March, and the Easter weekend in particular, isn't the best time to visit Helsinki. Lots of things are under (re)construction – the Sibelius park, the Havis Amanda statue – and other things, like the Seurasaari open air museum, are closed. The occasion for my visit was a gig by Mew, one of the best bands in the world, performing with the Danish Chamber Orchestra, but this too is a bust: they cancelled at short notice. Still, the day I arrive in Helsinki, the sun is shining.
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| Suomenlinna fortress in the sun. |
Devoid of any grand plan, but with a few tips from friends to work with, I roam. The Temppeliaukio church, carved into the rock, is a sublime piece of modern architecture. Nearby, the Arkadia bookshop is well-and-truly lose-yourself-in-able.
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| Temppeliaukio Church. |
Karelian rice pies are not in short supply.
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| Karelian pies in a hipster café. |
Snow still gathers in clumps in the shade here, unlike in Stockholm, and much of the bay is frozen over. With the Sibelius park denied to me, I get a cinnamon bun and coffee at Café Regatta and gawk out over the ice. Later, wandering round town, hopping on and off ancient trams, I do some more gawking at the fine Art Nouveau buildings that seem to be on every corner. The Oodi central library is a bit of a monstrosity from the outside, but on the inside is a fine civic building, a library for the twenty-first century. At the Kiasma contemporary art gallery just round the corner, I'm surprised to see that one of the artists who's being exhibited is Simon Fujiwara, who's featured on this blog before.
On my second and third days in Helsinki, the weather turns cold and grey, and on the afternoon of the fourth it starts to rain quite heavily. This is fine; I'd probably have felt short-changed if I'd visited a Baltic city and there hadn't been at least one day like this. But four days is not enough for Helsinki, and I hope to come back here one day.
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