Any dopers in, or know about, Sweden, Finland or the Baltic States.

In My Humble Opinion
1

At the start of the year I decided I was going to try and visit every country in the EU over the course of 2008 – it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Anyway, as part of my travels I’ll be visiting the following cities Vilnius (Lithuania), Riga (Latvia), Tallinn (Estonia), Helsinki (Finland) and Stockholm (Sweden) sometime around the first week in June. I’ve been using various guidebooks and Wikitravel to plan things, but I’ve found they’re often out of date or just not very in depth.

So, given that I’ll not have a lot of time in each place, any recommendations for things to do, places to see, places to eat, drink, etc. Bonus points for things that would never make it into a guide book and also for seeing, eating and drinking things that are specific to that area (I don’t think there’s much point in going to Latvia and eating Chinese).

Thanks in advance.

SD

2

Welcome to Helsinki! We’re all hoping that the fantastic sunny weather we’re having now will continue into June and it won’t rain until the middle of July like last year…

How old are you? What do you currently do? What kind of things do you like to do or see? You like seafood? Are you a vegetarian? When you go out drinking, do you prefer places where you can sit around and chat with people, or do you like to get your boogie on? Any additional information would really help in giving suggestions. Answer here or PM me if you want. :slight_smile:

3

Excellent questions. I’m 32, a reasonable geeky software engineer. I’ll also happily eat anything and I’m happy to try fairly exotic stuff – I like trying things I’ve not had before. I’m also happy to pay for something if it’s worth it but I’m trying to not spent stupid amounts of money.

I’m really sure about what I like to do and see, I’ll try anything. Towers with great views, boat trips, old churches, recent history, quirky bars. I generally get bored doing one thing so I like to mix it up. Generally I don’t go to galleries or art museums but I’d probably check something out if it was recommended. The whole idea is to get out and experience some new stuff, so I’m happy to give anything a bash.

For bars I guess I’d prefer the quieter type, but I do like a bit of live music when I can find it (again, I’ll listen to anything but I’d lean toward the rockier stuff given a choice).

4

I’ve been to Stockholm and twice to Tallinn. Technically I’ve been to Helsinki but didn’t leave the airport so I’ll let someone else describe it :D.

Stockholm is absolutely one of the nicest, cleanest, prettiest cities I’ve ever been to. We took a guided boat tour through the locks and it was very neat. It’s a world-class city and you will not lack for things to do there. The local beer is called Spendrup’s and it’s pretty good but rather expensive -$6 for half a pint when I was there in 1998.

Tallinn is the “coolest” city I’ve ever been to. Old Town is unbeatable for badass medieval vibe. Cobblestone streets, old musty taverns (and modern bars/clubs), you name it. You could easily spend a few days walking around here visitng shops, bars, etc. There is also a very modern business district but I didn’t spend too much time there. The local beer is called Saku and it’s great. It was, along with everything else, was ridiculously cheap when I was there (1998 & 2001) - about $.30 for a liter - but I’ve heard the price of everything has skyrocketed since they joined the EU. No more large pizzas with the works delivered to your door for $4 bucks. People there are generally very bribable, by the way, which I found bizarre and somehow funny. We gave a shipyard attendant a bottle of vodka to let us on an old Soviet submarine, and I twice watched the people I was with bribe their way out of speeding tickets for the American equivalent of about 10 bucks. I don’t recommend you try this, however. I personally wouldn’t. But it would likely work :D.

Have fun.

5

Okay. Well, when it comes to food and drink, you’re going to have to pay; eating at a restaurant here can be pretty expensive when compared to neighboring countries. Also, while there are of course lots of indoorsy things to do, I think the real way to enjoy Helsinki in the summer is walk around and enjoy the atmosphere of people who are happy because it’s sunny, so if it’s rainy, it can get a little dull.

The good thing about Helsinki is that you can get almost everywhere pretty easily using public transportation in about 45 minutes. However, since your stay is only a few days, I’d stick to the center of town for now. A thing you might want to know is that bums and alcoholics sometimes hang out in the trams. They’re mostly harmless, just drunk, but they can sometimes be a little disruptive. Also, in the past few years we’ve started to see Eastern European beggars, who sometimes move in groups and pick pockets on crowded trams and subways. However, on the whole, we’re a pretty safe city.

The first thing I’d do is buy a tourist public transportation ticket. They’re valid for 1, 3 or 5 days and give you unlimited travel in all the public transport in the Helsinki area: buses, trams, local trains, the subway and the ferry to Suomenlinna (not the private lines, just the Helsinki Public Transport one).

I’d take a trip to Suomenlinna. It’s an island fortress off the coast and the ferry leaves from the Market Square and takes about 15 minutes. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as well as a district of Helsinki with about 850 people living there. In summer, it’s an extremely popular picnic venue. You can buy sandwiches or whatever else from the Market Square or in the Old Sales Hall right next to it.

