You just know I have been dying to use that title… Firstly the exciting news from home: When I started booking my trip, as many would know, I had to hold off on committing to things while I was waiting to know about my new job. I will now admit I was also holding off on making firm commitments so I could try to arrange to see Madness somewhere in Europe – this isn’t as crazy as it sounds. They did shows in London just before Christmas, had festival slots booked for June and were releasing a new album in March. I waited and waited but alas no new dates (despite my numerous, pleading emails to the band – no, in this instance I was not above begging – and now I know why!!! Madness is coming to Australia – they will be playing the V Festival and I will be there (just two weeks after my return) –thanks to Dan for his quick action on that front. I once said that if Madness came to Australia, I would go on tour and follow them around the country. Sadly, after being in my job only two months and then taking five weeks leave to travel Europe, I don’t think that will be a reality but I am going to see them and in the end my Dad, who in 1982 wouldn’t let me go to see them because I was only 13, was right – they will be back. [‘Bed and Breakfast Man’ – Madness – OK that wasn’t a randomly selected choice but it had to be done.] Tripping around Europe and seeing Madness in Australia – suddenly 40 isn’t sounding too bad after all.
So back to Helsinki (or Helsingfors in Swedish) – on arrival there once again, I headed straight for the Hostel, deciding to walk rather than struggle with the backpack on a tram at peak hour. It was only a 20 minute walk but it’s actually harder to walk around in Helsinki than Rovaniemi because as the temperature’s a bit warmer and there’s more people milling around, the snow will often melt a little and then refreeze as ice. This is where you need to be careful – no falling over but quite a few little slides – this might be fun but not with 17 kilos on your back. [‘Stockholm Syndrome’ – Blink 182 – a little early but I am sitting in my hotel room in Stockholm writing this – more on that later.]
This was my first real hostel experience – a mega hostel with 7 floors of rooms, mostly dorms. The room was large and clean and comfortable enough. The antics of large groups of Russian boys and Swedish girls were a bit annoying though. They say travel teaches you things about yourself and here I learnt that at (almost 40) 18 year olds annoy me and shared bathrooming is something best left to camping trips in Australia where the shower facilities are better equipped. The showers here – there were just two girls showers for two massive floors – had only a shower curtain separating you from the rest of the room and nowhere to put dry clothes. And you had to keeping hitting a big button to turn the shower back on after what seemed like about 30 seconds. As for cleanliness – it fitted into the close eyes while showering – the bits you need to touch are clean but don’t look up. It was also here, I had my first cultural doofus experience. I was waiting for the lift which said it was on floor 1. The helpful desk guy helped me out – in Finland there is no ground floor. The buildings start at 1 and the lift door don’t open automatically, you have to open them like a door.
I ventured out for dinner and after experiencing mainly fast food offerings until now, I decided to splurge and eat in a classy restaurant offering traditional Finnish food. **Warning to vegetarians and those who believe in Santa – in the next par I sample the local delicacy *** I did the tourist thing and went for the traditional menu sampler. The starter (as they call it here) included three piles – a salmon and tangy mayonnaise concoction, marinated pickled onion and a savoury cheesecake slice topped with salmon roe, served with sourdough and rye bread. When it comes to diet, I am pretty sure there is Nordic blood running through my veins – I love the sweet/sour combinations of rye bread, sourdough, I love fish and I have never met a pickled vegetable I didn’t like. That’s right people I ask for extra pickles at Maccas. [‘This Wheel’s on Fire’ – Bob Dylan – yep kids, like many other tunes this was a Dylan classic before it was the theme for The Young Ones] The second course was – you guessed it – fillet of reindeer. I approached it with trepidation – I am not usually a fan of game meats. While Charli (my staffy) loves nothing better than devouring Skippy for tea, it’s often too rich for me. Not so with reindeer. It has a much more delicate flavour – slightly more subtle than beef but much richer than veal. It came with a fairly rich gravy, creamy mashed pumpkin and a potato gratin with possibly stewed reindeer layered through it, although it did have a slight sweetbreads flavour to it. Dessert was a delicate chocolate cake with cloud berries. Cloudberries rock – somewhere between the tartness of strawberries and the subtle flavour of blueberries. After dinner it was back to the hostel. They was a whole crowd of drunken Russian teenagers at the Arctic Ice Bar so I decided that I might leave it until Stockholm to contemplate the ice bar experience.
After waking late – I hadn’t had the opportunity to sleep in so far – I packed up, took my backpack to the train station lockers and ventured out around town. I still can’t get over the frozen ocean in the harbour. You know it happens but it is still quite an experience to see it. Wandering the snow-covered streets and squares, it was easy to see how Helsinki was used as a stand in for many Russian cities in Cold War era films. With limited time, I decided to forgo the trip to the rock church a couple of kilometers out of the city centre and went to see one of the things I came to Helsinki to see – the Design Museo. What a disappointment. There were just two small exhibitions – fortunately one of them was an inspirational exhibition of furniture from young Finnish designers. My particular favourite was a simple round chair and table that used thick clear acrylic as a draping material – quirky yet effective. The problem with Finland is that they have lots and lots of museums with small exhibitions – including a postal museum. And if I see one more Alvar Aalto bowl, it will be one too many. Sure it’s good for its time but it’s not enough to build a country’s design reputation on.
After a coffee- café latte that always comes with a long handled teaspoon and Finnish style custard Danish with a bit more of a bread texture and a hint of ginger, it was off through the streets for some more photos and snow. And window-shopping. I could come here and take a suitcase full of shoes home. Firstly, the Finns believe in variety in colour and decoration. Secondly they are not fixated with cramming wide feet into pointy shoes – there are lots of round and square toe alternatives that don’t look dowdy. Third, probably because they have to walk in the snow, they believe in the solid mid –height heel – higher and broader than a kitten heel but not sky high. I saw a fantastic pair of pearl purple mary-janes on sale – probably a good thing there were none left in size 41.
Then it was off to the airport for the flight to Sweden. Fantastic technology in the electronic check-in counters here. It scans your passport and brings up your flight details. Who said the government didn’t already know everything about us. [‘Without you Babe’ – Bob Dylan – appropriate for Valentine’s Day, which is evident everywhere in Stockholm]. Again we took a bus ride across the tarmac to board the plane for the one hour flight to Sweden – departure 4pm, arrival 4pm – Stockholm is on western European time, Helsinki on eastern. On the bus on the way to the airport, I had my first unprompted interaction with a Finn when he told me to move to make way for the baby carriage. That’s when it struck me – the Finns are nothing if not polite but they are insular and they don’t like foreigners. One wonders what they think of their government’s efforts to promote Helsinki as a good jump off point for eastern Europe or Lapland as the real home of Santa or indeed Finnair promoting Finland as the quickest way to western Europe from Asia. I really liked Finland but I’m not sure the Finns thought much of me, if they thought about me at all.