Helsinki trip part II - how not to use public transportation from the airport

Despite best intentions I fumbled the ball in getting myself from the Helsinki airport to my hotel (Citybox Helsinki). I had installed the HSL app. I had watched a few YouTube videos on how to navigate the process. Thought I was ready. Maybe I was semi-delirious from being 21+ hours in transit by the time I arrived. Maybe I panicked. But I'll explain below what I did and what I should have done. I mean, I did obviously get myself to the hotel. It just wasn't as clean as it should have been.

First, some nice pics of the train station connected to the Helsinki airport.

You start with a minimalist escalator setting that takes you to the platforms. Playing opera on the screen. (On the departure ride it was ballet. Classy.)

Took a vertical perspective, too, for some sense of the descent.

First part was easy enough. Paid for my ticket at one of the machines.

Got myself on the train. Signage was clear enough ...

And the train car itself was clean, quiet, pleasant.

Once on the train is where things got squirrely. In retrospect maybe I could have prepped a bit better. After spending 5 days using the HSL app it's easy to see what I should have done. What I clearly should not have done is reflexively open up Google Maps and try to figure it out from there. That led me down the path of getting off at Pasila / Mall of Tripla (which is nice; some pics toward the bottom). And that involved walking around in the rain for a few minutes trying to figure out what my next connection was before I bailed and called a Bolt.

There is a learning curve in understanding exactly what you're looking at in the app. I'll try to explain it a bit below.

First, open up the app and enter your start / finish points. In this case, the airport and the Citybox hotel.

You are then presented with a variety of options. All of these show all the info you need to make your choice, once you understand what it is you're looking at. There is the walk time between connections. There is the type of transit you're looking at for each leg. Purple is the train. Blue is the bus. Red is the Metro (unless it's the red bus, which I don't fully understand tbh). And Green is the tram. You can decide if you want to minimize walking time. Or maybe you're okay walking if that means you're not waiting outside for a bus. Whatever your preference. Here are a couple of screenshots of the options I would have had to get to the hotel from the airport.

One thing that is not super obvious is that much of the walking time may be undeground. Like the walk at the airport assumes leaving from baggage claim or something. But it's all covered and simple. Similarly the walk time from the train to the metro is also mostly if not entirely covered.

You can then click into the step by step details of each option, which show you the direction of the train / tram / bus, the stops you go through, and a handy map integration so you know exactly how to get between legs of your journey. That map tool became super handy as I learned my way taking the trams over the next few days.

So my trip should have been dead simple. Take the I or P train all the way to Helsinki Central. Then grab the metro one stop and finish with an easy walk. But then I never would have had the opportunity to take these pics of the Mall of Tripla around rush hour. Another Burger King!