Another relatively short but interesting activity is to take the 3 tram, either the 3B or the 3T (same route, different directions), which is touted as the “Tourist Tram” because the route takes you past several of the most important sight-seeing locations in Helsinki, such as Senate Square and the Cathedrals, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Parliament Building. You can get maps showing the sights from the same place where you buy the tourist ticket. As a plus, the route also goes through Töölö, Kallio and Eira, so you can get out of the immediate center of the city and see a little more. Töölö and Eira are more up-scale residential areas, Kallio used to be a working-class part of town and still shows it in some ways.

You might want to buy a coffee and sit outside on the terrace of eg. Café Esplanad, which is located right on the Esplanades, which are a very popular meeting and hanging-out place in summer when it’s warm and sunny. For all your sudden “crap, I need (X) and I don’t have it right now” needs, I recommend the Stockmann department store, which has pretty much everything a person would ever require (there’s a saying in Helsinki that “if you can’t find it at Stockmann’s, you probably don’t need it in your life”).

For bars which are more for sitting down and talking, I would recommend places like Teerenpeli, Kaisla or Bruuveri (in the Kamppi shopping center), which offer a pretty wide selection of beers and other drinks compared to some other bars in Helsinki, which have the standard two or three beers and one sweet apple cider on tap.

Restaurants:

Havis is a seafood restaurant located next to the Market Square which is a little expensive and maybe also a little kitschy, but the food has been good every time I’ve been there.

Tori is located in Punavuori, which is this “hello I’m an AD/graphic designer/DJ/own my own clothes label” design district (you can get there by using the 3 tram). They have a legendary meatball dish but they’re not really known for their service. :slight_smile: For more restaurants on the 3 route, go to Kallio where you’ll find Luft (Aleksis Kiven katu 30) and Soul Kitchen (Fleminginkatu 26-28). I don’t really know how well they treat tourists there, but I’d assume they’re pretty happy-go-lucky about it. Luft has really great salads.

For something REALLY corny, go to Zetor, which takes the whole “Finnish tradition and nostalgia” thing to completely ridiculous levels and is quite funny for it. I took an American soul singer and her assistant to eat there a few years ago when she was performing at a music festival here, and they loved it.

This any help? :slight_smile:

6

Just missed the editing window, but I have to add that I love Tallinn, and like it more and more every time I visit. There’s this underground tavern called Karja Kelder which is in the Old Town (I think on Väike-Karja) that we always end up at.

Oh, and in the previous message, I meant that it takes max. 45 minutes to get anywhere in Helsinki, not that it takes 45 minutes to get everywhere. :slight_smile:

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I completely agree about Stockholm. It is a truly stunning city and truly expensive. Make sure you have some reservations before you get there. There was a cardiology convention the time I was there and there wasn’t a cot available within 100 miles. I’d guess the average hotel in Vegas has more hotel rooms than all of Stockholm. I ended up staying up the entire night because I couldn’t get a place to stay (the strip club kicked me out at 3AM). Although the night before, I stayed in a completely awesome hotel that was a former prison.

Helsinki is pretty nice, but it is a huge modern metropolis with a fair amount of cool old history. It’s just not as great as most of the other capitol cities in nearby countries.

Tallinn is a terrific city. It’s like some kind of fairy tale. The hostel in the old town had a strip club on the floor above it. There was the most beautiful girl on the planet in it. It was run by Russian Mafia types and seemed very sketchy. The problem with Tallinn is that it is chock full of drunken Finns.

Riga, Latvia was largely destroyed in WWII but the old town has been nicely restored. It was my least favorite of the Baltic states, but had the most stunning women. There is a main drag with lots of outdoor cafes which I think may be the best girl watching spot on the planet. My conception is probably colored because I got there a day after the 800th anniversary of Riga and it was still full of Russian prostitutes. I don’t think I ever found a person who spoke English there, except for a student in a bar. This was 2001 though, and things may have changed. People struck me as being quite brusk there compared to the rest of eastern Europe.

Vilnius, Lithuania is a really great town. It’s very cosmopolitan and has a beautiful and large old town. A fair amount of people speak English and they are very friendly. I had the best falafel I’ve ever had there. There is a monument to Frank Zappa in the middle of town, so you’ve got to love a country like that.

Krakow, Poland is way better than Warsaw. Krakow was pretty much unscathed by WWII and has one of the nicest untainted old central cities I’ve experienced. There is a marvelous castle with a crazy dungeon-like secret cave escape route. It is very Tolkienesque.

8

I’ve been to Riga, Vilnius, Tallinn and Helsinki.

In Lithuania, try and visit Trakai. It’s an old castle set on an island in the middle of a lake. You can get there by train easily from Vilnius (train fair was £0.28 for three people in 2006!).

