Although working as a travel reporter for a period of time, I have never been to any Northern European Countries. With cool weather and gorgeous natural environment, those destinations are like dream places for me. Thanks for the budget airline that brought me from England to Finland, I was so excited about the Summer weather in Finland and heard that “midnight sun” would appear too. They even had longer daylight than that in Aberdeen which I have visited a week before. I stayed just in the middle of the country. In the private room of a hostel, I was working in front of the window…I kept checking the time…well…11:30pm, still bright enough to read a book…12 midnight…oh…still bright enough to see the outline of the buildings?! I have never experienced a long day like that!! And it was so cool to have light breeze and warm sunlight.

在 Tampere 午夜的夜空仍沒有黑，但住在這裡的人說，其實太陽已落下，只殘存著一點光，不過，大概零晨三時，太陽又再徐徐升起。

Besides Helsinki, the capital of Finland, I visited two other towns called Turku and Tampere also. And my first impression about Finland was…sparse population and few cars on the road, which made it nice and comfortable to walk. Those cities are small and can be explored by foot. On the contrary, Helsinki is quite “touristic” compared with these two little towns. But you could still find some designer stores with outstanding and creative products. Even the market square is overcrowded everyday with the cruise ships’ passengers, I was happy to have my quick lunch there everyday.

This trip was full of joy and my last stop before Turku in Helsinki was an excursion to a sea fortress. It took just 15 minutes from the market square to the fortress by ferry and I stayed almost 3 – 4 hours on the island. What’s so special there? Nothing spectacular indeed. Sometimes you should not expect too much before you go. Then you might be surprised and even find the most beautiful destination in the trip. No task and no hurry, one can never be disappointed. Travel only, and truly, with your heart.

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以往一直是旅遊記者，卻從未有機會踏足北歐，今次終於夢想成真，多謝廉價航空，讓我找到容易的方法，把我由英國帶到芬蘭去。而芬蘭最令我著迷的是天然的風景及冷天氣，無錯，我是愛冰凍天氣的人，今次夏季到這邊，卻可體會超長的日光。在芬蘭較北的區域甚至出現「午夜太陽」，但我此行沒有往北走，只留在中部的地區。我住在青年旅舍的私人房，尚有點小空間，在窗前工作時我特別留意天氣及時間，已到十一時半，天未黑，光線仍足夠看書，十二時，我發現周遭的建築物仍充滿輪廓，日光仍在，真叫人著迷。我實在未試過感受這樣的日長時間，就算早前在蘇格蘭東北部的 Aberdeen，仍未至於芬蘭的日照般長。柔和光線及和暖的風，亦令我非常喜歡她。

此行除首都赫爾辛基外，我還到過兩個市鎮叫 Turku 及 Tampere。相比首都，小鎮的寧靜及人少車少，絕對值得用雙腳徒步漫遊。當然，赫爾辛基是另一種風情，旅客多集中在市集廣場，旅遊方式卻不同，我特別欣賞她的設計小店及設計品，而市集廣場也沒什麼不妥，就算都充滿了郵輪客也好，我仍很享受每天到市集攤檔，尋找快餐醫肚。

此行充滿探索性的快樂，而臨別赫爾辛基往 Turku 之前，我往一個海島城堡去。海城堡距市集廣場只是 15 分鐘的船程，處於一個離鳥之上。你問我，有什麼特別要登島看嗎？其實並沒有計劃看什麼。有時，當你無計劃，舒服的逛逛，會發現更動人的美麗。小島可以慢走，走畢全程都不過幾小時，沒有期待着什麼的感覺更有趣，隨意地，更加真實。

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