To start the day, we naturally decided to check out a bakery. We found a bakery attached to the St. George hotel and grabbed some sweets, sandwiches, and coffee. Shay and I split a seasonal sweet bun with a jam filling. Madi and Derek shared a voisilmäpulla, or a Finnish Butter Eye Bun. The rolls were exquisite, as were the sandwiches (we had a delightful smoked ham and cheese sandwich, and a smoked salmon sandwich, and I believe a sandwich containing smoked cheese and prosciutto). To accompany all of that, we had a variety of coffee beverages. Plenty of customers over the years have raved about Nordic coffee, and I must admit I was skeptical. I’ve drank a lot of coffee in a lot of places, but I never once considered that way over here, way up north, the people are enjoying some of the most fantastic coffee around. I can say with great confidence that, indeed, the coffee has not disappointed (at least here in Finland for certain).

After wrapping up a wonderful breakfast, we moved across the street to a nearby park. If memory serves me (with help from Google Maps), it was called Leikkipaikka Vanha Kirkkopuisto. A lovely, quiet memorial park of some kind, though what it is commemorating or honoring I cannot be certain. There were a number of monuments and what looked like headstones, but they were inscribed with what looked like Swedish. We already know my Finnish is no good, my Swedish is no better. Ultimately, for us foreigners, it was simply a pleasant place to have a sit.

The gang sitting in one of Helsinki’s many wonderful parks.

Recharged from our strenuous outing, we set out to the docks to hop on a ferry to visit one of Helsinki’s most popular tourist destinations, the Suomenlinna. On our way there, we past a handful of street musicians. All of which provided a rich backing track to our procession to the sea. At the docks is a market full of street foods, tourist gifts, and best of all, fresh berries. More on that later. I did see a sign for Moose Meatballs, but I regret to inform you all that I did not try them. We passed by them swiftly, boarded the ferry and we were off.

As we approached the old sea fort, I was struck by the beauty of all the small islands dotting the waves. Some of which had a single cottage or building, with little room for much else. Past those islands we began seeing the large stone walls of the Suomenlinna. As we grew closer, the scale of these walls surrounding the fort became evident. Truly a marvel of engineering.

We soon reached the port at the fort, and disembarked. It was a bit hotter in the sun, but the entire island that the sea fort is on has many lovely parks and shaded areas. It was bustling there, as it was Midsummer day, and there was even a wedding taking place. Quite a location for a ceremony. Certainly much different than renting a refinished barn in the Minnesotan countryside.

At the main gate, there was a large display noting historical bits about the fort. It seems Suomenlinna was built by Sweden as a coastal defense location when they were still in control of Finland. Later on it was occupied by Russia, with the architecture of that time remaining intact. Later, in the 1920’s, after Finland became independent, they assumed control of the fort from Russia and it remains much the same to this day. There is a large church on the island which has a steeple fitted with a lighthouse beacon, which flashes ‘H’ (for Helsinki) in morse code. I thought that was pretty cool.

Any direction you take around the fort rewards you with some excellent views of the sea, the coast, and Helsinki. Standing atop the walls among the retired artillery looking out at sail boats in the harbor is a vista I will not soon forget.

With our exploration of the Suomenlinna at a close, we decided to head to the dock and ferry back to the mainland. We stopped at the market mentioned prior and picked up a small tray of mixed berries. It contained fresh strawberries, blueberries, cherries, and an apricot. I must say that these berries were without a doubt the juiciest, best tasting berries I’ve had in my life. They certainly left an impression on us all. As we enjoyed the berries in a small park near the market, we spotted a mobile cafe, powered by bicycle. This was creatively named ‘Bike Cafe’. We stopped by and grabbed some macchiatos and americanos. Once again the coffee delivered.

Don’t you just want to eat all of these in one go?

We ambled forth to a local grocery store chain, ‘K Market’, to peruse the local selection. As we mindlessly wandered the store we were approached by the cashier, who asked “English, right?”

Slightly taken aback, we answered in the affirmative. We then learned she was trying to close up the shop, but couldn’t because we wandered in before she got to the door. A situation we are all quite familiar with. Apologetically, we scrambled to grab some ingredients for sandwiches as well as what is called Long Drink, which came recommended by our Finnish friend from the day prior. We scurried to the counter, paid for the goods, and we were on our way yet again.

We continued on until finding, you guessed it, yet another park. Helsinki is lousy with them, and they are all well maintained and beautiful. We plopped down, whipped up some sandwiches and cracked open the ever-popular Long Drinks (slight aside, but I feel I should mention that drinking alcohol in public is a-okay in Finland). We were told this beverage was created when Finland hosted the Olympic Games in the 50s. It was so popular, they simply continued to manufacture them, adding a host of flavors. It is basically a flavored gin cocktail in a 16 ounce can. Quite refreshing, and similar to a host of other such beverages we have in the States.

After sharing in a nice picnic, we made a brief stop at our rented abode to look for any local establishments that might catch our collective eyes. Selection was sparse due to Midsummer, but we ended up finding a rooftop bar in downtown Helsinki called ‘Ateljee Bar’. It took several beats to find the right building and the right entrance to said building, but soon enough we found ourselves on the top of Helsinki. It is worth mentioning at this point that this bar is a bit on the pricier end. And by a bit, I mean quite a lot. Four pints of lager cost something to the tune of fifty euros. In Finland, alcohol is taxed heavily, but this was quite a deal higher in price than anywhere else we had visited thus far. We’re talking baseball game level pricing and beyond. We were careful not to spill a golden drop and proceeded to the rooftop for what was an amazing view. Naturally, we agreed that one beer was plenty and we head back to ground level, where beer prices weren’t affected by altitude.

Luckily, on our way to Ateljee, we spied a potential back up option by the name ‘Heidi’s Bier Bar’. This place ended up being a surreal experience. It was Midsummer’s Day. We now found ourselves in a German themed bar, blasting America’s greatest hits, operated by Finns. This was not a square on my Helsinki bingo card. Nevertheless, the drinks were much more affordable by Finland standards, and we had a deck of cards. This meant we could play Smear, a staple of my household for as long as I can recall. We played the night away, enjoying the very familiar music. The playlist was roughly as follows, in roughly this order: We Built This City by Jefferson Starship, Cotton Eye Joe by Rednex, The Devil Went Down to Georgia by Charlie Daniels, Uptown Girl by Billy Joel, Human by The Killers, and various Billboard hits. Then the surrealism ratcheted up a notch. An all-too-familiar song began to play. For a brief moment we all looked at each other, certain we had heard it before. We were right. Let It Go from the Disney Film Frozen came on. I am not certain I will ever be able to forget a bar full of 18-20 year old Finnish girls (in Finland, the legal drinking age is 18) belting out the words to a song that has long saturated the airwaves of America. To top it off, at the beginning of the chorus, foam blasted from cannons onto an empty dance floor. This was our cue to leave, as at that very moment we collectively felt very old.

We walked back to our apartment in the twilight of Midsummer and hit the hay.

To Be Continued in Day 2 in Helsinki!

Day 1 – Coffee, Pastries, Suomenlinna, Parks, and Bars

Krown Bakery & Eatery