Finland is called the 'Land of a Thousand Lakes'. Being a Nordic country, Finland is unique in it's own ways. Although somewhat ignored by the mainstream travellers, the country has tons of natural treasures to offer including the mountains, waterfalls, lakes and the beautiful cities. It is even one of the best places to see northern lights too! Finland is also known as the home of 'Sauna'.
Although Finland can be amazing in extreme winter due to the beautiful Lapland, I kept that for future adventure and took an opportunity to see a glimpse of the beautiful country and meet a close old friend Subhajit at the same trip. It was sort of a weekend visit from Sweden to Finland, so this post of my blog won't have much details of travelling, and I will mostly share photos of some lesser known beautiful places of Finland.
I booked a cheap flight ticket from Stockholm to Helsinki in about 70 Euros. I will be flying with Norwegian airlines.
May 4th, 2018:
This is my second time at Helsinki airport. Few years ago I had a stopover at Helsinki, & I remember how badly I wanted to go out and explore the city during a long stop-over. At that time I couldn't go outside because I didn't have a visa. Now its my time ;)
After having lunch with sausage & sandwiches, I headed towards the train connection. First I had to take a train to a station called Tikkurila. From there I will be taking the intercity express train.
Trains to Tikkurila are frequent. Although there was a particular time mentioned in my ticket, but one can take any train from the airport. The frequency is about 15-20 mins or so. I did the same, otherwise my connection will be very tight. The tickets can be booked from VR website.
I had to wait for about an hour at Tikkurila station. It's a small but nice station. I wasn't getting bored in fact, was spending time by looking at passing by trains. The trains in Finland look nice!
Finally the train came. This is the first time I am in a double decker train! Subhajit had booked a 'working compartment seat' for me. Basically this is a small 4 seated cabin with a table at the center. People mostly book the cabin for working on their laptops. This is very convenient actually.
I was pretty amazed with the train. It was running at a speed of 200 Km per hour. The train had a 'restaurant compartment' at the front along with free wifi. After an hour, I found my way through the compartments to the restaurant & grabbed a cup of coffee. The couch is pretty specious, lot of food & drink options to choose from. People were literally having feast there by sitting around the tables with wine & fries! I wanted to take a picture but felt a bit awkward :P
It took about 4 hours to reach Joensuu. Subhajit was waiting at the station. It's been a while we haven't met together. It always feels nice to reunite with an old friend :)
Joensuu is a small city having less than a million population. Sometimes it's also called a 'student city', because of a large number of students of the University of Eastern Finland. We drove to my friend's home in about 10 minutes. A nice neighborhood, with lot of greeneries around. I was surprised to see bit of snow on the ground in the month of May!
That evening we didn't have any plan for exploration. I was also kind of tired. So it was an evening for incessant chatting & eating. Had dinner with traditional Bengali food, cooked by Lahari. We all chatted till late night...
May 5th:
A sunny day to start. We will drive to Savonlinna, a town situated about 140 Km away from Joensuu. I always like the drive through the country side & notice the type of crops people are harvesting around.
Savonlinna is a nice town to walk around, having a 15th century castle Olavinlinna as the main attraction. Unfortunately the castle was closed that day, so we couldn't go inside. But the view was worth from outside. The reflection of the castle on the lake water on a sunny day was just beautiful!
The lake water was pretty clean to see through the bottom on the shallow side. The lake had a nice view with the surrounding landscape. Finland is truly the country of lakes!
We were just walking around. It was so pleasant. Had some snacks & coffee at a nearby cafe Kahvila Saima Oy. Nice ambiance & good coffee.
We crossed the bridge & explored a bit in the town. By that time we were feeling hungry. A nearby middle eastern restaurant was perfect for having a solid meal.
We spent one more hour exploring around. Visited a nearby church (& a replica on a tree).
Headed back to Joensuu after an hour or so.
Joensuu downtown is pretty small, I liked it.
Posed with a statue of 'Kosiosusi' (the 'wolf man') located at the city center ;)
It was pretty cold outside & after a while we wanted to call it a day. Having a cup of Latte at the Coffee House was a perfect ending for the day..
The evening was again a non-stop chat evening along with movies. Delicious food items to perfectly end the day.
6th May:
We planned for BBQ at a nearby island-type place. We bought lots of Sausages & marinated chicken pieces for grilling.
Actually the BBQ place is just beside the lake. It's few kilometers away from the downtown & consists of 2-3 BBQ spots. These spots consist of grilling equipment along with pieces of wood for fuel. There were many people BBQing, we joined with one of the groups.
Ideally, I would have liked to capture fish from the lake, have a swim & then BBQ the fishes ;)
We are 4 people now, another guy Atri has joined us (with non-negligible amount of alcohol in his storage). We started BBQing our sausages & marinated meat. The smell was too strong, so I put my jacket a bit far away (but still couldn't stop my clothes to absorb the BBQ smell!).
Had lot of photo sessions, fun & some nice BBQ food!
