Helsinki marks the farthest north we have been all semester. It was a big shock for us when it started getting dark around 2pm after not really getting light all day. But anyway, we stepped off the ferry to a brisk evening in Helsinki and attempted to reach the central train station where we were meeting our host. In Helsinki, we were trying something new: couchsurfing. This is where we make an agreement to stay at a host’s place and sleep on their couch, exchange stories & culture, and learn to be like a true Finn.
Our host was Kalevi, a Colorado born, Oregon raised, college kid who liked Finland so much he moved there. And guess what, he gets free education, and a small stipend that helps pay the rent each month. In our last email he told us he would meet us at the central train station around 5:30pm and he would be there wearing a red ski jacket. So that’s what we did. But we needed help in getting there so after we bought transportation tickets (one ticket works for all the buses, metro, light rail—it’s great), we walked outside to the bus station and I asked a guy in his mid-twenties, who was wearing a dashing long coat, which bus we should take. He told us to follow him as he was going by the train station and that he would show us. The conversation that ensued showed that he was very friendly and eccentric, contrary to rumors that portray Finns as shy. He was very helpful and after we were within eye shot of the station he left us to go enjoy his evening.
After meeting Kalevi, we went back to his place to drop off our stuff before leaving for the pub crawl. Kalevi runs the “Helsinki Pub Crawl” every other Friday night here which gets people into the pubs free plus discounts on drinks and food, and a good time. Some of Kalevi’s friends always come, and so do newcomers.
Chris also pointed out that our table was exceptionally diverse. Kalevi and I were the only Americans. Then we had an Australian, a Portuguese, a Finn, two German girls (real cool, gonna meet up with them in Berlin), and a Canadian. After realizing this, coincidentally Kalevi joins the neighboring table and a middle-aged man walks up to the table. “Any of you Americans?”
“Yeah, I am,” I reply.
“You know Memphis? Elvis?”
We all say, “yes.”
“Well check out this shirt.” He unzips his zipped jacket. Underneath emerges a bright red shirt that he points out is “made from the same fabric as Elvis’s shirts, in the same style, and by the same tailor.”
“Hmmm. It looks good man.” It’s fairly obvious the guy is pretty drunk. But he’s becoming pretty funny so we continue the conversation.
“You know the white suit he wore? It comes in all different colors. I could get them if I wanted.”
“Oh, wow that’s real cool man.”
Suddenly John looks down and notices the man’s tight leather pants.
“Rock on man, those are some sweet trousers.”
He puts his leg up on the bench. “Yeah, they look good with the shirt.”
Some people got weirded out by his leather pants so they attempted to persuade him to leave; but not before he asked us if we could dance or sing like Elvis.
“I wish I could dance like him.”
A few moments of silence proceeded as neither side knew what to say. Eventually, he raised his glass to us and we said goodbye as he meandered around the pub for a few minutes and then disappeared; or rather, we lost interest.
Anyway, after 5 bars, a pizza, a sprite, and Glögg (a delicious Christmas drink), we packed up and began our trek back to Kalevi’s place. But not before Tiego let me ride his bicycle!
We got to sleep real late, like 4 am late, just hanging out back at Kalevi’s learning about Finland and such. So naturally, we slept super late and left around midday to see the city while Kalevi studied. Immediately upon exiting the metro we stumbled past this place:
After eating, we went to the Modern Art Museum as John likes Finnish art. A little disappointed, as the Moscow MoMA wasn’t great, I reluctantly followed. But it was actually a very good museum. It had a lot of interesting art. One of my favorites was a few videos of this artist who posed as being an intern for a company and then sat at her desk staring off into space doing nothing all day, or rather: thinking. It was fun seeing the emails associates were sending back and forth about her, and how they kept coming back to ask her what she was doing. Another day, she stood in the elevator for most of the day because she “had good thoughts on trains. They move, and so does this elevator, so I thought, you know, that I might have good thoughts in the elevator.” I watched all the videos.
Another cool thing about Finland is that people are encouraged to express themselves. We saw people with purple hair, orange hair, women with partly shaved heads, lots of piercings, etc, and no one bats an eye. This particular intern had a partly shaved hair, but none of the associates with any of their questions commented about her hair. It was very refreshing to see this, as we got the impression that people are rarely judged by their looks here, at least in the corporate and public world.
These two photos were perhaps my favorite exhibits:
Next we decided to walk around the city for a few hours before grabbing food supplies for dinner. We had to make sure we did this by 6pm as most of the shops closed by then, government law.
Tired of walking, we took Kalevi’s advice and boarded the 3T public bus which loops around the city for some sightseeing. At first I was skeptical, and I often found myself dozing off as I kept getting into my transportation/nap mode, reminding myself that wait, this was a tour and I had to stay awake. But after I learned how to balance this, it was quite relaxing and a very comfortable tour of the city. And we were able to get on and off to take pictures because there was always another bus.
Eventually we got hungry and decided to go back to Kalevi’s.
Once home, we broke out the feast material. Important things first:
We got to bed a little earlier this night which was good as we had to get up earlier (8am) to make our ferry, and still get one sight seeing thing done.
Back on the ferry. Sad to leave Helsinki, we relaxed in our chairs and tried to nap before getting back to Tallinn. Helsinki was a very comfortable city and it’s people seemed very relaxed. They still had an impression that they were doing stuff, but it wasn’t like Moscow where everyone seems tense and very directional. The Finns probably have the same purposes as people in Moscow, but they seem to do it with a lot less pressure, stress, or rush. It made for a much more comfortable environment.
On our way to pick up some munchies for our train ride I stopped and admired:
There also was also an E28 that parked near our hostel in Kyiv but I kept telling myself I’d get a picture later, and then later, and then it was gone when we were leaving. 🙁
Anyway, our train arrived and we boarded, already getting started on our munchies.
While drifting asleep I thought that this year would be a good year to invade Russia. The winter is a bit pansy compared to Finland’s, and the Finns kept saying Moscow’s should be much worse because of the wind current tunnel or whatnot. So it would be a lot easier to keep one’s military warm and not freezing to death during invasion. Someone must have heard my thoughts because I was met with a sweet surprise upon my arrival back in Moscow…