Helsingin Weekennddii...

[hantsbear]

And so, after a flight home delayed by half an hour thanks to weather problems at Heathrow, I return from my Finnish weekend.  I cannot say that I warmed to the city; I kept comparing it to Stockholm with it's almost Parisien grand boulevards.  Most of Helsinki seems to have been re-built in the last 40-50 years; full of big office blocks.  A few nice old streets, but nothing like the Gamla Stan.  I suppose that's what you get for the number of wars that Finland seems to have gotten itself into over the years.  Took some photos, but took them on the SLR in Black and White, so I'll have to press on and get that developed, I suppose...

Comments

[elric-dewisant.livejournal.com]

I suppose that's what you get for the number of wars that Finland seems to have gotten itself into over the years.

Not so much. There was the Civil War, which lasted 3 months in 1918 (and killed a something like a full quarter of the entire population!). The Winter War (1939-1940), which never tounched Helsinki. And the Continuation War (1941-1944), again, I don't think Helsingfors was touched, except for damage done at the very end by the Germans, who were withrawing. I would imagine that they just have some pretty nasti development laws.

Yeah. I'm not just an Anglophile. I'm also a Finnophile (and have been for years).

Hope you had a good time, anyways. Postcard? :-P