18 hours in Helsinki

You would think that perhaps 18 hours would be too short a time to get to know a country, but I think I did quite well considering I didn't even make it into Helsinki proper. For those who don't want to read the rest of the blog, here's a Haiku inspired by my 18-hour Finland layover:
Woodlands and berries,
The mystery of Moomins.
Strange meats, hot saunas.

Now in a little more detail...
I stayed the night with my colleague and friend Heidi's brother Mark and his wife Johanna and 15-month daughter, Isabella. Plus, their two dogs, Emmi and Essi who are both very sweet rescued dogs from Eastern Europe.


The greatest first impressions of the country were the trees! The tall, pencil-thin pines and birches I saw carpeting the earth before we'd landed. Mark and Johanna live right against a stretch of forrest that we walked the dogs through around sunset. Despite the supposed dry summer, the forrest was extremely lush, with moss-covered rocks, blueberries/raspberries/lingonberries/+ everywhere, and of course the exquisite birches.

Their flat was small by American standards (bigger is better! :P), clean, organized and nicely decorated in IKEA from top to bottom, with oil paintings of Mark's grandparents, great grandparents and great-great grandfather on the wall. 3-stories, the nursery and bedroom are on the top floor, living and dining room, kitchen and bathroom on the main floor, and the basement with their deluxe entertainment room (more on that later), fireplace, bathroom, sauna, laundry room and storage.

Mark showed me around the place, as well as his yard where he's been installing a new fence. A pear tree was a few weeks away from bearing ripe fruit. Of course I was delightfully obsessed with the organized and efficient division of their trash and recyclables. There's a bin for organic compostables, paper and plastic wrap for burning (at the power plant), cardboard, metals, glass, and plastics. Then of course waste, which when I asked Mark what "waste" was the only things he could think of was diapers and dust from the vacuum. LOVE IT!!

Their daughter Isabella was of course one of the high lights. She was such a good baby, very quiet, yet playful and curious. She was more fascinated by my cross-stitching and camera than her toys.










After a yummy snack of coffee, tomatoes (which TASTED like tomatoes!) and bread, we headed to the JUMBO store to get some groceries for a BBQ. It was fun seeing all the Finnish food, especially the curious orange cloud berries and aisles of licorice and Salmiakki to choose from. Salmiakki is salt-liquorice unique to Finland - said to be an "acquired taste". I have yet to try the small package I bought, but if you're curious, just harass my father to give you a taste, as he should be receiving some in the mail. :)
Here are some interesting food items I found shopping around Finland:

Cloud Berries

Kangaroo Meat



At the super-market, I found it very efficient that you have to place a EURO in a slot on the shopping cart in order to use it, which is then returned to you when you place it back in the designated area. No stray shopping carts in this parking lot! I asked if people ever stole them to push around, which was a silly question it turns out since there are no homeless people in Finland. Since homelessness is something that really bothers me about America, I found this both dumbfounding and praise-worthy. I think that a population living in relative equality is so much more healthier than one where a few have more than they know what to do with, most have enough but are made to feel like they don't and go into debt acquire more more more, and then too many really don't have anything and are ignored by the rest of the population and fend for themselves for the most part on the streets. Yay America.

But back to Finland. I also fell in love with the Moomins, the beloved Finnish cartoon characters kind of resembling white hippos that are as ubiquitous as Micky Mouse in the US. Apparently the Japanese have a particular affinity for them, and so they made me think of both my sister and friend Jennifer, who both have an affinity for the Japanese. :) I coincidentally read in the Financial TImes today that there is a cookbook newly translated into English called "The Moomin Cookbook: n Introduction to Finnish Cuisine". Check it out:
[LINK]

We enjoyed a nice BBQ of beef & chicken on the deck and discussed American vs. European sex education, abortion policies, fundamentalism, and water management practices. Then, Mark and I enjoyed some sweets and watched part of "Top Gun" on his insanely nice projector in the basement. He has personally sound-proofed the room and installed a giant screen to project movies as well as a state-of-the-art sound system. It's like their own private theatre, and I wasn't exaggerating when I told him if I had a similar setup I would never leave home.


But finally to the best part. Most Finnish households have their own personal Saunas. THis was a fact I hadn't realize but was very, very pleased to discover. Mark and JOhanna invited me to go for a Sauna which I gladly accepted. The first room, probably 15X 8ft is entirely tiled and water-proofed so the shower has no curtain giving you lots of space which was luxurious. The sauna is attached so you can go back and forth between the sauna (around 65 degrees Celsius) and the shower. Despite my naturally warm body temperature and aversion to heat in general, I throughly enjoyed the sauna experience, pouring water out of the special bucket onto the rocks, and laying on the warm wood feeling myself sweat. Needless to say, I slept VERY well last night.

I hope I'm able to return the favor someday to Mark and Johanna. They and all the other Fins I came in contact with here were wonderful.


Next…Istanbul!!