After an evening of music, dancing and reassurance that ABBA is still popular in this part of the world we arrived in Helsinki. It was about 10:00 am when we docked.
As we were sitting outside the ferry terminal, drinking a coffee, looking at the map and planning our route to our accomodations we witnessed some very unusual activity which gave us an interesting first impression of the Finnish Capital.
Military personal began swarming into the station. One after another soldiers with machine guns began running through the doors. Once in the main terminal they drew their guns and started manhandling people to the floor. A group of roughly 25 people were forced flat down with their hands behind their heads before they were all marched into another room.
At this point we figured the show was over and shaking our heads, feeling very confused made our way down the road. We only made it a few meters before we noticed a large sign stating in numerous languages including English that authorities would be conducting military exercises this morning in and around the ferry terminal.
After this interesting welcome to Finland we made our way to the Sokos Hotel Presidentti, not the type of place we would normally stay; however, It was somehow linked to the train ticket we booked to Saint Petersburg. Although a little strange, it was still a welcome break from Hostels.
While in Helsinki, we walked around as usual. We visited Temppeliaukion Kirkko, the church that is built in Solid rock and went to the main train station where we checked on our Russian train tickets and changed some money into Russian Roubles.
That evening which would be our last in Scandinavia also happened to be Freddie Mercury's 70th birthday. It seemed like a good excuse to spend it at the Hard Rock Cafe listening to Queen music.
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