Exploring Central Helsinki (Day 2)

I woke up at 5:30 am this morning, and it looked as if the sun never went down. Fortunately, I remembered to wear my mask last night, because who knows when I would’ve awaken. I got up and wrote in my blog for a while before showering (yea yea, I know it’s un-cool to shower). Afterwards, I packed my things up. However, my plan for the day was to find a place to stay for the next two nights, so I left my stuff in the room and headed to Wayne’s for my caffeine fix and breakfast. I had a ton of luck last night, so I was hoping to be equally lucky today.

On my way, again I noticed the way people were dressed. Today, it was a bit colder, but I wouldn’t say cold, just chilly. Since I was wearing a thermal underneath a t-shirt, I actually began to overheat at times when there was no wind and it was sunny. I couldn’t imagine being dressed in a full length wool coat, thick scarf, and gloves. I made a mental note to ask why later.

I ordered a large coffee and a croissant with strawberry preserves, hopped online, posted my first blog entry, and began searching for a place to stay. Last night, I touched base with my instructor, Scott, letting him know that I was in town and that I was struggling to find a place to stay. This morning, he replied with a lot of helpful information as well as suggestions on where to look. It didn’t help that I haven’t got a phone here yet. So he suggested that I go down to Eurohostel, which he and I already knew was booked, and try anyway. If they were full, I should ask them for assistance in finding a place that is available. We also made arrangements to meet up at 1:30 pm today so I could get better oriented within the city. I thought that was a great idea, since I was feeling lost and out of place!

At around 11:30 am, I left Wayne’s and headed back to hostel numero uno for my belongings. Check out time was noon. When I was ready to embark on my hostel search on foot, the Finnish lady running the hostel was kind enough to look at the list Scott gave me. She started calling around to see if there was anything available. Out of the list, there was only one place that she said had availability, Hostel Erottajanpuisto. It was going to cost 23.50 euros for a bed in a dorm room. I asked if she would make a reservation, and she said she already did. Sweet! Lucky again! Or was I…?

Since plans changed, I had a bit of free time. Instead of carrying all of my luggage with me for the next 48 hours, I decided that I would store my belongings in a locker at the train station. 4 euros for a 24 hour period. Damn, that is expensive! I guess that’s what it costs for peace of mind. I knew I had to eat something or I was going to regret it later, especially if I was going to be with Scott for a while.

I had no idea where to eat, so I walked around underneath the train station to explore a little bit. The problem here is that most places have no English menus, and Finnish is not really a language to borrow words either. Come to think of it, it kind of reminds me of Japanese when the characters are written with Roman letters. More on this later, back to the food. Just my luck, I stumbled across a McDonald’s… food that I can at least recognize, even if the menu has little to no English. The only menu items with English words were specialty burgers, one of which was called Texas BBQ, and another Tokyo Shrimp. Interesting... But how could I justify spending 7 euros on a burger from McDonald’s? No thank you, I thought, let’s have a look at the value menu. I ordered 2 bacon cheeseburgers (1.50 euros each) and a strawberry sundae (1 euro). When I got my food, I began to understand why it I haven’t seen any overweight people here. Each burger was about the size of a hockey puck! For those of you who have never seen a hockey puck, it is 1 inch thick and 3 inches in diameter. And the sundae, I have never seen a smaller sundae! It was about the size of a Jello pudding cup! I guess that’s all one should expect for 4 euros.

After eating, needless to say my hunger was not satiated. There weren’t any vending machines nearby, so I walked over to a market and browsed for a cheap drink. I found a .5L bottle of Coke for 1.65 euros. Ehh.. not bad, I guess. I saw some weird flavored sodas, like bitter lemon, bitter apple. Those may be something I have to try later on.

At that very moment, as I was minding my own business, I ever so slightly brush my elbow against a woman’s arm that was behind me, standing with her back to me. Instinctively, I turn around to apologize, and she turned to me with a horrific look of disgust all over her face. I mumbled “I’m sorry” but I doubt she understands. She mumbles something, and then briskly walks away. What could possibly have set her off like that? Let that be another question I need to ask later. Could this be what culture shock is supposed to feel like?

It was about 12:45, so I had some time to kill before meeting with Scott, so I decided to wander around underground, walk through a few shops and maybe get a little lost. First off, every street is disorienting since there is no way to observe which direction you are going. The street grid has no order to it at all. All of the buildings are approximately the same height (I'd say about 70-80 feet on average). I’ve found that I am able to guess which direction I’m headed based on the location of the sun and shadows cast by buildings, but it only helps to some degree. I have a compass, but I don’t know what the magnetic declination is here, so it is kind of useless!

Underground, it is almost impossible to orient oneself without already knowing where the shopping malls are. I walked around for about 30 minutes and saw a bunch of retail shops as well as restaurants with a variety of cuisine, including Indian, Middle Eastern, American, and Mediterranean.

With no destination in mind, I decided it was time to head back to the train station. The underground network is pretty confusing, with lots of intersecting paths. I didn't really keep track of where I came from, so I looked for a way to return to the surface, which is indicated by green signs showing a figure that is running toward a door. Here’s a question to ponder: why is it that the direction of an arrow pointing to something that is ahead is facing down, instead of up? Curious. Anyway, when I reached the outside, I had absolutely no idea where I was. The train station was nowhere in sight. I pulled out my map, checked the street signs, and realized I had managed to walk 6 or 7 city blocks underground. Fortunately, I was still on a major road that led back to the station. I hurried to the station to meet Scott.

