Berlin to Helsinki Day 23: Helsinki

Mylène riding her bike onto the ferry in Tallinn

We made it!



It's been a couple days since I've made a post and now our Helsinki experience is over and we are in the airport.

We were hosted in Helsinki by Juha, an electrical engineer at Helsinki Technical University.
In terms of bicycle paths, I have never seen such a well laid-out network of beautiful bike paths. They criss-cross the streets using tunnels and bridges, are often situated far enough away from the street to avoid noise and exhaust, and are even lighted with street lamps at night.
I imagine that this is the compensation for having 6 months of blistering cold and dark winter.

Bikes go everywhere in the city.

The first day after stepping off the boat, I was so excited by the paths that I just rode aimlessly for 40 miles around some forests and in the city while Mylène, frustrated by having brought only one change of clothes for the entire trip, went to get some new threads on sale (if you pay full price for things here you will go bankrupt).

Juha took us on a fantastic sight-seeing trip around the city. It was great to ride with him because the bike paths can sometimes be a little confusing and having him meant we could just ride without checking the directions. He took us first out of the city to an organic farm (just in case we hadn't seen enough animals riding through numerous country sides). Then we rode out to an old anti-aircraft battery site on top of a hill overlooking the city. Juha is very well-read and interested in history so he explained a lot about Finland's wars/conquests.

Mylène and Juha on top of the hill learning about fighting the Russians.

Juha and his roommates would fit well in Colorado, they love microbrewed beer. He took us to a beer festival in the center of town that was happening on the weekend so we could sample the best microbrews tat Finland has to offer.

Mylène with two of our hosts, Juha and Lenni.

The American style wheats and IPAs seem pretty popular here.

After the beer festival we went to a concert in an underground club nestled somewhere inside the city. I wasn't sure what to expect when Juha described the group as prog-rock but I would say a lot less Tool/Coheed & Cambria and a lot more experimental metal like Black Sabbath meets Slayer (I don't know, I'm not a metal head). But the best part of the show was the bass player who convulsed and contorted himself an his bass during the entire show. At one point he turned around and put his head on the ride cymbal while the drummer was playing. The lead singer was also a very eclectic character, hopping up at various intervals to erotically caress everyone and their instruments.

The Finnish band, Falcon, in concert. With the bass player using his head as a cymbal mute.

We even had the energy to head to a hipster bar afterwards and check out more of the Helsinki night life which is very active on a warm summer Friday night.

Position:Vähäntuvantie,Helsinki,Finnland