Fun Times in Finland

Seagulls in the Square

With just under eight hours of layover time in Helsinki as I hopped off my plane from Dallas, I bought a European power adapter and a Finnish e-sim, charged up my phone, and sauntered on into the Schengen Zone.

If you use the public transit system (i.e., the Finnish metro railway), it takes about half an hour to get from the airport to Helsinki city center. During this train ride, I saw Finnish culture in a snapshot, how quiet and respectful everyone was on the train---the silence spoke volumes. That is, until a younger girl with a Legend of Zelda backpack started doing Lilo and Stitch impressions in Finnish to her mother, who couldn't, to the best of her abilities, contain her laughter.

As I gazed out the window, I saw too how this culture further differed from the one I had only freshly left in the United States. Everywhere you looked, there were green spaces. Parks and trails and trees and just so much verdant area. Connecting all of these were bike paths and bike lanes galore. Heck, in the traincar I was seated in, there was a special railing for bike storage, which, despite having been used by numerous individuals as the train progressed along its route, was never once empty.

As I arrived in the city center, stepping out of the railway station, I was blown away by the history that surrounded me. For some reason, I had imagined Finland as a country known more for its future than its past. This was particularly short-sighted of me, as in that moment of realization, it settled upon me just how far back this country's history spanned. In a fitting turn of events, my first move, aside from being in awe of the architecture and bustling streets that surrounded me, was to go to a museum.

The clocktower of Helsinki Central Station

The Ateneum Art Museum, which contains a portion of the Finnish National Gallery, is housed in a beautiful building just opposite Helsinki Central Station. I did my research, found it well worth my time, went up the stone steps, and entered. As I purchased my tickets, the lady at the counter, who at first had thought me Finnish (she was not the first, nor the last, to do so), was nice enough to offer me a student discount, and for the first time in my life, I used euros to pay for something. The security guards smiled at me as I walked up the stairs to the first floor of the gallery itself, and wow, was I in for a treat.

The art there was stunning, and as I soaked in the works of countless Finnish artists, as well as artists from around the world, I realized how lucky (and random) this experience was. I'm well on my way to India, three-quarters of the way so, in fact, to the place where I'm going to spend the next two months as an intern completing research for the World Food Prize and S M Sehgal Foundation, and yet here I am, in Finland of all places, enjoying an art museum. What is life?

The Ateneum from the corner of Helsinki Central Station

Following this, I decided that the next place I wanted to check out was the Helsinki Cathedral. I walked over the few blocks as Google Maps directed my journey, and soon enough, I was standing before another impressive feat of Finnish building design. Though the seagulls in the square beside it aimed to distract one from the beauty right in front of them, it was truly a challenge to keep my eyes away from inspecting every detail of this astounding architecture. I read up on the repairs being done to the building, snapped a few photos, avoided the seagulls as best I could, and thought it best to wander on back to the train station.

Getting settled after landing, allowing my phone to charge, and buying some Finland souvenirs for family and friends had taken a fair bit of time, which turned my nearly eight hours into less than seven. Downloading an e-sim, researching where to go, figuring out how to properly use Finnish public transit, and a thirty-minute train ride into the center of town ate away another hour. I spent about an hour and a half in the art museum, another hour exploring the streets, seeing the Cathedral, and dodging seagulls, and I knew my train ride back would put me at the airport with three hours to spare before my flight. I wasn't trying to chance my luck, so I purchased a train ticket and headed back right then.

Helsinki Cathedral

I made it back to the airport, through security, and to my gate without too much of a hassle (aside from accidentally boarding the wrong train, realizing four stops past the last interchange where I could have boarded the right one, getting on a train back those four stops, finding the right train, and being abruptly reminded that maybe I'm not the total international travel diva I often imagine myself to be), and had even managed to snag some pastries along the way.

As I prepared for this last leg of my journey, I thought with anticipation of what lay ahead. Two entire months of an internship in India, working with food security in a part of the world I had never been to before. My mind swam with the wonderful what-ifs and opportunities that I'd soon stumble upon. It was practically doing a backstroke already, simply given the fact that I was outside of the U.S. once more, and about to make a tangible difference in the lives of others through work and research that I find incredibly fulfilling. Excitement and gratitude were the main emotions in that moment, and I clung to those tightly as I boarded the plane.

A view out the window of my gate

As I got settled into my seat, I settled too, into the notion that in a short eight hours, I would be in India. That realization had not sunk in, truly, until that moment. With thoughts of adventure and unforgettable experiences ahead, I caught up on some much-needed rest, knowing full well that by the time I woke up, I'd be that much closer to the destination of my dreams.