Finland • Suomi

It was the first flight for me and for Anička too. I was a bit afraid, but there is nothing to worry about, it's almost the same as traveling by bus. Flying is quiet boring overall, but except takeoff. It was very exiting when the plane arrived at the runway, prepared to takeoff and then started moving with huge acceleration! Then happen nothing interesting. I was enjoying landing, when we were watching Helsinki from the sky, but took off was much better experience.

When took off to Helsinki with less than an hour delay, because our plane was repairing, actually we saw our plane in front of the airport building. We flew witch a different plane, we should fly with Airbus A320-200 and instead of we flew with Boeing 737-500. Everybody had to recognize, that this airplane remembers lots of flights. We flew against the wind at the speed of 650 km/h at the elevation above sea-level 11 km. During our return flight to Prague, we had delay again, because the flight from Prague was delayed. At this time we flew with the right plane (Airbus A320-200), which was much more luxury and we flight faster, about 830 km/h.

We flew with ČSA and we bought plane ticket in Pilsen (Czech Republic) at the Student Agency. Plane tickets were sold to us by my friend Terezka Zamazalová and I would like to make a small promotion by this :-). Plane tickets, insurance and all else managed with maximum willingness and for our full satisfaction.

Helsinki Metropolitan Area Council provides transport in Helsinki and in Espoo, Kauniainen and Vantaa too. You can go by series of trams, plenty of busses, one divided subway line and boat. I was surprised, that they don't have trolley. In addition you can go by a train, but only by regional train. On InterCity, InterCity 2 and Pendolino are not valid tickets for city transport.

We were buying ticket at the driver, ticket vendor (Lippuautomaatti), where you could pay cash, by credit card or by Helsinki card, which we didn't have. You can by a ticket aboard by your Helsinki card. 60 minutes ticket costs 2 € at the ticket vendor and 2.20 € at the driver. One-day touristic ticket costs 6 € and is valid for 24 hours since payment. Travel from the airport Vantaa to the center on Rautatientori cost 3.80 € by bus.

You can find a tourist tram, so you can easily make a sight-seeing tour through Helsinki. We got map with train halts at the information centre and there was some information about each stop.

Busses and trams have all stops as request stop. You board the bus only by the front door, so you go along the driver and he checks your ticket validity. Tram's door is opened by pressing button next to doors. Subway stops on each stop and opens all doors. Boat doesn't have any entering doors.

Trains are absolutely tiptop. They are incomparable with trains from the Czech Republic. I say, as a joke, that worst Finnish train is better than best Czech train.

They have four types of trains – regional, InterCity, InterCity 2 and Pendolino. Regional trains drives only round big cities, doesn’t go nowhere farther. Regional train is at all ordinary and may be one the one comparable train with Czech trains. InterCity and InterCity 2 are almost the same, but they have different wagons, InterCity 2 has all wagons double-decked. Pendolino is very comfortable train. We tried all kinds of train using the second class and we experienced very great journey every time!

InterCity, InterCity 2 and Pendolino trains are very luxury; they are equipped by high seats, which are infinitely adjustable. In front of you there is tilting table and infinitely adjustable leg holder. All trains have air-conditioning and are low-rise. There is a lift in double-decked wagons, which is used by stewardess. She goes with a cart and offers to you something to eat or drink. It's like in a plane. On single-decker wagon there is a LED display, which informs you about next stop; on double-decker wagon there are larger LCD displays. Information about next stop are provided by a notice on display and audio message. Information’s are in Finnish, Swedish and English. You can see a map of railway station on the LCD display on sort of stations. Your ride is absolutely quiet and you didn't recognize, that you are moving 160 km/h. Trains are very clean and you'll not despise to touch anything on WC. On InterCity 2 train there is available radio in your arm rest, you just plug common jack from your headphones and you can choose from five radio stations and you can change volume. Quiet common are 230 V sockets for you notebook or mobile phone charger, there was a Wi-Fi network on Pendolino. May be every other had a notebook on Pendolino.

On the other hand I must say that trains are rather expensive. We bought InterRail One Country Pass for three days for 71 €, bud there is no problem to pay 30 € for an hour journey. They can take the liberty to setup this price, because quality of transport is very, very high.

Asi nic zvláštního, snad je to, že na zastávkách nemají názvy zastávek a ani jízdní řády a stejně to vypadá, že si jezdí, jak chtějí. Autobusy taky nejsou levné, 11 km stálo asi 6 €, naštěstí nám dávali 50% slevy pro studenty a nechtěli videt průkazku, ISIC údajně neplatí, tak jsem ho radši neukazoval.