More scenes from Helsinki

It is starting to get colder, rainier, and a little darker now in Helsinki. A friend and I had drinks on top of a historic downtown hotel, Hotel Torni, with a spectacular view of central Helsinki.



As a testament to the upcoming cold, the outside balconies keep a stash of communal blankets available so you can continue to sip your martinis and ciders outside, even as the temperature starts to edge down to 0 degrees Celcius.

One way to cope with the darkness is to...just ignore it. A week ago I went for a run around the "lake" (actually more pond-size, and actually neither a lake nor a pond but a small bay) near by apartment. It was quite late, about 9pm, and dark by then, but the trail was full of joggers and "Nordic walkers" and bikers resolutely getting in their exercise. Impressive, and comforting to know that the outsides won't become lonely just because the sun chooses to be elsewhere for most of the day.



The "lake" is called Töölönlahti and I love having it nearby. The opera building and several restaurants overlook the water. It's a far cry from Chicago, where we live 1.5 miles from the lakefront and a few square meters of grass still qualify as a park.

Weekend 4: Viva Estonia!

On Saturday September 8th I decided to take a day trip to Tallinn, capital of Estonia, for fun, city exploration, and perhaps even a little non-Euro shopping experience.

The trip didn't start propitiously. In a not-unexpected example of over-ambitious behavior, I decided to try to catch the 8am ferry on a Saturday morning without pre-booking a ticket and without actually knowing exactly where the proper ferry terminal was located. I almost forgot my passport. I didn't have any tourist information about Estonia at all. I arrived at the ferry port exactly seven minutes before the ferry was supposed to leave, saw an enormous line at the passport control, and was told that they couldn't sell me a ticket less than 10 minutes before departure.

Then someone took pity on the glazed-eyed American and they let me buy a ticket, I was the last person through Passport Control, and...I was off!



On arriving in Tallinn, of course I immediately got lost but that turned out to be a good thing. It was still early and the Old Town was quiet, letting me wander down cobblestone streets looking up at church steeples in peace.






Of course, later on in the day it got a little more crowded.


I also spent some time in the Kumu Art Museum, located in a beautiful new building which is unfortunately nowhere near the Old Town. I signed up for one of those audio bus tours to get there, but of course missed the return trip and had to taxi back to the land of the tourists. However, I think it was worth it.

There was one exhibit filled only with sculptures of famous people's heads, and they had piped in audio clips of (some?) people talking such that, as you approached the room, it sounded as if there were a large cocktail party going on.



And of course, there was other art. I really liked this drawing.



There are also numerous smaller museums scattered about the city and especially the Old Town, but frankly they weren't that interesting. Mostly exhibits of period costumes next to plaques listing historical facts in several languages (English was usually fourth). However, there was one piece of Estonian history which caught my eye: a figure of a Don Quixote-lookalike titled: "Old Thomas". Perhaps I have more roots in Estonia than I realized.

New York in Helsinki

Stockmann's is the premier department store in Helsinki and you can buy everything there. It combines elements of Macy's, Nordstrom's, Target, Best Buy, and your favorite grocery store, not to mention a coffee shop and an ice cream stand. More importantly, it is conveniently a block from where I work, so I have gone there at least twice a week (and occasionally, twice in one day, since arriving.)

However, it has been a little less appealing in the last week or so, since they undertook this extensive new ad campaign for fall. After traveling all this way to experience Nordic culture, Stockmann's is doing its best to indoctrinate everyone into...New York culture. Or, frankly, anything that is associated with the U.S.

This means that the candy area I reliably count on for my Fazer chocolate fix is now filled with Hershey's, Pepperidge Farm chocolate chip cookies, Oreos, and marshmallow creme. The men's clothing area sports Timberland and Tommy Hilfiger. "It's a New York state of mind" by Billy Joel is on constant replay on all seven floors of the store. And enormous ads with "New York" in meter-high letters are everywhere.



I don't know if it makes me a little homesick, or just makes me feel as if I shouldn't have bothered coming all this way. Plus, it is a little sad that a people with access to such absolutely excellent chocolate should ever feel they have to buy Hershey's. What a tragic waste.

My new favorite drink

I have discovered something wonderful about living in Finland. Well, there are many wonderful things, but this is about a drink. Sadly, not a fancy alcohol drink, but something easily available in the drinks closet at work (well, until someone, usually me, runs through the stash.

