APRIL 26 - Today actually starts out in London with a wake up at 3:50 am, but not much to report prior to leaving Heathrow on Finnair. Did discover that the tube only opens about 5:30 am, which means any ‘cheap’ travel to the airport earlier than that has to be done by the Heathrow Express. This is still an expensive way to do it, at GBP 25 per ticket, but it is fast (less than 30 minutes). Fortunately our hotel is not far from Paddington Station (where the express originates), so it was a quick bus ride.
Finland has dropped the requirements for Covid-19 testing to enter the country, but I found they were still quite strict about vaccination. We were asked for proof at the ticketing counter before departure, at immigration upon entering Helsinki Airport, and again at customs. Fortunately, our CDC cards were deemed adequate proof.
There were also a lot of questions about my travel intentions at immigration, since this is our first official entry point into the Schengen Area. Briefly, the Schengen Area is a group of 26 European countries that share a common visa program. It is NOT exactly the same as the EU countries. The good thing about the Schengen visa is that it allows easy movement across member country borders. The bad thing is that it is valid for only 90 days, meaning that we have to move quickly through places I wanted to spend more time in. The questions posed to me today were basically to see if I understood our 90 day time limit. This would not have been an issue if we had return plane tickets out of the Schengen Area, but we do not. I just said I would be leaving before the 90 days were up, how we intended to leave the country, that we had enough finances to support ourselves in the meantime, and that I had pre-booked accommodation in Finland. The latter I didn’t even have to lie about. I think I showed enough understanding of the situation that the officer decided we wouldn’t be a burden on the state.
The longer answer to what is the Schengen Area:
I’ve called this section ‘The Nordic Countries’ because, from the majority of perspectives, Finland does not fall within the definition of ‘Scandinavia’. A lot can be said about this, but a quick glance at the map shows that while Norway and Sweden share much geography and linguistical connection in common, Finland sits apart. I will spend more time on this later.
It is a bright sunny day, looking a lot like spring. However, the trees are still bare and barely a hint of green colors the fields. Snow is still piled in some shaded areas. Everything has a faint coating of dust. It really does feel like winter just ended.
The urban architecture of Helsinki is a bit monolithic and blocky, but with varied color. We took an offered ride by Inntourist to our hostel for EUR 35. This is about twice what we would have paid by train and tram, but I was glad we had done that in the end. The hostel was located in a large building in an area undergoing extensive street repair. Nothing was well marked. I think we would have spent considerable time slogging our luggage around trying to find it. As it was, we were able to dump the bags quickly and hit the downtown area (about 10 minute walk from our hostel in the Mehihaka district).
Back to our hostel by 6 pm, though it still feels like mid-afternoon. The sun sets a bit after 9 pm.
