There’s a saying in nepali: “Najik ko devata helaa”. Roughly translates to not appreciating the nearby deity. I’d been meaning to take a ride on the newly operational tram line “Raide-Jokeri” in Helsinki but procrastination got the better of me. Apparently it is not even called tram, but rather is a Light rail. 🤷‍♂️

Anyways, I finally got around to it after I got a new lens for my Olympus E-M5 III. A neat little wide angle lens, the Panasonic Leica DG Summilux DC 9mm F1.7. It was a bright winter day, and the temperature had come to around cosy -5°C after several days of 20+ degrees below zero. I headed into the city center with a route plan. The 25km line replaces the previous 550 bus route through Ring I of Helsinki. As you can see from the map, it is not actually a “Ring”. If you are bothered by this, then you should see Helsinki’s Ring II 😜.

With a day ticket of the city’s public transport, I first took a train (aka heavy rail?) to the central railway station. There might have been a plan to capture some images of morning commute vibes, but that took a hit as I woke up late and by the time I reached the city center it was already lunch time. I had agreed to meet a friend for lunch so took the metro(subway) two stops west from the center to Ruoholahti.

Walking along the Canal at Ruoholahti after a nice burger lunch:

From there, I again hopped on the metro to head further west to Keilaniemi, the starting point of the Helsinki light rail 15. Not many people at the (fairly newish) Keilaniemi metro station, so I tried to capture this cliche image:

Got out to the surface and my anticipated ride was waiting. I actually forgot to check the departure time, and it took off as I was checking the photo in my camera screen after taking this picture.

The next one came after 10 mins and I headed towards Otaniemi. Plan was to explore the university campus and see the many things that have changed since I was working there. Did a nostalgia walk between two consecutive tram stops at the either end of the campus.

Got on the ride again and sat on a window seat and just enjoyed the view as it went across the neighbourhoods. Didn’t feel like taking pics from inside except for this situation of a Tesla in trouble.

And eventually reached the final destination in Itäkeskus:

Took the metro once again towards the city center and got off at the University of Helsinki stop. Needed to visit a shop and passed by the white church on the walk there. The evening pink light hitting the church’s dome looked nice.

Walked back to the central railway station and took the train back home. A nice relaxing day, I should say!