Day #173 - Helsinki, Finland

A rainy day in Helsinki

Home of the 1952 Summer Olympics

Olympic Stadium - hard to get a good picture

One of the statues on my way to the Olympic Village

Busy streets - filled with trams and buses

Friday, September 3rd

My last day in the Nordic countries. It's been really good. I think the 1 thing that has made the biggest impression upon me is how fluently people speak the English language here. I would say these 5 countries (Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland) speak more clearly with a better grasp of the English language than any other country in Europe (I'll even throw in the UK and Ireland when it comes to clarity in understanding the spoken language).

I went back into Helsinki to see a few more things mid morning. Today was an ugly weather day for touring around. Low 40's (F), rainy, and windy. I didn't have shorts on today. I still haven't gotten over my tortuous wind experience from the final 2 hours of the Reykjavik Marathon - today brought back those memories.

For the most part, I hopped in and out of buildings while exploring today. I did take a couple hour round trip walk to see the Olympic site. The 1952 Summer Olympics were held in Helsinki. This was the one and only time the Olympics were ever held in Finland. It's been held twice in Norway (Winter -- Lillehammer-1994, Oslo-1952) and once in Sweden (Summer - Stockholm-1912). The big Olympic stadium was pretty well camoflauged. If I hadn't looked at a map, I wouldn't have been able to tell this was even a stadium. There were a number of other athletic fields around the area. I watched a few of the soccer teams practicing.

Even though I may not have seen as much of Finland as I would have hoped (I didn't even do any day trips), I did get to see and experience the culture. A couple things from my book - a famous opera festival is held in the town of Savonlinna each year. This city is located 200 miles northeast of Helsinki. Also, a famous composer named Jean Sibelius is honored in a town called Jarvenpaa - located about 25 miles from Helsinki. His former house called Ainola is the current-day tourist site.

It's about 9pm right now. I leave for Russia tomorrow at 7:30am via train. I've never been so prepared for a country. I printed out all my hotel reservations today, along with maps. I haven't done this since the first week of my trip. I also have all my transportation legs (both train and bus) booked with tickets in my possession. I will also have my 'Point To" book in a convenient location. This was given to me by my sister before the trip. It is a pocket-size book that has pictures of just about anything. If you can't communicate with words - just find the picture of what you need - and point to it.

I don't know if I'll be able to talk or even read to get me where I need to go the next few days. But, that's where the last 5-1/2 months come into play. I'll need to pull from my knowledge base and let my instincts show me the way home. I'm ready for the challenge - come along with me.