Today is the exact mid-point of our tour and we are in Helsinki, Finland. Great weather, sunny and in the mid-70s. We took another walking tour today. These tours are a good way to brush up on the history of a country and also to learn what is important to the people here. Today the guide used this street sign as an illustration of history. The top word is the street name in Finnish. The name below is in Swedish. Finland is a bi-lingual country because of their history. Finland is geographically sandwiched between Russia and Sweden and Finland has only been an independent country for a little over 100 years (1917). Prior to that they were under the control of Russia for 100 years and prior to that they were under control of Sweden for more than 600 years, hence the dual languages. Why no Russian? The Russians gave Finland autonomous control over themselves while still under control of a Czar, so the Finns were never forced to learn Russian. So why the animal? Because literacy wasn't at a high rate in the very old days, they used animals to describe the streets!
Our tour started at the Helsinki Cathedral which is right on Senate Square and the home of their parliament. It is an elaborate looking church from the outside but very plain inside. Because of their long domination by Sweden, most protestant churches are Lutheran and therefore plain by tradition.
Finland has two main religions and the second is Finnish Orthodox. We visited the Uspenski Cathedral (photo at right) during services, so it wasn't easy to look around, but it was much more elaborately decorated inside. I'm not sure how Finnish Orthodox differs from Russian Orthodox, but they must be somewhat related.
The tour stopped at Market Square, where we had some lunch - salmon soup (photo on the left) and a Karelian pie. The soup was excellent and we're going to try it again before we leave. The pie was okay and comes from the region of Karelia which is now divided between Finland and Russia. It's only 120 miles to the Russian border from Helsinki. I also learned to drink Lonkero (they call this Long Drink in English). It is gin with whatever flavor you like and tastes like soda, similar to Smirnoff Ice. Quite good but at 5% alcohol, it can give you a buzz.
We hung around the market square for a bit, which is very touristy, and then walked back to the hotel. That was a bit of a hike!
Since the guide was raving about the sauna life in Finland (and you can add the Scandinavian countries to the list), I thought I would give it a try since the Hilton has one. I don't see the big deal and it was just a boring way to spend time in a lot of heat. Of course, I wasn't out in the woods and jumping into a lake afterwards, but I still don't see the point.
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