This post is also available in: polski (Polish)

You don’t have to keep up with everything, rush here and there… you can just be, look around until you see.

I get on tram no. 4 and go to Katajanokka Island. The oldest district of Helsinki, where the writer Tove Jansson grew up. When I get off I go up the street, but suddenly I decide to go one more stop. I notice another green vehicle, I run and a boy who is walking on the sidewalk, runs first to catch this tram for me.

My hostel is right by the port where ferries to Tallinn leave. And after dusk, the hares hop around, because they like to stare at the ships as much as I do. Trams jingle as they pass small squares. Vermilion-colored buildings blend in with maples, spruces, and ferns. Helsinki growing in the forest.

A bike is waiting for me at the Bicyclean shop on the nearest next door. I rented it before travel (online) for the whole weekend, thanks to Norberto’s kindness. Although the shop is closed on Sundays. However, Norberto wrote that he would pick up the bike from my hostel on Monday.

The beetroot-colored bike lets me go wherever I want, because Helsinki is full of bike roads. The next day I have breakfast at Finca Las Ventas Cafe and meet Bibiana, the owner, who is Colombian and serves coffee from her family plantation.

In the afternoon I head to Löyly – a designer wooden sauna located right by the Baltic sea. Driving through the bay, I stop and ask about directions. And when invited, I sit down for a coffee by Morris rickshaw. The cyclists have a discount here.

The three of us sit on a wall, talk and stare at sailboats. Even depression is between topics. Because life is various. And in my opinion, Helsinki doesn’t wear make-up. They are natural and sincere, but t can be painful sometimes.

Live More, Care Less – the local graffiti motivates. I enter excitedly into a peculiar building covered with a pine coat. It smells of wood. There is also a fireplace, and through the cracks between the boards the Baltic Sea shines through.

The Finnish word löyly means the steam that is created when you pour water on a hot stove. And according to Finnish spirituality, we have three souls: self, nature, and löyly, which makes the heart beat and the blood flow. That is why after a sauna session, following the advice of my companions, I pour a bucket of cold water over my entire body. Of course, I squeal.

However, in a moment I am basking on the terrace by the Baltic Sea, which is dear to me. In the distance, white sails and islands shimmer. Total chillout and salmon soup. Traditional Finnish soup, one I have been cooking often since then.

The next morning reach to the Market Square, where since 1743 a traditional food market has been held. From there I take a ferry to small island of Lonna. I remain there completely alone. Because it is Sunday, when the sauna and the café are closed. The blue, fragrant pine and hazel, ripples along the shore. The burgundy bike lean on the wooden building. But the stools and wooden buckets are silent, like me. I feel so happy to be in this amazing peace. On the porch I notice a jug of wine, in case, the ferry doesn’t come back.

Helsinki and Finland charmed me so much that I started learning Finnish. Although it is a terribly difficult language. And I went there after reading Miika Nousiainen’s novel “Roots”. Its characters are two brothers. One of them Esko lived in the Töölö district, a classic, old district with beige tenement houses. At the end of which is the famous Cafe Regatta, where, sitting at a table by the lake and looking at the kayaks, I enjoyed blueberry cake and coffee.

On my last day, I speed along the causeway to Tervasaari Island. Where Helsinki people love to spend their evenings talking, walking, playing the guitar. I sit down on a green hill and say goodbye to Helsinki. But I have a bike, so I can still make it to Kalio, the district where Pekka – the second character of the book lived. Kalio is artistic and cozy. Pubs, cafes, tables on the streets, but not a crowd. More like a meeting with neighbors. I sit down spontaneously in Sivukijasto, a pub that has been called a library.

Helsinki, located on land and at the same time on the archipelago, green, blue, beige. Old, port, modern. Incredibly designed local landscape. Interesting museums and art galleries. Trams, ferries and bicycles. I had a wonderful rest here and I intend to return and venture further into Finland.

And at the airport everyone also had a place to lie down while waiting for the planes, because the seats were almost like couches or loungers. Some of them imitate rocks. And instead of advertisements, the sea was pouring out on the screens, the forest was rustling and birds were singing. I know from Bibiana that it’s not easy when it snows. That’s why Finns celebrate light so much.

*The quot on the beggining is from Tove Jansson short story.