Reykjavík Grapevine - 01.12.2006, Blaðsíða 23

3_REYKJAVÍK_GRAPEVINE_ISSUE18_006_TRAVEL/HELSINKI
Helsinki (Helsingfors) is in many ways the
Nordic capital that tourism forgot: especially,
for reasons of both light and weather, in win-
ter. Keeping the aforementioned factors in
mind, however, I surely wasn’t disappointed
by the city in November. Following six hours
of flight delays out of Reykjavík due to bad
weather, losing and locating my luggage
mid-journey, a brief nap (a little over an hour)
in Copenhagen, and another – extremely
early morning – flight out of Denmark, I fi-
nally arrived in the Baltic Sea-side city. Snow
was falling heavily as we made our decent (I
couldn’t see the ground until the plane was
about three metres off the runway).
After a slippery cab ride to my new Finn-
ish home, the fantastic (seriously) Hostel
Erottanjanpuisto in Helsinki’s city centre, I
took a walk in a nearby park. My efforts to
build any part of a snowman were foiled by
lack of moisture, though some nearby kids
managed to make a significant number of
snowballs. In summer, Helsinki’s parks play
host to numerous live concerts and events.
By November, with temperatures and day-
light hours dwindling, they are slightly more
sedate. People-watching on this particular
day I learned that the Finnish regularly use
umbrellas in the snow (huh?). With this ex-
ception, as well as that of the goth-punk
youth contingent who seem to take their
hairstyling cues from Sharon Osbourne, the
aesthetic in Helsinki is almost invariably busi-
ness chic and well put together.
The home of Marimekko and Alvar Aal-
to, Finland is big on design and aesthetics in
general. Both art museums and good shop-
ping are in no short supply. The architecture,
perhaps what Helsinki is most famous for, is
undeniably impressive in scale and kept as
surprisingly clean as the city streets. Snow-
fall that preceded my arrival made the urban
landscape all the more picturesque.
The layout of Helsinki’s city centre, and
many of the buildings for which she is most
recognizable, were designed by the German
Carl Ludvig Engel in the 1800s. When Russia
defeated Sweden in the Finnish War in 1809
the country changed hands and Helsinki, a
struggling city with few tall buildings, be-
came the new capital (previously Turku). En-
gel’s neoclassical architecture was an effort
at mimicking St. Petersburg, part of a Russian
attempt to put its own stamp on Finnish cul-
ture. Almost 200 years after Russia’s capture
of the easternmost Scandinavian state – Fin-
land has been officially independent since
1917 – visitors can now see Finnish-designed
Art Nouveau and Functionalist buildings
from the early 20th century mingling harmo-
niously with the older neoclassical edifices.
Like most European capitals, Helsinki is
bigger and busier than Reykjavík, where my
journey began. Greater Helsinki is home to
over a million people, almost one-quarter of
Finland’s population. Busses, ferries, a metro,
and electric trams make getting around the
city easy on both travellers and their wal-
lets. In fact, the comprehensive public transit
system had me dodging traffic several times
when crossing the street – cars, trams, more
cars. To get a better idea of Helsinki’s layout,
on my second day I took a ride on the 3T, a
tram that makes a loop around the city: past
the university, an amusement park (complete
with Ferris wheel), the Olympic stadium, one
of the lakes that bisects the city, a port, an
uncountable number of beautiful buildings,
under the railroad going out of town, and
through the downtown area. Though it takes
over an hour to ride, including one cigarette
break for the driver, the 3T is well worth the
price at only two euros.
Seeking out a Finnish obsession, sauna,
prompted my evening journey to a local
indoor pool. How was I supposed to know
that the pool segregated their hours by
gender because everyone swims and takes
saunas naked? Moving back in time a cou-
ple of weeks, I fell into a hole outside my
new apartment in Reykjavík and sustained
a rather gruesome, grapefruit-sized bruise
on my hip before going to Finland. Having
forgotten this, I couldn’t fathom why locals
at the pool were staring at me in the sauna,
and could only assume they had somehow
sensed my foreignness.
