The country where I want to be
Finland, Finland, Finland
It’s the country for me.
(Monty Python)
One of the things I enjoy most when travelling is to arrive in a new place without any plans, preconceptions or expectations at all. No deadlines, no queues, no list of must-see places. Just an unfamiliar place in which to wander around and see what, if anything, is what.
Helsinki is just such a place. I knew nothing about this city or indeed this country before I arrived, apart from that Litmanen chap who used to play for Liverpool, and also the fact that they all put up a jolly good show against hopeless odds when the Soviets marched in, unprovoked, in 1939. One of many such episodes to bear in mind next time you see a young hipster wearing a 'CCCP' T-shirt. It's slightly disconcerting to note that the Russian border is only 2 hours away by road. 1939 was a long time ago, but 2008 (Georgia) and 2014 (Crimea) are reminders that leopards don't change their spots, and nor do bears.
Admittedly, it isn't entirely true that I have no preconceptions about Scandinavia. I have a stereotyped picture of the males as looking like either the blokes out of ABBA or Dolph Lundgren, and of the females as resembling either the women out of ABBA or Brigitte Nielsen. A couple of hours at Stockholm airport, changing planes from Dublin, did nothing to dispel this prejudice. And I certainly wasn't wearing beer goggles, because I couldn't find anything drinkable in that airport for less than roughly £12 a glass.
My other prejudice was that the streets would all be clean, orderly and quiet. Again this has mostly been borne out by the facts. Mostly, but not totally. I'm staying in a cheap studio apartment and it's cheap for a reason - the neighbourhood is distinctly dodgy. Indeed the apartment building is literally next door to a brothel (or 'Erotic Showroom', if you please).
Scandinavian languages generally use the same basic sounds as English, and sometimes in crowded places full of chatter you can forget you're in a foreign country - it's only when you try to tune in and actually listen that you realise the words make no sense. And I confess that I haven't made any attempt to start with Finnish, so to speak, ha ha. But all the locals speak English very well. Actually, come to think of it, the average person here speaks English better than the average person in Sunderland. So I can't say I'm missing home just yet. The football season starts again in a few weeks, but then that's just another reason to stay on holiday...
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| Central Helsinki. Note the total absence of litter. |
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| Taco Bell and Beer House. Every street should look like this. |
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| Architectural smorgasbord, to borrow a Swedish word |
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| A small island just off the south shore of Helsinki, called Uunisaari. (Finnish has lots of vowels.) |
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| Helsinki Cathedral |
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| Senate Square, seen from the cathedral steps. Note how this scene is completely ruined by the tourist coaches. I walked here and therefore I'm a good person. |
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| Porvoo, just to the east of Helsinki, and Finland's second smallest town. Those red wooden houses may look like some kind of trendy Ikea eco-thing... ...but in fact they date from the late 18th century. |
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| Have you ever seen a less appetising pizza than this? |
