Feb 6th

This morning began with a traditional Finnish breakfast: Rosehip and boysenberry soup, leipäjuusto (bread cheese), and rye bread with butter.

Once I was fortified, I went exploring. I started out in my neighborhood of Koskela (blue bubble):


View Koskela in a larger map

This is what all the streets that have been "cleared" look like:

And some houses in the area:

I had heard about a "mountain" near my flat where you could see the whole city. I think I would call it more of a good sledding hill. There was some old fort type thing on the top, which was cool. And some people having a picnic, which looked cold:

It would probably be a really good view if it wasn't so dark and cloudy out all the time. I could even see the water tower (hydropillar) that I love so much! It's kind of hard to make out in the picture (okay, impossible), but believe me, it's there:

I bet this will be a nice place to sit and watch the sun set over the ocean (when it's not covered with snow, and  when there is actually a sun you can see to set):

A nice cross-country ski trail:

I think the White Witch had been here:

Next I went into the city to the Helsinki Olympic Stadium, home of the 1952 Summer Olympics (originally built for the 1940 Olympics, but that one was canceled because of WWII). The stadium tower is one of the tallest buildings in Helsinki (240 ft) and you can go up it for only 2€.

This was a rather strange experience; I paid the guy at the door, and he pointed me down a hallway to an elevator and told me to take it to the eleventh floor. It looked like a service elevator and it let me off at a little cement staircase that lead to fire escape style stairs that lead to the roof. There was definitely NO ONE else around.

I totally pictured myself getting locked up there and not being found for days. But luckily, that didn't happen.

The Finnair stadium, and some kids playing soccer on mysteriously snow free grass:

 
Can you spot the hydropillar in this one?

Well, I made it safely back down to the ground, but I can't actually say the ground is that safe around here.
This is the treacherous sidewalk: A solid layer of ice with just enough snow on top to completely fill in the tread of your boots and make them nice and slick.

 

Going up these stairs required the exact same technique as walking up a slide:

Next I went to the amazing (and amazingly free) Winter Garden (Talvipuutarhaanin in Finnish, and Vinter Trädgård in good ol' Swedish).

It was built as a public conservatory over 100 years ago, and it still contains some of the original plants. It was small, but this gave it a very intimate feel. Like if you went there often enough you could actually get to know all the plants.

 

One wing was all succulents:

This jade plant was over 100 years old:

And the other wing was more tropical:

 

I'm going to try to go there regularly.

Next I went searching for Sibelius Park to see the monument dedicated to the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. It was spectacular. I can now say I have a favorite sculpture.

I suggest listening to his Valse Triste as you continue through the rest of the pictures. I guarantee it will improve your day.

At this point it was time to warm up again, so I went back into the city center to get some coffee. All the trees in Esplanadi Park have lights painstakingly wrapped around each branch:

I went into a cafe in the park:

I got coffee and a pulla bun, which is so far my favorite Finnish pastry. It's a sweet yeast bun with big chunks of cardamom seeds mixed into the dough, and a lump of something in the middle that tastes exactly like the "cream together the butter and sugar" part of cookie dough. And since I started this post with a picture of food, I might as well end with one too.  :)