Helsinki – Let Luce!

It is not often that I enter a place and find myself unable and unwilling to speak due to the utter bliss I feel as I avidly soak up my surroundings.

Welcome to the most loveliest of places – the Oodi Central library in Helsinki. It is a place of thriving tranquility where people of all ages can sit, chat, work, scroll, think, write, read or even learn a skill.

There are three floors altogether: a cafe on the ground floor and then on the second floor – spaces to play electronic games, make use of a 3D printer, sew fabric on one of the sewing machines or work in peace in a private glass booth.The top floor, where I am writing this, comprises various seating areas: work stations, sofas, communal tables, isolated chairs, a sloped wooden floor and so the list goes on. It took me a while to decide where to sit as it was all so inviting.

As I sit and write, I am aware of a soft, gentle hum of voices but if I choose to, I can tune in on a conversation close by or switch off completely and get lost in my own thoughts. Glancing around, there are individuals randomly seated absorbed in their own books; to my right is a long table busy with a hive of quiet activity, where people work on open laptops; meanwhile over to my left four young girls chat on lounge seats around a low coffee table and in the far corner by the window, crossed-legged on the wide, wooden ledge sit a young couple playing Monopoly borrowed from the library shelves that stand in the central area of the top floor.

Someone has found a comfortable spot to read the newspaper!

Really, words do not suffice to describe this wonderful calming, yet productive space. It’s strange because people seem lost (and so relaxed) in their own little world and yet it feels such a extraordinarily sociable environment. If Helsinki is on your list of places to travel, then I highly recommend that you take a couple of hours out to relax in the Oodi Central library.

On our day of departure, I started the morning with a refreshing 5km run along the sea front. It was one of those beautiful sunny, cold crisp mornings, which is my favourite kind of weather. When I was teaching, my daily two mile commute (hardly warrants the word ‘commute’ I know, but I was heading to work so in theory it was) took me along the sea front and I would often wish that I was out on a run on those early mornings rather than driving to work. So before leaving for my travels, I was keen to make the point to myself that I no longer went to work! It was beautiful: there was one moment when I was staring out to sea and the sun beamed through the sparse broken cloud, which looked just like a thin layer of cotton wool that had been gently teased apart. The ray of light shining down on me felt like some sort of sign (don’t worry, nothing deep and meaningful) – like a thumbs up to the fact that I was enjoying a run rather than going to work!

We left after lunch – first a 30 minute walk to the train station and then a 2 hour train ride to Victoria followed by a tube to Hounslow where we were staying the night in close proximity to Heathrow ready for our early morning flight the following day.

I hate taking the Underground but on this occasion it was the most practical means to get to our hotel for the night. Being rammed into a crowded tube train during rush hour made us contemplate the poor timing of our departure and it momentarily took our minds off course from the excitement of our impending flight.

Tightly packed in the carriage, I watched the boy next to me (I’m guessing he was about 15) contemplatively touch the packaged sandwich that he had inside his Pret-a-Manger bag. I could almost sense him wondering whether he could feasibly eat his sandwich standing up in a jolting tube surrounded by commuters.

He eventually decided that he would attempt this feat. I grimaced as I smelt the aroma of fish waft into my nose. I didn’t think anyone in their right mind would choose to eat a sandwich in such dire surroundings and certainly not a tuna sandwich (the smell – urgh!), however the poor boy must have been starving because he worked so surely and intently to open the package and he literally couldn’t take his eyes off the sandwich for a single second.

As I now sit and reflect, I can forgive him. (How gracious of me!) He was desperately hungry and he didn’t realise he was standing a few centimetres from a vegetarian who last ate meat 37 years ago and can’t even remember a time when fish was on her plate.

Early Tuesday morning we arrived at the airport. We had an easy flight on a half-empty plane, where I was able to enjoy the first of my downloads (‘Treadstone’ on Amazon Prime if you’re wondering. I’m so pleased I spent that packing time prioritising my entertainment!)

I spotted this jacket of a man sitting near me on the plane – an exciting job to have!

The tube, the train and the English sea front now all seem like a long way away as I write this in our home for the next three nights: a centrally-located apartment in Helsinki with the added thrill of use of a sauna and laundry room. Luxury and necessity all in the same basement!

So now it’s time to discover this European city…

Tag: Helsinki

Oodi Central Library

Hounslow to Helsinki