Day 33 - Helsinki

 Day 33 Thursday September 15

Helsinki is the capital and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, Helsinki is 80 kms north of Tallinn, Estonia, 400 kms east of Stockholm, Sweden, and 300 kms west of Saint Petersburg, Russia. It has close historical ties with these three cities.

Waterfront

Helsinki has one of the world's highest standards of urban living. It is considered the safest city, has good infrastructure and is popular for cultural events, international conferences etc. There are 37 libraries in the city and all are encouraged to use the facilities.

The street names are in Finnish & Swedish one below the other, the Finnish names end in Katu and the Swedish ones end in Gatan. For example, Errikinkatu is written above Errikingatan.

Sauna is like a religion in Finland. There are an estimated 3 million saunas for a population of 5.5 million people!!!! The Finns are the happiest people in the world.

It was raining so we did the city tour in a bus. We saw the Senate square, the Cathedral, the stadium where the 1952 summer Olympics were held, the Sibellius (Finiish music composer) park.

Senate Square

Parliament building

Sibellius park

We visited the Helsinki Central library, Oodi. It has 3 floors and is spread over 17000 sq. mts. Other than books one can reserve space or workstations for meetings, events or studies. There are studios for music and open spaces where you can use computers and 3D printers. The design and architecture are truly wonderful.

Exterior and Interior at Oodi

Workspaces