Short trip to Helsinki

Last week my friends and I decided to do a short trip to Helsinki. We left Linköping on Thursday morning and took the train to Stockholm where we boarded the boat to Finland. There are several different companies that offer these trips. One actually also stops in Tallinn before heading north for Helsinki. We however went directly to Helsinki with Viking Line. From the dock and during the departure you have a very nice view over Gröna Lund, the theme park of Stockholm. There are a lot of different activities to do on the boat next duty-free shopping.

At 10am local time we arrived in the very rainy Helsinki. Note that Finland is a different time zone than Sweden. We got a bit confused with this. To start off the day there we signed up for a free tour though the city. It was about 2 hours long. Even with the rain it was really fun and interesting. I learned a lot about Finland’s history. For example, the guide explained us that very street within a bock had a designated colour and animal next to the name. This was so people who could read could also get around easily in the city. Today only the old part of town still has these. After lunch and some quick shopping, we also visited the library which is definitely worth a visit. It’s really modern and has a lot of things to discover. We warmed up a little before making the walk back to the boat. Going to Helsinki in November definitely has its pros and cons. A definite con is the grey and rainy weather which is unlikely to vary all month. A pro is that the Christmas lights are already up in many places which is beautiful to look at.

On Saturday when we arrived back in Stockholm, we had some time to kill before our train back home left. So, we decide to do a tour around the city. Luckily, we had much better weather than in Helsinki and could really enjoy the afternoon. We even visited the Medieval Museum. The entrance is free, and it gave some interesting insights into the development of the city. I really recommend planning for some time in Stockholm. Of course, we didn’t see all of the city, but I already have a weekend trip to Stockholm planned to explore it some more. I’ll let you know how that trip turns out!

All the best,