Day 2 - 22/3 - Shopping in Helsinki

It was a brisk and cold 20 minutes walk to Kerava (the town where Reko lives) train station, as we would be taking a train to Helsinki. The morning breeze was freezing, but I didn't really care in my excitement. I was so caught up with the relaxed and easy lifestyle of Finns. It was a Saturday, and there were a few couples walking their dogs around the neighbourhood. Cars were a pretty rare sight there, at least until you get to the main road. I was still reeling from all the quietness in the neighbourhood when we reached the train station. It was a Saturday! Saturdays in Singapore were never, and never will be, this quiet.

Trains in Finland follow a timetable, and they adhere to it. We reached the train station quite early, so we waited for quite a while before the train arrived. Complicated train system they have there. You will know what I mean later in one of the photos. XD And I do mean trains. It's quite unlike our MRT.

Reko's mom had bought a 10-trip ticket for the four of us, and it works like this. You get on the train, and you insert the ticket into that orange machine and it will stamp the time and date on the ticket. You had to re-insert it three times, if you have three other people travelling with you. There isn't any ticket inspector on board all the time to check on the passengers, but as far as I can see, everyone abided by the rules and no one had tried to "cheat" by not stamping their tickets. The black machine with blue buttons are very much like our EZ-link system, where frequent commuters would buy cards with stored value and tap them accordingly.

Yup, it's actually quite hard to find English instructions in Finland, even in Helsinki. It's not a tourist-friendly place, I must say. All stations have Finnish and Swedish names (i.e. Helsinki in Finnish; Helsingfors in Swedish), but no English names anywhere.

The signages on the above photo are: (from left to right) no alcoholic drinks, no pets, no smoking, CCTV installed, no ticket officers.

Yeah, if the train station is closed, or if you didn't have time to buy tickets at the station, you can always go to carriages that have ticket officers, whom you can buy tickets from, using cash or credit cards. Of course you can try to take a free train ride, but then again, you'll have to pay EUR80 on top of the fare that you needed to pay, if you get caught. So... yeah.

It's also interesting to note that while pets are not allowed on that carriage where I was, pets are allowed in certain carriages. Also, carriages with a pram sign would mean that there's particular spaces in that carriage for prams. Some carriages have WC sign too, which means they have toilet in them. XD Though I wouldn't recommend people using it... unless you don't have a choice.

Complicated train routes, like I said. XD There are several train routes, and if you squint, the routes are named A, B, C, and so on. Certain routes will stop at every station, whereas some will just go through certain stations and stopped at some. The fastest route would be to take the train which will stop the least times before your destination. Common sense, yes?

It takes about 30 minutes to travel from Kerava to Helsinki, so... what else? I took more photos!

And finally, we reached Helsinki station! And the view that greeted us the moment we stepped out of the huge train station was...

... an ice-skating ring!

And this is how Helsinki Train Station looks like:

A few things that strike me were that there were absolutely no high-rise buildings in Helsinki; the buildings are mostly pretty old; and... there's just way too little people in the capital of Finland on a Saturday morning.

See what I mean? I took these photos just a couple of feet away from the ice-skating ring. I suppose majority of the people were still suffering from hangovers due to those inevitable drinking sessions on Good Friday evening... >_>

Our first destination is the outdoor harbour market, but we went past a few interesting buildings/shops along the way. One of them is Hotel Kämp. It's supposed to be the most expensive hotel in Helsinki, and sure enough, the building and its entrance sure lived up to that reputation. I didn't managed to take a photo of its entrance, but at least I got this one:

And here's something that stopped me in my tracks:

It's the slogan of that shop, but like I said, it's very hard to find anything that's English in Finland, so I just had to take a picture of it. Besides, they used a cute "word" there. XD

It wasn't long before we passed by a large cafe with a large display of some very cute Easter eggs! I tried to take a photo of the colurful display, but it didn't turn out well due to the reflection of the glass. Damn. It was really pretty, though! And thus, my first impression of Fazer cafe was good. Very good. Fazer is quite a famous chocolatier brand in Finland, although they do produce cakes and candies. But I think they are more well-known for their chocolates. For Easter Day, they actually made a lot of Easter chocolate eggs that came in various packagings. Basically, they poke a hole under a real egg, washed it clean, and then pour in liquid chocolate and stuffed the hole up with some sugar stuffings before putting it into fridge to harden the chocolate. And after the chocolate inside hardened, it became a chocolate egg! They were selling chocolate eggs with beanies, with egg-holders that's painted beautifully, and even eggs in those normal cardboard egg trays! I think they will make great gifts, so I actually got four of the eggs with beanies. XD They are expensive, of course, but I thought they are really cute!

After much distractions, we finally reached the outdoor harbour market. It's basically like a street bazaar, where people put up tents and sell various souveniors like keychains, plushies, reindeer fur, woolie hats, mittens, and even fresh fruits and vegetables. It seemed to be quite a popular tourist place as I saw a lot of Mainland Chinese tourists there as well. I bought a few reindeer plushie keychains, as well as a reasonably big reindeer-in-a-bag plushie for my sis.

As we were just next to the sea, you can just imagine how cold and harsh the winds were. My hands were practically freezing already even though I was wearing my mittens. And the strong wind was so cold and dry that I could barely open my eyes. Hence, it was an immense relief when Reko's mother suggested to go into the indoor market to see how it looks like. Well, I'd say... it's just like wet markets back in Singapore, except that every stall has it's own space, much like boutiques in shopping centres. They sell all kinds of stuff, from all kinds of meat, to all kinds of candies. It was at that time when I found out that Reko and his sis love liquorice (or licorice, in American English) to bits. Both of them each bought a pretty big pipe-shaped liquorice-flavoured candy from one of the huge candy stalls there.

