Helsinki (Finland)
02 AUG - 04 AUG
Big love for Helsinki
So ladies, if a nice spritely Finnish man walks up to you one day and whispers the words, 'Miltee se tuntus viela joskas muata meijan sukuhauvass', don't look at him like his downed one to many shots of Findlandia! Get out your Google translators and relish the opportunity to discover what exactly that interpretations mean. I can say this however, the close equivalent is something about - 'How would you feel about lying in the same family grave someday'. It's only then, when you truly understand the core of what the man is saying that you can reply with that kind and underderstanding Australian response that we're reknowed for, 'Piss off you moron!'...but, just in case you need to know a little more, apparently this particular linguistic style is particular to the Savo of Eastern Finland. They also have a manner of describing things or asking things in a very confusing but descriptive manner, so this young buck, the man of your Finnish dreams, has apparently just proposed to you and would like for you to be his wife - a little better than an Aussie, ' 'carn, do you wanna or what?'. I know, it's just a heads up but you never know your luck in a big city, or a small Eastern Finnish town, apparently.
My small love for Helsinki
Flying the 2.5 hours from Paris and landing at Helsinki's Vantaa airport, all I could see around me for miles were tall wooded pine forests, I guess not surprising since three quarters of the land surface of Finland is apparently covered by forest. What's more, the streets were kind of deserted and you could only really assume from that that the 5.2 million Finns were either EasyJet paranoid and hiding in the forests or perhaps in one of their 2 million sauna's,seriously, what's the caper with the 'getting steamed' compulsion? That's the equivalent of one sauna to every nuclear Finnish family - WHY FINLAND? WHY????? What's with that!!?
Enough of the Finnish weirdness for a moment and totally forgetting the length of your arm words with double, triple or quadruple vowels all in a row that make you sound like you're choking on a sack of marbles if you dare pronounce words such as 'stop', 'help', 'cat', or dog. A quick history lesson on where these little Swedish retarded cousins came from, and just before I do, isn't it funny how the retarded cousins of big brother countries are always fiesty and a little competitive, just like the Finns with the Swedes, or with Canadians and the Americans, but the big brothers are always kind of patting them on the head saying 'there, there', and then wiping the floor with their pithy exploits. Anyway, that's a totally different story.
So, how this place happened. The first crusade to Finland was led by the Swedish King Eric IX in 1155, and for the next 650 years, Finland was part of Sweden. Then in 1809 Sweden lost Finland to Russia, in turn, Finland became a Grand Duchy of the Russian Empire until 1917 when they gained their Independence. As for its capital, Helsinki, it was founded by King Gustav of Sweden in 1550 and was done so to become a trading post and southern competitor to Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. These days there's 500,000 Finns living in Helsinki with 1.2 million estimated to be living in the greater metropolitan area.
Facade at the central railway - they kind of look serious, kind of stoic, kind of pansy like also
Now, WHY THE HELL AM I HERE??
I remember dad telling me in repeated stories that my aunty's first husband was 'special', much in the same way that Swedes look upon Finns. During the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki this guy apparently was dismayed by the daily newspaper headlines, 'Helsinki ...blah blah', 'Blah, blah...Helsinki', until one day he commented to a group of people, 'Wow, that Helsinki must be good, I see his name in the paper everyday, he's winning everything'.Ah yes, don't we all love the exploits of the 'special' people amongst us. Never the less, his infamous words resonated down the decades and when I was looking for an oddball place to go for a little while, well, Helsinki fit the bill.
My first few days in this town have been more than enjoyeable. First of all my digs. I'm currently located on Suomenlinna island, a 15 min ferry ride from the main market square. This place is actually a series of six linked islands on which a 200 year old fortress now stands. No longer in military use, this place is UNESCO heritage listed, (lucky, because I was wanted to rip the place up YO!), and is an interesting place to reside for a few days, especially considering that Helsinki's finest brewery is literally across the road from the room that I'm in, or a 2 minute S-L-O-W walk from the front door.
Catching the ferry to Suomenlinna island - my home for a few days - brewery at my front door
Helsinki from the Suomenlinna ferry
As for Helsinki itself, well it's quaint, it's ordered, it's very nordic, meaning that it's conservative but in various places you see that warped Nordic tendency for bad humour or the need for them to break out of their conservative image. It's not that French style breakout, when the French do it it's big and bold, and somehow makes sense, when the Finns do it, it's just odd (see Lordi, winners of the Eurovision song contest a few years back, that'll make my point nicely). Travelling around the city however is a breeze, public transport is reliable, ordered and always on time. A daily pass is 3.8 Euros and will allow you to travel on any line, any mode of transport, for as long as you require for the day. This allowed me to do a little Helsinki exploration of my own and get up to the Olympic stadium and see the place where the world came to play in 1952. It also allowed me to take a lift up to the 11 storey tower that was purposely built for the Olympics and have a birdseye view of this city, and aesthetically, you would have to say that it's a beautiful place. Relatively small, it's open to the Baltic sea and is either surrounded by water from the sea or by one of the 180,000 lakes that cover the land, well that part that isn't covered by forest.
Capital of the sporting world for two weeks in 1952
Olympic Tower
Stadium getting ready for the U2 gig, oh yeah, Athens, you're not that far away now!
View of Helsinki from the Olympic tower
Silja line, Tallinn or Stockholm or St Petersburg bound
Lakes and islands and lakes - Welcome to Finland
Good 'ole Nordic style, neat and ordered
Streetscape - Helsinki
I also took in a European League Champions match between the hometown champs, HJK Helsinki and the team that my dad followed as a kid, FC Partizan of Belgrade. Not much of a game really, two decent goals but the Serbian side had already spanked the Finns in Belgrade 3-0 and were apparently treating them in the same fashion that Swedes do, although without that streak of compassion. Still, a draw at home for the Finns was an ok resulted and the small crowd in the Finnair stadium wasn't too disappointed.
UCL match - hometown team vs my defacto hometown...and a team from there
Game action - HJK Helsinki vs. FK Partizan
..and don't these guys know how to name a bar ! Welcome home!
As for the next few days, will be in Helsinki until the 7th of August and then jumping a boat down to Tallinn in Estonia, as for after that? Your guess is as good as mine :)
I love this shot - it's taken just before midnight, the sun will just not drop!
...Oh, and by the way, I'm starting up a 'Guestbook Photo bomb series' were the object of my fury will be my ex partner in crime, now Sydney resident once more, Janelle Jordan. JJ, this first one in a list of many comes to you from the Helsinki City Museum...enjoy ;)
You still {heart} Paris JJ, no matter where you go :)
