Finland Day 6 – Espoo & the Beaches

Ahhhhhh, another great day in Finland!
We started out the day using the awesome public transit in the region to get from our apartment over to Espoo, part of the 3 city region with Helsinki and Vantaa. We met up with a local that we got to know on Christmas Eve and headed for some scenic natural areas. Found a beautiful park and beach to walk on a brisk sunny morning, then over to climb a giant staircase with stunning views for miles around. Afterwards we got some lunch and checked out his neighborhood, a lovely area of apartments with a colorful community daycare center and kids playing at the outdoor sport court. Once we made our way back to Helsinki we found The Beach restaurant just a couple blocks away. Donni, the owner, served us some of the local specialty, the Long Drink, along with a great burger and pulled pork.

Finns get the stereotype of being closed off, but we have found many friendly people in our travels. It may have something to do with how you treat people in the first place. A lot of tourists don’t have the best reputation of being nice to locals anywhere you go. Trust me, living in Maine we get more than our fair share of people from out of state, especially in the summer months. It can range from entertaining to disturbing to see how people act and treat others.

I don’t care what Leo Komarov says, Finland is a great place to spend time!

Tomorrow we will head inside Helsinki Ice Hall for Sweden versus Denmark and USA versus Switzerland. 

Today saw Russia beat Belarus 4-1 and Team USA get a gift in their pool as Canada could only manage a shootout win versus Switzerland. This means that, in the 3-2-1 points format, if the US can beat the Swiss and the Danes, then they can finish no worse than second in Group A. So it is time to come out guns a blazin’ and take care of business. No more hot goalie excuses accepted!

Hartwall Areena from the morning train

Helsinki in the distance

Hartwall Areena from the train station coffee shop

#beachvallila

#beachvallila