Blogit

Anna and John from Melbourne, Australia were my last visitors this year and thus ended my sherpa career (at least for this season). It felt also as if circle has closed, since my first sherpa gig was in June with Jennie and Simon, also from Melbourne, Australia. Jennie is a journalist and she mentioned Helsinki citysherpas in her Herald Sun travel column from where Anna and John got the idea to contact me. Although the season was officially closed I happily agreed to guide them. It was a great ending too, since Anna and John were inspiring company and very interstested about history, my speciality.

We had arranged meeting in front of the Three Blacksmith’s statue at 10.00 on Saturday 15th September. The weather was awful, wind and heavy rain. Anna and John introduced me to their daughter, son-in-law and small grandson they were travelling with. First we escaped the bad weather to the 6th floor cafe at Stockmann’s. I told about my plan to walk through all the memorial statues of the former presidents in Finland. The president of the Republic of Finland now, Mrs. Tarja Halonen is the 11th president. She and two of her predecessors, who are still alive, don’t obliously have statues dedicated to them yet, but all the eight others before them have got one. So walking past and looking at the statues I could at the same time tell about the history of Finland and how the changes in history and values can also be seen through changes in arts. Despite the rain my guests thought it was a good idea.

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The summer with citysherpa-project from my behalf ended with a nice walking tour on Monday 27th of August with Alice from Italy, Rimini. She had come to see Finland and visit her old penfriend living in Espoo. As I must admit Italy is my favourite destination and so we had so much to talk about Rimini, Rome and about working in the tourism sector in general, because Alice was working for an Italian travel agency that at times we noticed I had hardly remembered to tell anything about the places we were passing! At the end of the walking tour we stopped to buy something small to eat and continued chatting next to the Kamppi center before I unfortunately had to catch a bus to work.

I had just arrived from Rome a few days earlier that I met up with Carolin, Sebastian, Pablo, Cornelia, Anja and Johanna - a group of brand new Erasmus exchange students at the stairs of the cathedral on a sunny Sunday 26th of August. Most of the group came from Germany and Austria and told me they had only been taken on a citytour by bus so far. Everyone was of course very interested in asking me about the everyday life for example wheather there was any catholic church in Helsinki and since it happened to be on our way to Kaivopuisto I took them all to see it. After spending some time in the church we continued to the park and wondered what event was going on. It turned out that the park was taken over by dozens of dogs competing in a dog show. We had a nice walk over the hill to the shore and there took some photos with all the group sitting on the giant rock tortoises. It wasn’t the first time I was asked on a tour what they are actually made for. The next stop was the Hietalahti flea market where we decided to give everyone half an hour time for shopping. Then we headed to end the tour at the top of Hotel Torni where I was handed some delicious German chocolates as a gift from everyone. Thank you

David and Guy from Britain had arrived to Helsinki by ship from Stockholm and I met them on Wednesday 15th of August at the stairs of the cathedral. They had been lucky to choose a wonderful sunny day for their visit. First of all I showed them the main sights around the Senate square and then walked together to the Market square and inside the old Kauppahalli where they wanted to taste the traditional karjalanpiirakka. They were also quite amused when I told them about the Finnish sauna traditions, especially about hitting each other with birch branches, naked. Taking some pictures on the way we reached the cafè Caruselli at the end and decided to have a break with something cold to drink.

Jeremy and his twin brother from London had ended up in Finland on their grand tour all the way from Japan. They called me up on the 1oth of August in the afternoon and I invited them to join me and a couple of my friends for a drink at the Eatz terrace. The guys had some pretty interesting stories to tell. So far they had spent their whole Helsinki visit desperately looking for a used car that they could buy and drive from Helsinki to Norway. Earlier the same day they had actually found one so it was time to celebrate. We talked a lot until one of them noticed it was time for them to catch the last metro to the Rastila camping site, were they were staying. We said good byes and wished good luck with their new vehicle.

