Destination Finland: getting ready

I've been wanting to travel to Finland for a while now, charmed by the exotic language, by the innumerable lakes, by this culture that resisted Swedish and Russian invaders, and this somehow absurd idea that in the summer there is almost no night. I found that starting to talk to people about actually going this year made me more motivated. From our Budapest, there is a direct Ryanair flight to Tampere on Wednesday and back on Sunday, which matches the perfect period of the Midsummer celebration (the longest days and the shortest nights of the year, around the 22nd of June), my parents and sister were also interested... Everything fell into place! 

We chose Ryanair to the secondary city of Tampere instead of the national companies like Finnair or Norwegian to Helsinki firstly because of the price: the round trip was 140 euros each, hand luggage only. Secondly, the early flight on Wednesday and the late flight back on Sunday gives us some extra hours (although I am underestimating how tired we will be after waking up at 3am for the outbound flight at 6am). We considered spending all 4 nights in Tampere, maybe renting a car to travel around the lakes, but finally we decided to spend 2 nights in Tampere and 2 in Helsinki, out of curiosity for the city Midsummer celebrations. We would have definitely chosen the lakes if we had friends inviting us over to their summer house by the lake!

Finnish friends (thank you, Couchsurfing!) recommended Onnibus to travel between cities. And indeed, a round trip Tampere-Helsinki cost us 37 euros for the 5 of us, against 200 euros by train!

We chose hotels over hostels/Airbnb because we are 5 grown-ups who appreciate some small luxuries like comfortable beds, a diverse breakfast and some privacy; we also value being close to the city centre, instead of saving money and spending precious time to move around the city. We are serial walking travellers! A quick search of Wikipedia showed the small centre of Tampere and the different neighbourhoods of Helsinki. We finally chose the Cumulus Koskikatu in Tampere, which should be right next to the canal that runs through the city centre, and the Hotel Arthur in Helsinki, which looks close to the main square Hallituskatu. We will spend 45-50 euros per person per day for accommodation and breakfast.

What to see, what to do, what to eat? We will land in Tampere at 11ish on Wednesday, we are going to Helsinki at 10am on Friday and arriving at 12.30, coming back from Helsinki on Sunday at 3pm and departing from Tampere airport at 9pm. We will have roughly 1,5-2 days in each city. We love to improvise and follow our inspiration, but I prefer to be aware of the alternatives! I started to research on Wikipedia, I read plenty of itineraries and tips on Visit Finland, Visit Tampere and Visit Helsinki , I looked for the popular and hidden places on Instagram, and Darek found some real-life experiences on Youtube by travellers like the Vagabrothers . Out of all of these recommendations for the Juhannus, the Midsummer celebration, we chose the traditional program held on the Seurasaari island in Helsinki. On Youtube there's plenty of videos and this one made us curious! Now I'm researching on Tripadvisor, harvesting other travellers' experience. My sister came by this Buzzfeed compilation of incredibly inviting Finnish food! The final objective is that we will have some key sights and monuments to see, and many more to choose from, depending on where we are, how we feel, how the weather is treating us...

What about smart tech? Darek and I both have the iPhone SE, which has excellent battery life (in normal life, it lasts 2 days). We will make sure we have enough storage for plenty of pictures and videos. I am saving on Google Maps all the interesting places and taking notes on Evernote about history, attractions, opening hours, typical food... As we won't have internet data, we need everything available offline. I considered also Here Maps, but after testing here in Budapest it seems that Google has more data available (restaurants, addresses, attractions). As much as I like having a guidebook in my hands, I have to admit that my shoulders are not very happy with carrying a heavy bag all day, so I'm looking for apps as substitutes, although at the moment "City-Opas Tampere" shows only the location of the main sights of the city without any explanation and "Visit Tampere" is too focused on the events. The other must-haves are one external battery each, a multi-charger cable, and Darek's camera and tripod.

From the videos online, we don't know what to expect in terms of weather and temperature: people are wearing shorts during the day and jackets at night. For sure we know that Finnish mosquitos are a nightmare, so we'll be prepared for that!

In general, we are improvising, relaxed tourists/travellers. We will surely look for the classic and popular sights, but we will also wander among the side streets for hidden restaurants and unique corners. My mother is a serial marathon-tourists, but luckily she can't resist a cup of coffee and a slice of cake, so I am confident that we will reach a running-resting compromise :)