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Helsinki Central Station: An Epic Train Experience Across Finland and the Rest of the World
Don’t you think that it’s everyone’s travel fantasy to experience a city’s transportation lifestyle? As someone who has been profoundly exposed to the local Asian way of dealing with the grandiosity of third world daily traffic (read: 3 hours) and non-surprising crazy events (read: accidental deaths) when I was living in the Philippines, it has always been a form of amusement for me to experience the efficiencies and creativity of commuting in a new city. Japan, Singapore, and Korea, are undoubtedly the best-of-the-best ones you’ll ever find here in Asia, but of course, Europe is that place to really immerse yourself when it comes to the culture of commuting. EU is known to have that classic commute style that is not only efficient but also seriously perfect in more ways than one. In particular, one of the recent ones that I thoroughly liked the most is in one of the Scandinavian countries - Finland’s capital, Helsinki.
There’s this beautiful word that originated from Sweden, known as “Resfeber”, which refers to the restless race of the traveler’s heart before the journey begins when anxiety and anticipation are tangled together. It’s that moment just after you buy your plane tickets and excitement and fear floods in all at once, creating a mixture of emotions that make you feel anxious or physically ill. It’s a striking word that perfectly depicts how visiting the Helsinki Central Railway Station will be like. Much like in the rest of Europe, this Central Railway Station connects Helsinki to the rest of the world, and if you are like me who dreams of taking a train from one European city to Russia, then this one of the options for you. The Helsinki Central Railway Station has actually a connection to St. Petersberg, among many other places (i.e. like the airport?).
The night was young, wild, and free when we reached the Helsinki Central Railway Station. We were heading back home, after a long winding day seeing the sights and sounds of Helsinki. The place is a beauty at night. The busy crowd meshed with the historical statues, architecture, and everyday life just seems to be one pit stop of an inspirational map for travelers. Also known as the Finnish: Helsingin päärautatieasema, Swedish: Helsingfors central station, can you just imagine that this station is used by approximately 400,000 people per day, of which about 200,000 are passengers? That’s a lot of people. And it’s no wonder that this station was chosen as one of the world's most beautiful railway stations by BBC in 2013.
From the outside, its distinguishing features are its clock tower and the two pairs of statues holding the spherical lamps, lit at night-time, on either side of the main entrance. From the inside, there are nineteen platforms, mostly clad in Finnish granite. You can actually hang around the area if you’re up for some resfeber inducing spontaneously planned long distance trip from Helsinki to elsewhere. And, if you are lucky enough, you may want to attempt to visit the private 50-square-metre (540 sq ft) lounge exclusively for the use of the President of Finland and their official guests. Of course, that’ll be a futile attempt, but it’s worth mentioning that there’s such a thing as a Presidential Lounge in this Central Station. For us mere mortals, these are the things you’ll see when you roam around and hang out at the Central Station. Lol.
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