I've been so busy with school stuff, but I'm happy to say I'm finally done with my undergrad studies! Yippee! 😁 Anyway, back to our usual post!

5 April 2018. Saturday.

Now that we were back in Helsinki, we did a quick search and decided to visit a UNESCO heritage site near Helsinki, called Suomenlinna!

Apparently, it was just a short ferry ride away from the capital so we decided why not.

So just a little background info; Suomenlinna is an inhabited 18th-century sea fortress and nature area with centuries-old artillery and defensive walls, spread across 6 linked islands. Walking trails cross parkland between popular sights like the King’s Gate drawbridge and Suomenlinna Museum, which recounts military and maritime history.

It was around late morning when we got up and decided to take a walk around the city and look for some food.

We went to get lunch at a Chinese restaurant called, CHINA (yes, seriously), before heading to the port to get our ferry tickets.

We had a small bowl of fried rice and wanton noodles. The rice was actually quite yummy (and the small rice ladle was so cute!). The noodles were kinda disappointing because it was ee-mian and not mee-kia like normal wanton noodles. But oh well, I guess we can't expect much so far away from home.

After lunch, we went to the port to get our tickets, which was about 5 euros per person if I recall correctly.

We had about an hour or so to kill before our ferry ride, so we went to check out the famous Helsinki Cathedral, since we didn't have a chance to go in the last time we were here as it was late (and closed).

So one hilarious fact I recently found out was that this famous cathedral was also featured in the opening sequence in Darude's Sandstorm music video! 😂 If you love memes as much as I do, I'm sure you'll find this funny too. Check it out for yourself!

The stairs up to the church were really steep! Fortunately, we could enter the church and admire the interior architecture as there were no events or services going on.

What a huge organ!

Here's the view from the top of the stairs!

I guess the guy of whom the statue is the Grand Duke of Finland, Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, since the church was originally built from 1830-1852 as a tribute to him.

Soon, it was time to head back to the port and board the ferry!

It was still pretty cold out and the sea had large chunks of ice in it, but lucky we could still leave the port without any trouble.

There was quite a lot of people and they all sat in the lower level of the boat, so we decided to go to the upper level so we could take pictures! It was kinda cold though.

We passed by some small islands on the way and there were even some buildings on them. I wonder if there are people still living on these small islands and how they get to work and buy stuff.? 🤔

Pretty soon, we reached Suomenlinna! And turns out nobody checks the tickets so I think we didn't even had to buy them. Dang.

When we saw the map of the place we didn't realised it was so huge! And we only had a few hours before it got dark so we decided to just walk wherever, and didn't really follow a route. We did want to see King's Gate but it was all the way on the other side of the fortress! We weren't sure if we could get there in time.

There was a group touring the place so we followed them for awhile, before we got to a split path and took another direction so it didn't seem like we were stalking them.

The place definitely looked really old. And the weather made it look even more dreary. But it was quiet and peaceful, so I can see the appeal for people still living there. Yes, there are people still living there because we accidentally walked into the residential areas and saw their houses (and looked through their windows a little, oops! 😯). I guess they're mostly elderly so it makes sense..? Still wondering how they get groceries since there wasn't a farm there. I guess they have to make trips to Helsinki to buy stuff, which sounds like a great inconvenience to me, but if they're happy then that's all that matters. 😊

This is the Suomenlinna museum, but we found out that it might be closing for good! I think due to the lack of funding and guides, they have no choice but to close it down. It's too bad, I'm sure a lot of history buffs would've loved it.

There were quite a lot of slopes and cobblestone paths so walking got kinda tiring after a while. Too bad there weren't that many clean places to sit and take a rest. 😕

I'm not that familiar with the history here, but I think some troops probably walked through this arch.

The soldiers probably hid in these trenches too. It was kinda creepy so we didn't go into the tunnel.

There were all these old boats and oil tankers that looked reeeeally rusty! I'm pretty sure they're stuck in the ice or ground so they can't be moved.

When we arrived there were quite a few people who came on the boat with us but after walking around it was so deserted! I was pretty sure we were lost. If I was alone I would be freaking out because the place looked like a horror movie just waiting to happen. 😧

We walked up a path to a hill and it lead to this view!

Here's a video!

Here's a few goofy pics we took at the top! 😜

We decided to find King's Gate since we were here but we got lost! 😦 We walked for a loooong loooong time.

Here's a video:

Welp here's the very famous gate:

We finally made it!

After all that, we had to rush aaaall the way back to the port to catch the ferry back. Here's the map again to so you can see how far it was!

We were so exhausted after all that walking (with no rest) but at least we made it back!

hehe look at the doggy!

So we made it back to the city but still had to walk back to our apartment. We were too tired to go out and get food so we ordered Chinese food from Foodora, the delivery service in Helsinki! It was pretty yummy! 😋 We were just relieved to be back.

Anyway, this post has gone on for tooo long! Sorry about that. Thanks for reading!

To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!

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Check out my previous post in this series!
TacoCat’s Travels (Finland) #13: Petting Moon Moons!