Helsinki, Finland - August 27-30

(Bill)
We took another 1 hour discount plane ride from Stockholm to Helsinki, Finland. Helsinki is a small city with a much different feel than I had expected. I had expected more of a Russian influence in both architecture and people, but didn’t find much of that anywhere. The younger people are definitely more on the grunge, punk rock side with lots of colored hair, fishnet stockings, leather, and piercings. The architecture is a mix of old and new. The old appearing to be maybe from the early 1900’s and the new being extremely new, signs of the recent strong economy thanks to Helsinki being a technology hub for Europe. There seems to be a lack of historical monuments and museums compared to other cities we have visited. Not really sure why this is.

The weather has turned cold again with highs in the 60’s during the day and lots of rain.

On our first full day in the city we walked to a few churches – one orthodox church from the early 1900’s and one church built into the rocks in the middle of the city from the 1960’s. They were both listed in our guidebooks and the visitors handout as “can’t miss” locations. My opinion – no need to rush to Helsinki to visit these two monuments. Maybe the most interesting thing we saw were two weddings at each church. They were both very small and subdued compared to what we are used to in the US.

The walk back to our hotel was great, next to the harbor, across a huge beautiful promenade, down streets filled with great restaurants, boutiques, and art galleries. It showed me that the city has something to offer tourists beyond its proximity to Russia.

That night we went to a traditional Finnish restaurant. I was determined to try something local so when I saw the reindeer steak I was sold. The steak was great, very sweet and tender but a bit stringy. I had expected it to be gamey but it wasn’t at all.

After dinner we went to a club with an ice bar, something Victoria and I both wanted to experience. The ice bar was nothing more than a huge freezer with see through walls looking out into the club and room for about 12 people. Despite the size, it turned out to be a lot of fun. Before you enter you have to put on a thick, Eskimo looking coat and gloves. Victoria had to change her heels into moon boots. How fashionable! When you go in you understand why. It is about 10 degrees inside and with a shaved head I was freezing. We had a lot of fun inside the ice bar drinking Finnish vodka (Finlandia) and chatting with a group of Finnish guys and a few tourists. At one point Victoria had met a group of CPA’s working for KPMG in Bermuda and pawned them off on me. BORING! Gee, thanks Victoria.

Bill and Victoria’s Russian Visa Fun – Stage 2:
So, it’s not over. Not even close. Decide that you still want to go to Russia because for some reason you just want to and you are committed at this point, find the Russian consulate in Helsinki, Finland, walk there early on Monday morning before it opens with all of the aforementioned visa application forms and accompanying exhibits, see long line already formed while approaching the area where you think the consulate may be, finally reach non-descript, dark Russian consulate and realize the long line is there waiting for you to join, wait outside of consulate in the uniform line for the consulate to open, once the consulate opens watch the line turn into a mob with people who speak Russian jockeying to the front and people who don’t, ummmm us, trying to figure out what is going on, wait, wait, wait while people who press the intercom button and talk to the guard in Russian are let in, wait, wait, wait while other people cut in line and a guy who obviously had taken way too many steroids and spoke only English tried to cut in line and almost got the whole mob to turn against him, wait, wait, wait while the steroid guy talks loudly about his next fight in the UFC, laugh hysterically in your head, wait, wait, wait until you are in the front of the line and the stoic Russian guard says something in Russian through the loudspeaker and opens the electric gate, go in because you just assume you should, what do you have to lose, have the guard come out and tell you, in Russian of course, to go back and wait in line but think he may just take you away to Russia forever for no reason, wait, wait, wait until finally you are let inside the consulate, enter the consulate, have the metal detector go off but notice that nobody cares, notice that there is no funky, circa 1960’s electric number machine thing, notice also that there is no visa interview rooms with smoky glass doors and images of people behind them, try to find something written in English, find a line that says “visa” in English, wait in the line, get to the front of the line and meet with the visa application girl, this time she is not scary, have her review your application and send it to the Diplomat for his stamp of approval, wait, wait, wait for them to call your name, they call your name, be nervous, go meet at window with the un-scary application girl, find out application visa approved, have the application girl tell you to shell out an arm and a leg to get it done the same day, smile, breathe, say fine, have the application girl tell you to go pay at any bank and come back to pick up your visa and passport, leave the consulate and set off the metal detector again, have nobody care, go to the nearest bank, have the nearest bank tell you they only take cash, wonder to yourself if you could just give them your arm and your leg as payment, laugh inside your head, say lots of things to yourself that shouldn’t be repeated, have the bank tell you that a cash machine is right down the street, breathe a sigh of relief, thank the bank profusely, go to the cash machine, insert your ATM card, have the machine tell you it is not receiving foreign cards, say lots of things to yourself that shouldn’t be repeated, walk a mile to the next nearest cash machine, insert your ATM card, insert pin, take out an arm and a leg, think to yourself that the machines should actually have “arm and leg” as an option, laugh to yourself, go back to bank and pay, stop for a caffe latte, take the bank receipt to the Russian consulate, try to cut in line because you think you know what you are doing, have the rest of the line yell at you in Russian, put your American tail between your legs and go to the back of line, wait, wait, have a new stoic guard let you into the consulate with minutes to spare, get your visa and passport from the un-scary visa girl, have her tell you to “have a nice trip to Russia”, think to yourself that her comment is kind of funny considering what you have been through, think to yourself that you have somehow accomplished or won something, smile and thank the un-scary visa lady profusely, leave the consulate and set off the metal detector again, have nobody care, breathe!

