Suomenlinna Story

Here goes my story about Suomenlinna…

Met a lady there. Learnt so much during our conversation over lunch:
-About 800 people live on the fortress
-Almost everyone knows everyone in Suomenlinna; all the customers (except for me) at the cafe live on Suomenlinna(!)
-The suburb is almost self-sufficient with church, school, hospital, hotel etc
-The day I visited was an election day. Everyone just casted their vote at the school
-A half marathon took place on the island that morning
…
And she wanted to introduce me to this very good restaurant in Suomenlinna. Unfortunately I wanted to catch the ferry back to Helsinki city before sunset, and could not take up her offer 😦

People from Suomenlinna are so warm! And I think this is what makes this Helsinki suburb charming, and different from the other UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

On the 20min ferry from Helsinki City to Suomenlinna. Reminds me so much of Venice and ferry ride to Burano and Murano 🙂 Lovely day! Wished I had my shades! 😛  

Arrived at the ferry terminal of Suomenlinna. Embarked on a short walk to the visitor centre to sign up for the guided tour. Ferry ride/guided tour came with the Helsinki card.  

Passing by the playground, church and a lovely house.
 

Protagonist – the lovely lady who chatted with me over lunch. Her grandson is classmate with one of the girls in the picture 🙂 A small town makes a small world. Cosy cafe.
  

Guided tour of the fortress. Here we entered the UNESCO World Heritage Site ground. I like how the fortress has been modified for day-to-day life on Suomenlinna. Museums, shops, cafes, summer theatre, picnic grounds, tourist attraction… A bit quiet when I was there though.  Can sort of imagine the buzz during summer!

A shot of Suomenlinna town from the fortress, separated/joined by a bridge.

Suomenlinna is a very good ground for self-portraits. All the walls doubled up very well as tripods 😛 Beautiful context too. The background in the main photo is the prison, I think. And I understand from the guide that some prisoners worked on the fortress, as part of the reformation process.
 

~THE END~