We left the hotel rather early and headed towards the Uspenski Cathedral via the National Theatre Square with the statue of Aleksis Kivi, the Finnish National romantic writer standing right in front of it.
The streets were very quiet with barely nobody walking in them. It was only when we crossed the street so as to photograph the Ateneum facade with the outstanding busts of Rapahel, Phidias and Bramante, that we sighted the first tram with some people on it ... (going to work ... almost certainly). We continued walking towards the Senate square, where we photographed the oldest house.
I couldn't resist walking into one of the amazingly exquisite public phone boxes, whose lower part was open, as if the protected upper part was there to just hinder the possibility of your voice and whichever you might be saying to be heard by passers-by.
The market square area looked rather grim though the sky soon cleared up as we made our way to the ferry that would take us to the UNESCO island of Suomenlinna.
The market square area looked rather grim though the sky soon cleared up as we made our way to the ferry that would take us to the UNESCO island of Suomenlinna.
The obelisk stone of empress Alexandra in the market square looked stunning with the Uspenski Cathedral in the background. Because we had some time before the ferry left we still made our way up to it without too much success, once it was closed. We therefore decided to walk back onto the shopping area.
We couldn't do much more than admire the arquitecture of some of the buildings and the stone carved figures, which seemed to be present almost everywhere before we boarded the ferry.
Helsinki seemed to be waking to the new day, despite the fact that many on board the ferry looked like strangers. It was soon clear that the harbour activitiy must be huge, taking into account the lines sailing back and forth to Sweden, Russia and Estonia, not to mention the ferries and watercrafts sailing around the numerous islands. As we sailed off outstanding buildings such as the Cathedrals looked smaller and smaller particularly when compared to the size of some of the anchored boats.
We approached one of the Suomenlinna islands in no time ... as I was still getting adapting my eyesight to the blue colour of the sea ...
(To be continued)
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