Hutch
Strata Poster
It seems like quite a few folks have been hitting up Finland lately, so hopefully some of this won’t be too redundant. But I’ve got another country/few more parks and set aside some time for sightseeing, plus this is a good way for me to personally archive this trip.
Taiga was the obvious draw for this trip, so a visit to Finland for the three parks (among other stuff) started brewing together. Denmark also became a natural add-on given the frequent flight options and my eagerness to return after spending less than 48 hours in the country a few years ago.
Boston would've needed a layover on the way to Helsinki (Denmark being an obvious option), but we actually flew direct from Chicago. We spent a weekend in the city anyway for a cousin's wedding, so we flew out directly after that.
Day 1 - Helsinki
I’m used to overnight transatlantic flights arriving much earlier in the morning, but thanks to starting out further west and flying out late, we landed in Helsinki at a little after 2 PM. Immigration was a bit of a pain, between the lack of gate agents, dozens of travelers having to cut in line in order to make tight connections, and gate agents generally taking more time with each individual, the whole thing took an hour to get through. By the time we got into the city, checked into our hotel, and had a quick regroup, it was already close to 5, but still had a solid amount of time to explore Helsinki.
We stuck close by in the downtown neighborhoods, making our way towards the main square which has the Helsinki Cathedral and a few other important government buildings.
And nearby was the Russian Orthodox Uspenski Cathedral, which is on its own little island neighborhood near the market square.
We didn’t do or see a ton much else (Old Market Hall had closed by now, so had to save that for another day), but we were out for a couple hours just wandering and popping into some shops.
We grabbed dinner at this Lappish restaurant near the hotel. The interior was heavily themed, including traditional outfits for the staff, but the food was genuinely really great.
Short day to kick it off, but we’ll get to some parks soon.
Taiga was the obvious draw for this trip, so a visit to Finland for the three parks (among other stuff) started brewing together. Denmark also became a natural add-on given the frequent flight options and my eagerness to return after spending less than 48 hours in the country a few years ago.
Boston would've needed a layover on the way to Helsinki (Denmark being an obvious option), but we actually flew direct from Chicago. We spent a weekend in the city anyway for a cousin's wedding, so we flew out directly after that.
Day 1 - Helsinki
I’m used to overnight transatlantic flights arriving much earlier in the morning, but thanks to starting out further west and flying out late, we landed in Helsinki at a little after 2 PM. Immigration was a bit of a pain, between the lack of gate agents, dozens of travelers having to cut in line in order to make tight connections, and gate agents generally taking more time with each individual, the whole thing took an hour to get through. By the time we got into the city, checked into our hotel, and had a quick regroup, it was already close to 5, but still had a solid amount of time to explore Helsinki.
We stuck close by in the downtown neighborhoods, making our way towards the main square which has the Helsinki Cathedral and a few other important government buildings.
And nearby was the Russian Orthodox Uspenski Cathedral, which is on its own little island neighborhood near the market square.
We didn’t do or see a ton much else (Old Market Hall had closed by now, so had to save that for another day), but we were out for a couple hours just wandering and popping into some shops.
We grabbed dinner at this Lappish restaurant near the hotel. The interior was heavily themed, including traditional outfits for the staff, but the food was genuinely really great.
Short day to kick it off, but we’ll get to some parks soon.
