Today we woke up to the graceful rocking of the ferry boat
as it cascaded through the Baltic Sea.
Okay, that’s not completely true - the majority of us were up late and
got little sleep while the boat rocking was far from peaceful. It was a bit of a rough morning. Thankfully, only one person was affected by
the rocking boat (poor Eli!). Those of us who did
not get seasick were able to enjoy the early morning sunrise as we pulled into
the ice-covered harbor in Helsinki - Lowry’s homeland.
Many of us were tired from the long night of
entertainment, but after the boat was docked we hit the ground running. We started the day with a guided bus tour of
the city where we saw many of the city’s landmarks and stopped by the Helsinki
Cathedral - a 20 year construction project finished in 1852 - before taking
some time to visit the Temppeliaukio Church (“the hole in the rock”). It was
weird to see a church dug out of rock amongst the modern street buildings that
surrounded the area. The church felt out
of place and in our opinion didn’t fit in with the rest of the city. The inside of the church was like a cave and
was very peaceful.
After that we had an
interesting cultural moment as we left.
Dr. Banks played an ABBA song as we gathered on the bus. Our tour guide jokingly said we can’t play
ABBA in Finland and continued to go into the kind of music Finns enjoy. With her comment you could sense a bit
competition between the bordering countries which carries a sense of pride they
take in what their people accomplish.
Another notable fun fact from our bus tour: part of the city has heated
sidewalks. Overall, Helsinki at a quick
glance is an intriguing city full of new and old architecture scattered with
museums. Many of the buildings around
the city have similar characteristics to that of Stockholm. The uniqueness of the old buildings is unlike
anything you would see in the States.
Our
bus tour ended at the stadium of the 1952 summer Olympics where we had the
opportunity to ascend to the top of the tower were the torch was brought, walk
around the seats of the stadium, and tour a museum full of artifacts from the
‘52 Olympics and several famous Finnish athletes from throughout the
years. Built in 1938, the stadium looked
shockingly similar to open air stadiums we see being built today (aside from
having fewer seats). Walking in the
stands and looking around in the stadium one can imagine and feel the
excitement the Olympic Games would entail.
Having just been in the stadium, learning about the games in the museum
made us feel like we were a part of the festivities. As we learn more and more about the history
of the Olympic Games we find we have a growing respect for them and are getting
even more exciting for the approaching games in Sochi.
After
visiting the Olympic stadium we headed for our hotel which ended up being a
laid back night. Many people - ourselves
included - took a nap for the two hours before dinner. We were still tired from the night before and
are planning to explore the city tomorrow.
After dinner we retreated to our room to work on our journals and blog
before calling it an early night so we can hit the city hard during the two
final days. We are excited to use the
sauna at the hotel in the next couple days because they were invented in
Finland and they take great pride in their saunas - we checked it out and it
looks pretty dang nice. Apparently Lowry
has three in his house - typical crazy Finn.
We are excited to see a little more of Finland tomorrow on our trip to
Lahti - good night Helsinki.
Neil & Bobby:
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