Hello from my home in Helsinki! This is NordLetter #, a weekly newsletter on living and walking in Finland. Each week I share some of the interesting things I found on the web.
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Three years ago, as my then room-mate and friend, and now avid reader of this newsletter, had gone back to India to bring his wife to Finland with him, I was looking for a new flat for myself.
I had been to India as well, and had met Prerna by then. We were going to get married as well, so I needed to move out and find a place for us.
One of the flats I saw was in Kruunuvuorenranta. It was a new apartment, with a beautiful view to the sea and a K-Market nearby. The problem was that there was a long winding road to get to my office. I would have to take a bus. During the summers I could have cycled. But still. The person selling renting me the apartment had mentioned that a bridge would soon get built directly linking this place to the city centre. Then, the rents in this area would go high and so on.
I did not rent out this apratment. I did eventually find an apartment in Matinkyla, where we lived for the next three years, before moving back to Helsinki.
Today, I went and saw the apartment via the bridge that was supposed to be constructed soon.
Kruunuvuori Bridge is Finland’s longest bridge and it links Kruunuvuorenranta in the eastern suburb of Laajasalo with central Helsinki. The bridge opened last Saturday. I saw a bunch of posts on social media. The bridge opened to pedestrians first and then to the cyclists in the evening.
If you know me, you know I don’t like crowds, so I had decided to visit the bridge sometime next week, i.e. this week. A few other people seemed to have had the same idea. I saw a bunch of people with their cameras out, taking pictures with the bridge. It reminded me a bit about crossing the Brooklyn Bridge without the Manhattan skyline. Of course the crown bridge is shorter. I know.
It was a windy, rainy day today. It had been sunny all through last week. So of course, there’s rain and some snow today. What’s spring without some snow in April?
I wanted to recreate my walks from my time living in Helsinki (in Merihaka). I took a tram to Hakaniemi and decided to walk from there to the bridge.
The crown bridges project is three bridges in total - Merihaansilta (connecting Merihaka to Kalasatama), Finkensilta (connecting Kalasatama to the zoo) and Kruunuvuorensilta (the crown bridge). Merihaka and Finke bridges were open since long. This was my first time using these bridges though.
Walking through Merihaka and toward the first bridge, I kept feeling like this was a new place. My memories of this place are from a time when they had dug up this entire place, and I would walk through a new route every few weeks. It felt settled now, I could almost imagine a tram going through this area, making it hip and cool.
This place would always feel like home to me. And so I’m happy it’s cool now.
I continued walking and went past the public sauna that has always been there. I went past the Helen power plant - I had seen huge ships docked here, unloading coal perhaps. How would that work now? I wondered. Did they shut down the plant? This place might have been at the periphery of the city at some point, it isn’t now. People don’t want polluting plants in the middle of the city.
And just like that, I was in Kalasatama now. I remember how long getting to Kalasatama had been in the past. Bridges, people! Bridges!!
We have had so many lunches in Kalasatama, it used to be my dream location to live in Helsinki. I saw it from a different side now. Just passing by. I saw the places we had sat in. I saw the Mustikkamaa island from a far. I saw the bridge that went from the island to the zoo. The bridge that I had not crossed then. I was at the Korkeasaari Zoo now.
All this after passing the second bridge - Finke.
I continued walking and was soon at the star of the show.
The crown bridge is beautiful and elegant. It is a cable stayed bridge, with one tall tower in the middle, cables running from which support the deck.
The left side of the bridge had tram lines running through it. The right side was for pedestrians and cyclists. Right side if you’re going from the zoo side.
There were joggers and cyclists going about their routines. There were also people like me, who were here to see the bridge.
I climbed to the middle, and wondered if I should return from here. I decided not to and went down to the other side. It had started raining by then. I stood under a shade for a bit. Waiting, and wondering where was the flat I had come to see. I opened up my map and found a singular K-market right across the sea from me. I remembered where the house had been.
And I wondered if I had made the right choice then.
I did not dwell too much on that though. The rain had dissipated for the time being. I wondered if I should take a bus from here. But the bus would take 38 mins to get to where I needed to go to. See what I mean?
So, I decided to walk back up the crown bridge and the other two bridges after that.
If you do come to see the bridge, the view is better from this side, the Kruunuvuorenranta. You get to see the Helsinki skyline in the distance - the church, the massive ferries waiting at the dock, the three skyscrapers in Kalasatama.
As I said earlier, walking on this bridge reminded me of walking on the Brooklyn bridge. I think people visiting Helsinki will similarly be walking on this bridge.
I can’t imagine hawkers selling stuff on this bridge as they do on the Brooklyn bridge though.
If you enjoyed reading this, and know someone else who might, please consider forwarding this to them. It would help this grow and make me happy. 😄
Until next week.