Day 4: Suomenlinna

On Sunday we visited the island(s) of Suomenlinna. This was actually the one spot that our hosts so far had told us to check out so we decided that it was something that we should probably do. Suomenlinna is actually a collection of 5 small islands that used to be a naval fort and still actually has a small naval academy still on it.

This is the island as we approach it from the ferry over:

Since we arrived on the island around 1pm we all decided that we should stop into the grocery store there and pick up some lunch. After perusing the store around Molly, Emily, Kody, and I decided that we should just get a baguette and sort of cheese spread and go eat it by the water side. When we came outside after making our purchases we found that the rest of our group (Jon, CJ, and Steve) were nowhere to be found and since we don’t have any way to communicate amongst ourselves we decided that they must have just gotten tired of waiting for us and left to go explore the island on their own. 

 

Behind us in the picture is the naval academy. That bridge is also what connects the 2 of the smaller islands to the main island. This is also the start of our day of “12 second” photos. What that means is Molly’s camera has a 12 second timer on it so instead of asking people to take our photo, Molly would go and place the camera and then sprint to where we were to be in the shot.

                These islands though were amazingly beautiful and we had such a great day weather wise to be there. Here are some pictures of our adventure (one of the boys from the other group will post about their time a little later):

Plaque about Suomenlinna

The main building of the naval academy

Some of the hills on island E

Kody playing on one of the many guns on the island

12 second photo of us on one of the cannons. As you can see the distance away from the camera has increased.

 

Kody playing on the cannon

There also was a bunch of people dressed up as Charlie Chaplin on the island

The Suomenlinna Church

The tomb of Augustin Ehrensvrd

There was a small flight of stairs she had to run down on this one

We found a tree Emily could fit in

So I naturally had to attempt it

 

I was so scared I was not going to be able to get out of there. For those who don’t know Emily is 5’0.5”, I am 6’0.5”. I’m actually sitting on my knees in this picture

Kody doing the “Jon Lee” pose

Doesn’t look so far…

…She ran up the hill and that rock 3 times because the camera kept falling. Those people behind her offered to take the photo after the 2^nd time but we told them we had it covered.

Emily embracing the beautiful day we had.

Panorama of the soccer field overlooking the ocean

A few hobbit holes

She jumped a foot and a half gap to make this one

 

Some of the actual fortress of Suomenlinna

We locked Kody in one of the cells on the island. We almost didn’t get him out of this one

Our group’s last 12 second photo of the day. Sadly Kody got kinda cut out of it

We eventually met back up with everyone and ate dinner at this pizzeria that was built into a part of the fort

The “King’s Gate”

This is where we had reunited with the other group earlier in the day before splitting off again to see the rest of the islands. It turns out they thought we had ditched them and angrily stormed off without checking the grocery store to see if we were still in there. 

Us leaving the island.

We had such a great day on Suomenlinna. It was a really nice, relaxing way to end our weekend in Helsinki before gearing up for a week packed full of tours. 

Stay tuned for more,

--Nick Hart