After Thailand, and before I went north to Oulu, I had a few days in Helsinki. I had visited Helsinki back in 2013 when I travelled around Finland and Norway with my dad.
My body was still mostly on Thai time, I used this to my advantage by heading down to breakfast as soon was it was open. I wasn’t the only one who was up that early. A local was in the lift going to the restaurant when I got in. Respecting Finnish tradition neither of us said anything and scarcely acknowledged each other. I appreciate how the Finns enjoy their solitude and in what is seen as being extremely polite completely ignore you in an effort to not bother you.
When travelling alone I will go and get a drink at breakfast and use it to ‘reserve’ a seat while I get the rest of my food.
I put glass of iPad-enabled Juice down at a table and went back for food, ony to see in an almost empty restaurant the Finn from the lift had sat right next to where I left my glass.
Disaster.
Between courses the Finn politely moved tables to a more appropriate location, across the other side of the nearly empty restaurant.
After breakfast I headed out for a walk around Helsinki, dressed appropriately in my full winter gear. My ankle was still not 100%, but I had come a long way from Australia and I wasn’t going to sit the hotel room all day, and I had a brace on my ankle, so that would be good enough, right? Right.
No matter the weather, Finns will ride a bike to work 
Early in the trip I still found snow on cars a novelty 
Can’t be a great city without trams? 
I managed to find a proper coffee shop for morning tea. Unsurprisingly it was not far from the university and was staffed by baristas that would not have looked out of place in Melbourne.
Still a novelty
That afternoon I set out on an adventure to what would turn out to be my new favourite Finnish shop, in an effort to get a DJI Osmo Pocket.
I followed Google map directions that told me to take a tram out towards the wharf where the ferries left for Tallinn. I found a bug in Google Maps. I doesn’t like back tracking in directions, so it told me to get off at the last stop before the shop, but the next stop, that was past the shop, was significantly closer.
Back in the hotel I settled down to watch some Luther on the TV, after working out how to get my laptop hooked up to the HDMI port.
I hope you didn’t tire of salmon and other fish. I enjoyed a nice piece of reindeer.
Reindeer is delicious 😀
Especially with a dark sauce ???