Helsinki
Bradt’s first edition Helsinki city guide suggests that no visit to Finland’s newly chic capital is complete without the ‘highlight’ of a traditional wood-fired sauna. ‘Just leave your inhibitions at home; the unshockable washerwoman has seen it all before… being gently ‘whipped’ with a softened birch branch is a highly pleasurable experience… Enjoy!’ suggests author Nigel Wallis. The guide continues in similar vein, inviting readers to cast off their layered misconceptions of expense combined with chilly gloom and take a fresh look at Helsinki, the latest European capital to check-in for the low-cost flight revolution.
Large enough to be cosmopolitan but small enough to be explored on foot, Helsinki is a city for all seasons. Over 80 museums and galleries combine with fine restaurants, bars and clubs to provide diversion around the clock. Summer brings long hours of daylight and warm days where streets are lined with café tables and parks become places to laze or sunbathe. Outside the city, the beaches of Helsinki’s archipelago become a playground for exploration. Joie de vivre is not an obvious Nordic attribute but whatever it is Helsinki’s summers are heady with excitable Finnish fervour. Later, the long nights and plummeting temperatures of winter bring a different atmosphere. Helsinki’s unique blend of Nordic and Russian culture is apparent with evenings in warm and cosy bars almost inclined to induce a state of semi-hibernation in their clientele. Elsewhere, bracing strolls across frozen sea ice to Uunisaari island are de rigour, and a variety of winter sports such as cross-country skiing and Nordic walking combine with avanto, the distinctly unnatural practice of taking a dip in chilly waters via a hole in the ice. After that you’ll want to be back in the sauna for a thrashing and a complete body scrub quicker than you can say lentokonesuihkuturbiinimoottoriapumekaanikkoaliupseerioppila – the longest word in Finnish (see page 275 of the city guide’s language section for its meaning).
Nigel Wallis’s charismatic and enlivening prose builds an important context for modern Helsinki set against the background of a challenging past. The city guide’s wealth of practical travel information, including accommodation, cuisine and dining, featuring the best Baltic herrings and tastiest Reindeer stew, excursions to the sea fortress of Suomenlinna and day-trips to Tallinn, and of course sauna etiquette is a must for all visitors.
Nigel Wallis is based in the UK and works both as a freelance guidebook writer and contributor to consumer periodicals. He’s always eager for a jaunt to northern climes and loves the Helsinki way of life. He looks forward to living in Finland full time in the future.
For review copies contact Travel Media – 01830 540 440 or info@travel-media.co.uk
Title: Helsinki
Author: Nigel Wallis
Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides
Price: £7.99
ISBN: 978 1 841621 84 5
Bradt Travel Guides
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01753 893 444
info@bradtguides.com
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