Scenic Helsinki

I gave/give Helsinki a bit of a bad rep. But it really does have some cool landmarks and I genuinely enjoyed touring the city (I just wish it was a few degrees warmer!):

Marisa, Melanie, Me, Zoe, Emelie...behind us you can see the Helsinki Cathedral we visited later that day.

Our Tuesday centered mostly on visiting churches. It was certainly interesting to compare and contrast the architecture...and to think about people gathering to worship so many years ago.

First stop: Temppeliaukio Church (a Lutheran church also known as "Rock Church")

I've never seen anything like this before. The church is built directly into solid rock. The outside doesn't look that special, but the inside is absolutely BEAUTIFUL. And the acoustics in there are ridiculously good:

Pictures truly don't do this place justice. 

An organ was playing while I sat in the benches for a few minutes....I could've stayed there all day.

Here's a picture I found off of google images of the top of the dome. We didn't have permission to go up on top, but I was curious what it looked like:

You can see the entrance to the building in the lower left corner...cool, right??

One last thing about this church:

Available to take were bookmarks of bible verses translated into 60 different languages. Here's an example of a Romanian one (for you, Nell!):

I collected quite a few of these...and also a Finnish hymn book (a used copy they were giving out). I think these are some of my most cherished souvenirs so far. More authentic than the keychains-and cheaper, too! :)

Next Stop: Helsinki Indoor Market

The above pictures were taken as we were walking there. If you look closely at the middle photo, you can see the market building center right. It is the tiny building the path is leading to. 

Photo Credit: Google Images (It was too cold to take out my phone for this shot!)

Inside the market:

Zoe, Emelie and I ended up heading back there on Wednesday (because it was the only indoor activity we could think of to do before heading to the airport!) We had a delicious lunch:

Chocolate-covered licorice!

Anyway, back to Tuesday....

Stop Three: Russian Orthodox Uspenski Cathedral"

It took us several tries to figure out where the entrance was (it's high up on a hill and we weren't sure which side of the hill to go up). But we found it eventually!

I love the peace and quiet of just sitting, taking in the view, and reflecting:

And two final pictures of here (Picture credit: Emelie)

On our walk to the next Cathedral, we passed this lock bridge:

We probably had too much fun thinking about all of the different relationships...some people drew locks on the fence because they didn't have locks (This is me!). 

Fourth stop: Helsinki Cathedral

[Insert picture from Melanie of me here]

I didn't get many pictures of this church because a choir rehearsal was taking place, and I didn't want to be rude. But this was probably my favorite moment from the entire trip. We were really cold so we decided to sit inside and listen to their rehearsal. The people in the choir were students-ranging from primary school to high school and maybe older. At first, I was expecting some kind of Sunday School program type presentation. But with the first note, Melanie and I turned to each other with gaping expressions...THEY WERE PHENOMENAL!

Here's a video of a clip of what we heard..I quietly filmed it in my lap so the picture quality isn't good, but it can give you an idea of what they sounded like:

It was so neat to witness an ordinary cultural event (with no tourists!) It resounded with me in a similar way that watching the student football players in Barcelona did. These always seem to be better moments than the touristy ones!

And that's really all I got of Helsinki! Except for pictures from our journey home:

Snow, snow, snow.

Left: Zoe getting breakfast (candy bars) from the vending machine; Right: Me posing behind some advertisement for the 2017 Eurobasket(ball) Championship to be hosted in Helsinki. We have no interest in the 'Eurobasket' part, just the '2017' :)

Snow piling up on top of the zipper on my purse. As we were walking, I kept singing about the Bahamas  to cheer us up.

Me posing with a taste of CT: 

The other girls got these balloons in Stockholm while I was with Sarah

And that was the end of our reading week adventure! Zoe, Emelie and I arrived home around 10/11ish, and Marisa and Melanie arrived home a little later than that. Then, Marisa and I unpacked, did laundry, and repacked for Poland....but that's for another post. 

Cheers!

Leah