Hei Finland – Helsinki by Motorhome

Zagan says Hei! Finnish for Hello. After 13 countries, 144 days and 7153 kilometres we’ve made it to Finland to start our drive north to Nordkapp at the top of Europe. Tonight we’re parked up in Finland’s capital Helsinki next to the sea (N60.17213,E24.90405), watching dudes on a water ski tow line out the window. A path along the water’s edge takes us a couple of kilometres into town and behind us is a lovely beach – the cost, nothing. We’re really liking Finland.

Can you spot Zagan and his friends?

After a quick detour to squeeeeze in a few more drops of diesel at what we think will be lower prices, and an unscheduled trip around the port due to road closures (which weren’t really closed, just sign-posted to say they were), we were parked up with motorhomes of many nationalities as the Finlandia ferry docked. As I popped my sea sickness tablets, the in-cab entertainment was provided by the disembarking and embarking process, before we were called to fill up a gap at the back once no more lorries would fit on board.

Zagan and friends ready to board the Finlandia

Charlie was given his lunch and his water topped up to keep him happy as we made our way up to the deck. We always feel bad about leaving him in the van on ferries, but after his long walk yesterday we knew he’d be asleep soon enough. By the time we reached the 9th floor open deck and looked over the edge, we were underway.

As we left we got a great view of Tallinn, its old town rising up to the sky as if in competition with the new upstart high rise blocks of modern times. The skyline gradually faded into the distance so we headed off to explore what was to be our vessel for the next couple of hours. The first thing that amazed me was the sheer number of bars on board. We’d been warned that it’s a bit of a booze cruise run with Finns heading over to Tallinn for the day to stock up or just to party. Music was playing on the open deck, and the two bars were full, although not everyone was drinking, there must have been some people driving.

Bye Bye Tallinn

The deck bar

Down below we found another bar, this time a bit emptier as the house band played tunes on a stage with a view across the sea ahead of us. For some reason it reminded me of The Poseidon Adventure, where the water would come crashing through at any minute, but as the sea was calm and there weren’t any large old ladies who were ex-swimming champions about, I knew we’d be OK. More bars, more cafes and we reached the info point. I asked what we need to do with Charlie when we reach Finland’s border, the answer was ‘nothing, just drive in’. I’m not sure how they know he went to the vets for his worming treatment, but still we’ve got it in his passport should we need it for Norway.

The house band

Finally we reached the duty free shop. I love the duty free shops on ferries as I play the ‘what’s the most expensive tester’ game. Today’s winner was 40ml pot of moisturiser for…..€230!! Unable to resist I had a good dip into it and covered my face. It’s amazing stuff, all my wrinkles have gone – I wish! It felt no different to my Lidl moisturiser which costs €1.99. After testing every lotion and potion I could, we wandered through into the booze section where you could pick up (if you have the strength) a 4.5 litre bottle of Famous Grouse for €120. Huge multi-packs of vodka bottles sat alongside slabs of beer, none of which was anywhere near Jay’s €1 a litre limit. Our fellow travellers were buying it by the caseload, small fold out trolleys were stood all over the ship, stacked with slabs of beer and topped with carrier bags of spirits, their owners sitting watching guard.

Amateur mistake, we didn’t bring a trolley to stack with booze in the duty free – everyone else did (or bought one in the shop!)

Busy little stretch of water

Land Ahoy! Finland is much smaller than I thought it would be

All too soon, we could see land, Finnish land, so we headed back to the car deck to be greeted by a very happy to see us Charlie. As he munched his lunch, he doesn’t tend to eat or drink when we aren’t around, we drove out of the belly of the ship into the sunshine. Satnav didn’t have chance to find out where she was, but luckily the port staff were on the ball, waving us away from the cargo exit and towards the car lane.

Passports out we slowed down for the booth, but it was empty. Several border guards stood watching us drive through so we slowed by them and they waved us on through a small green gate. Next thing we knew we’d popped out in the middle of the city and satnav chirpped directions for us to get across the town to our parking spot for the night.

The car park was packed, but we managed to grab a space and settle in. Then Jay had a confession to make, he didn’t fancy going to see the city. After Tallinn yesterday and Riga only the other week, the thought of another city wasn’t doing it for him. So, while Jay and Charlie stayed in the van to do some much needed research into where to go next, I set off for a walk around the sights I wanted to see.

Like Charlie would obey that!

Strangely it was three churches and a market square that drew me in. The first church was built into a large lump of rock, so much so that you would never know it was a church from the outside – apart from the obligatory tour group stood taking photos of it. Once inside it wasn’t surprising that there wasn’t one person in there praying, everyone was taking photos or buying a souvenir from the little tat stall – and I was with them. It was the building itself that was the draw and it was amazing, rock with huge stones on top, a glass ceiling and a circle of copper strips to finish it off.

Temppeliaukion Kirkko is known as the Rock Church because it’s hewn into solid stone

I used a free app called maps.me to navigate my way around and because the Finns love their phones I looked like a local walking along with my phone in my hand instead of a map – so much so that I got asked for directions. Before I reached the next sights I made several detours into shops to get a data SIM card so we have access to the internet. We’d already researched which one to get, but after half an hour’s wait at the Elisa store in a big shopping centre they had run out of what I needed. The assistant pointed me in the direction of another shop and the journey started from there – five or six shops later (I lost count) I finally got one.

The Finns love their phones, but at least these two weren’t sitting together as if in conversation but on phones – many others were

Helsinki train station

Big men at the main train station

Traditional folk dancing demonstration had the crowds gathered

I was now free to carry on my sightseeing, but really it was more of a wander around in the chilled-out city in the sun. The next two churches are described in my guidebook as facing off to each other across the water from the tops of two hills, one red, one white. I found the white one, the Lutheran Cathedral and climbed up the steps, but could only see the gold dome of the other one, so a bit of poetic licence was clearly used in the book. The steep steps of the cathedral proved to be a great people watching spot in the sun. Numerous tour busses dropped off their passengers, a lady in a large gown sang opera and was mainly ignored and Roma wandered among the crowds begging for money.

Tuomiokirkko, Helsinki’s Lutheran Cathedral

Uspenskin Katedraali the Orthodox Cathedral

Well if you are going to call it love bridge, you have to expect some love padlocks!

When I reached the red church, it seemed that it too was a good spot for sunning yourself, in fact the whole of Helsinki was making the most of the weather today. It was now gone 6pm and souvenir and food stalls were packing up on the market square, but the pavement cafes were packed.

The market place is famous for its local cuisine stalls…

However the biggest queue was here!

Commuting by boat from the market square

I made my way back to Zagan, all in all covering around 10 kilometres – no wonder my feet are throbbing. Jay set about getting the SIM working – if you are reading this, then he has succeeded! We’ve treated ourselves to the most expensive data package €19.90 for 4G unlimited data (well 3GB a day fair use policy) for a month – so in total we are paying £20 for unlimited data for a month, which is a lot better than the Three ‘feel at home’ package of 2GB per month for £15.

Today was a great day, I really enjoyed my chilled out tour in the sunshine

Tonight we’ll be using our unlimited data to watch the match and a little beer to welcome ourselves into a new country. Jay has planned a route and it’s all getting exciting again.

Ju x

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