Now it's 'Sauna' time, something that you have to experience once when you are in Finland. The idea of sauna is very interesting. You go inside a 'hot room' in semi-naked condition (you can try going fully naked also ;)). The room consists of a fireplace kind of heating system, that keeps the room temperature somewhere between 70-100 degree centigrade. Obviously normal people can't tolerate beyond 80-85 or so. As long as you can tolerate the heat, you keep sitting inside the room & continue sweating. In this way through the sweat, your body releases toxic elements & also purifies the breathing system in the body. This is very popular in Finland & local people do it very frequently. They say that it helps to sleep well without having any medication. Ideally, a sauna should accompany with a dive into a semi-frozen water, & repeat the process few times.
Initially I wasn't intended for the sauna, but Subhajit dragged me in. We got ready, but I was kind of scared of diving into a lake when the temperature is around freezing! It was really a pain in the a**. Somehow I managed courage & jumped into the water. OMG it was hilarious! It felt like my organs are ripping apart inside the water. Immediately we ran to the sauna room. Initially the temperature was okay, within my tolerance level. After sometimes, I couldn't bear it any more. Moved out of the room & jumped into the semi-frozen water (this time with more courage than my last dive!). Ran into the sauna room again. We did it couple of times more. Actually by that time I was enjoying the process. We spent more than half an hour in total & then came back. It was indeed a nice & unique experience. I strongly recommend trying it once. It's a lifetime experience!
My last day at Finland couldn't be better than this unique experience! We had a great feast at home that night. Went to bed a bit early, I have a morning bus tomorrow.
May 7th:
I left early morning, bid adieu to Subhajit. The bus took about 6 hours to reach Helsinki...
I had few hours to explore the city. I just walked around. First visited the parliament building.
Helsinki church is also one of the main attractions of the city.
I walked to the harbor area. It's somewhat similar to Stockholm. I liked it.
I was feeling hungry by then. There were some street food stalls at the harbor area selling local fish items. I ordered some local fish along with potato. It was delicious!
Hanged around for a while. Noticed a bridge with lots of "love locks", like the one in Paris. I guess whenever people see a bridge on a canal or river, they just imagine it to be the original famous one in Paris & continue putting locks on it..
The city of Helsinki has many interesting sculptures around, I tried to capture some funny ones..
Bought a souvenir & then headed back to Helsinki airport. It took 15-20 mins by train from the central train station to reach the airport.
I believe that Finland has many natural treasures to offer, that I couldn't explore even 1%. However for me, this trip was a reunion with an old friend, & have a taste of Finnish landscape. I hope to visit Finland again in future, & taste some exotic rich natural treasures including the snowy Lapland of my dreams :)
May 4th, 2018:
This is my second time at Helsinki airport. Few years ago I had a stopover at Helsinki, & I remember how badly I wanted to go out and explore the city during a long stop-over. At that time I couldn't go outside because I didn't have a visa. Now its my time ;)
After having lunch with sausage & sandwiches, I headed towards the train connection. First I had to take a train to a station called Tikkurila. From there I will be taking the intercity express train.
Trains to Tikkurila are frequent. Although there was a particular time mentioned in my ticket, but one can take any train from the airport. The frequency is about 15-20 mins or so. I did the same, otherwise my connection will be very tight. The tickets can be booked from VR website.
I had to wait for about an hour at Tikkurila station. It's a small but nice station. I wasn't getting bored in fact, was spending time by looking at passing by trains. The trains in Finland look nice!
Finally the train came. This is the first time I am in a double decker train! Subhajit had booked a 'working compartment seat' for me. Basically this is a small 4 seated cabin with a table at the center. People mostly book the cabin for working on their laptops. This is very convenient actually.
I was pretty amazed with the train. It was running at a speed of 200 Km per hour. The train had a 'restaurant compartment' at the front along with free wifi. After an hour, I found my way through the compartments to the restaurant & grabbed a cup of coffee. The couch is pretty specious, lot of food & drink options to choose from. People were literally having feast there by sitting around the tables with wine & fries! I wanted to take a picture but felt a bit awkward :P
It took about 4 hours to reach Joensuu. Subhajit was waiting at the station. It's been a while we haven't met together. It always feels nice to reunite with an old friend :)
Joensuu is a small city having less than a million population. Sometimes it's also called a 'student city', because of a large number of students of the University of Eastern Finland. We drove to my friend's home in about 10 minutes. A nice neighborhood, with lot of greeneries around. I was surprised to see bit of snow on the ground in the month of May!
That evening we didn't have any plan for exploration. I was also kind of tired. So it was an evening for incessant chatting & eating. Had dinner with traditional Bengali food, cooked by Lahari. We all chatted till late night...
May 5th:
A sunny day to start. We will drive to Savonlinna, a town situated about 140 Km away from Joensuu. I always like the drive through the country side & notice the type of crops people are harvesting around.
