Stops: Some industrial park at Paavalinkirkko, Arabia, Löyly, Eira (Day 163 )

After a couple of days of art and architecture and urban hiking around Helsinki, I thought I’d take a day trip out of the city to the small town of Porvoo. It is supposed to be scenic as all get out and seeing at least a little bit of Finland outside the capital seemed like a good idea. Google Maps gave me a route changing from tram to bus once, but it seemed the quickest. My Helsinki Card got me on the tram for free for the first leg.

The convenience of paying for the bus with an application or a wallet on your phone after authentication via text message of a card or cards from a third or even fourth country while google screws around with my international service despite an hour on a stoopid chat with their “support” earlier in the week is an amazing way to work on my tan as I stand on the sidewalk unable to board or pay for anything. The wonders and efficiency of a cashless economy.

Mixed use industrial park.

Which is how I miss the next bus out of the suburbs of Helsinki off to the cute little town. Spend quite a while futzing around and I (think) finally getting everything to work with card-phone-app, but in the process of staring in ever increasing frustration at my device, I miss the next bus. So, I have a wait and go for a walk around the nearby industrial park. Because why not. See a little bit of regular life of Helsinki.

Back out in time for a third bus which just zips on by, which is how I learned that once outside the city center, just standing attentively at a bus stop is not enough to make the bus stop. You gotta wave.

At this point, I am done with Porvoo or Porvoo is done with me. It seems I am not meant to see this incredibly scenic little town.

The Arabia Building.

So, I know I can make the tram work and I just say hell with it and get back on to see what is at the end of the line in “Arabia.” It’s the early industrial area where a lot of Finnish design was born. So, there are design shops there and a design museum. Let’s go have a look. Off to the end of the line

Me, in my incredibly chic and stylish World Famous Greenbelt Utility Pole t-shirt, and Leo.

Leo is on a mission to tell me about everything in the shop. His work or other artists’ work. The woman who runs the shop interprets for us as the combination of incredibly manic, high speed rattling off of stories about artists combined with a super heavy accent made things difficult at times.

Girls and Cats or Nyanshington Crossing the Delaware.

Of course, the design museum is closed because I forgot it was Monday. This day just keeps getting better and better. At least the weather is gorgeous. So, I get back on the tram to see the whole city and take it all the way back to the end of the line to Eira, which is just past where I wandered around the first evening I arrived in Helsinki. I hop off at the beach and there is this big, angular super awesome looking building just down the shore made of heavy wooden beams. Let’s go check it out.

Turns out it is a sauna. And, I have my swimsuit and my towel with me just in case. I am ready. Get in line and start to worry. Everyone has tickets on their phones. Yup. There is a sign, “Sauna Full.” I am cursed. I get to the counter and ask if there are any spots later in the afternoon or evening. The woman at the counter asks, “Just you?” Just frustrated me. “I can fit you in in ten minutes.” Finally! My travel karma has returned.

It turns out Löyly is not just an amazing bit of contemporary architecture of wood and glass on the coast, it is also one of the best, if not the best public sauna, in Helsinki and I have a ticket for two hours to enjoy it.

There are separate changing rooms, but the saunas are all mixed. Everyone wears a bathing suit which you can rent at the counter if you are not prepared. A nice fluffy towel comes with admission, too. There is indoor and outdoor cafe seating. And, a chill room between saunas that has just a glass enclosed wood stove for moderate warmth. Firewood is stacked everywhere and makes up an integral design of the building.

I start with the regular steam sauna which has a huge front wall made of glass so you can sit on your selected bench and look out at the wind surfers, sailboats, ferries, and wingfoil people flitting across the sea.

It’s a Monday afternoon, so many Finns are probably at work, but there are a few of them intermixed with all the international visitors. At one point, it was me and nine Japanese in one sauna. Hot springs are a big part of Japanese culture and some have saunas, but sauna culture and authentic Finnish saunas in particular have really taken off back home. It seems every fashion or lifestyle mag has stories on saunas these days.

I roast myself as long as I can then walk out and plunge right into the Baltic. Perfection. Just bobbing along on the salty waves. Not too rough, just enough to let you know you are in the sea.

Then it is time to sit on the deck in the sun for a bit and go back in for more. The smoke sauna is completely black inside. The one tiny window is translucent not clear and it is pretty well covered in old smoke anyway. The top bench is up near the ceiling so you have to crouch low to find your spot. I get mine right behind the stove. People come and go and I just sit there quietly until it is time for the sea again

Sitting out at the cafe afterwards.

Looking back towards the center of the city Look closely and you can see the staircase down to the Baltic.

Two hours is nowhere near enough, but time is up so I go out to sit on the deck at six o’clock, fully clothed this time, and watch the water. This is much better that Porvoo I think as I walk back up through the posh houses and art nouveau apartment houses of Eira to my hotel fully relaxed.