I think I mentioned this buried deep within one of the prior one of these, but Helsinki is basically shut down on Monday for all practical tourist purposes. Basically every museum or site is closed (other than like open air spaces). Many restaurants are closed. I think many cities will similarly have a bunch of places that close Monday but it seems almost by design here. For that purpose, I always had earmarked that today was a day for a day trip. I chose a hiking/nature focused one, heading northwards to the Nuuskio National Park that sits about 50 minutes north of Helsinki. I passed up some other cities and towns, which were a bit further but maybe more exciting. Anyway, not wanting to relitigate - realistically what I should have done way back when is try to plan the trip to make today (Monday, Memorial Day) the travel day, and start the trip a day earlier. But alas, by the time I found out about this weird Monday aversion, there were no Lufthansa mileage tickets available.
So, with that weird preamble out of the way, I started my day with, basically lunch. It was an early lunch - 11:30 or so - which made sense given I was going to spend a large portion of the day hiking trails in Nuuksio Park, and aside from a semi-ok buffet restaurant at the main lodge there (review on the place were hilariously volatile), there isn't much food up there. One of the things that was open on Monday, was the Old Market Hall (who they choose to close on Sunday). I tried a different stand this time for the salmon soup - probably a tastier broth and better seasoned, but salmon a bit overcooked relative to the one from Saturday. Also grabbed a roseberry smoked salmon bread and a reindeer tasting set. All in all a nice quick run through of Finnish cuisine.
Nuuksio Park is reachable by public transport, the last bit being a bus from Espoo, a city northwest or Helsinki, and either bus or commuter train to Espoo. However, I had some random Uber credit that I had earned that made the Uber from the Old Market Hall to Nuuksio be just 30 euros, for a 45 min ride - cutting the time duration of my trek in half. I grabbed it, much to the evantual annoyance of the uber driver who clearly had never been to Nuuksio, and was super confused what was happening. He eventually realized I wan't out of my mind when we raeched out destination in Nuuksio Park, at the Haltia Nature Center, essentially what serves as the park's Welcome center.
The park is quite large, mostly in hills and mountains that serve as ski slopes and cross country skiing areas during the winter, and hiking trails with some lodges strewn about in the summer. The Haltia is at the starting point (where teh bus stop is), and features that buffet restaurant (with some grab and go, which was great to get water), a store, some exhibits about the nature of hte space, etc.. It's a really fashionable, sharp building, and probably a better set-up welcome center than similar places you would find in the US.
The trials of Nuuksio are many and well marked with color-coded signage that pops up basically ever 0.4 km or so on each trail - thsi was super helpful in an area with no real network connection. I probably passed over the trial I should've done (a 5km one) to do two smaller ones (about 4km total), without ever really considering longer ones (there are ones that are 10+ km). The nature is beautiful, with sturdy conifer and fir trees everywhere, streams taht pop out from here to there, interesting grass and moss growths, a few lookouts. The lookouts are important since there isn't much long distance visibility aside from those spots, but they do give you great views of the main lake that is below the Haltia center (and had a bunch of people canoeing and kayaking and what not). Sadly I didn't really come into contact with any fauna apart from a few birds, but still it was a lovely, calm two hours that was super well needed after overeating the way I have for 11 days.
After that hike I went back to the Haltia, a bit earlier than expected so ventured down towards the lake. My only hesitation would be knowing I have the trek back up to make, but it was worth it to dip a toe into the lake for a little bit - so clear the water, so calm it all was. It probably is a bit odd to come all the way to a Nordic country and mainly stay within city limits, so I truly am glad I did this half-day trip out to Nuuksio National Park. Especially as it got me to take public transport back, which might be the one cheap thing in Finland - as it was 4.40 EUR for both the bus and commuter rail from Nuuksio to Espoo and Espoo to Helsinki Central.
Next were a series of lasts, all in a vaccuum fun, but a bit sad as well. I truly did enjoy this trip and while the intensity of the tourism kept thing moving without me able to get too depressed. First was the last dinner at Kuurnu, another nice Ravintola that kept it cooking with a quick 3-course meal. Traditional ingredients, traditional good cooking - from a whitefish starter to a really well cooked peppercorn steak with white asparagus as the main. Then came the last night out, a great end at Gate A21, meeting some great tourists, many of them at teh start of their trips on a Monday, always tough, but that is the circle of life of vacationing people. In the end, Europe has some great places - Helsinki, Tallinn, Budapest may not be prime on that list, but as good, if not as random, a trio as anything.
