1. The Geography of Helsinki
Helsinki is a smallish city on the southern coast of Finland, centered on a peninsula that they used to call Vironniemi. The capital region is roughly the size of Singapore, including also Espoo, Kauniainen and Vantaa which call themselves cities but can not for the lives of them live up to the name. The heart of the city exists as two chambers: Long-distance coaches start and end at the shopping center at Kamppi; long-distance and commuter trains converge at Central Station. The metro links the two chambers and continues on the eastern coast, part of the hellish lineup of inland seas, peninsulae and islands that is southern Uusimaa.
South of the double-chamber heart lies what I now call the Inner City, characterised by a rather idle and European disposition and ridiculous housing prices. North of the heart, the city is bisected by the railway line, which only starts to diverge at Pasila: To the west of the railway at Pasila is familiar territory, including the rugged mess of Töölö, the local businesses at Pitäjänmäki, and the grounded comunities of Haaga where I live. The east side of Pasila are the relatively uncharted traditional strongholds of the working class and the present strongholds of incredibly productive artisans of Arabia. The sad district of Pasila exist in fact in two pieces, east and west of the station, separated by the rail lines and an expansive wasteland used to fix train cabins and goodness knows what else.
Helsinki has an old town, existing now as the district of Vanhakaupunki (which means old town) north of Arabia. I have not been there, but I have been told that nothing is left of the original settlement. Finnish cities, unlike Baltic ones, had the irritating habit of burning down, many thanks to the overabundance of wood in the country. I like to imagine the city's residents collectively throwing up their arms in frustration at one point and bringing in their celebrity architects Aalto, Saarinen, Geselius and co. to build everything once and for all. In concrete.
Further to the north, the city begins to look like any other capital: a city by the coast, with roads radiating out of it. By the coast it would be nature, not man, that dictates the spread of the city. Among the numerous islands surrounding the place that they used to call Vironniemi, one could find many islands that have each been adapted to suit a unique purpose; Lautasaari a maritime suburbia, Suomenlinna a tourist attraction, Korkeasaari a zoo, Seurasaari an open-air museum, and Kuusisaari the place where they put the embassies.
2. To compensate for the wordy description 3 posts ago, here is a map of the commute. Also included is an alternative bike route for a detour to the heart of the city, for various reasons, but mainly to show off and brag about what a daring and outdoors person I am (only works on those with no sense of distance and/or have not done route marches in armytime).
I should sleep.
