Imma Letchu Finnish - Helsinki, Day 2

Day 1 in Helsinki doesn't really count, since it was dark and I just slept?  But technically it counts.  So this is day 2.  I bought a Helsinki card when I arrived the previous day.  Of the three cities I went to, Helsinki has the most active public transportation system with buses, trams, and ferries.  I took public transportation more in Helsinki than in the other cities.  I also think Finland was way colder than the others.  The hostel I stayed in, Eurohostel, had a sauna that was free to use in the morning.  The sauna is big in Finland, since they invented it.  

The sauna wasn't much different from the ones I've gone to at LA Fitness, except this was way hotter.  After this, I wanted to start the day by taking a ferry to Suomenlinna, the island fortress, but when I got to the ferry stop, the next one wasn't coming for another 40 minutes.  Instead of wasting my time by waiting, I decided to go explore the city.

I went to the Design Museum, which was pretty cool.  My niece and nephew would've loved playing on some of the exhibits for kids.

Those are scissors because Fiskars is Finnish.

I even took this creeper picture because it's such a hipstery bathroom.

After this, I went to the Museum of Finnish Architecture since my brother in law is an architect.  Sorry, Eric.  It was pretty boring.  

Not sure why this Japanese tea house was here.

Then I took a walk around the city.

I went to this candy store.  Everything looked so good!

After this, I walked around and it turned out that there was a ferry going to Suomenlinna ready to go, so I hopped on it.

Suomenlinna was very picturesque - so much prettiness to see.  It's a UNESCO World Heritage site.  It was kind of a bummer that the majority of the attractions (e.g. museums and shops) were closed.  There's usually a lot going on in the summer but not much in the winter.  Suomenlinna is an island (obviously, since you can only get there by ferry) and there are a number of private homes there - even a hostel.  But it's more of a tourist destination than anything.  It was used as a naval base in a number of wars and was used as a prisoner-of-war camp at one point.

One of the only museums open - the Suomenlinna Museum gave pretty good information about the island.

I was a little freaked out in this cave.  Thanks a lot, American Horror Story.

Then I took a look at the ferry schedule and realized the next one was coming in 20 minutes.  I wasn't sure if I was going to make it all the way back on time, so I made a mad dash over, all sweating and out of breath.  And then I sat there and waited.. and waited..  I realized that I had checked the time on my watch, which was still on Oslo time, an hour earlier from Helsinki time.  So I actually had 40 minutes until the ferry arrived.  Oops.

My ride!

I made it back in time to see the sun set.

At night, we explored the night life and met some crazy characters. I love crazy adventures and people in foreign countries.