Savonlinna is a nice town to walk around, having a 15th century castle Olavinlinna as the main attraction. Unfortunately the castle was closed that day, so we couldn't go inside. But the view was worth from outside. The reflection of the castle on the lake water on a sunny day was just beautiful!
The lake water was pretty clean to see through the bottom on the shallow side. The lake had a nice view with the surrounding landscape. Finland is truly the country of lakes!
We were just walking around. It was so pleasant. Had some snacks & coffee at a nearby cafe Kahvila Saima Oy. Nice ambiance & good coffee.
We crossed the bridge & explored a bit in the town. By that time we were feeling hungry. A nearby middle eastern restaurant was perfect for having a solid meal.
We spent one more hour exploring around. Visited a nearby church (& a replica on a tree).
Headed back to Joensuu after an hour or so.
Joensuu downtown is pretty small, I liked it.
Posed with a statue of 'Kosiosusi' (the 'wolf man') located at the city center ;)
It was pretty cold outside & after a while we wanted to call it a day. Having a cup of Latte at the Coffee House was a perfect ending for the day..
The evening was again a non-stop chat evening along with movies. Delicious food items to perfectly end the day.
6th May:
We planned for BBQ at a nearby island-type place. We bought lots of Sausages & marinated chicken pieces for grilling.
Actually the BBQ place is just beside the lake. It's few kilometers away from the downtown & consists of 2-3 BBQ spots. These spots consist of grilling equipment along with pieces of wood for fuel. There were many people BBQing, we joined with one of the groups.
Ideally, I would have liked to capture fish from the lake, have a swim & then BBQ the fishes ;)
We are 4 people now, another guy Atri has joined us (with non-negligible amount of alcohol in his storage). We started BBQing our sausages & marinated meat. The smell was too strong, so I put my jacket a bit far away (but still couldn't stop my clothes to absorb the BBQ smell!).
Had lot of photo sessions, fun & some nice BBQ food!
Now it's 'Sauna' time, something that you have to experience once when you are in Finland. The idea of sauna is very interesting. You go inside a 'hot room' in semi-naked condition (you can try going fully naked also ;)). The room consists of a fireplace kind of heating system, that keeps the room temperature somewhere between 70-100 degree centigrade. Obviously normal people can't tolerate beyond 80-85 or so. As long as you can tolerate the heat, you keep sitting inside the room & continue sweating. In this way through the sweat, your body releases toxic elements & also purifies the breathing system in the body. This is very popular in Finland & local people do it very frequently. They say that it helps to sleep well without having any medication. Ideally, a sauna should accompany with a dive into a semi-frozen water, & repeat the process few times.
Initially I wasn't intended for the sauna, but Subhajit dragged me in. We got ready, but I was kind of scared of diving into a lake when the temperature is around freezing! It was really a pain in the a**. Somehow I managed courage & jumped into the water. OMG it was hilarious! It felt like my organs are ripping apart inside the water. Immediately we ran to the sauna room. Initially the temperature was okay, within my tolerance level. After sometimes, I couldn't bear it any more. Moved out of the room & jumped into the semi-frozen water (this time with more courage than my last dive!). Ran into the sauna room again. We did it couple of times more. Actually by that time I was enjoying the process. We spent more than half an hour in total & then came back. It was indeed a nice & unique experience. I strongly recommend trying it once. It's a lifetime experience!
My last day at Finland couldn't be better than this unique experience! We had a great feast at home that night. Went to bed a bit early, I have a morning bus tomorrow.
May 7th:
I left early morning, bid adieu to Subhajit. The bus took about 6 hours to reach Helsinki...
I had few hours to explore the city. I just walked around. First visited the parliament building.
Helsinki church is also one of the main attractions of the city.
I walked to the harbor area. It's somewhat similar to Stockholm. I liked it.
I was feeling hungry by then. There were some street food stalls at the harbor area selling local fish items. I ordered some local fish along with potato. It was delicious!
Hanged around for a while. Noticed a bridge with lots of "love locks", like the one in Paris. I guess whenever people see a bridge on a canal or river, they just imagine it to be the original famous one in Paris & continue putting locks on it..
The city of Helsinki has many interesting sculptures around, I tried to capture some funny ones..
Bought a souvenir & then headed back to Helsinki airport. It took 15-20 mins by train from the central train station to reach the airport.
I believe that Finland has many natural treasures to offer, that I couldn't explore even 1%. However for me, this trip was a reunion with an old friend, & have a taste of Finnish landscape. I hope to visit Finland again in future, & taste some exotic rich natural treasures including the snowy Lapland of my dreams :)
Wow!!! It seems a very beautiful place.... Thanks for sharing this article...Very nice information for traveler ..thanks a lot for sharing this information.Thanks a lot for giving proper tourist knowledge and share the different type of culture related to different places. Bharat Taxi is one of the leading taxi and Cab Services provider in all over India.
ReplyDeleteFinland is amazing place. To see northern lights this is one of the popular place and there are many other places you can visit there. So, book Northern lights trip
ReplyDelete