Helsinki: When do the sea wobbles stop?

For once we didn't have to be up at the crack of dawn to catch our transport, instead we had the temptation of the free breakfast that was offered to everyone, which was definitely worth crawling out of bed for! After stuffing down more than we could manage we had the long walk, carrying 2 backpacks each, 50 minutes across Stockholm to the Viking Line terminal to catch our ferry to Helsinki. After a 2 hour wait to board we got to exploring the ship, which was rather large and had a cafe, nightclub, music bar, casino and video games room, which Charlotte informed me I was too old to enter. Fortunately, due to some forward thinking when we booked the ferry, we'd made a reservation at the Viking Buffet, which was a a smorgasbord (nice Swedish word there) of local and international foods. Well, if we thought we were full from breakfast, we were pretty much overflowing from dinner and the unlimited beer and soft drinks on tap didn't help! Afterwards we waddles to our piccolo (small) but cosy room. We had to forget about sleeping though, the weather had closed in and we were hurtling straight though a rain storm, which made for a very bumpy and wobbly ride. We found it impossible to relax, so got up and headed back out for another couple of circuits of the ship, eventually going back to the room and forcing ourselves to sleep about 2 in the morning. How we kept our dinners down is unknown to me but somehow we made it with full bellies and very wobbly legs.

The hostel we had chosen was only a 2 minute walk from the ferry terminal, so it was nice to stumble off and into some comfort. Unlike most hostels we've been in so far, we've had to wait for check-in but despite only being half past 9 in the morning, we got our room straight away and headed straight up for a much needed lie down on dry land. Not for too long though, as we were keen to get out and explore the city.

We headed through the bustling Market Square, which has a daily market selling food, jewellery and souvenirs. And located right on the seafront. After, scouring the shopping streets and close by sights, followed by a chance meeting with THOSE Spaniards from our room in Stockholm, we headed back to our room for a much needed afternoon nap, which then turned into a full blown sleep. 5 hours later, we woke in the early evening, so just had time to head to a supermarket and pick up dinner, chilli and rice but nowhere near as nice as our mums make. After a quick evening stroll and some hankering for a sweet treat we picked up 3 Mars bars, which we hastily ate when we got back in. With Independance Day on the TV we had a quiet evening in.

Having lost most of the day the day before, we wanted to be out early but couldn't resist the lie-in and the peace and quiet that our private room gave us. Eventually, we got out on the streets of sunny Helsinki, still with our sea legs, at 11 o'clock and headed to the furthest attraction, which was the Olympic Stadium used for the Olympic Games in 1952. It probably wasn't worth the walk, as there wasn't much to see in the area and the stadium was quite old fashioned and closed up. So we headed through the Central Park and past a lake where the locals were out Paddle Boarding. We stopped off in the main centre to pick up some lunch, an apple, a mandarin each and a large bar of Finnish made Milk Chocolate to share. After lunch, we walked up to the very impressive Rock Church, which is pretty much just made from rocks and glass. We went in and listened to a man playing piano. When he finished a piece I thought I only whispered "should we applaud?" to Charlotte but the lady infront seemed to find it quite funny and said "you can but your not supposed to". As the evening approached we headed to Kaivopuisto, which is a park located in the city, with a sea wall to walk along. Here we watched as people took part in Bungee Jumping and took photos of the Helsinki skyline across the water. All that was left was to head home and cook up our Chicken Curry for dinner and get a good nights sleep after a very busy day.

With not a huge amount to see in Helsinki, we had almost done it all so somehow we ended up with what was pretty much a free day. Still, not wanting to waste it as it was our last, we got up, had the biggest bowl of cornflakes ever and headed out. After a thorough browse through the market where nothing really took our fancy, we meandered through the streets in the blazing heat. With not much else to do we headed back to the hostel, caught up on our huge pile of washing and had a local Finnish beer in the hostel restaurant. To keep the day simple, we had our most basic dinner yet, noodles with a rather expensive French stick and garlic butter.

Although Helsinki doesn't have a huge amount to offer, I know Finland does as a whole and we both can't wait to come back and enjoy the Arctic winter.

We now head out of beautiful Scandinavia and into the Baltic States. Tallinn is first up.

James and Charlotte