Finishing Finland
Happy Birthday Pat.
We have tried to buy a foreign language birthday card for this day but
it was not to be. Apparently we’re more
birthday obsessed than most people. Mary
got her some chocolate truffles which is more appreciated than a card. All three of us get the slightly discounted
breakfast buffet at the Café Killa next door to the hotel. We postpone our next activities as a
thunderstorm moves through.
There is a general work stoppage today as part of a national
labor movement. This is the first one in Finland in a generation. The public transportation system is shut down
and there will be lorries moving from the harbor to Parliament between 11 and
12 today. Europe continues to be faced
with immigration and global labor issues as low priced shippers and workers
move into the EU, primarily from Eastern Europe.
Our path is the labor movement path today as we march down
the Esplinade towards the harbor. This
is a beautiful stretch of city center with widely spaced traffic lanes in each
direction and a pedestrian parkway down the middle. The sun is shining off and
on for the first time in a week for us which makes us appreciate Helsinki a
little more. It is different than most
European cities in that it doesn’t have a thousand year history. It was created out of nothing by the Swedes
to provide a buffer between trading rivals Sweden and Tallinn. The good news is that the city was built by
design and was based on the architectural style of Paris. There are tall
majestic apartment buildings with a lot of active sidewalk cafes in spite of
the 55-degree weather.
We can see some of the protesters gathering in the main
square, and some other splinter groups along the esplanade. It seems like more of a party than a protest
as we know them.
We emerge from the esplanade at the south harbor and market
area. There are a few vendors on the
plaza selling Lapp delicacies (fish, lingonberries and reindeer) and tourist
trinkets. This is where the Presidential
Palace, Swedish Embassy and other big-shot government buildings line the plaza
and harbor. The drawing card is the
Orthodox Cathedral on top of a hill and as we drag ourselves up the steep steps
we find that it is closed for renovation this week only. We make do with the Lutheran Cathedral that
is very Protestant bland but impressive in scope.
We walked down here in the parklike center of the boulevard
and take the shop lined street-side back.
These are very fancy stores and restaurants and the well-to-do of
Helsinki are undisturbed by the all-day labor protest as they sip their
sparkling wine and salmon soup. We are prepped for the big labor rally and see
the police out in force as we approach the main square. Alas, there is almost
no one there. It was scheduled for 11:00 to 12:00 and apparently at 12:00
everyone got on with their days. In fact, the obvious protestors who are still
around are walking around with trash bags picking up little scraps of
paper—very polite. We were going to
suggest that they should be out marching down six lanes of the main
thoroughfare blocking traffic and shouting slogans. They need to work on this.
We stopped at Stockmanns to grab a quick sandwich from their
deli to get us to dinner later. We haven’t been south on the Steamroller and
take this opportunity to just wander without a destination. You can definitely see the Parisian influence
with lines of six story apartment buildings with retail on the ground level. After a couple hard showers this morning we
have been enjoying bright sunshine but heavy winds this afternoon. We like sun
better than rain.
We make it back to our hotel at about 3:00 where we pick up
our luggage and start walking once again to the port. This is the next leg of our one nighters with
an overnight ship tonight to St. Petersburg Russia, a night at the Sokos Vasilievsky
Hotel and another overnight back on Sunday night. This is the most adventurous
part of our whole trip and we have been a bit nervous about it for a long
time. Fingers crossed.
We get a few drops of rain on the way to the ship and we
check with Uber to see what’s available. They have jacked up their rates to
encourage more drivers to hit the streets because public transportation isn’t
functioning today. While they are asking us if that is OK it stops raining and
so we keep walking.
We booked this months ago and all goes according to
plan. To visit Russia you need a visa
which takes months and many hoops to jump through, or you have to take a
registered tour and never be out of the sight of your tour guide. There is one loophole—you can book this
cruise on the Russian St. Peter line that buys you 72 hours of unescorted time
in St. Petersburg. That’s us.
We get checked in and board right away for a 6:00
sailing. Our cabin is the budget variety
which means we throw our stuff in there and head for a lounge. There are places to plug in our electronics,
beer and cocktails, piano players, singers, guitar players and other assorted
bits of entertainment to get us into the evening.
We do the ala carte restaurant for Pat’s birthday
dinner. She has the Chicken Kiev, Mary
has the salmon and John has sturgeon for the first time. We have a bottle of wine, chat with our St.
Petersburg native server and all-in-all a good experience. We move to the casino where there is a group
of Japanese guys at the blackjack table so we watch for a while. The dealer is
on a roll of 20’s and 21’s and he is raking in a lot of chips. One of the players bails and moves to an
empty table where he can play three seats by himself.
We head back to the Columbus lounge for the second half of
the floor show. We have women Russian
dancers that are half ballet and half Rockettes, and a little ballet fellow
jumping all around the stage. Then there
is a guy singer (pretty good), a clarinet player and then a change of costumes
and repeat. It was all high energy and
we had fun with the whole thing.
The boat is gently rolling which will make for easy sleeping
tonight, even in our cramped quarters.
We peel off for bed since only one person can be standing up in the
cabin at once. Russia tomorrow!!
What did we learn today?
Levis makes an ultra-taper leg jean (largest size, 33-waist) that we’ve
never seen in the US.
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