I am referring to delicious, fruity, calorie-free Apple-Pear Fanta. It's like someone knew that these were my two favorite fruit flavors and put them them into this one drink so they could live together in joyous and refreshing harmony. It could only be more perfect if that someone had remembered to add some caffeine as well.

Weekend 3: Fireworks exhibition

I really scored with my apartment location. Not only am I within easy walking distance of downtown and work, but there is a pond/lake nearby which is perfect for running and also for viewing any number of cultural goings-on. On this last Friday night, for example, it was the site of a fireworks shakedown between four competing companies vying for the "best fireworker" title (...ok, I made the title up, but I think it would be appropriate.)

Unfortunately, I didn't realize how many other people like fireworks -- the streets were a madhouse. Several thousand clustered in front of the Parliament building for a good view...

(What you can't see is that every single one of those people is either holding a bottle of wine or standing by a convenient twelve-pack. There is a lot of public alcohol consumption during festival-like outdoor events.)

I had a great view of the fireworks on my way home. Apologies for the crappy picture quality -- it's a new camera and I don't know where the "night" setting is yet.

Weekend 2: Suomenlinna!

Suomenlinna is a fortress whose original name (Sveaborg) meant "Swedish Fortress" but now, for obvious reasons, it is called Suomenlinna instead ("Finnish Fortress"). It is the pre-eminent cultural attraction in Finland and the 2nd-most-often visited tourist attraction (after a water park - no joke).

A breezy 15-minute ferry ride takes me to Suomenlinna, where in the grand tradition of all my other travel experiences to date, I get lost. Suomenlinna is a collection of 5-6 islands (two original islands were bridged together some time ago) connected by narrow wooden bridges. Due to my poor sense of direction, I only actually made it to two of these islands, but according to the tour guide they were the most popular and interesting islands anyway so I'll leave it at that. (note: the tourist website says 8 islands but I stick with what the tour guide told me... :)

There are 850 permanent residents on these islands, as well as a plentiful supply of tourists during the non-dark months. As it is a popular picnicking destination, there were also crowds of university students arriving in small mobs laden with 12-packs of beer they don't have to bother carrying discreetly here -- public alcohol consumption is just fine!

Among the interesting bits of trivia I learned:

• The fortress wall was originally supposed to be 40 kilometers long and take only four years to complete, but 40 years (and eight kilometers) later they finally backed off of that plan. Turns out the rock is really really hard on Suomenlinna.
  
• The soldiers who were staffed to build the fortress wall had a tough life. They slept three to a mattress for warmth, with mattresses washed every six years and only replaced after 18 years. Needless to say, disease was a problem.
  
• Suomenlinna is now a UNESCO World Heritage site - hurray! One down, several hundred left to go...
  

Suomenlinna screams "picnic here!"

Some courtyard building were painted in bright colors while the fortress was under Russian possession...

The quintessential image of Suomenlinna is this helmet and sword which covers the tomb of the first commander of the fortress.

Food food food

My eating experiences in Helsinki have been a little sporadic to date. Despite my self-acknowledged status as a foodie, the crazy-high exchange rate with the Euro ($1.38 to one Euro) compel me to save money wherever possible.

So, I have been buying lots of groceries, scavenging food from the substantial repositories kept at work, and otherwise avoiding restaurant meals entirely. (To date: three real restaurant meals eaten with coworkers at lunchtime, one take-out pizza and two rather-mediocre takeout Thai meals for dinner.)

Despite the not-quite-monklike asceticism of my new eating habits, I find the scavenging options suit me well here. Smoked fish is delicious, salad makings are easy, and even the smallest of kiosk-like grocery stores carries a plentiful and varied supply of yummy delicious cheese.

A typical meal is below: Arugula mixed with "slightly salted" smoked trout, and served with these delicious whole grain rye crackers that not even the most whole-earthy of US grocery stores seems to deign to carry. I love them. What you don't see is the thick layer of cheese I am about to dab on those crackers.



Unfortunately, the second picture shows the reason why I will not be returning to the US a sprightly 20 pounds lighter. The chocolate here is fantastically better than US chocolate. In this case, they wedged a full fruit-filled chocolate on top of a shortbread wafer and marketed the whole thing as a typical cookie. I choose to keep secret the number of these so-called cookies that I ate in one sitting...