Pros & Cons of Helsinki

I have been living in Helsinki for four months now. Still a short time, but since I have been only living in smaller cities before, I have already noticed differences between those and living in the capital city of Finland. Here in this post I share my thoughts about living in Helsinki and photos of our beautiful city.

I like that there are so many events and things happening here. All the concerts, cultural events and so much more. Overall there are more opportunities and options with everything. There will always be a coffee shop or restaurant that you haven’t visited, a shop you didn’t know about or a building you never saw before. There’s always new places to go explore and takes photos.

"I’m not sure whether people actually are super busy or is it just a false belief that we create by rushing to the trams and subways even though the next one is coming couple minutes after."

Many people visit Helsinki quite often. It’s easy to travel here, and almost all of my closest friends have already visited me, and some of them have moved here as well. But what I do miss from Lappeenranta, is that close group of friends and spontaneous hangouts every now and then. Even now, I might meet my friends from Lappeenranta more often than friends that actually live in Helsinki. In here people seem more busy and meetings are more planned since calendar gets full easily and the distances are longer. I’m not sure whether people actually are super busy or is it just a false belief that we create by rushing to the trams and subways even though the next one is coming couple minutes after. Sometimes I wonder, why are couple of minutes so important to us?

As mentioned before, the distances might be longer here. Even though the public transportation works pretty well, it might take 40 minutes or more to get to your friend’s home. I’m lucky that my work and hobbies are within a walking distance and the city center is not far either so I don’t need to spend my days sitting on trams.

Especially during summer time I really enjoy swimming. I’m used to that there is a lake less than one kilometer away from my home, but here it is not the case. Two weeks back me and Miisa had to take a subway and walk couple kilometers to find a beach and go swimming in the sea. In the end we found an empty beach and could swim there. I guess no one else wanted to go swimming on a cold Sunday evening. It was worth the long way anyway.

Overall I like living in Helsinki more than I could have believed I would. To be honest, I was a bit skeptical if I would actually enjoy it. For now, I think I will stick around here for sometime.

Thanks for reading, leave a comment or message if you like & see you around!