Travel Journal: Day 2 🇫🇮 Helsinki, Finland
This is my 28-day journey of living a temporary life in Helsinki, Tallinn, Stockholm, and Copenhagen.
🇫🇮 July 24, 2019
I think it’s the best gift that I have no jet lag. No matter where I go, when I get there, I become a person of that time zone. When I say I don’t have jet lag, people always ask me how it can be possible. I don’t know how my body clock automatically sets the time zone of my location. My body just reacts like that.
So today I woke up the same as usual, had breakfast, put on my backpack, and left my accommodation. I didn’t have any plan and any destination. I just wandered the central district of Helsinki all day long to feel and learn its geography with my whole body. Thanks to a smart technology, not only do we not need to look for the place that we want to go before we leave, but also we are not scared of getting lost in an unfamiliar place any more because we just open a map application on our smart phone and type the name of the place. That’s all. But I don’t want to blindly depend on this smart thing. So just wandering around is kind of my ritual when I go to a new place, wherever my mind head to and my feet take me.
I headed to Rautatieasema(Central Railway Station), passed by Helsingin Tuomiokirkko(Helsinki Cathedral) & Senaatori Square(The Senate Square), crossed Love Bridge, looked around Katajanokka(Market Square), and found a beautiful cathedral, Uspenski Katedraali(Uspenski Cathedral) near Tove Janssonin Puisto(Tove Jansson Park). I stopped by the cathedral, looked inside it for a while and then kept walking. I arrived atKauppatori(Market Square) and saw a lot of souvenirs and other interesting things. I bought wooden postcards that Moomin illustration was printed on. And then I passed through Esplanadi(Esplanadi Park), found Akateeminen Kirjakauppa(Akateeminen bookstore) and went into it. To be honest, there was a reason I entered the bookstore because I wanted to go to the toilet. I heard it is very hard to find public or free toilets in northern Europe. I just anticipated that there must be a toilet in the bookstore, and my anticipation was right. That’s why I love a bookstore. But I made a huge mistake to put my phone on the toilet. I quickly went back and fortunately saw my phone still be on the same place. OMG! I could not help but love a bookstore and love Helsinki. On the way to my accommodation, I went to Starbucks and ordered Americano and a croissant. I asked the clerk to add one shot in my coffee, but she misunderstood, thinking that I asked her to subtract one shot. I’ve never imagined that I would drink a one-shot Americano but it didn’t matter if my coffee was one, two, or three shots because I got my phone back. That was more than enough.
While I was wandering, I coincidently found the places that I planed to visit: Helsingin Tuomiokirkko(Helsinki Cathedral)& Senaatori Square(The Senate Square), Kauppatori(Market Square), Esplanadi(Esplanadi Park), Akateeminen Kirjakauppa(Akateeminen bookstore) and found other good places that I would never expect: Love Bridge, Tove Janssonin Puisto(Tove Jansson Park), and Uspenski Katedraali(Uspenski Cathedral). Wandering around, getting lost and discovering something new make travel more enjoyable. Moreover, I think I don’t need a map any more because now it was carved into my brain.
