One evening to get to know Helsinki

A quirk of my plane ticket has taken me to Finland. Helsinki, more precisely, in which I have 18 hours to see the city. And to sleep as well.

Arrival, baggage, transportation, and hotel suck up some of the time. Finally, I am oriented and I am ready to tackle this town. I head out. It is 5:55pm on Saturday night.

Except, it turns out, that all the stores close at 6pm. All of them, except perhaps for some convenience stores. I guess this means I won't do any shopping in the Design District!

I head north in a very random walk.

This statue is the first picture-worthy sight I encounter. I am not sure what it celebrates, but the contrast of the three figures is delightful. As is the weathered green look.

While I don't shop, I do window shop, a bit. One intriguing item is this face that is actually a chair (you sit on the other side). Intriguing, that is, until I see the price tag: 1,019 euros! Whoa...

I had heard about the Nepalese food in Helsinki. Apparently, Nepalese is the stand-in word for typically North Indian food. However, I am not sure what exactly authentic Nepalese fantasies of the culinary sort would be.

More design, this time of of the clothing variety. Looks like she got tangled up in a fisherman's net.

A glass building that tapers on the far side from a normal rectangular building to this cylindrical glass end.

And the first top 10 sight! The Rock Church is a church built into the rock. It was hard to find a good angle from which to photograph this, but it was pretty neat in person. They seem to have concerts every now and then as well, but not tonight.

Up in the northwest part of town, the Sibelius Park contains the Sibelius Monument, dedicated to world-famous composer Jean Sibelius. It is the first time I've heard of him / her.

Shortly, I come to a little cafe, perched on the waterfront. This looks to be a popular little wharf. I have a cup of famous Finnish coffee and a cinnamon bun. I gaze out over the water.

Not a bad respite.

Not sure what happens inside the Biomedicum Helsinki, but the exterior was pretty neat.

I've been navigating long enough now to notice that every street has two names. And those two names are posted at all intersections. My only guess as to what this could be is Finnish on top, Swedish on the bottom. Anybody else know?

Speaking of Finnish, this was the longest word I saw on my walk. It is 24 letters long. I have no idea what it says.

The Olympic complex! The Finns were hosts back in 1952 and have a massive sporting structure to show for it. There's also a hostel onsite, a cheap and easy way to stay in an Olympic village.

I come to the Korjaamo Cultural Center, a refurbished tram station that has been made into an arts center. This would be a good place to come back to during the day.

Public WCs! And, my choice of a pay full toilet or a free "pissoir". The pissoir is, amazingly, unisex. And a steal.

Right at the end of my now-4-hour walk, I am startled when I peer through a window. Psychedelic dinosaur bones all lit up? I hope this is a natural history museum...and not the Finnish version of Jurassic Park!