And before we left the harbour, I actually braved the cold and took a photo there with Reko. Well, how can I leave any harbour without having a photo of myself taken there? =D

On a totally unrelated note, pigeons in Finland are fat too. See proof:

We then went to a nice and cosy cafe for a quick lunch, where I grabbed a pastry-looking thing that has lots of minced meat, barley grains and rice all mashed up together. It's pretty good, I must say. And it's an authentic Finnish food, according to Reko's mom. Good, I'm a half-Finn now. =D

I didn't really dare to drink too much coffee while we were outside because toilets are just so hard to find! Public toilets, according to Reko, is not free, and after paying about 1 euros to gain access to a public toilet, the condition in there is bad. So a word of caution to those who are visiting (or thinking of visiting) Finland, beware of the public toilets! Usually restaurants will have toilets as well, but they are only free for paying customers. Those who aren't customers, but want to use the toilets, will have to pay as well. They control it simply by holding the keys. If you want to go loo, you have to get a key from any of the staff. Reko said the reason for these strict rules is because they don't want drug addicts to use their toilets to ... do their stuff. You know. And, public toilets are usually lighted with ultra-violet lights, where you cannot see your veins. Again, this is to prevent drug addicts from doing funny things in public toilets. Interesting stuff huh? I don't think I'll ever heard of this if I hadn't been to Finland, really. =P

After lunch, we went to aleksi (a shopping center) to look for our snow boots. Well, it's not exactly "snow boots", but just shoes suitable for winter wear, that's all. Inside, I find a lot of very familiar brands, like ecco, Espirit, CAT, Columbia, Clarks, etc etc! I had went to Finland, thinking that there isn't much international brands there (as Reko didn't recognise any of those brands when he's here anyway) at all, but hey, look at the evidence below!

Anyway, I managed to get a pair of CAT's boots for myself and Reko managed to get a pair of Columbia's for himself as his old shoes were kinda... too old. And while we were going to pay for them, Reko's sister spotted a familiar figure. It turned out that the familiar person was their cousin! To be exact, he is the son of Reko's mom's elder sister. So yup, he's the first "relative" who saw me. Samuli, that's his name. What a coincidence, really. Like what his mother said, Finland is so huge, Helsinki is so huge, and so it's really rare to even bump into someone you know in the capital, not to mention inside the same shopping center.

Onwards we go, and this time we took a Metro to Itäkeskus. First, let me explain what a Metro is. Helsinki's metro is simply just like our MRT system, but it's one that goes around Helsinki area only. Tickets are sold at 2 euros each, no matter where you go. You can also take a connecting bus ride with the same ticket if it's within an hour from which you buy the ticket. Convenient, right?

Oh, another interesting thing to note is that, there's absolutely no gantries to pass through when you take the train or metro in Finland. So in other words, you can take a train or a metro without a ticket, actually. I mean, it's possible, so long as you don't meet a ticket inspector. But Finns are all very self-discplined and civic-minded people. They don't cheat their government of these little things. And that's something which amazes me. If this is the system in Singapore, I think everyone will try their luck in not getting a ticket and see if they'll meet an inspector. >_>

Here are some photos taken when I took the metro:

Itäkeskus is our destination, and it's supposed to be Scandinavian's biggest shopping center. Well, it's nothing fancy, and it's just like another Vivocity, with more boring shops, that's all. XD Nah, I was just kidding. It's just like your regular shopping mall. There's Body Shop in Finland too, and they are expensive. Way more expensive that our Body Shop here. >_>

Reko's mom and sis got a little tired from walking, and they decided to sit down at an ice-cream shop for a pit-stop. I managed to refrain myself from ordering a soft-serve cone as well, because I didn't want to develop a cough that'll ruin the whole trip. So I only got to watch them eat. *sniff*

Yes, this is my evil dearie. T_T

Our last stop of the day was Stockmann. I'd say honestly that I prefer Stockmann to Itäkeskus at any time. Stockmann is just one huge department store, selling your regular perfumes and bags, to books and toiletries. Stockmann has at least three floors dedicated to just books only! And I dare say that it's even larger than the Kinokuniya at Ngee Ann City back in Singapore. Although Kinokuniya has a wider selection of books, I think. Heh heh. Anyway, the moment I step into Stockmann, I see brands like Clinique, Estee Lauder, Chanel, Shiseido, etc etc all around the floor, selling the usual cosmetics and fragrances. To the far end is the bag section, where I see brands like Gucci, Burberry, Dior, etc. Who says there's no international brands in Finland?! There's plenty!

When we were on the way down to the basement where the supermarket was, it's Reko's mom who saw someone familiar this time. And it's her very own sister! And she's the one whose son we met earlier in the day, too. And thus, I met yet another of their relatives. Reko's aunt is a very nice lady, who speaks English quite well, but I still think that her son speaks the best English I've heard from a Finn so far. She asked me the usual questions that you'd ask a tourist: How did you find Finland? Is it too cold? Did you bring enough warm clothes? Now I can understand how Reko felt here when every Singaporean he met asked him similar questions about the weather like these. Haha!

Anyway, it might be because the next day is Easter, which falls on Sundays, and Monday will be a public holiday, so people are rushing to supermarkets to fill up their refrigerators. And that's why we see many familiar faces in Helsinki in just one day. We stocked up our bread and milk as well, and some carrots and food for dinner.

And dinner itself was a simple but almost 3-hours long affair. XD Well usually there's the main course, and then there's dessert, and then there's coffee! Reko's family talk about everything under the sky, and whenever they stumbled across something new, they'll either consult the dictionary immediately, or they'll check the internet for more information. Now I know why Reko is so knowledgeable. XD

For more pictures taken on Day 2, please click here.

Day 3: Sightseeing in Helsinki >>