout the summer.

The six interconnecting islands collectively known as Suomenlinna make up what was until recently the most important northern military bastion. It was built by the Swedes in the mid-18th century, occupied by the Russians and finally taken over by the Finns in 1918. Today it is one of Finland's five glorious Unesco World Heritage Sites and is just a brief water-bus ride from the city center. For a little activity go horseback-riding on Suomenlinna.

Walk through the village streets or in the outskirts for nice stroll along the shore. On returning to the market, the nautically inclined might want to visit the small yacht club, which serves as a parking lot for yachts, and eat their hearts out at the restaurant.

Seurasaari, yet another island, has combined an historical open-air museum, park, picnic area and swimming spot on its own small acreage three miles from the city center. The collection of buildings includes a 17th century church, Lappish huts and a 17th-century farmstead with its own savusauna. Lined with 19th century houses, the island also has small beaches. Ferries in the market also take you to Korkeasari, the island zoo. Helsinki residents - especially lovers - hold also Kairopuisto, another island at the city's southeast corner, dear to their hearts. It's great for summer outdoor concerts and picnics in the park. 

Another interesting stop is the 24-ton Jean Sibelius monument and bust, located in a beautifully wooded park. Welded steel tubes resembling organ pipes were designed by Eila Hiltunen for the composer, who created Finlandia and expressed Finnish sentiments poignantly. Perhaps you’ve seen a chunk of this monument at the entrance of the UN headquarters in NYC as a gift of Finland to the UN. When in this area you can take a peek at Mäntyniemi, the Finnish president’s official residence that rises from the bedrock to greet the sea.

Summer in Helsinki is also a time of festivals, and among the traditional summer Finnish festivities you might organize your holiday schedule around are: Vappu--May Day, the most boisterous and boozy of all (when it is possible to drink in the streets without consequently having to spend a night in a cell).  Finns mark the coming of spring on May 1 with a wild international workers movement and student revelry festival, combining modern street carnival and the typical Finnish enthusiasm for drinking. It begins when a white cap is placed on the Havis Amanda sculpture and the Finns don the white caps they receive upon graduation. Helsinki is messier, noisier and wilder than ever. The holiday drink is homemade cima (mead) and Tippaleipä (Vappu cookies), but during Vappu anything goes.

Vappu is followed by Midsummer, the much-anticipated culmination of the year when for 24 hours in June the sun is longest above the horizon. Midsummer is the oldest feast still observed in Finland and has been very important since pagan times Finns usually head for the lakeside or private islands with red wooden cottage to commune with nature around huge bonfires that burn ceremoniously.  There’s eating, drinking, dancing and romancing all through the night.

Swedish speakers, who make up six per cent of Finland's population, call the day Midsommar, while Finns refer to it as Juhannus, the Christian calendar's Feast of St. John the Baptist. The festival is celebrated on the Saturday that falls between June 20 and June 26. Many of the customs associated with Midsummer's Day are derived from the pre-Christian and European festival of light and fertility, and many couples want to be married at Midsummer. 

Finns also eat a million rapu-crayfish (those miniature cousins of the lobsters). During the crayfish & vendance festival in August, parties of drinking and singing Finn-Swedish songs are the hallmark of tradition.  Crayfish are extremely expensive, not easy to catch and can only be captured at night. After so many celebrations you should be ready to audition for the Mäntsälä fiddlers festival.

During the summer Finns go to bed late and rise early, determined to make the most of every daylight hour like prisoners on parole before autumn will reel them in. Go now and steal a few days, as summertime is enticing and the lineup of tantalizing and diverse activities await you. 

On your visit to this fantastic city, be sure to give yourself a few days to see the sites at a leisurely pace and to sample the music, islands and wonderful food.  Rise early to quietly savor the  town's twisting alleys, gardens and churches -- the rewards will be unhurried exploration.

Helsinki rightly deserves its reputation as a special place and grandly deserves the honor of being one of the select European Cities of Culture. Its history, people, architecture, culture and ambiance are unparalleled.

"Hyvää matka kaikille "(Bon Voyage  to you all! )

Check In:

The main holiday resorts are Rovaniemi, Saariselkä, Inari-Ivalo, Pyhä-Luosto, Salla, Ylläs, Levi and Olos. Winter cottages by the can be rented either in secluded, private settings or, if more amenities are preferred, in holiday village A typical cottage for four will cost $250 to $875 per week, depending upon location. Hotels are expensive but ultramodern.   · The city's Hotel Booking Center is a terrific source of help.  They're in the west wing of the Rautatientori  (central railway station) and they book rooms for Helsinki and all of Finland. They'll also fax you a price list, or do on the spot bookings.

A word on transportation

It's easy to get to Rovaniemi by train and there are several flights a day. Road connections to the rest of Finland are also good - the shortest route to Lapland from the south runs through Ranua and  Rovaniemi. For further information ·  Finnish State Railways: Tel 011-(358) 9-0100-121.  · Finnair coaches connect the central train station with the airport every half hour; the journey takes 35 minutes.

: Finnish Tourist Board