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Finland On Foot: This Is What You Will See When You Do A Self Guided Winter Walking Expedition Around Helsinki
A Self Guided Winter Walking Expedition Around Helsinki
What in the heavens were we thinking? We could
have caught some serious… colds. Walking
endlessly around the Nordic wintered out city seems to be funny idea for many,
but not for these bunch of Asians. To battle our jetlagged brains, we opted
for the unobvious choice – not coffee, not sleep, not rest, but wandering
around. This design district known as Helsinki seems to be one of the best Nordic cities to explore on foot, whatever the season or reason. The
Helsinki map alone will easily interesting story that you deserve to discover
it by just walking around, instead of relying too much on hop on hop off bus
tours, or any tours for that matter! If
you ask me - What's the best way to make the most of Helsinki on foot? I’ll
tell you walk everywhere, because the city’s main attractions are actually
really close to each other!
It’s very
easy to get to know #MyHelsinki on foot. Not
only do they have free walking tours, self-guided walking tours, and different
walking routes around town, the city itself has a lot of information for
tourists and travelers to ensure utmost enjoyment of the city. What I really like about this city is that
their Helsinki Tourist Information offers helper tourist guides, region tourist
information, and brochures / maps to people who are interested to do a DIY
should you decide to get around or do a stopover in Helsinki. As soon as my
troop and I left our backpacker bags, and recharged our camera batteries, we
swiftly stole the nearest McDonald’s hot coffee available and out-and-about we
went – no sleep no regrets for us, as the sightseeing, trips, and guidance
around Helsinki are really easy to enjoy and experience.
I don’t
know where to start, but to be honest, there are so many reasons to enjoy
Helsinki on foot, and even on a winter season. There’s something about the snow
and everlasting white noise seen on the walls and all that makes the
world-renowned Finnish modern design heritage nicer. The main sights that are in walkable are the Senate Square, Helsinki
Cathedral, Tori Quarters, Market Square, Old market Hall, and the Esplanade Park.
Likewise, seeing that the sea is nearby – that the city center is just in close
proximity to the sea shoreline, is just white-wow. This Nordic archipelago is full of Maritime attractions to enjoy too.
It took
us two to three full days to leisurely (read: slowly) walk around and see this
compact yet functional Finnish city. To be fair, it took as longer than what we
expected, because we relishing around certain place longer than intended; also,
there are no great traffic jams, the public transport system like tourist trams
(or even cruise ships) is amazing, cycling is easy --- but we decided not to
take any of those – instead, we relied heavily on our leg muscles to burn fats
from all the never-ending foot feasts we did (read: delicious local food culture,
yes). Although the people here are NOT as loquacious and as sociable to Asian
travelers as in other cities I have visited, I observed that the locals are
genuinely happy to help travelers make the most of our visit. So yes, what’s
your #MyHelsinki story?
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