In late June, we travelled to Finland for a weekend to experience the white nights. Since we tried to pack light and walk around a lot, I decided to bring the small and compact Nikon Z30 and the kit DX 16-50 f/3.5-6.3. We both had to work on Friday and caught a late plane, which on top was also delayed, and adding the 1h time difference between Vienna and Helsinki meant we arrived at the hotel at around 1AM. The hotel was located at the tip of a small island, which allowed us to take in the amazing views right in front of our room. We went to bed at about 2AM, just as it was already getting brighter outside.

After sleeping in and properly getting our money’s worth at the buffet breakfast with unlimited freshly smoked salmon (yum!), we walked along the island shore to the next metro station. After arriving in the city center, we realized that our stay coincided with Helsinki Pride, which meant that the city was packed and we were barely able to walk around. We took a detour around Helsinki main train station towards the impressive Helsinki cathedral. Close to Helsinki cathedral we had some lunch at the local market (creamy salmon soup and a salmon sandwich). Next on our list was Uspenski cathedral, which is a Russian Orthodox church built during the period of Russian occupation. After that, we walked around in a park, discovered that we had taken a picture of what looks like a Gestapo headquarter without noticing, walked around one of the harbor areas and had dinner in a seemingly very typical Finnish restaurant.

Here are the pictures of Uspenski cathedral, which I wanted to show separately because of the special atmosphere.

In the evening, we enjoyed the golden hour (at 10PM or something) on “our” island. More than 75% of Finland’s land area is covered by forest and the combination of so much daylight, forest, sea and breeze was very pleasant. Before we went to sleep again well after midnight, we got to enjoy the beautiful sunset and midnight lights one more time. Definitely a unique experience, glad we got to experience it.