Here we go again, the road beckoning. After a couple days in NYC (I stayed in the Upper West Side for the first time), I took a flight to Helsinki via Stockholm. In the Stockholm airport a simple coffee was nearly $5 (which was greatly desired after a red eye), which I didn’t to survive without, but I’m going to judge all prices moving forward in terms of Stockholm airport coffee.

Helsinki has a certain dreariness I find appealing. I didn’t really do any research or know what to expect, but it’s quiet, the public transportation is good, it’s surrounded by water, and the coffee shops look promising.

There is a big main square (Senate Square), with this cathedral at the top.

I spent some more time wandering around. “Downtown” Helsinki is actually rather small and flat, so it’s very walkable. I wandered around into this harbor area and found a nice coffee shop with outdoor seating.

It’s one of those places that I could work. Funky interior with nice seating, and the projection of the menu is pretty cool. Plus they made Flat Whites, which are my fancy coffee of choice.

Near that I found the love lock bridge. Every city seems to have one, so I found the Waldo in Helsinki.

Here’s looking the other way at the cool cathedral, and the coffee shop is on the left. There’s a restaurant and a shop down there too.

This was one of those main park walkways in downtown Helsinki. I don’t really know what the tree thing is. Maybe it’s a Dr. Seuss thing? I don’t know about the statue either. Maybe it’s a famous person?

And then on Sunday I road the ferry over to Suomenlinna Sveaborg. Which I believe translates to “sea fortress” or “shitty castle”. It’s basically four small, connected islands that was used as a military area. It had some big guns on it and a lot of brick.

Since I had a full day tram and bus pass, I decided to ride across town and go to a coffee shop on the water. Because that’s what you do when you’re in a weird city, spend an hour running around to eat a blueberry cake in the rain.

But Cafe Regatta was a really nice place. The actual shop was more like a large shed, but it has tons of outdoor seating overlooking the water. I can never seem to find places to relax and drink a coffee right on the water, but finally there’s one here. So if I stayed here, I would go to this place a lot.

They even had some fires going and tents, so you could stay warm and/or dry if you fancied. I did not, fancy, however.

There was a couple in my dorm room from Tallinn, so I got a bunch of local advice on the area. Their English was really good, so that’s promising.

And on the way to the docks to take the ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn, there’s a nice little farewell/welcome message from the Finnish tourism board.

And now I’m on a 2-hour ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn. Pretty short really.