We left Gothenburg around 8:15am - this time by plane - after a bit of trouble figuring out how to get to Landvetter Airport. Arrived in Helsinki around 10:40am and made our way to Central Station. Planning to get our train tickets to Kuopio, we got distracted by figuring out our way to EuroHostel. Got to the hostel, which is on an island to the east of the center and I was pleasantly surprised. The hostel looked very clean and very fun in the lobby and people were friendly. When we got to our room, it wasn't necessarily horrible, but definitely no the cleanest and we had very hard mattresses and lumpy pillows.
Decided to head towards Senate Square where, according to a travel guide "an assemblage of neoclassic buildings surrounds the Senate Square representing the soul of the city. Overlooking the whole arena is the grand Cathedral." The Cathedral was definitely grand! Was so beautiful from the outside and with the little bit of snow and Christmas lights, it was even more! We also passed by the Uspenski Cathedral, which is the largest Orthodox church in Western Europe.
Eugenia and I were talking about how some buildings look like they come from Russian influence, which makes sense in the fact that Russia used to own Finland. Also, many Russian souvenirs in stores made us feel like we were in Russia!
After doing those few picture ops, we headed back to the train station to buy our train tickets. Got our transportation to Kuopio and headed out in search of souvenir shops. After more than 4 hours of roaming around the city, in shopping malls (some were even underground!), going to a huge department store called Stockman's, we decided to find a place to eat dinner. We saw a traditional Finnish restaurant right across from the Cathedral. Found out we had to have a reservation and they had no open tables. They recommended another restaurant for us to go to, but it was quite a walk away and it was rather cold out (less than 30 degrees the whole time we were there), so we knew a couple places we walked by earlier that were closer to the hostel. Ended up at a pub that served food.
Grabbed 2 beers and 2 burgers and hung out there for most of the evening. Even got to speak with a group of drunk Estonian old men...that was interesting and weird. Paid, went back to the hostel and shortly thereafter, went to bed. First day was good. I like Helsinki a lot and from that first day, we were able to see a lot of traditional Finnish things, like the many little handicraft shops we went into.
The Christmas lights were all so beautiful around the city, which was fun! We also made a reservation at the Finnish restaurant for Friday at 12pm, so we still get to try it!
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