(Victoria)
The step-sister of Scandinavia is how Finland is often regarded. In fact, we were told multiple times in Copenhagen and Norway, as if they needed to clarify: “Finland, well is different.” It is on the Euro, unlike its neighbors. It is flat and without the beautiful skiing mountains of the others. And it is the only one whose language is not understood within each country. Yet, it feels as if poor Finland has gotten a bum rap.

Helsinki is a small city that possesses a quiet charm. It is a city surrounded by water where wharfs, sailboats, and marchinery sit together. It has ornate 19th century buildings alongside sleek glass modern structures (somehow it avoided the tackiness of 1970s architecture). Winding cobbled streets to get lost in and yet a sense of city planning. Tree lined avenues, Parisian-style promenades, parks, cafes, and multiple squares that are filled with pink-haired punk youth. Hip minimal designer restaurants paired with traditional fare: reindeer, pigs knuckle, perch, smoked herring. For the record, I tried a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, miniscule, tiny, tiny piece of reindeer. No, I’m not ordering a steak next but I was curious.

The Ice Bar was hilarious! The very first thing we noticed was that the Finnish have no rhythm. I don’t mean a few people were bad dancers or the guys were a bit shy about dancing. I mean the dance floor was packed, the songs playing had a clear beat, and absolutely everyone was off – men and even women...it was as if their hips had been programmed differently. There was the token guy with an enthusiastic arm flailing raindance routine, but most people just plain could not dance. Bill said he felt like John Travolta all of a sudden.

Once we tired of people watching in the night club, we headed to the Ice Bar. Bill and I had to wait in line to get into this freezer-size establishment. We had to adorn fuzzy full length coats, gloves, and I got the additional moon boots. It all made for a great conversation piece and we immediately met lots of folks who wanted to chat – although it may have been the complimentary “grapefruit” drink we were handed. We did meet a group of friendly Finnish and had a great time chatting. They were very concerned about our opinion of Finland and were stunned to know we came there on purpose. From them we learned that the Finns are required to learn both Finnish and Swedish in elementary school and that all street signs are in both languages. They also then learn a third of their choice – usually English – when in high school. We made our way home around 4 am laughing about our experiences.

(Oddities or Things We Noticed)
Greeting: ”Hey, hey.”

The Finnish are friendly, but a bit subdued. As everyone threw rice at the newly married couples there was the occasional whispered “yeah”, but no enthusiastic cheering or clapping – except for the boisterous Spanish tourist who also seemed to notice the lack of hurrahs.

People speak very quietly here. I constantly felt as if my voice was booming, but then Bill was continually saying, “Huh, I can’t hear you.”

Small wine pours that are measured precisely with a wine measurer. Had to order “doubles” for an American style pour.

Much less expensive here.

Finnish sounds really different from any language I’ve ever heard. It is less harsh than Norwegian, but not quite Latin sounding. We could not make any connection to any familiar Latin-based words. Even wine was unrecognizable and we can usually decipher that one!