I am staying in Otaniemi, a student neighborhood of Espoo, a town across a bay from Helsinki (15 minutes from downtown Helsinki by bus). At this point of the year Otaniemi is nearly empty, and in combination with some 70s architecture it makes a somewhat grim impression, so I tend to spend all of my free time in downtown Helsinki. This day, however, I came back a little early and decided to go and watch the sunset from the shore nearby. It was a gorgeous sunset.

You might notice that they bay looks a lot like a lake – e.g., there is grass growing from the water. Apparently, the water in the Gulf of Finland is quite fresh, containing about 1/10 as much salt as the ocean water, making it the freshest sea water in the world People say sea water here borderline drinkable, though you probably wouldn’t want to drink it due to the pollution.