Leaning Out to Catch the Sun's Rays: May 2010

I had the opportunity to visit Helsinki for a week for work. This trip has been on/off since the Iceland volcano erupted, so I was just glad to finally get it scheduled and done!!

Helsinki is at about the same latitude as Juno, Alaska and is the farthest north of the equator I've been. I had the chance to use all my sweaters for the last time this year- the weather was mostly rainy and didn't get above 60 degrees F. We did luck out with a couple of sunny days, however, and the evening light was so good that it allowed plenty of time to run around and do the 'quick and dirty' tour of the city. Overall, I think it would be a great place to live if you don't count the 9 months of cold and snowy weather.....so probably not a good place for me! We heard plenty of stories about the winter and its enough to kill any impulse to visit between the months of September and March! But the people are overall very polite and friendly- and people that we worked with there talked about how industrious and honest they are, as well.

Our hotel was outside the city center by about a mile, but it was an easy walk down to the Norra Esplanaden, (the 'esplanade' to us American folk) which is the main pedestrian/shopping avenue. We concentrated on this area of the city, as it is close to the marina, restaurants a

nd, most importantly, shops!! Because of the balmy weather, I think all of Helsinki was out when the sun was actually shining. And because the shops close down at 6 or 7pm, we had to make that our top priorty when we were done work. Some of my colleagues and I were very enchanted by the store, Iitalla, which features Scandanavian glass, including blown glass art by Toikka. He specializes in birds, which sounds strange when you say it out loud, but they are very beautiful and interesting in person, I promise. Several in my group bought one. I bought the 'Willow Grouse', which looks like a dove in my opinion, so that's what I'm going to call it. I have the feeling I'll be visiting that store again if I should ever go back....

Eating was a great pasttime of ours, as well- the first time I've ever had reindeer, thank you very much! And it was gooooood! I'm not a big fan of venison, but this was much milder and very tender. Don't tell Santa. Salmon, whitefish and the Morel mushrooms are other commonly found dishes on menus. They're all good!! Its also suprising how many people eat ice cream.

The national language is Finnish, but most people also speak Swedish and English. Good thing because the Finnish language is impossible to understand and more impossible to speak- even if you don't know what the word means. I'm convinced that they insert gratuitous syllables in their words- not to mention random consonants. 'T's shouldn't be next to 'K's in my opinion. Or 'K's next to 'V's. Seriously- try it- its hard!!!

The character of the city reminded me alot of other western European cities I've visited. There were not alot of buildings over 10 stories high, really. Most buildings were pretty simple and lacked alot of architectural doodads. We did visit a couple of beautiful churches. And the train station is designed by the famous architect Eliel Saarinen and is really beautiful inside and out. Alot of the streets are cobblestone and there are wide sidewalks with bike paths. The trolley system connects most of the city and is very easy to ride. And the Fins do a great job of planting their bulbs in the fall because tulips were in abundance!