Picture: Meggie and Liam ice skating in downtown Helsinki
We went on quite the journey this week; starting with two train rides into Helsinki, the capital of Finland. Primarily, the overall reason as to why we were in Helsinki, was because of meetings that mom needed to be a part of, due to being a fulbright. Dad instead took the two of us to wander around the city. We happened upon a museum that concentrated on different aspects of fear. We were lead into quite a unnerving hallway with several doors to choose from; from there we went into all the different rooms that described different fears one may have. It was very interesting to see that even though our immediate thought was that some particular fear wasn’t our deepest concern, we had come to understand how these objects or ideas would indeed be scary. After we went through that exhibit, we went to this wonderful indoor green room that was filled plants, and calming sounds. Both of us quickly made our way to this wooden lyre-like swing that you could sit on. We both agreed that the way you would rest on it resembled the man on the moon in Dreamworks animation.
Everyone from Fulbright got to board a bus for an hour trip to this beautiful old mansion, where we then went into the sauna and eventually jumped into a hole chopped into the frozen lake. It’s hard to explain what the rush of the ice water and air feels like after a deep meditation in a very humid room before hand. This was a great time for everyone to connect and get to know each other, just like how a sauna is originally meant to help with.
After a few days in Helsinki, we departed by ferry to get to Estonia, our next adventure. As we stepped out onto the frosty deck the wind was chilling, reminding us of how very north we were. The dark night was very beautiful, the ice was floating lazily by and far off islands were caked in freshly fallen snow. Seeing this made the wait to arrive all the more rigorous.
Estonia has come to display itself as a city of both very old, and very modern. You would look out the window of our Airbnb and see very novel, exemplary buildings that look like they came from a very fortunate part of LA. But then you would turn your head every slightly to the left, and see all the smaller stone buildings of Old Town. Some of the structures were originally built roughly in the 16th century. It’s very clear that this town has a lot of history and has been through many hardships both from of recent and ancient.
Our time in Estonia and Helsinki was spent learning the rich history of both towns, we strongly suggest for others to come on over and do the same.