I've had the pleasure of visiting Paris and Helsinki last year. I'm sure everybody's heard about how romantic Paris is: city of lights, lover's paradise...I could go on and I don't want to bother you with cliches'. It's Helsinki that came as a bit of a pleasant surprise. To begin with, it's very 'untouristy': usually young European backpackers frequent the place. I found that a welcome change: no crowds, no mad rush. Finland, I guess has not yet opened it's gates to immigration. While i noticed people of all nationalities in Paris, it wasn't so in Finland. The first thing that strikes you about the demography of the place is... now where in Gods' green earth are the people?? Speaking of people, so far, in my travels Finnish people were the most cultured and immaculately decent. I havent met nicer people anywhere else!
Compared to major European cities, Helsinki is a small capital. You might want to start your itinerary from Helsinki, travelling to Tallin (Estonia) or Sweden on a cruise ship. Yes, Tallinn has recently joined the Schengen agreement and you can be there in less than three hours. Then ships leave for Sweden as well. There's the Nordic Jet Line (Smaller, faster vessels) and then, among the heavyweights there are the likes of Viking and Silja line (big cruise ships, understandably slower speeds). You might as well go anywhere (the majestic city of St Petersberg in Russia is just round the corner!.
You might have heard that Helsinki is expensive. Apart from food in restaurants pretty much everything has a price at par with it's European neighbours.
The architecture is great so are the museums (albeit small: obviously we're not expecting the Louvre here!) Even the airport looks like a boutique airport having ease of navigation and a modernistic 'chic' feel to it. The best part is that everything is close together so you don't have to slog distances and see things piecemeal.
Couldn't go to Lapland: wish I had the time..that's the one thing I missed; especially around wintertime.
