Helsinki, Finland Day 4 and last

Monday Aug. 27/12

Feeling much better today!

I started with the Helsinki Cathedral.  It is Evangelical Lutheran Cathedral, built in 1917. Beautiful.

I walked to the local ferry terminal where I took a 20 minute boat ride across to the Suomenlinna Sea Fortress.

The fortress was constructed when Finland was a part of the Kingdom of Sweden in 1748. In 1788, the fortress served as a base in the war between Sweden and Russia.

The whole island is dedicated to preserving this fortress so it was really neat to walk around and explore it.




Of course I found the military museum and had to go in.

1937 German gun

Basically, Sweden was power house from 1700-1721.
Then Russia came and kicked some ass in 1809; therefore, Finland was broken from Sweden and annexed to Russia.
In 1917, Finland declared independence, which was followed by a small civil war.

1940 Ford M40, V8

The Winter War from 1939 - 1940: the Soviet Union attacked on 2 occasions and Finland was forced to withdrawal. The Soviet Union feared the involvement of the French and British thus The Moscow Peace Treaty was signed in 1940, which resulted in territorial losses for Finland.

Finland then allied with Germany and in 1941 the Continuation War broke out when Germany attacked the Soviet Union, with Finland fighting by their sides. This war ended in 1944 with more signing of peace treaty's.
As a result, Finland remained neutral in the Cold War (1970-1980's).

That's what I got from it. It was hard not to be distracted by all the big guns.

I spent the entire afternoon walking around the beautiful fortress.


In the evening, one of Fernando's friends was going out for a "girls night," so I tagged along. 1 Euro cider's all night long. Not quite as good as beer but they still get you drunk. We danced at the club and had a great night.

Tuesday Aug. 28/12

Had a lazy day. Spent most of my time getting my things together and packed.

At 7pm, I boarded the Princess Maria ferry to St. Petersburg, Russia. It was an overnight trip.
I had to take this ferry in particular because I didn't actually get a visa to get into Russia. This ferry deal allows you to stay in St. Petersburg for 72 hours visa free. The only loophole.

On the boat, I was sharing a room with 3 other people. And to my surprise, there was a Dutch lady already sleeping there when I went to put my things away.. and she was naked! All 3 of my roommates turned out to be Dutch, naked sleepers. The trip was uneventful otherwise.