HELSINKI SHORT TRAVEL GUIDE
Helsinki, Finland’s capital. Located in the southern part of the country near to Estonia, it sits on a peninsula in the Gulf of Finland. Helsinki is the centre of Finnish business, education, culture and science. The city is home to eight universities and six science and technology parks. 70% of foreign enterprises operating in Finland have their headquarters here.
Helsinki comprises 300 islands interconnected with many bridges. Water transport is widespread, and the city has more than 11,000 places to park your boat. There are also several dozen marinas where people leave their yachts for the wintertime.
Its central avenue, Mannerheimintie, is flanked by institutions including the National Museum, tracing Finnish history from the Stone Age to the present. Also on Mannerheimintie are the imposing Parliament House and Kiasma, a contemporary art museum. Ornate red-brick Uspenski Cathedral overlooks a harbor.
Language
Finnish and Swedish are the official languages of Helsinki. 79.1% of the citizens speak Finnish as their native language. 5.7% speak Swedish. The remaining 15.3% of the population speaks a native language other than Finnish or Swedish.
Culture
Helsinki is filled with museums, theaters, and art and music cultures.
The biggest historical museum in Helsinki is the National Museum of Finland. The Finnish National Gallery consists of three museums: Ateneum Art Museum for classical Finnish art, Sinebrychoff Art Museum for classical European art, and Kiasma Art Museum for modern art, in a building by architect Steven Holl. The old Ateneum, a neo-Renaissance palace from the 19th century, is one of the city's major historical buildings. All three museum buildings are state-owned through Senate Properties.
The city of Helsinki hosts its own art collection in the Helsinki Art Museum (HAM), primarily located in its Tennispalatsi gallery. Pieces outside of Tennispalatsi include about 200 public art pieces and all art held in property owned by the city.
Helsinki Art Museum will in 2020 launch the Helsinki Biennial, which will bring art to maritime Helsinki – in its first year to the island of Vallisaari.
The Design Museum is devoted to the exhibition of both Finnish and foreign design, including industrial design, fashion, and graphic design. Other museums in Helsinki include the Military Museum of Finland, Didrichsen Art Museum, Amos Rex Art Museum, and the Tram Museum.
Helsinki has three major theatres: The Finnish National Theatre, the Helsinki City Theatre, and the Swedish Theatre (Svenska Teatern). Other notable theatres in the city include the Alexander Theatre, Q Teatteri helsinki, Savoy Theatre Helsinki, KOM-theatre, and Teatteri Jurkka.
The music of Finland can be roughly divided into categories of folk music, classical and contemporary art music, and contemporary popular music. The folk music of Finland is typically influenced by Karelian traditional tunes and lyrics of the Kalevala metre.
Climate
Helsinki has a humid continental climate. Owing to the mitigating influence of the Baltic Sea and North Atlantic Current, temperatures during the winter are higher than the northern Finland might suggest, with the average in January and February around −7 °C (23 °F).
Winters in Helsinki are notably warmer than in the north of Finland, and the snow season is much shorter in the capital, due to it being in extreme Southern Finland and the urban heat island effect. Temperatures below −20 °C (−4 °F) occur a few times a year at most. However, because of the latitude, days last 5 hours and 48 minutes around the winter solstice with very low sun, and the cloudy weather at this time of year exacerbates darkness. Conversely, Helsinki enjoys long daylight during the summer; during the summer solstice, days last 18 hours and 57 minutes.
Helsinki is packed with lots of action in the summer, With a growing reputation as one of the cultural hot spots of Northern Europe, Helsinki has everything to offer.Safe and excellently served by a well-connected public transport system, packed with open green spaces, Helsinki is also a child-friendly city perfect for family vacations. In the Summer Temperatures about 22-26 °C.
Festivals
The Helsinki Festival is the largest multi-arts festival in Finland. It is also called Finland's biggest cultural event in terms of visitors. In 2015, around 295,000 people visited the Helsinki Festival. There are also other famous summer and winter festivals that gather a large number of people to Helsinki every year.
Public Transport
Discovering Helsinki—the capital of Finland—has never been easier when we have the full support of modern public transportation. Helsinki Regional Transport Authority (HSL) maintains the public transportation network in Helsinki. It's cheap and easy to use. Their services include city bikes, buses, trams, metro, trains and ferries. download the mobile app and buy a day ticket or one way ticket. See more details for HSL website.
Things to do -visit
If you are in Helsinki you can jump into Hop on Hop off bus, or just walk to some of the best and easiest tourist attractions, those are Parliament Building, Helsinki Eye-Sky Wheel of Helsinki, Suomenlinnai, Helsinki Cathedral,, Market Square, National Museum, Uspenski Cathedral, Take a walk at Esplanadi, Go to see Sibelius Monument, Take a boat Tour from end of the Esplanadi Park. go to Kaivopuisto shore there are a lot of restaurants and ice cream parlors, you can take a nice walk and relax.
Picture of Helsinki Eye-Sky Wheel of Helsinki. Enjoy Original SkySauna combines sauna in the sky with an amazing sea view and the city view.
Enjoy World's first only finnish sauna experience on the sky with Helsinki Wheel.
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