Saapuminen - Arrival

I left Seatac at 4:30 pm on April 25th and arrived in Helsinki at 1:00 pm on April 26th. I only slept about three or four hours on the ride so it's been a looooong day! It's now 5:30 pm on April 26th and I've lost all track of day or time. And to make matters worse, the time changes here (spring forward!) tonight! 

Upon arrival in Helsinki we dropped off our bags at the hotel and went to lunch (which I'm pretty sure my stomach thought was breakfast). We went to a traditional Finnish restaurant called Kuukuu.I got what we in America might call Swedish meatballs, but here they were just called meatballs. So delicious! 

After eating it was straight to sightseeing with the first stop being Temppeliaukion Kirkko or, the Church on the Rock. A church literally carved into the granite bedrock in the middle of Helsinki. The location of the church was chosen in the 1930s and the intention was to build a grand church on top of the rock. However, war got in the way, and the planned church was never built. So in the 1960s the city had a competition to decide on a new plan for the church. The current church was designed by Timo and Tumo Suomalainen and was completed in 1969. It was magnificent. Water still runs down the walls into drains around the edges and all the detail work is done in copper, including a ceiling made miles and miles of copper wire in a spiral. 

View from the church balcony

Copper wire ceiling

Details of the rock wall, drainage, and candles

Our next stop was the Sibelius Park and Monument. It is a gloomy, foggy, day, but it was still amazing to be look around the park and monument. 

Sibelieus monument

Looking up from inside the monument

After a damp, foggy walk in the park it was time to warm up (and wake up) with some coffee and a cinnamon bun at the quirky Cafe Reggata. 

The Baltic Seaside cafe on a foggy day, ice still covering the water.

Antiques hang from the ceiling and people pack into the tiny cafe.

My mom and I perked up after some coffee and cinnamon buns.

After this we did a quick driving tour and saw the Olympic Stadium and other sights closer to our hotel like the Parliament building (under renovation), a library (under renovation), and several other things that my jet-lagged brain can't remember right now. 

With that in mind, I'm going to sign off and try to reset my internal clocks and get some rest.