Baltic Cruise: Day 4 – Helsinki
The boat was scheduled to dock at Helsinki around 10am so we got coffee via room service at 9:30. Realizing that we could get off the ship a full three hours before we had to meet for our excursion, Melissa and I decided to take a shuttle into the city proper for some quick sight-seeing. We disembarked, paid the $8 roundtrip fare and were in the center of Helsinki by 11. We had just a bit more than an hour to look around and our trip was a bit impromptu so we really didn’t know where we wanted to go. We started wandering the streets, trying to find a cathedral we saw on the tourist type map given to us on the bus. Helsinki actually has a bunch of college kids walking around with vests that say “Tourist Information” and a bag of pamphlets. I guess we looked lost because one of them came up to us and asked if she could help. We pointed to the cathedral on the map and she gave us directions on how to get there. She was pleasant, didn’t ask anything of us and helped us with exactly what we needed. We thought it was a really nice feature, especially provided free of charge by the city, when they could just leave you to your own devices.
Note: This post is part of a series about a recent cruise in the Baltic Sea. They are [being] published in chronological order and if you haven’t read the introduction post I encourage you to do so. (I moved this piece here in case you feed some of the content.)
After a bit of walking we came upon the Helsinki Cathedral, where we took some pictures and browsed some souvenir shops. After that we found an open air market where fresh fish and fruit were being sold to countless passers by. We’d left the harbor in such haste that we forgot to convert our money into euros so we couldn’t partake in any of it. We then stopped in a closed market that has been in continuous operation for over 100 years but again, we couldn’t buy anything. I made a pit stop at one of the pay public toilets but didn’t have to actually pay since I entered as someone else exited. It wasn’t unlike any other public restroom save the hole in the wall solely for the purpose of throwing away needles. I’m not sure if Helsinki has an IV drug problem or a lot of diabetics but I thought it interesting there was a place to discard your sharps when you were done with them. After the markets we did a bit more walking, taking in the life and style of Helsinki. There was definitely some interesting architecture and their public transportation is a really cool and really old trolley style street tram system but it wasn’t nearly as impressive as Stockholm. The street lights and public transportation felt very Soviet Union but the people and the buildings seemed a lot more Swedish than anything. It was nice to visit but I didn’t feel a pressing need to explore more (or come back) as we made our way back to the drop-off point.
Back at the pier we meet up with the family and boarded the tour bus to go to Suomenlinna Fortress. We took the bus back to same market we’d visited on foot and boarded a ferry to cross the harbor to the Fortress. The Fortress was just that, a fortress, and couldn’t be better described as a bunch of walls and cannons. The history of the place was storied for sure but there wasn’t much that you wouldn’t see at an old fort in the US. After an hour or two at Suomenlinna we grabbed a pastry at one of the shops and headed back to ferry. This time we were smart enough to bring Euros, so as the rest of the group was being herded back to the bus we ran into the outdoor market to buy fresh strawberries and sweet peas. It seems that both are common snacks in Finland and both were incredibly sweet and delicious as a result of the long days. We boarded our bus and make it back to the pier not long before the ship was scheduled to depart.
For dinner we decided we’d opt out of eating in the dining room in favor of the Italian restaurant on board. The meal comes at a supplemental charge but given the lackluster meals we’d had previously, and my family’s propensity to spend money, it was an easy choice. What we didn’t realize when booking our reservation was that the entire menu, except for mains, is a tasting menu. They informed us that all we had to do was pick our main and they would bring everyone else along in little sample for us to eat. There were no less than six courses and each of those was made up of anywhere between two and six different things to try. First was antipasti with prosciutto, air dried beef, olives, sun dried tomatoes, roasted vegetables, mozzarella cheese, artichoke hearts and bunch of other things long forgotten. Next was the fish course that started with a bit of caviar accompanied by six different kids of toppings and a small crab cake topped with salmon eggs. We then had mussels marinara and probably one other dish I forgot. After that was the pasta course, which actually started with a small slice of pizza, before we got the veal and cheese manicotti. The next dish was probably the best of the meal, soft potato gnocchi in a creamy fontina sauce. The pasta course finally ended with the spicy seafood spaghetti marinara, which actually reminded me of my grandfather’s. We were given the option to skip the soup course but most of us opted into it, just for the sake of taking part in the whole experience. I had seafood chioppini, which was actually the sauce for the seafood spaghetti but by that time I’d had too much to eat all of it. Feeling quite full, it was finally time for the only thing we’d ordered; our main course. I had a lamb chop, which was quite good, but given all the food I’d already eaten I couldn’t finish it. Well, if I hadn’t eaten one of my sister’s three petite lobster tails perhaps I could have but as it was I tapped out. The sixth and final course was again ours to order and after the desert tray came around I settled on the tiramisu. It was good, not great, but I continued my act of gluttony and finished it all with a cup of coffee.
