The Gateway to Santa Clause

Yesterday was another Sea Day filled with trivia games, eating, relaxing in the spa and watching shows. Earlier yesterday I organised a surprise cake to celebrate Tim’s birthday. At dinner our waiters all came out and sung Happy Birthday, embarrassing Tim, but he loved the thought.

IMG_9776-001

IMG_9777-001

Today we were heading to Helsinki, Finland! Both Tim and myself were excited to come here as we had both never been there before and it was the gateway to Santa Clause 🙂

Tim, Ivan, Jen and I all went to the Truffles Restaurant for breakfast, I had poached eggs and Tim had eggs benedict. Once we had all finished and were ready we left the boat together and caught a shuttle bus into town. The shuttle bus cost 10€ each round trip – Tim and I were keen to walk but the lady said it would take 40mins each way.

Helsinki was beautiful, as a foursome we walked around taking in the scenery. A local lady informed us that there was a market being held by the river so we went to check that out. Ivan and Jen had a food tour planned so we said goodbye and parted ways.

water fountain

IMG_5274-001

IMG_5289-001

IMG_5292-001

The market was filled with fresh fruits and vegetables, souvenirs and animal skins.

IMG_5294-001

Tim and I bought a few postcards to join our collection and a stuffed toy reindeer wearing a scarf with the Finish Flag.

During our wander we came across this massive building, it turned out to be Helsinki Cathedral. Helsinki Cathedral was famous for being the church on a hill. We were surprised how empty it was inside as there were so many people outside taking photos of it.

IMG_9810-001

IMG_9818-001

On our explore we came across Helsinki train station and thought we would take a photo of us with the Helsinki sign. We were both doing jumping poses, self photos and silly photos not realising that there was a train full of people watching us. When we realised we looked and a lady sitting in the window seat nearest us was laughing at our craziness..oops!

IMG_9837-001

IMG_9839-001

tracks

Leaving the train station a little embarressed we headed towards a supermarket and grabbed an ice cream each. Then we made our way towards a park, en route we came across this beautiful deserted church. It was really cool and nicely decorated, we were surprised that there was no one else around.

church

About an hour before the last shuttle bus went back to the boat we went to the City Hall to use their wifi and book a tour for Russia. Tim also asked if they happened to have a Helsinki stamp, which they did, so we got a Helsinki stamp in our passport 😀

On the way back we looked through the information shop and picked up some more bits and bops for our scrap book.

IMG_9848-001

IMG_9857-001

IMG_9853-001

When we were all back on the boat, Tim, Ivan and I played a couple games of trivia. One being the British Pub quiz, which we won!!! Afterwards we got ready for dinner.

Tonight’s menu I had prawn cocktail and shared frog legs with Tim. Tim had the steak and I ate vegetarian Indian curry, which was ok.

IMG_9858-001

IMG_9859-001

IMG_9866-001

IMG_9868-001

Every night the wait staff performed a song to us, tonight the boys pulled Jen up to dance with them. It really looked like Jen was enjoying herself and she did a great job copying their moves!

IMG_9872-001

 

IMG_9834-001

Comments Off on The Gateway to Santa Clause

Filed under Country 10: Finland

Comments are closed.