Kiitos, Finland for a wonderful day in your beautiful country! (And for anyone asking, Kiitos means thank you in Finnish!) We had the best day visiting Helsinki, Finland. It was unusually hot when we visited (Of course we would visit during Europe’s heatwave!) But, that didn’t stop us from having a great time! Helsinki, Finland was the second to last stop on our Baltic cruise itinerary. Helsinki is Finland’s southern capital and sits in the Gulf of Finland. With beautiful landmarks and fun buildings to see, I was really excited about our day in Helsinki.

Our ship arrived early in the morning, and since we had to be back on the boat by 4 PM, we wanted to make the most of our day in Helsinki and started bright and early. As soon as you get off the boat, make sure to remember where you are and what terminal you have docked at, especially if you are touring Helsinki on your own. This is SUPER IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER! (More on that later, hehe)

The main area of town was pretty far from our cruise ship terminal, so we opted to take an Uber into town. There were taxis all lined up waiting for our business, but they wanted to charge SO much more than what an Uber would cost. So, we waited for our Uber and then made our way to Uspenski Orthodox Cathedral. Uspenski Cathedral is an Eastern Orthodox cathedral and is the main cathedral of the Orthodox Church of Finland. Built in 1868, this church has so much history and is claimed to be the largest orthodox church in Western Europe. Our timing was perfect getting here because we had some time to take photos on the outside and when it opened, we were the first people indoors. We were able to look and walk around without major crowds, which was really nice.

From there, we walked to Helsinki Cathedral. This cathedral is the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran cathedral of the Diocese of Helsinki and is located in the neighborhood of Kruununhaka, which is is in the center of Helsinki and sits right behind Senate Square. Fun fact: The church was originally built from 1830-1852 as a tribute to the Grand Duke of Finland- Tsar Nicholas I of Russia! We also arrived fairly early to the church, which was great because the sun was perfect for photos. Keep that in mind when visiting, so you can get all of the photos that you want on the outside. We climbed the steep steps inside the church and spent a little bit of time inside. What was really nice about this church is that it had a bathroom open to the public! You had to pay 1 Euro and could use a card if you didn’t have Euros, but it was so nice because many churches like this don’t have that luxury. I am all about using the bathroom when I can when on these types of trips! I try to stay super hydrated and drink a ton of water, but sometimes that can get me in trouble when trying to find a place that is open to the public to use 😊

After our time in the church, we walked down to the main part of the city where the action was. There were tons of stores, restaurants, etc, so we walked a bit until we came upon Karl Fazer Café. We stopped for coffee and traditional Finnish cinnamon rolls and it was SO good! This location is HUGE! It has a massive café with indoor and outdoor seating along with a candy shop, so it was fun to sit and have a little snack and break after all of the walking we had done.

After our coffee stop, we headed to the Kamppi Chapel. Kamppi Chapel is located on Narinkka Square. It is also known as the “Chapel of Silence” since it is intended to be a place to calm down and have a moment of silence in one of the busiest areas in Finland. This was totally weird, but such a cool concept. Of course, our group couldn’t keep themselves totally quiet making noises when we tried to be silent- trying to fit in and stay quiet is not our strong suit 😊

From Kamppi Chapel, we walked (We did a TON of walking this day) to Temppeliaukio Church. This is the Church made from rocks! Temppeliaukio Church is a Lutheran church in the Töölö neighborhood of Helsinki. The church was designed by brothers Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen and opened in 1969. Built directly into solid rock, it is also known as the Church of the Rock and Rock Church. Make sure to go to the 2nd floor so that you can have a panoramic view of the entire church. We didn’t buy our tickets in advance, but you could have if you wanted to. There was no wait for tickets, so we were able to walk right up and purchase them. If you are visiting on a warm day like we did, be prepared for it to be super HOT when you walk in. There definitely was no air conditioning in that church!

We were finally starting to get hungry for lunch. I didn’t have a specific place picked for lunch and figured we could live life on the edge and find a place as we walked back from the Temppeliaukio Church. We came across Naughty BRGR and oh my gosh, it was the best burger I have ever had in all of Europe! Naughty BRGR was founded by the first Finnish Top Chef winner Akseli Herlevi (The guy with the glitter beard!) and I can see why he won! They even had ranch on the menu, yall! Our lunch was filling, but SO good and I’m so glad we stopped here for lunch. I highly recommend it if you are looking for something quick and not as formal as a fancy sit down lunch.

Having lunch at Naughty BRGR also worked out because there was a rooftop bar (surprise, surprise) that I wanted to visit called Ateljee Bar, located at Hotel Torni. This rooftop bar was smaller than most that I have visited, and you do have to crawl up a small spiral staircase to reach it. Climbing the stairs was worth the views though!

Once we finished up our drinks, we wanted to find another spot to get a drink before heading back to the ship. We found Heidi’s Bar, which was right around the corner from Hotel Torni, so we stopped in for a drink. It was funny visiting a German bar in Finland, but beer is beer and it was a fun time.

Since we had to be back on the ship by 4 PM, I always like to give myself about an hour’s worth of time to get back to the terminal. We thought this would be plenty of time since the ship was super close to where we were (or so we thought). We waited for our Uber and thought we were all good until our Uber dropped us off and it was not where our ship was! We could actually see our ship from where we were (which happened to the ferry terminal for smaller boats) but we were actually about 2 miles from where we needed to be to access our ship. This is where panic started to set in. We couldn’t figure out the name of our terminal or how to get back to the ship. I thought I knew the name of the terminal, so we quickly called for another Uber (again, taxis were waiting at this ferry terminal, but they were definitely price gauging!) Since a ferry had just arrived, traffic was TERRIBLE. At this point, we had about 25 minutes to get back to the ship. I’m getting nervous just writing about it lol! We finally get through traffic, and the address we had given our Uber driver was not the right one. Luckily, we had an amazing driver who was listening to me panic and fight with Dan about where and how to get back ha and he was so patient and calm! With 5 minutes to spare (I KID YOU NOT) We arrived back to the correct terminal. I have watched so many cruise ship videos where passengers get left behind, and all I kept thinking was that was going to be us! Luckily, we made it back with just a couple of minutes left. The moral of the story is, know where you are disembarking for the day, especially if you are touring the country on your own and not with a tour group!

Helsinki was a great place to visit and I’m happy to have another pin in my travel map. It should definitely be on your visit list if you are lucky enough to have the opportunity to visit!

Love and Travel Dust,

Molly