Ep. 08 | Hauling Luggage Through Winter Grit: A Helsinki Transit Misadventure

One of the universal dilemmas when traveling across Europe is whether to drag your luggage from the station to the hotel or just give in and hail a cab.

The dilemma deepens the older the city is. Unlike South Korea, where the majority of urban pedestrian infrastructure was built in the modern era, European cities still actively rely on layouts and foundations laid during medieval times or earlier. Sidewalks can be narrow, alleys winding, inclines steep, and—most fatally for rolling suitcases—surfaced with rugged cobblestones.

Visiting Helsinki in the dead of winter adds another layer of complexity: snow and anti-slip grit. When heavy snow falls in Helsinki, the city doesn’t rely heavily on calcium chloride. Instead, maintenance crews spread thick layers of finely crushed granite gravel across sidewalks and roadways. While this grit is exceptionally effective at giving boots traction on slick ice, pulling a four-wheeled rolling suitcase over it is an entirely different story. The tiny sharp stones lodge beneath the wheels, turning smooth rollers into immovable anchors.

I travel often, and while I lean toward being a spontaneous planner, I generally keep my logistics tight. Even so, there are moments on the road where things unravel in bizarre ways.

During a trip to New York back in 2017, for instance, cascading flight cancellations delayed my arrival by a full 24 hours—only for me to land and discover my luggage was still stranded at the departure airport. On that exact same trip, as I stood waiting by the elevator to check out, smoke suddenly began billowing down the hallway, forcing a frantic evacuation down more than thirty flights of emergency stairs. In situations like those, you shrug it off because they are entirely out of your control.

Then there are the other moments—the ones where, looking back, you stare at yourself and ask, “Why on earth did I decide to do that?” The day we returned to Helsinki from Lapland was precisely one of those days.

Helsinki boasts an impressively comprehensive public transit network. It has commuter rail, metro lines, ferries, buses, and an extensive tram system—virtually every mode of urban transport imaginable. Landing at Helsinki Airport, taking the commuter train straight to Helsinki Central Station (Helsingin päärautatieasema) was straightforward.

Since local airport buses also run into the city, I had adjusted my Google Maps transit settings at the airport to display only “Subway” and “Train” results, wanting to filter out the slower bus options. That innocent little filter became the root of all the trouble.

Stepping off the train at Helsinki Central Station, I opened Google Maps again to route our way to the hotel. Two options popped up: a subway ride followed by a 10-minute walk, or a direct 15-minute walk from the station.

I did some quick mental math: taking the metro would take 13 minutes total, but factoring in the time spent waiting for the train and navigating stairs and elevators with heavy bags felt inefficient. A direct 15-minute walk seemed brisk and straightforward.

So, foolishly, I chose to walk.

What was supposed to be a brisk 15-minute stroll turned into an exhausting 20-minute slog. We encountered unexpected uphill stretches, deep slush, and a continuous carpet of sharp gravel grit that completely seized our suitcase wheels. Instead of rolling smoothly, we were practically dragging dead weight through the snow.

By the time we stumbled through the warm revolving doors of the hotel lobby, panting and drenched in sweat beneath our winter coats, the front desk agent took one look at our disheveled state and offered an immediate, deeply empathetic greeting:

“Are you okay?”

The punchline came the next morning. It turned out a direct tram line ran straight from Helsinki Central Station, dropping passengers off virtually at our hotel’s front doorstep with almost zero walking required.

The reason Google Maps hadn’t shown me the tram route was because of the transport filter I had set back at the airport. Seeing trams and buses crisscrossing the street outside every few minutes, I finally checked the app’s settings and unchecked the filter. Instantly, an entire web of convenient trams and bus connections populated the screen.

Looking back, I still don’t fully understand why I felt the urge to apply that filter in the first place—it’s something I rarely do. But travel is made up of these exact unscripted missteps. When plans go sideways, you end up with a memorable workout and a good story to laugh about over dinner.