After I came back from working in Malta I was contacted by Annika from an international student organization called AIESEC to ask for a tour for a group of 10 foreign students who had come to Helsinki to attend an international students’ conference. They had already booked for an official Helsinki tour starting around 12 o’clock on Monday 30th of July but wished to experience also an unofficial city sherpa tour a couple of hours before that. I invited also my younger sister to join the tour and so at the end we were quite a big group of people. To start off we headed to see the views from the top of hotel Torni. The kind staff at the hotel had promised me a day earlier to open the elevator for our group although it was outside their official opening hours. ..maybe also because I was starting to seem like a regular customer there anyway . After getting everyone up and back down the next group challence was to catch the tram 3T that was just about to leave without us.. The weather was awesome and while taking a break and admiring the sea views and the sail boats next to the cafe Caruselli, we offered everyone some salmiakki. The conclusion was that for people from Holland and Germany the taste was somewhat tolerable but for those coming from the Mediterranean it was just something a bit too exotic and some of them just had to spit it away . After walking up to the top of the viewpoint of Kaivopuisto and taking the tram back to the center the tour was over and we said good byes to everyone.

I met Marianna from Germany at the Havis Amanda statue on Sunday 29 th of July before noon. She had come to Finland in order to spend a few weeks doing her medical clerkship in Tampere but wanted to explore Helsinki for a couple of days before starting. Since she already knew the most typical sights of Helsinki and wished to see something new, I decided to take her on my traditional town walk to Kaivopuisto area. After having some delicious ice-cream next to cafè Caruselli we continued the walk torwards the fleamarket in Hietalahti. Around 14 o’clock we met up with my sister at Kauppatori and decided to have a coffee break together at the top of the hotel Torni to enjoy the views. Somehow the conversation led to Finnish food. It was something new to us that according to Marianna Fazer chocolate is actually very well known among Germans but they pronounce the name in a funny non Finnish way. Of course we were happy to correct this and taught our friend the correct Finnish way of pronouncing Fazer and she promised to take care of the the rest of the Germans . After the tour she gave me a big box of traditional cookies from Nürnberg and they were so heavenly that I might even travel there one day to get some more.

Mari

Christina from Barcelona had come to Helsinki already in the beginning of summer to do the practical training for university. She was expecting her friend Mariona from Barcelona for a visit and suggested that we’ll all meet up for a city tour on the day of her arrival on Friday 27th of July. Since the weather was permitting we decided to have an “extempore picnic” at the Kaivopuisto park. Someone passing by might have wondered at our funny way of communicating. It was a colourful mixture of English, Italian and Spanish because there wasn’t a language that all three of us would have understood all together. That however didn’t seem to come to our way and we had a really cheerful conversation comparing the Finnish and Spanish ways of life at the same time listening to the lovely screams of the benji-jumpers in the background. I was also offered some special spicy sausage from Barcelona area that Mariona had brought for her friend just like we might bring salmiakki for a friend staying abroad. After picnic we walked to visit Kauppatori and the Cathedral and at the end rushed to hotel Torni to escape the rain shower. It was of course the highlight of the day to venture into the lady’s room at the top with the famous view over the city.
Mari

Denny was already holding his name up when I came to meet him and the rest of the company outside Olympiaterminaali on Thursday, August 23rd. There were altogether four couples waiting for me: Denny & Carol, Dennis & Sharon and Jaime & Lora from US, California and Ulisses & Mariam from Brazil. Both Carol & Dennis and Mariam & Ulisses were celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary on a cruise. That was a very nice reason to give them, and the rest of the couples of course, a good tour. At least I tried to!

The weather forecast had predicted warm and sunny but the sky was all cloudy and the temperature below +20 degrees Celcius. A good day to walk, and that’s what we did, indeed! First we headed towards the old Market Hall and had a good look on the gourmet food. We did’t stop at Market Square itself because my guests would be returning back to their ship through that area, but walked past and entered to the Senate Square through Sofiankatu, a short street that is now also an interesting open air museum.

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Xavier and Mariona hail from Girona/Catalunia/Spain. They had come to Helsinki a few days earlier and had already visited some locations, such as Vanhankaupunginlahti (Old Town Bay). Read more »