Helsinki, Finland: After a week in Russia, I find a
familiarity here that's comforting. A broad highway
bringing me from the airport is cut through birch
and pine forests reminiscent of my hometown in
Canada. On this Friday afternoon, there is an
exodous from the city to cottages in a lake district,
while residents remaining in town this summer
weekend are loading up with picnics to take to
offshore islands. City streets are clean, department
stores modern and well stocked, the railway station with its underground shops
is as vast as any in North America. Almost everywhere I go I hear English
spoken. But all this and a historic past comes with a strictly European flavour.
Bounded on three sides by water, Helsinki
grew up around its harbour. A tiny port called
Helsingfors by Swedish founders in 1550, it
became the Finnish capital under Russian rule
when the Czar decided the former capital
Turku was too close to Sweden and too far
from Russia. Now the harbour is lively with
pleasure craft and fishing fleet, sightseeing
tours and ferries to other Baltic ports, cruise
ships off-loading passengers for a few hours on shore.
Helsinki, Finland: After a week in Russia, I find a
familiarity here that's comforting. A broad highway
bringing me from the airport is cut through birch
and pine forests reminiscent of my hometown in
Canada. On this Friday afternoon, there is an
exodous from the city to cottages in a lake district,
while residents remaining in town this summer
weekend are loading up with picnics to take to
offshore islands. City streets are clean, department
stores modern and well stocked, the railway station with its underground shops
is as vast as any in North America. Almost everywhere I go I hear English
spoken. But all this and a historic past comes with a strictly European flavour.
Bounded on three sides by water, Helsinki
grew up around its harbour. A tiny port called
Helsingfors by Swedish founders in 1550, it
became the Finnish capital under Russian rule
when the Czar decided the former capital
Turku was too close to Sweden and too far
from Russia. Now the harbour is lively with
pleasure craft and fishing fleet, sightseeing
tours and ferries to other Baltic ports, cruise
ships off-loading passengers for a few hours on shore.
