A Little bit of Helsinki

I have been pretty much writing about my visits and travels to locations outside of Helsinki - so I thought it would be a good idea to write a bit about the city itself....and of course some pictures from the city.

Helsinki is in the southern tip of the country - and is by far the countrys largest city.

With a population of just over 550,000 it defintly is a mite smaller than Bangalore (!) but the richness of its culture, history and the energy of its youth make up for its scale.

From a tourist´s point of view, the city definetly is a friendly place- I wont say warm...but defntly friendly. People are not necessarily outgoing, or boisterously welcoming - but you are definetly taken care of; in my brief stay of 4 months, I havent heard a single word of racism...except perhaps one - though I may not have heard it properly - and anyway the lady was completely drunk. And one incident of someone being absolutely rude to me in a cinema hall- but I guess she was drunk as well!

Ah yes - drink flows easily and you can find a lot of 'bag-ladies' and drunk men around at times...but they are pretty much well behaved.

Getting Around

For someone who has had to rely on autorickshaws for most of his life and never drove a car much, I was absolutely thrilled to experience the freedom that the city's public transport provided - the trams and buses, the metro and the trains.

The city is criss crossed with Tram lines...and you can pretty much get around to any part of the city on a tram.

Trams have been running in Helsinki for over a hundred years. Horse-drawn trams appeared on the streets in 1891 and the first electric tramline entered service on 4 September 1900. Over a hundred years of tram history includes many interesting stages in the development of tram traffic in Helsinki. Here's a YouTube video of a restored Streetcar (more than a 100 years old!) on a tramline...and you would agree with me when I say that - its more ínteresting to ride a charming old tram rather than a mariginally more functional modern one!

Interesting trivia - of the city's 550,000 population, a little over 200,000 commute using trams on a given weekday! Over 40 %!

The metro is another popular mode of transport- quite the thing, very quick - frequent. Trivia- Over 50 Million people use the Metro every year!

A deep escalator takes you down to the stations (this takes a minute to reach the bottom!) and we have trains every 4- 6 minutes.

An interesting phenomenon here is the suddent burst of motorcycles and bicylces in the city- with the coming of summer.

With the clearing of the skies and the snow and rains dissappearing, motorcycles started springing round every street corner...all kinds - Harleys are very popular and of course the ubiquitous Japanese models the Hondas and Kawasakis.

Imagine to my surprise when one fine day-I see a whole new contraption just around my house...being ridden by some folks in typical biker gear - long hair, glares, leather jackets and all!

Designer bicycles!

But cycles are a big deal here - everyone rides one..You can buy a reasonably good one for about 200 Euros...with the more expensive desígner ones costing about 2000Euros. I bought mine from a friend...almost for free :) And no, its not designer...but it does get me around.

Of course, the Finn loves his boats - they come in all shapes and sizes; Did I mention, that I lived right by the sea - my neighbour hood is called - the Green Bay - and I pass by some of these boats everyday! And some other interesting pictures.... Saw this buggy and three more at The Aussie bar : ) The kids love thier skate boards- at every corner and plaza Horses??...:) Naaah- just a larger than life poster :)

The Market Place

An interesting culture around the city - like in many cities - is the presence of the local market. Abuzz with activity, loud

chatter, where the loud colours of the fresh strawberries competes for attention with the boisterous music of an aged Banjo player, you can find it all at the the market place. Helsinki has several of them, but the biggest and most famous one is the one next to the Harbour...open during Summers...on the weekends only.

You can buy fruits, Finland stuff :) and of course have your coffee and croissant. Over several days, I have taken photographs around the city - and they are all uploaded here. You are welcome to check them out - leave a comment on the blog though, if you'd like to. The Helsinki Diaries 1 The Helsinki Diaries 2

A Day in Estonia

It was a long Saturday evening. Late night movie, crashed at a friends house. Woke up at 9 to a friends call - 'Hey we are at the Harbour - headed to Estonia...do you want to join? Sure I wanted to! Took me 60 min to get home,wash up and head to the harbour...on my trusty bicycle. Passport in hand, bicycle in the parking lot, I bought my ticket to Estonia on a cruise. We spent the entire day at Tallin, the capital city of Estonia. Here's an interesting trivia - Skype - that ubiquitous interent software - came out of Tallin ! 'The Old Town' is the most 'touristy part of Tallin - and thats where we headed as well. Here are the pictures from that trip.