Helsinki - Days 168-170

Made it to Scandinavia :) World Design Capital 2012!

Helsinki is a really cool city. The ferry from Tallinn arrived at the port basically in the center of the city. It was only a 10 minute walk to the central Senate Square where I met my hosts Christian and Sofia. And from there, another 10 minute walk to their place, so the city center is fairly compact. I had in my mind Helsinki as a huge capital but it's much more intimate than expected.

Since I arrived late afternoon, we just hung out at home and made dinner the first night. The next day Christian offered to lend me his bike so I could see some less accessible parts of the city. It seemed like a great idea at the time, and looking back, it was definitely worth it, but my legs seemed to disagree for the 12 hours they were screaming in pain. I rode about 20 km in a big loop around the city to some of the islands, residential districts, and parks. Helsinki is really blessed by geography and the archipelagos and outer islands are easily explored yet feels remote. I was able to grab a supermarket meal and have a picnic for one by the water while fending off seagulls. Then 5 minutes later, I was riding in city traffic again. Helsinki has a lot of bikers, but it's definitely no Copenhagen, so bike paths are still lacking. Since I hadn't ridden in so long, it was a bit nerve-wracking and physically challenging being on a bike for 5 hours, especially on one that is too big and having to stop to check the map every so often. But there's nothing like the feeling of going downhill next to the coast :) I had to remind myself to stop smiling because I was swallowing too much wind and flies were bouncing off my teeth.

Then yesterday I met up with some Chinese guy who messaged me through CS to meet up. He's doing his master's degree in chemistry at the University of Helsinki and showed me the UniCafe or the school cafeteria. We just had a quick chat and I got to taste some typical Finnish cuisine - herring and potatoes. Walked around the city and met up with Sofia to look through the cool shops in the design district. Then Christian joined us in the evening to take a ferry out to Suomenlinna Island where there is a fortress and military academy. He used to be a tour guide on the island, and innudated me with dates and history about the Swedish and Soviet involvement in Finland. Then we had a very mediocre 15 euro burger on the terrace overlooking the bay. Everything is expensive here...and 15 euros is the most I've paid for a meal on this whole trip. But I should probably adjust my mindset and get used to those prices.

My hosts and I have also been discussing life in Finland (and Scandinavia in general) and the pros and cons of the social welfare state. The standard of living is really high and it's nice to see tax money really working for the people. Since I work in education and Finland is always used as a positive example, I loved hearing about the system first hand. Just as an example, university students do not have to pay tuition (as is the case in many European countries) and receive a housing allowance and living stipend totaling about 500 euros per month. Plus they can take out government loans and most students do it not out of necessity but because they can live more comfortably or travel/party more. Also, the meals are subsidized at these unicafes, so I paid 6 euros for lunch whereas students only pay 2.70 or something like that. Just one of many examples...perhaps I should look into getting another advanced degree in Scandinavia :)