Upon realising I looked abused, I de-
parted the saunas and made for the pool.
Getting used the idea of swimming nude
might have been easier if it weren’t for the
women on the second floor balcony drink-
ing tea in bathrobes. Perhaps the most sur-
prising discovery of the experience, though,
was that the lack of self-consciousness ex-
tended through generations. If you thought
that only old women do water aerobics you
were wrong, at least as far as this pool goes,
and needless to say without swimwear. Dif-
ficult as it is to imagine high demand for a
crowded naked pool, on my way out I ran
into a mad – apparently after-work – rush at
the door.
Obviously I couldn’t leave the capital with-
out going in search of the Finnish karaoke
phenomenon. The next day proved that it’s
not hard to find. After arriving in the area my
hostel advised I try for such entertainment,
I followed some of the loudest noise into a
bar. A surprising (for me anyway) percentage
of songs were Finnish rather than English
pop. Perhaps more shocking was the unpa-
tronising enthusiasm palpable in the crowd.
Clearly, the collected company thoroughly
enjoyed dancing to karaoke and, perhaps,
even more so than to the original versions
of the tunes. The occasional singer pausing,
pointing to his buddies, grinning and gestur-
ing, didn’t seem to bother the audience in
the least. Amused, but completely unable to
participate (yeah, that’s my excuse), I depart-
ed when the performers began to recycle
themselves for encores.
On my final day in Helsinki I dropped by
the Senate Square (Senaatin Tori) to see En-
gel’s Tuomiokirkko church, pristine outside
and austerely beautiful inside, before making
my way to dinner. Zetor (“tractor”) is a res-
taurant and bar decorated with exactly that.
My delicious, though strong, reindeer dinner
would kick off my Saturday evening in the
midst of Finns of all ages letting loose on the
enormous, not yet full, dance floor.
After meeting up with my photographer
for the trip, Sari Peltonen, we made our way
to Erottoja Bar. The turquoise brick inte-
rior, live DJs, friendly bartenders, and Sari’s
friends filling me in on the specifics of Hel-
sinki’s karaoke scene, formed an eclectically
pleasant atmosphere. They said, by the way,
that home karaoke is becoming increasingly
popular and that there are, in fact, bars ca-
tering to most genres so that one can choose
a karaoke venue to suit their musical tastes.
About an hour later, Sari, her friends, and
I headed on to the next (my last – I swear) bar
for the evening, We Got Beef. While waiting
in line to pay a two euro entrance fee I noted
that the bar’s opening hours were listed un-
der the enigmatic heading “Hammertime”.
Once inside, we found ourselves in the midst
of a couple of Finland’s more prominent mu-
sicians, several girls dressed in poofy dresses
and fairy wings, and the usual collection of
jovial drinkers. This might be a good time to
point out that the reputation Finns have for
being cold is completely untrue in my expe-
rience. The only Finns who weren’t eager
to talk to me on my trip and share tips on
Helsinki and other travel advice (generally
consisting of “go to X place outside Helsin-
ki” – Estonia seems to be a favourite) were
those who didn’t speak English. This particu-
lar location was no exception and certainly a
good way to end my stay in Finland’s largest
city.
After capping off my night out with
some Danish hot dogs I bought on the street,
I returned to my hostel to rest up for the
next day. Regardless of specific advisories
on where to go, my skis and I were off on
a gruelling 15-hour train and bus ride in the
morning. The scene in our destination, Levi,
a ski resort in the Lapland and well above the
Arctic Circle, is another story entirely.
Swim Naked and Sing Your
Heart Out in Helsinki
Text by Virginia Zech Photo by Sari Peltonen
The best way
to get to Helsinki:
Icelandair flies directly to Helsinki
in the summertime.
Icelandair flies to Copenhagen in
the wintertime, where connecting
flights to Helsinki are abundant.