  Helsinki
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real travelers here at VirtualTourist. See the Helsinki Travel GuideInside advice from real people on:Overview, Hotels, Things to Do, Restaurants, Nightlife, Shopping, General Tips, Transportation, Off the Beaten Path, Tourist Traps, Warnings or Dangers, Local Customs, Packing Lists or Sports Travel.
 4354 Helsinki Tips.6351 Helsinki Photos.0 Helsinki Videos. Helsinki Pages by sabsi
| Page Views: 17,894 Last Visit to Helsinki: March, 2005 | Probably my favourite place on earth - Helsinki by sabsi - last update: Sep 30, 2005 |
| My favourite view of Helsinki |
Päivää!
For me Helsinki is one of the most interesting and beautiful cities I've ever been to. Plus it's quite "exotic" compared to other European cities - because of the language and the style and everything!
When I still had a Finnish boyfriend I came here quite often in summer to visit him and his family. Now he is gone, I am gone and I had not been back here for 3 years.
I must have been completely nuts!!!! I went back for a long weekend in October/November 2003 and I fell in love with the city again right away. So much in love that I decided to go back in June 2004 for a midsummer holiday. It was - again - wonderful!
In March 2005 I visited for the first time in winter. I was scared of horror temperatures way below zero. Luckily it wasn't too cold (mostly -2 to -9C) and when the sun was out it was really beautiful and I wasn't even wearing gloves or hat. Unfortunately the afternoon I had reserved for picture taking in Helsinki was the only time the sun wasn't out. It was dark, windy and grey but definitely a real winter experience :) |
|  | In summer there's this lovely atmosphere with loads of boats, open-air cafes and concerts and every Finn seems to be smiling and enjoying summer. During midsummer it hardly gets dark at night and it's probably the most beautiful time of year.
I have many great memories of long summer days here ... of picknicks at Suomenlinna ... of washing a carpet "the finnish way" (see my travelogue for more about that!) ... of eating peas at Kauppatori ... of lazy sauna evenings ... of the Finnish midsummer celebrations ... of nice VT meetings and many cool lonkeros etc etc. |
When winter arrives this city is different... it's grey and dark ... the people seem to be quieter (apart from the ones I know of course ;-) ... there are hardly any tourists ...
What a great time to go to finally experience Helsinki's great nightlife. I have been to more bars, restaurants and clubs during my four days in Helsinki in autumn than in all the times I had been there before in summer! So now you will finally also find quite a number of nightlife tips here.
Anyway, I hope you will enjoy this page as much as I enjoyed building and "renovating" it all the time. | | |
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| Pros: | "Great architecture, nice port, exotic atmosphere, great nightlife" | | Cons: | "Queuing for a taxi in the middle of a freezing night can't be good for your health ;-)" | | In A Nutshell: | "One of my favourite places in Europe" |
sabsi's Helsinki Travel Tips
 sabsi's Helsinki Travelogues | | | |
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 Comments for sabsi about Helsinki | | | | |
pure1942 Mon May 12, 2008 21:02 UTC
Great Page! Looking forward to checking out some of your great tips in three weeks time when I visit. Thanks - Brian | Wild_Orchid Fri Oct 19, 2007 16:45 UTC
nice tips. It looks like a lovely city. :-) | maztek Fri Oct 12, 2007 02:18 UTC
Nice to visit your pages... | livi4 Sun Feb 4, 2007 20:12 UTC
nice notes and pictures. very interesting about a spot I know nothing about. I think I'll go ! |
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