Usually the capital city becomes a ghost town for Midsummer weekend in June.

I stayed in Helsinki, planning to go island hopping, but I missed my ride. I watched the bus leave the stop before I got there. I sat down on the bench, tried to figure out what to do, and as I was ready to leave, someone sat next to me. I got up, took a few steps, and the person got offended.

”You didn’t need to leave”, she claimed, and I found myself explaining, that I missed the bus, and was about to leave anyway. My camera caught her eye, and so she asked,

”Are you an artist?” And I introduced the camera to her. I was no artist, but she indeed was.

I had intended to photograph the empty streets of the city center, Erottaja, Ullanlinna.. I wanted to go to Pentala island in Espoo and to Vallisaari island near the fortress of Helsinki. But instead I rented a city bike for the day, grabbed a pizza from a self claimed ”best pizzeria in Finland”, and steared towards roads I had not taken before.

I cycled a route through Helsinki islands and watched people enjoy the hot summer day on the various beaches on the way. I took a lot of lo-fi photos of nature and the hot, quiet streets with my mini camera, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to get them here for this post. Another day then?

While roaming an unfamiliar nature trail I unintentionally crashed a party with the bike. I walked the bike from a bush straight to the middle of an opening, where people had gathered on the edges of. My emergence made the band on stage go silent from the surprise.

I skipped Finnish food; new potatoes, fish, crispy salads, and stopped at a Neapolitan pizza place. I ordered a Parmigiana because it had eggplant topping. A wandering walk later I opened the box on a cliff watching the sea, only to find out that instead of the 7 euro pizza I had craved, I had received a 5 euro Margherita without the eggplant or rucola toppings.

Although I missed the boat, the midsummer parties (apart from the one I wasn’t invited to), the empty streets of central Helsinki and the midsummer bonfires, I truly enjoyed my cycling trip. After hours of being out and about in the summer weather, I got home dizzy. I was dehydrated and stung by the sun, leaving me no choice but to take it easy the next day.

I learned that Helsinki was not nearly as quiet as I expected it to be. Watching the glimmering Baltic sea from the top of the grey cliffs, and feeling the sun warm on skin made me feel like being in the city for the Midsummer was not as different from the country as I had feared it would be.