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Finland
Helsinki
Winter arrived here only a few days after my return from Cluj, reducing the country at last to the frigid and dreary place I was told to expect. Supposedly the days were getting longer, but little sunlight made its way down through the overcast sky.
Since I wanted to avoid the cold as much as possible, I began exploring the underground spaces under the city centre. It is interesting how far one can go through the centre without coming outside. I went along two paths frequently.
Academic Bookstore to the Railway Station Square
I often spend an hour or two reading travel guides to warm locales like Dubai and India in the Academic Bookstore, notable for its design by Alvar Aalto.
The Academic Bookstore leads to the Stockmann department store through a short tunnel that goes underneath the street.
In Stockmann, one can then proceed to the basement, where a tunnel leads from the camera department towards other shopping areas in the centre.
The tunnel leads to a parking garage for shoppers at the Stockmann and Sokos department stores and the Forum shopping mall.
From the parking garage, one can continue down a short tunnel much like that from Stockmann and takes the elevator up to the food court in the basement of Forum. From the south side of Forum there is a passageway to the Rautatietori metro station.
As far as I can tell, one cannot go any further underground once one has reached the Rautatietori metro station, unless one were to take the metro, which would be cheating.
Railway Station Square to Porthania
From the northwest side of the Railway Station Square, however, one can enter another series of passageways. For me these raised questions of how public and private space can so easily intermingle in Helsinki.
A corridor leads from the street to the arcades of the Kaisaniemi metro station. These run under Kaisanieminkatu and on the southern reaches of Vuorikatu. From there, one can take an elevator up into, of all things, a home-decorating store.
This leads into the Aleksandria Learning Centre of the University of Helsinki, through which one can then continue south through a walkway.
And finally one steps outside again out from the Porthania building.
The enclosed spaces I've walked through are apparently only the tip of the iceberg. One hears rumours of even deeper areas: vast garbage collection spaces, Cold War-era bomb shelters, even a tunnel all the way to Suomenlinna through which ambulances can be run.