Li - Nun - Mä - Key
(The "ä" is like the "a" in "cat")
The weather was fantastic and we decided to spend it at the Linnanmäki amusement park in Helsinki, Finland. My wife has been when she was young, but this was the first time for Smallsteps and myself. I have never been much of an amusement park person, but I have enjoyed them when I have been earlier. Though, I was never great with most of the rides and old age means that I was a bit dizzy after the carousel - the baby's carousel that is.
Kids are extreme these days.
Linnanmäki is in Helsinki city about 2 kilometres from the heart of the city. A walk in good weather or an Uber/taxi is easy enough.
The difficult part for us was deciding which ticket to get. The cheaper one with the kids rides didn't have much for the family, and the more expensive one we would barely use most of the rides attached. However, with some deliberation, we took the more expensive one.
Smallsteps lives up to her name and at almost 9 years of age, is only 124 cm tall, This means that she couldn't go on many of the larger rides, even if she wanted to, as they were minimum 130 - 140. However, she did get to go on her first rollercoaster and it was nice that we were all together for the occasion. Not only that, it is pretty unique, as it is an old, rickety, wooden one and has what they call a "Brake Master" who not only manually controls the speed, but does so whilst standing at the back of the carriage. You can see her in red behind, and there are supposedly not many rollercoasters in the world that still have them.
Originally in the 1950s, Finnish fighter pilots did the job.
Smallsteps still doesn't know if she loved or hated it.
She loved it.
And this one...
No.
Nor this one.
I quite like rollercoasters as does my wife, as long as they don't spin and rock back and forth like the pirate ship. But with the height restrictions, we would have had to leave Smallsteps behind, or go individually, and that wasn't worth it. However, the first ride of the day was dodgem cars, except it was for Gen-Z snowflakes and there was no intentional hitting allowed and everyone had to go in the same direction. Smallsteps was driving as Oscar Piastri in my car and I did the pedal and despite my wife choosing to be Valtteri Bottas, we lapped her four or five times and teased her each time for good measure.
Not all Finns can drive fast apparently.
And even though we didn't go on the bigger rides, we had fun by getting into the smaller ones with Smallsteps. Rather than be the parents that stand back and watch calmly, we were carrying on and shouting and laughing like lunatic asylum patients.
The Ferris wheel scares me still.
But again I had to hide it.
And that was what made me dizzy.
Babies were pointing and laughing at me.
We ate lunch there, and it was as expected - expensive and not great. But, it had enough fat energy provisions to push us well into the evening. We spent about 7 hours there all up and saw and did what we aimed for, and it felt about right. Lots of walking in the sun, but it was warm and even hot, which meant that the "cooldowns" were welcome, rather than uncomfortable.
The cooldowns came in the form of the river rapids that spray a bit of water, but on one run (we did three throughout the day) I ended up half under the waterfall. Smallsteps had a blast in there, and my wife screamed every time. It was short, but a lot of fun.
The lines to the attractions were not nearly as bad as I have experienced at other places, but a couple of times we had to wait 15 or 20 minutes to get onto the ride. This wasn't unpleasant given the weather, and we had plenty of time to talk about what we had done, or planned to do.
I came close to getting a prize.... But not close enough.
I am a failure as a husband and a father.
(And that isn't sweat on my shirt - Smallsteps and I went into a water jet obstacle course and I lost)
For Smallsteps first real amusement park experience, I think that this hit the right tone of fun and excitement, without being too intense. It was an easy day together and it took up the entirety of the day, so if going, give it some time. After, we headed into the city to grab some dinner, and then back to the hotel for a quick swim to cool off.
This was a better day than either my wife or I expected it to be, and Smallsteps had a blast. There is heaps to do in Helsinki though, and tomorrow we are going to continue on with a couple more museums and then just chilling around until we head back home to end our mini holiday away.
Taraz
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