It's like Alaska, but in Europe...

"A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men."

-Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator

These photos are about two weeks old now but since the only exciting things that happened to me this week were falling up the stairs of the metro and having my feet eaten by fish,

I would like to point out I was the only one of the three of us who did not freak out about this.  We had to remind Ashley to breath she freaked out so much.

 I decided to share these photos.  My trip to Russia started and ended in Helsinki, Finland.  At the beginning of the trip I only saw the airport as I wasn't really paying attention in the taxi on the way to the ferry terminal.  However I spent one day in Helsinki at the end of my trip.  

Finland actually has a crazy history that I didn't know anything about.  The first people in Finland were tribes from the Ural Mountains, in modern day Russia.  This is why Finnish has no connection to any of the other Scandinavian languages.  The only languages with similarities to Finnish are Hungarian and Estonian.  Finland was part of Sweden from the 12th century until March 29, 1809 when Finland was taken over by Russia in the Finnish War.

This is the Stone of the Empress, which was put up to mark the spot where Empress Alexandra Feodorovna first set foot on land when her husband Emperor Nicholas I and her came to Helsinki in 1833.

You can still see in old parts of town where the street signs are still in Swedish, Finnish, and Russian.    In 1906 universal suffrage was granted by Russia to Finland however the also moved to restrict autonomy.  In 1917 Finland saw it's chance to gain independence.  As our tour guide said, "At that point Russia had bigger things to worry about than losing Finland." The Russian October Revolution took place in 1917 overthrowing the Czar.  On December 6th, 1917 Finland declared it's independence.

This is the Finnish Senate Building.  This is also where Nikolaj Bobrikov, who was the hated governor-General of Finland appointed by Russia, was assassinated.  He was assassinated by a man named Eugen Schauman.  The first and second shots Eugen shot at Bobrikov bounced off of  medals hanging on his chest, the second shot hit him in the belt buckle but caused sever damage to his stomach.  He ended up dying of complications from this injury.   Then Eugen tried to shoot himself and missed the first time.

In WWII, Russia planned a major bombing raid on Helsinki.  Somehow the Finns found out about the raid and so ordered a blackout in the city.  They also decided to go to the countryside and light fires in the fields.  The Russian planes came, flew over the city, and dropped every single bomb that they had on the fields. Of the 16,000 bombs that were dropped only 530 fell within the city.  After the war representatives from the Russian government came to check out the damage expecting to see a city in ruins.  Imagine their embarrassment when they came to a city that was hardly touched.  To make this story even more embarrassing for the Russians, one of the buildings that was hit and destroyed by a bomb was the Russian Embassy.

This is the Finnish Parliament Building.  I am always amazed that there is little fanfare surrounding national government buildings in other countries.  In Wisconsin our state capitol building is the highest point in the city and is even the geographical center, all roads lead to it.  So it's funny to me that in most countries in Europe you could just walk past the national capitol without even knowing it.

This is Temppeliaukio Church, and will be known here as the Rock Church.  It is literally a hole blown into a giant rock with a ceiling put on it.

The ceiling was my favorite part it looks like billions of pennies.

A competition was held in 1961 for someone to design the church and brothers, Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen, won.

The exposed rock of the walls, gives the church almost perfect acoustics.  Also since the church does not have a tower it does not have bells, instead a recording of bells is played through a loudspeaker that is mounted on the outside wall.

I was in Finland on April 30th, which in Finland is May Day Eve, yes apparently that is actually a thing.  This holiday in Finnish is called Vappu.  It was originally a holiday for workers but has since been taken over as a holiday for students.








One of the main traditions is washing a mermaid fountain in the middle of the city and then putting one of the student hats on her.

If you start watching around 9:00 minutes in you can see the people washing her, then after that they just all go and drink and buy balloons, apparently buying giants balloons is a big part of this holiday.  One thing that Wikipedia told me about this holiday was that, some Finns make a special lemonade called "sima" since there is only some alcohol in the drink it's okay for kids too.  Okay well if there is only a little alcohol, it's completely fine.  

Not only do the students wear those awesome hats, they also all wear bright covered coveralls with patches on them.

You can see all the different groups sitting on the steps wearing the coveralls.  I am going to guess and say that the color signifies university, but that is just a guess.

On Wednesday night I had my friend Jess over for dinner so we could share photos of all of our adventures over the last year.  As I was showing her my photos she would make comments about certain ones and say, "that is such an Erin photo."  Apparently I take photos of weird things, such as this one.  When I look at this sign all I think is that it is telling me that it is forbidden for an adult to hold a child's hand here.  Am I the only one who thinks that's weird?

This is the Helsinki Cathedral built in 1830.

This is the Uspenski Cathedral, a Russian Orthodox Church.  This church was used in a lot of American movies made in the 70's and 80's to portray Russia, when Americans couldn't get into Russia to actually film the movies there.

Helsinki was a really nice city and as the title says it really reminded me of Alaska.  I even booked a hotel room here instead of a hostel and it was the best decision ever.  After my tour of the city I went to a grocery store bought junk food, went to my hotel room, changed into my pajamas, and watched the inauguration of the new Dutch King.  I know, I party hard.


Fun Facts about Finland:
- In Finish Moose is Hirvi, awful is Hirveä, and monster is Hirviö.  I think the link between these word says something about the culture.
- lentokonesuihkuturbiinimoottoriapumekaanikkoaliupseerioppilas is the longest acceptable Finnish word.  It translates to "technical warrant officer trainee specialized in aircraft jet engines. Yes this word is actually used by the Finnish Air Force.
-Finnish also holds the record for the longest palindrome (a word that can be read the same both ways) "saippuakalasalakauppias" meaning black market soap fish salesman.

Countdown to Coming Home: 39 days 20 hours