Sauna Land

When I planned a work week to Finland in a place called Pernio, I decided that this time I would definitely visit Helsinki. That would be the only way I would be able to compensate one week of living in a place which to me resembles a meditation camp (it’s just got our factory and the guesthouse and nothing else) .

Finland in spite of being neighbours to Sweden and having being ruled by Sweden for a long time, as quite different from the Swedes. Finnish for example, is completely different from Swedish and English and quite difficult to learn at that ( not that I am trying, Swedish is enough for now). Their love for saunas is unbeatable. The ideal Finnish holiday is having a sauna party, in a summer house close to the sea, and cooling off by swimming in the open sea. I was lucky sample a little bit of this idyllic holiday, if only for a few hours. We were taken to the company’s summer cottage close to the sea, and though I didn’t go into the sauna with the guys, spent a lot of time just soaking in the nature….. After that brilliant evening, I set out to Helsinki by train the next day . The train was not as extravagant as the trains in Denmark, but definitely comfortable and not to forget a whole lot cheaper!!

I instantly fell in love with Helsinki! It’s not as big as the other cities I’ve been too and there are not many monuments to see there, but to me it was charming nonetheless. It was bright and sunny, and there were people happy and celebrating everywhere. I guess that played a part in creating that magic. The city is a perfect blend of being big enough so that you don’t feel like you are in a small town and a feel of a small town where everything is in a radius of 5 kms so that everything is in walking distance.

One blooper – the hotel refused to check me in before 2 pm, so instead of wasting time, decided to make full use of the good weather and went to Soumenlinna fortress. The fortress in itself was pale in comparison to the Agra fort and the Red fort in Delhi, but what stood out was the beauty it was surrounded by. Some of the views were just unbelievable with the grass lush green and the sea surrounding it on all four sides, I really don’t think any words or even a lot of my pictures can do full justice to the beauty that I saw there. Its because of that, its really not a surprise that the fortress is a popular picnic spot for the locals and a top tourist spot.

After spending close to three hours in the fortress, we headed back to mainland and went to rock church. The church is built from one massive piece of rock, and the architecture inside is worth noticing. It was about to close so we needed to leave early, but otherwise would surely have loved to spend some more time inside.

The next stop was the Cathedral, which is right behind the market square. It’s stark white and hence impossible to miss. The insides of the church were as pretty as the outsides, and once we were done with being a little religious, we headed out to have some good Indian dinner after a long time – all in all a good day!

The next day, we went visiting a zoo, all on my insistence. I went into a zoo after a really long time (can’t even remember when I went last). It’s quite a small zoo, but what attracted me was that it was on an island. It was heartening to see the animals healthy and happy. That’s when I remembered why I stopped visiting zoos in India - they always left me with such an unpleasant feeling! Anyways the rest of the day was spent in walking around on the streets of Helsinki, and not to forget one of my major hobbies – shopping!!....