In Tallinn, you can visit Peter the Great’s house and palace in a park outside of the city. It’s within walking distance.

Just outside Riga, there’s an old concentration camp, Salaspils (again, easily reachable by train). I’ve mentioned this on the boards before, but that place easily has a claim to being one of the creepiest places on the planet.

All three cities have loads of churches, museums and cafes. Try and get some cold beetroot soup while over there (it’s a speciality in the baltic states, as well as wild boar and potato dishes). Oh, and beer is insanely cheap.

9

Question for auRa:

My mom married a guy from Turku. (And his name was Turkka.) She said that when he was talking to his parents the only word she knew was (sounded like) ‘vashteme’. What is the spelling, and what does it mean? (My Finnish is limited to ‘Mita kuulu’ and ‘Lentoja’.)

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I wanna go back to Helsinki!!!

I was in Helsinki in 2000 for an Esperanto conference. Afterwards, I traveled to Stockholm by ship, then onwards ultimately to England by train.

The landscape of Helsinki is almost identical to that of the Canadian Shield. Same humps of bare granite rock sticking out of the ground, same trees, same lakes, same fields, same bushes, and apparently the same moose (Alces alces, known as the elk in Europe). It felt completely-familiar to me, which was utterly unexpected, since I had believed that the Canadian Shield country was unique in the world. There were even little cottages on tiny islands in the bay, just as in the Thousand Islands in the St Lawrence River.

Yet there were differences too. The bay (the South Harbour of Helsinki, actually) was salt water, not fresh. The hump of rock that might stick up behind Chinese restaurant in, say, Bancroft, Ontario, supported a Russian Orthodox cathedral in Helsinki. The highways did not have the graveled shoulders that Canadian ones do, leading to a cleaner and greener appearance. (Whether this was safer is another question.) And of course, all the signs were in Finnish and Swedish.

Helsinki has around 500,000 people. The city is walkable and is built on a less automobilic scale than cities in southern Ontario, with narrow-gauge trams curving through the streets and a metro tunneled through the granite. In some ways it had the feel of Ottawa: a government centre, not too large. It definitely doesn’t have the dangerous sprawling feel of Paris, or even Toronto. And it doesn’t have the 16-lane freeways of Toronto, either.

I visited the sea fortress of Suomenlinna.

Stockmann’s is great (I bought some postcards there).

I bought a Coke from a surreally-gorgeous girl in a glass vending booth in the Esplanadi park, before listening to several Esperanto rock bands perform in the bandshell there (a larger glass structure). I still have bootleg video from the event. I’d post it to YouTube, but they’d probably object. And there aren’t that many Esperanto speakers in the world; they could find me.

All in all, it seemed like a version of Canada run by smarter people.

The ship across the Baltic to Stockholm was like a mobile shopping mall. It’s an overnight voyage. At the time, it was an international voyage and could claim a duty-free shop. There was a large liquor store on board, and I saw people coming out with shopping carts loaded with booze.

I’m not a drinker and regard booze with mild disinterest; I was more interested in the venison entree and in exploring the ship. My cabin was on deck 5 underneath the car decks; I could hear the water sloshing on the hull. I shared it with a middle-aged Swede who was going to visit his much-younger wife. Or something. We only talked briefly.

I was only in Stockholm for one night. I stayed at the Af Chapman hostel, which is built into a ship. That was interesting. I loved Gamla Stan (the “Old Town”) with its narrow streets that I could touch both walls in.

Afterwards, I took the X2000 train to Malmo, where I changed trains and went across the new bridge into Copenhagen. I only found out later that my uncle was from malmo. If I’d known that, I would have stayed a little.

The weirdest thing about Helsinki and Stockholm was that I would keep seeing people out of the corner of my eye that I would half-recognise as my cousins, but of course they were strangers. (I have Swedish cousins; my father’s sister married a Swede.)

11

Fantastic, that’s exactly what I was looking for. Thanks everyone. I was a little dubious about Riga and Vilnius, glad to know that people think they’re cool places.

Darryl Lict, I was in Krakow a couple of months ago and I loved it. I can’t wait to go back again. I was also in Warsaw, but only for the ten minutes it took me to realise that it wasn’t Krakow and that I’d taken the wrong train. D’oh.

I’m taking the ship from Helsinki to Stockholm so it’s great to know what to expect.

Thanks again everyone, if anyone has anything else to add then please do.

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Another enthusiastic voter for a visit to Suomenlinna and a relaxing few hours spent on the Esplanadi (Pohjois-Esplanadi is on one side of a beautiful narrow prk and Etela-Esplanadi is on the other side. Shop, relax, admire the people.

No one has mentioned the Kallio Kirkko, a modern subterraneran Lutheran church carved out of the pervasive rock that Helsinki is built on. It is very beautiful.

If you are going from Helsinki to Tallinn, a hydrofoil will take you there in about 45 minutes.