We’d actually walked for hours, and countless miles, throughout the course of the day so I didn’t feel nearly as guilty as I might of previously. That and I figured I was on vacation and calories don’t count on vacation so I could step outside the normal boundaries of reason. Feeling the pain of eating too much, the fatigue of our day walking and an anticipation of an 8am wakeup call after moving the clock another hour ahead, we elected to skip the casino for bed.
Note: This post is part of a series about a recent cruise in the Baltic Sea. They are [being] published in chronological order and if you haven’t read the introduction post I encourage you to do so. (I moved this piece here in case you feed some of the content.)
After a bit of walking we came upon the Helsinki Cathedral, where we took some pictures and browsed some souvenir shops. After that we found an open air market where fresh fish and fruit were being sold to countless passers by. We’d left the harbor in such haste that we forgot to convert our money into euros so we couldn’t partake in any of it. We then stopped in a closed market that has been in continuous operation for over 100 years but again, we couldn’t buy anything. I made a pit stop at one of the pay public toilets but didn’t have to actually pay since I entered as someone else exited. It wasn’t unlike any other public restroom save the hole in the wall solely for the purpose of throwing away needles. I’m not sure if Helsinki has an IV drug problem or a lot of diabetics but I thought it interesting there was a place to discard your sharps when you were done with them. After the markets we did a bit more walking, taking in the life and style of Helsinki. There was definitely some interesting architecture and their public transportation is a really cool and really old trolley style street tram system but it wasn’t nearly as impressive as Stockholm. The street lights and public transportation felt very Soviet Union but the people and the buildings seemed a lot more Swedish than anything. It was nice to visit but I didn’t feel a pressing need to explore more (or come back) as we made our way back to the drop-off point.
Back at the pier we meet up with the family and boarded the tour bus to go to Suomenlinna Fortress. We took the bus back to same market we’d visited on foot and boarded a ferry to cross the harbor to the Fortress. The Fortress was just that, a fortress, and couldn’t be better described as a bunch of walls and cannons. The history of the place was storied for sure but there wasn’t much that you wouldn’t see at an old fort in the US. After an hour or two at Suomenlinna we grabbed a pastry at one of the shops and headed back to ferry. This time we were smart enough to bring Euros, so as the rest of the group was being herded back to the bus we ran into the outdoor market to buy fresh strawberries and sweet peas. It seems that both are common snacks in Finland and both were incredibly sweet and delicious as a result of the long days. We boarded our bus and make it back to the pier not long before the ship was scheduled to depart.
For dinner we decided we’d opt out of eating in the dining room in favor of the Italian restaurant on board. The meal comes at a supplemental charge but given the lackluster meals we’d had previously, and my family’s propensity to spend money, it was an easy choice. What we didn’t realize when booking our reservation was that the entire menu, except for mains, is a tasting menu. They informed us that all we had to do was pick our main and they would bring everyone else along in little sample for us to eat. There were no less than six courses and each of those was made up of anywhere between two and six different things to try. First was antipasti with prosciutto, air dried beef, olives, sun dried tomatoes, roasted vegetables, mozzarella cheese, artichoke hearts and bunch of other things long forgotten. Next was the fish course that started with a bit of caviar accompanied by six different kids of toppings and a small crab cake topped with salmon eggs. We then had mussels marinara and probably one other dish I forgot. After that was the pasta course, which actually started with a small slice of pizza, before we got the veal and cheese manicotti. The next dish was probably the best of the meal, soft potato gnocchi in a creamy fontina sauce. The pasta course finally ended with the spicy seafood spaghetti marinara, which actually reminded me of my grandfather’s. We were given the option to skip the soup course but most of us opted into it, just for the sake of taking part in the whole experience. I had seafood chioppini, which was actually the sauce for the seafood spaghetti but by that time I’d had too much to eat all of it. Feeling quite full, it was finally time for the only thing we’d ordered; our main course. I had a lamb chop, which was quite good, but given all the food I’d already eaten I couldn’t finish it. Well, if I hadn’t eaten one of my sister’s three petite lobster tails perhaps I could have but as it was I tapped out. The sixth and final course was again ours to order and after the desert tray came around I settled on the tiramisu. It was good, not great, but I continued my act of gluttony and finished it all with a cup of coffee.
We’d actually walked for hours, and countless miles, throughout the course of the day so I didn’t feel nearly as guilty as I might of previously. That and I figured I was on vacation and calories don’t count on vacation so I could step outside the normal boundaries of reason. Feeling the pain of eating too much, the fatigue of our day walking and an anticipation of an 8am wakeup call after moving the clock another hour ahead, we elected to skip the casino for bed.
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