while not null: January 2024

Helsinki, pop. 673k, the northernmost city on my trip, about 880 km north of Warsaw, north of Stockholm and Oslo, at southern tip of Greenland, only about 130 km south of Anchorage, Alaska. For the Australian reference: Helsinki would be 1900 km south of Hobart.

I got there by ferry from Tallinn. It takes about 2.5 hours.

Approaching Helsinki.

An old fort.

The ferry docks here, close to the city centre. Nearby you can take the tram, rent a bike, or just walk.

The model of the city with the port top centre at Helsinki City Museum.

City bikes:

Unlike in Vilnius, you rent a bike directly. If the computer in one does not work, you try another. Unlike in Australia, in Helsinki (and in Vilnius, Warsaw, etc...) you don't need a helmet to ride a bike. Note: wikipedia says that bikes are available from April until 31 October... but who comes to Helsinki in November?

Ok, bike paths:

In Helsinki you are not supposed to ride on footpaths. There are many separated bike paths, and if not, the streets are 30 km/h. It is safe. The number of people killed or seriously injured on roads was 150 in 1992, before 30 km/h limits started appearing, and by 2019 there were 0 pedestrian or bike rider deaths.

Apartments and shops on the left, trams in the middle, bike path on the right.

A bike path in a quiet residential area.

A bike and pedestrian tunnel. Wide, shallow tunnels are better than overpasses. You gain momentum riding down, you use it to climb up.

This orange bridge is for pedestrians and bike riders. It connects two residential areas.

From the street level you get to it by following the wide circular path on the left.

Bike racks.

I took a train out of the city and on the way back I noticed yellow bikes at the station, so I got off and I rode the rest of the way to the city center:

The bike path was running along the train tracks.

This is a bike path, with lighting and a noise barrier from trains.

This beats anything in Amsterdam easily.

Bicycle parking under the Pasila train station.

Interesting spots near the path.

A train line on the left, shared pedestrian and bike paths everywhere else.

Very close to the Central Train Station.

Front of the train station. Ukrainian flag on top.

Finns have a complicated history with the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. They are firmly on the side of Ukraine, and in NATO now, but they were part of Sweden for most of their history, then Sweden lost a war to Russia in 1809, and they became part of Russia, but paradoxically gained autonomy they didn't have as part of Sweden, then Russia had a revolution in 1917, and Finns declared independence, then in 1939 Soviet Russia attacked them, and they had to give up some territory in 1940, then they tried to take it back in 1941, but lost, and in 1944 had to give up more territory and pay reparations, but they stayed independent, although they had to be neutral and very friendly with the Soviet Union. This ended in 2022 when Russia launched a full scale invasion of Ukraine.

This makes it kind of love and hate relationship I think, because early on, Russia gave them some autonomy in the form of Grand Duchy of Finland, but then there was Russification, and later invasion, but then, unlike Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia they were not annexed by the Soviet Union, and they did not have a communist government imposed on them, unlike Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, so after all, great times, could have been much worse.

I think this was the only other Ukrainian flag I saw.

East side of the train station.

The public transport in Helsinki is amazingly good. There are trams - system length 110 km, trains, metro, buses, ferries and bikes - in Helsinki they are integrated with the public transport.