Sure Travel Journey 6.1 Summer 2020 | Page 34

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With its seaside
location, the best
place to begin
discovering Helsinki
is down at the
water’s edge, where
icebreakers are tied
up at the quayside
grandma
to transiting
a gravelly-voiced
male Canal
orisha –
Island, and
the Degerö
who
swigged
hard
spirits and seemed
to
to offer
an easy
introduction
to the city.
be But
asking
Edson
uncomfortable
you’ll
want some
to return
to the island
questions.
Lack of just
fluency
didn’t stop the
of Suomenlinna,
two kilometres
hair
on my from
neck downtown
quivering; Helsinki.
the mãe Built
de
offshore
santo
(priestess)
was
entirely
convincing.
in 1748, when Finland was still ruled by
Sensing
our and
curiosity,
coastline,
in the Edson
bright suggested
days of a
visit to a the
“House
Spirits”.
For plane’s
Brazilians
summer
Gulf of
beneath
our
to whom
ancestor with
spirits
are boats
entwined
wing
is brimming
sailing
and with
daily life,
healing has a spiritual dimension,
tourist
ferries.
and
one its
must
search
for balance
between
With
seaside
location,
the best
place
the
past
and
the
mysterious
natural
to begin discovering Helsinki is down at
world
and the
possibilities
of the future.
the
water’s
edge,
where icebreakers
are
Bearing
packs
of
candles
as
gifts,
firmly tied up at the quayside.
In a we
few were
led, like lambs
slaughter,
beyond
the
months
they’ll to
spend
their days
cutting
well-lit
historic
centre
to
a
shadowy
paths for the commuter ferries that street
ply
that smelled
drains.
these
waters, of
but
today Edson
the air stopped
is warm
us before a formidable-looking portal to
with the long evenings of midsummer on
the netherworld, where vigorous banging
the doorstep of the Arctic Circle.
roused an eye at the peephole on the other
The sea has long played an important
side. Locks clacked; we were waved inside,
role in the history of Helsinki, and a boat
and locks clacked closed again behind us.
trip around the islands is a fine way to get
The interior was spartan and immaculate
a feel for the city and to admire the views
in the way of proud, if resource-limited,
of the skyline.
households. Lights were switched off. A
Tour companies such as Stromma offer
man rattled maracas like rattlesnake tails in
excellent 90-minute tours (€22.50) that
a corner. Seated on hard household chairs,
meander
in and
city’s
we watched
the around
mãe de the
santo
or closest
“mother
islands
– passing
the historic
of
the saint”
transform
from Suomenlinna
genial
Fortress, Helsinki’s zoo on Korkeasaari