Metro

Okay, I confess....

It's dirty. It's crowded. It's dirty. BUT...

I love the Metro!

There, I said it.

So does Jane, actually. It is STILL exciting for Jane to go somewhere on the Metro (after 3 months!). She loves to watch it pull up outside our living room window (yes it is that close). She loves going on errands with me if it includes a ride on, "Our choo choo train Metro." She loves finding that big orange M sign, riding the escalators or elevators, choosing a seat, and smiling at anyone around us. I surprised a Finnish friend this weekend when I told them people were usually friendly and talked to us on the public transportation. He had never heard of that before. Usually they are admiring my beautiful children. Who can help it?

I was so worried about not having a car in Helsinki, but I LOVE not having a car. We just pack the kids up in the carriage, all snug and warm, and hit the road. No scraping windows on cold mornings. No cold car seats. By-the-way, it's TOTALLY free for people with a baby carriage. It's pretty cheap if you are not pushing a carriage. No finding or paying for parking. No gas and pollution. We live SO close, it's only a few more meters than walking out to the parking lot anyway. Even though we live so close, we almost cannot hear it in our apartment, it's so quiet. It comes every 5-10 minutes. I have read that you cannot go anywhere in the Helsinki metropolitan area and be further than 30 meters from a public transit stop. Really, I think it's true... except in the forests, maybe.