Esplanadi

Park in Helsinki, Finland.

At a glance

Source	Author	Role	In one line
My Miserable Week in the ‘Happiest Country on Earth’ - The New York Times	Molly Young, Julia Whelan, Emma Kehlbeck, Jeremy McLennan	backdrop	On her first evening she walks to the harbor and along the esplanade, finding it empty and wintry compared with how it is described in spring.

My Miserable Week in the ‘Happiest Country on Earth’ - The New York Times — Molly Young, Julia Whelan, Emma Kehlbeck, Jeremy McLennan (2025)

Source: My Miserable Week in the ‘Happiest Country on Earth’ - The New York Times · Original · Readwise highlight

Helsinki’s famous esplanade was empty. In spring the central walkway becomes a riot of flowering crab apples and bare shoulders (I had been told), but now the kiosks were shuttered, the trees skeletal, the paths plowed but untrodden.

• Role: backdrop
• In the article: On her first evening she walks to the harbor and along the esplanade, finding it empty and wintry compared with how it is described in spring.
• Why it matters: A short scene that sets the bleak winter mood; minor beside the saunas and library.