Writing ain’t so easy when you spilled wine on your keyboard a few months ago (not long after you bought it, in fact). I mean, it works fine most of the time, but when the temperature gets a little too cold, everything starts to seize up as the vinous residue gets a little grabby with the keys. So. Writing. It is a bit of a pain. (As would be replacing the bloody expensive iPad keyboard.)

That said, it’s not such a pain that I can avoid writing forever. So here I sit on the train from Tallinn to Riga (second leg, from Valga to Riga), finally getting around to writing up some of this trip. Who knows when I’ll get around to writing up the rest. Who knows if I’ll get around to it. There are trips I’ve made that have been abandoned in my travel journals, never to see the Internet light of day.

Apologies for the prevarication. This counts in writing as warming up, and a more disciplined writer would doubtless delete the preceding paragraphs. As well as this sentence. Anyway. Finland! My previous experience of the country extends to several Finnish students many years ago in college, a few Finnish workmates, and a general awareness of the country’s history of defending their territory from the Soviet Union with extreme doggedness. Which, in these times of Ukrainian travails, makes traveling there seem like a solid idea.

In fact, my plan initially was to have Finland as the last stop on my trip: to start in Vilnius and finish at the Finnish line. Sadly, pun-based travel plans are rarely worth making, and the availability of flights meant that Helsinki was the better starting point. Even with that, my planning failed me and I had to rebook my flight to make sure I got where I was supposed to be going at the right time.

If holidays are a way to burn off stress and recentre oneself (and I was in solid need of both) then Helsinki airport is as good a place as any to begin. I had a ten minute walk from the airport gate, after a notably bumpy flight helmed by a pilot who looked a bit like a viking raider, but those ten minutes reminded me what a pleasure travel can be when the buildings made for that purpose are made with human comfort in mind, rather than shuffling people from one end to the other with maximum efficiency. (Yes, my poor battered passport almost gave up the ghost at the start, but I made it through in the end and onto the train via a two-touch ticket purchase process. Hooray for ease of use.)

Booking hotels near train stations is a concept that has served me well since I started on the habit of city-hopping via train on my holidays. In this case, I’d gone slightly upmarket and was staying at the happily hip Hobo Hotel Helsinki. Which offered plenty of room and comfort to the solo traveller, though a blocked nose and dehydrating air conditioning do not mix well for a first night away from home.

Hobo’s buffet breakfast though, is something to be proud of, and almost worth the substantial outlay (if you avail of multiple courses). On my first and only full day in the city, having already done a bit of preliminary wandering the night before, I was thus fortified and headed out on some serious wandering.

The Ateneum art museum, planted in the heart of the city, is a showcase for some of Finland’s best when it comes to art, and though their landscapes are nothing to sneeze about, there’s plenty more to enjoy than that. While I was there, I got to venture through exhibits on depictions of Finland through time and some of the best works from Finland’s many female artists. Victoria Åberg is perhaps the one I came away liking best, but there was plenty else to enjoy.

A long walk around the city’s lagoons, part of a substantial city trail, brought me eventually to the Church of the Rock, a carved-out chapel that charges entry to tourists but does at least provide a bit of peace in a restful setting to the footsore. It also stands at the head of the Fredrikinkatu, a long straight road that led past the Heritage Museum Cafe (lovely banana bread, by the way) and most of the way to the sea.

When I was there, Helsinki was bobbing along in the early spring haze of occasionally positive temperatures, and it seemed like everyone else was doing what I was: going for a stroll, often with dogs. Lots of places to go and things to see, many of them involving rocks glassy with ice, but mostly it was just a pleasure to be out and about.

I do regret not having the chance to venture further afield, perhaps out into the Finnish countryside, but as I said, it was the first few days of this trip. Days usually put aside for reorienting my brain in the direction of enjoyment and not having to be somewhere at any given time. If I know that it’s necessary to spend a little time each year in self care, that’s a lesson that’s been hard come by, so the first few days of a trip will not be rushed, and the rest will be all the better for it.

From Helsinki, I will take away the memory of many strolls down its streets and over its few small hills. Of the slab sided buildings designed to protect its inhabitants from the worst of the winter winds. Of the high prices but the high quality of the welcome that came along with them. I’m very glad I visited, and if I get the chance, I’ll be happy to come back for a little longer.

As it was, the morning of my departure loomed. The buffet once more bolstered me before I walked out into -6 degrees C. There was frost (and grit) on the ground as I crunched my way along the waterfront towards the ferry terminal (located handily equidistant from my hotel to the train station – see? forward planning). Arriving as early as I always do to these things, I joined the queue as soon as seemed a good idea and secured a quiet seat on the ferry.

I didn’t see Helsinki as it slipped away behind us. I wouldn’t venture out onto deck until our cruise was almost over. But I felt it go all the same. Finland was gone, Estonia awaited.