Pibliye: 07.05.2022
Our first stop of our world trip was spent in the beautiful city of Helsinki. After 6 years, we returned to the Finnish capital to visit our friend N. Pascal and I know him from the time of our exchange year. N. and his girlfriend L. picked us up from the airport in the evening after our flight and took us to the Aalto University campus where we stayed for the next few days. N. was so kind and let us stay in his room. So another big thank you to you, N ;). We spent the rest of the evening in the university beer club and tasted homemade beer brewed by the university students. The next day, we met directly in the city center and enjoyed a delicious breakfast together with N. and L. at Stockmann. Afterwards, we started our walk through the city. Since we already knew many tourist highlights of the city, we only passed some of the famous buildings (the Presidential Residence directly at the harbor, Havis Amanda or the promenade to the harbor called Pohjoisesplanadi). N. gave us some insider facts about the highlights. From the market square, we walked south to the ambassador district with some beautiful villas. Pascal and I didn't know this part of the city yet. The definitely most beautiful house was the Norwegian embassy, or maybe not ;) N. told us that the architect designed the building independently of the local surroundings. Accordingly, the appearance of this building danced out of line. We also strolled in the park where Vappu took place and along the coast, looking at small skerries and islets. We took a longer coffee break in the market hall Kauppahalli. From there, we walked down Bulevardi to a hotel with a tower (Torin) and had another drink on top of Helsinki. From there, we walked to wave at the White Cathedral. Then we went to a bar (Mascot) and ended the evening with beer and billiards. The women won the billiards game :).
On May 5th, we were woken up early because our subtenant informed us that our boiler was leaking. Accordingly, we spent the morning taking care of administrative matters from Switzerland. Fortunately, the problem could be fixed. Afterwards, we had a small breakfast and N. came by so that we could prepare provisions. After a short visit to the supermarket, we drove to the island Seurasaari. On the island, you could visit traditional houses from various Finnish regions, which were transported to the island. We grilled sausages, ate chips and sandwiches at a picnic spot. It was a beautiful afternoon. After that, we chilled for a few hours in L.'s apartment and had funny conversations about everything. The last stop for this day was a visit to a Finnish sauna overlooking the Baltic Sea. Of course, cooling off in the 4°C cold Baltic Sea after the sauna was also a must. So we got the annual bathing done with that.
On our last day, we had a lavish breakfast at L.'s. Then we spontaneously decided to go to the botanical garden of Helsinki University before taking the night ferry to Stockholm. Unfortunately, the way to the ferry was rather hectic, as the organization Extinction had the brilliant idea of paralyzing the entire city center including public transport. So much for protesting against climate change. However, with the slowest taxi driver in the world, we managed to just make it to the ferry on time. We spent the rest of the evening on the ferry and went to bed dead tired in our 2-person cabin without a window..