A few years ago, I started my open-ended journey around the wonderful continent of Europe by buying a one-way ticket to Helsinki, Finland. My plan at that point consisted of landing and finding my first couch-surfing host, Pia. I literally I had nothing planned after that.
For some reason, I thought it was far more noble to travel with no phone or computer, or any electronic device besides my ipod classic. I guess back then I figured it added to my "street cred" as a real traveler. All I had was a piece of paper with the address Pia lived at and the bus number she had told me to take via email before I left.
-that is me, David. Your average American idiot.
It became abundantly clear relatively quickly that traveling in a foreign country (or anywhere) with no form of communication is a very stupid idea.
I found Pia's house eventually and promptly fell asleep for 14 hours awakening in a panic and having no idea where I was. I was immediately informed by Pia that we had to go pick up a dog from her friend that she was to watch for the next week. So we took the train to the countryside and picked up the little ball of happiness that is Coolie.
-I've never seen a more genuine smile on a dog or a more fake smile on myself.
Helsinki was a very cool city. There is a some neat architecture like the church below. Honestly, I was way more jetlagged than I had anticipated and was sort of trying to get my bearings while slowly realizing what I had just committed myself to. Having no plan whatsoever actually proved to be somewhat burdensome since the possibilities were quite literally endless.
I really enjoy cities on water (since I grew up in one perhaps) so I mainly just took the public tram system all over and wandered around aimlessly. I ended up taking a boat to a former army base island called Suomenlinna, which I would say was the highlight of the city. It looked a lot like an island where hobbits and trolls might live.
After a few days I decided to head south to Estonia and bought a ticket aboard a huge ship that made the journey from Helsinki to Tallinn, Estonia daily.
All things considered I don't feel like I really "experienced" Finland fully, but the little bit of I did I loved and would really love to return someday!