Explore Helsinki, Finland

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Helsinki is the capital of Finland and its largest city. It is also known as the pocket-sized European city because of its unique design and high technology. The urban area of the city offers a variety of cultural, historical, and outdoor attractions for exploration.

It is a great city and can be easily explored by a bike or just walking. The design, architecture, culture, and shopping are all great exploration angles. It also has large park, areas, forests, lakes that is perfect for weekend explorations.

As the snow falls, the charming summery of Helsinki turns into completely different city it becomes a great action to take place for summer and winter activities.

The compact of the vibrant city is both highly cultural and incredibly relaxing, with beautiful nature that is close it and offers great possibilities for various and outdoor activities great for tourists’ adventures and vacation.

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Location

Finland is in Northern Europe and has borders with Russia to the East, Norway to the North and Sweden to the West.

Helsinki is the capital of Finland and it is situated by the Baltic Sea with a 100 kilometer long shoreline and with 300 islands around it.

Climate

Helsinki is part of the world’s northernmost capitals and with the long winter season from November to March, dark and freezing. Its winter average temperature is -5°C. The wind chill makes it even colder and the snow falls only intermittently and often melts into gray slush.

Summer in Helsinki is pleasant, but short it starts from the months of June until August. The average temperatures are 22°C and sometimes climb over 27°C and with lows usually ranging between 10 to 20°C.

Due to the northern latitude, the daylight hours in Helsinki are unusually long in summer season with sunsets very late in the evening, and virtually no darkness at night from the months of early June until mid-July.

Transportation

All flights whether it is an international or domestic lands in Helsiki-Vantaa International Airport.

It is located in Vantaa which is 18 kilometers to the north of central Helsinki.

What to See

Posti Museo

This museum is very famous in Helsinki because it showcases the history of postal service in Finland. It will show tourists the evolution of mail service from sleds and ships to modern postal service today.

The museum also shows a lot of details about how it evolved through the Swedish Rule, then Russian and to the present modern Finnish.

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Uspenski Church

This is the large red church and it is hard to miss when you visit Helsinki because it is located on a hill overlooking the city.

This is also an Eastern Orthodox Church that is very massive and impressive with its large domes and gold crosses and the interior is very extravagantly decorated too with a typical Eastern Orthodox designs and icons.

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Central Market

This is located right down by the harbor. This is a market where you can find everything and do lots of souvenir shopping, eat local food, buy fresh vegetables and even fresh sweet berries during summer.

This place is famous and usually swarming with tourists. There is also a covered part of the market where you can find and eat pastries, meat, cheese, and fish.

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The Island of Suoemlinna

This is an old bastion fort where tourist can spend half of a day walking. It was first constructed by the Swedish in 1748 as a defense against Russians.

And now it is considered as a park and functioning residential area. There are also lots of interesting buildings that is good for a lovely walking tour.

Finns also come here to hang out during the summer to relax and have picnic.

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http://laurenceourac.com/explore-helsinki-finland/

Images:
(1) www.blogs.helsinki.fi
(2) www.travelfeatured.com
(3) https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helsinki
(4) www.c1.staticflickr.com
(5) www.cdn3.vtourist.com
(6) www.static1.visitfinland.com
(7) https://machita75.wordpress.com/2011/10/15/daytrip-to-suomenlinna-fortress-in-the-helsinki-archipielago/