Last Saturday I went to Helsinki. You may wonder why I would fly away from beautiful, sunny, and warming up London and into a snow covered, Scandinavian city on one of my last weekends in Europe. Good question, I thought as we landed on the runway in the early afternoon. Answer: my friend Kaitlin had a Finnish exchange student who lived with her for a year in high school. It was his birthday weekend and a perfect opportunity to visit not only a new city but also a new country for very inexpensive. Her exchange student, Reesto, met us at the airport and took us back to his apartment. On the way over he told us loads about Finnish politics, immigration issues, required army service, and the female Finnish president. When we got to his apartment, his sister and his friend were there munching on candy and popcorn. We hung out there for a little while, forcing everyone to speak in English so we could understand, and figuring out what to do. We ended up going downtown Helsinki, getting some standard falafel lunch, meeting up with his girlfriend, saw the main Protestant church, and getting a general feel for this cold, icy city. Then we decided to take a ferry through the frozen water (they have a special machine that goes through and breaks up the ice so that the ferries can get across) which made loud crunching and crashing noises as it pushed the ice chunks out of its way. The sea fortress is on the island Suomenlinna which is just off the coast and about a 15 minute ferry ride. We walked around through the sea fortress ruins, hung out on snowy hills, Kaitlin and I nearly toppled over a few times as we sunk to our knees, felt like we might never be warm again. It was a beautiful winter wonderland. We had three Helsinki-ers with us which was like having our own personal tour guides. Mainly they just told us how beautiful this place is in the summer, that it is an ideal picnic spot of many city-folk, and that we really should have come in the summer. They also told us about some of the island's history, pretty much all of which I've forgotten by now. I know, disappointing. We walked around for probably 2 and a half hours, ending up at the brewery by the ferry stop. We dragged are wet and chilled selves back onto the fairy, through the frozen water, and back through Helsinki to get to Reesto's apartment. Reesto ordered pizza for dinner, another one of his friends came, and the seven of us all just hung out in his two room apartment eating and drinking and comparing culture and music and all of that. They taught us all about salmiakki which is a sick joke of a candy. Its really popular in Helsinki and the sign of a true Finn. What is it you may ask. Well let me tell you. SALTED LICORICE. Yuck. Distgusting. They even have a liquor version of it. It is the nastiest thing ever.
Anyways, at midnight Reesto turned 22 and we went out for a small night on Helsinkitown. The next morning we got up around 10 or so. Reesto's girlfriend made crepe-style pancakes that were fresh and delicious and hot. So good. We had a leisurely breakfast and then we went the Finnish National Art Museum. This made for a really wonderful afternoon. We got to see work by a range of artists, many influenced by the Realism movement and by the French Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. Apparently many Finnish artists went to Paris to study. They even had a piece by Van Gough and Cezanne! The interest in the Realism movement stemmed from the bloody Finnish civil war between upper classes and the proletariat, with communist influences. Hence the significance of the working, poor men, women, and children in fields in the art from the 1800's. Finland is a relatively new country, only gaining its independence from Russia in 1917. I think its fair to say that Kaitlin and I had no idea what to expect but we really, really enjoyed what we got to see. After we made our way through this museum we did a little souvenir shopping (I could not find a bracelet, very sad) and then went back to Reesto's to get our stuff and were on the bus to the airport around 5 in the afternoon.
This was a very relaxed and stress-free weekend in Helsinki. It may have been cold but we did not even open a map once (usually city maps are like our bible on weekend trips). We learned a lot of the current political climate, an emergence of a less scary Finnish version of the Tea Party, immigrants from Somalia, the Finnish depression post the collapse of the U.S.S.R., and how the most common crime statistically is drunk men murdering their wives or close friends. All from locals! We basically had our own tour guides. We spent very little money since we only paid for one meal (and then airport food), transportation, some drinks, and one museum entrance. It was a different kind of trip than the sightseeing marathon us study abroad students often find ourselves in. It was a trip to see people, experience a new culture first hand, hang out, and celebrate. It was a lovely, lovely way to relax before the start of finals.
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