I reached the station at 1:20 pm, and it was busier than I had ever seen. I had no idea where to meet him, so I circled the building inside and out several times. After about 20 minutes, finally I heard someone call my name, but it was faint compared to the noise of the crowds. I turned around in circles twice before I saw Scott. He had seen me for 5 minutes prior to our meeting, but I was continuously walking in a giant circle. I suppose I walked too fast for him to catch up on a hurt knee… and yelling is apparently frowned upon here (unless of course you are drunk, and by Finnish means!).

This reminded me about the other questions that were on my mind. Why is it that I was scoffed at by the woman at the market? Why are people dressed so warmly? What is the legal age for smoking? And just what is with this language?

First off, I learned that personal space is a big deal here in Finland. That means that people will not look you in the eyes, nor will they smile if your eyes do meet. They will not make small talk with strangers. They will glance at you from afar, judge you from what they see, and then never look at you again.

Regarding the Finns’ attire for this part of the season, it seems that I arrived right before the transition period. June 1st is when the warm clothing comes out. I guess I will have to wait and see!

One of the things I’ve been particularly bothered by is how many people smoke here. Being a former smoker, I can no longer stand breathing in secondhand smoke. It seems that every other person I pass on the street has a lit cigarette, or they are holding one getting ready to light up. Young kids too. Based on what I saw, I assumed the legal smoking age to be 13. Although the legal age is 18, these kids are not even attempting to hide it. Sad. Perhaps this is why I haven’t seen many pretty Finnish girls my age. Could it be that after puberty and a few years of smoking, they age 20 years seemingly all at once?

The language here is really quite new to me. I'm used to hearing Spanish quite a bit at home. I'm not fluent in it, but I can pick up a lot of it just because I studied it in high school. I'm familiar with the way most all of the Asian languages sound and can even determine when someone is speaking Chinese, versus Korean, Vietnamese, etc. But Finnish is something entirely different than any of the above. I have noticed is that their language is not very emphatic due to its guttural nature, thus translating to boring, monotonic speech patterns when talking in both Finnish and English. I am determined to get some quick lessons in basic Finnish. Unfortunately, my “Say it in Finnish” book was one of the books that didn’t arrive on time, so I will have to put that on hold. First thing’s first, I need to become more familiar with the city, sightsee and get a bus/tram pass.

Scott gave me an assignment to visit 4 locations. First on the list was Munkkiniemi (pronounced “moon-kin-yemmy”). I don’t remember why he told me to go here, but I went anyway. It was on the outskirts of town, right by the sea, and I had to take the tram to get there. I couldn’t find anyone there who spoke good English, but I think I was supposed to see some cable factory. Or was that at Ruoholati? It was getting cold, and there wasn’t much to see, so I decided to make my way to the next location: Finlandia Hall, which was designed by the architect Alvar Aalto.

I made a quick stop by the Olympic stadium and to the opera house nearby, both of which were north of Finlandia Hall. A narrow park with a lake to the northeast bridged the opera house to it. This building was rather monumental from up close. It was secluded in a deep depression behind a large array of flagpoles, which meant, from the street, its size was diminished. I liked this quality. The sounds from the street almost seemed to wash away completely. Although from afar this building appeared to be monolithic, I took notice of its smaller details, such as the paneled columns, baffles underneath the overhanging canopy, and the famous door handles on almost every urban Aalto building.

The third stop was to the cable factory, called Kaapelitehdas. If I wanted to get my room at Hostel Erottajanpuisto, then I wouldn’t have time for this stop. I’ll go another day.

The fourth stop was Eurohostel, to leave a note telling the other students to meet up tomorrow for some village festival where two of the instructors at TKK live. I figured I would do that later when I was ready to take the ferry to the island fortress, Suomenlinna.

It was about 4:00 pm, so I decided to head back. On my way back to the train station from Finlandia Hall, I decided I would intentionally go another way, once again for the sake of exploration. This time, I got lost. Having walked miles and miles all over the city already, I was tired and exhausted. My appetite was growing and growing. I wanted to get something cheap and fast to eat, but I wanted to be somewhere familiar so I could go find the hostel with my reservation immediately afterwards. I couldn’t locate any of the streets on my map. I walked aimlessly lost for about an hour. I knew I had walked a giant circle, but how? Finally, I just decided I would walk in a straight line toward a building that I thought was the train station. Well, it wasn’t the train station, but it was right next to it. Pheeeeww! Time for food.

I ate at a fast food place in the train station called Aseman Wurst. I ordered fries and a wurst with roasted onions, mustard, and ketchup. It was tasty, and what made it different were the roasted onions and the crunchy, pressed bun. 5.90 euros. Not really filling, but it was worth a try. I sat around, resting for a bit and allowed my food to digest. 20 minutes later, I set out to find Hostel Erottajanpuisto.

It took about 30 minutes by foot to find the place. When I got there, just as I was about to pay for my room, I was told that I did not have a reservation.

WTF?

I was told by the lady at the first hostel that she made me a reservation. CRAP! Luckily, the required 6:00 pm check-in time was less than an hour minutes away. If I came back after that time, I could see if there were any beds that became available. So I walked around and wasted some time, entering shops just to browse. It was nice that this hostel was located in the design district of Helsinki, so I got to see some more cool furniture. I even got to sit in the extremely expensive Eames chair. 6,650 euros! Not worth it! Yes, it’s comfortable, but not that comfortable!

The 6 pm check-in time was approaching, so I headed back to the hostel. I was greeted with some very good news, they did have availability! Even better news was that they are a member of Hostelling International and give discounts! I checked in and headed back to the train station to get my belongings from the locker. Little did I know, but every time the locker is opened, you have to pay 4 more euros to lock it. It’s a good thing I asked before I proceeded to open it. I don’t want to be throwing money away like that, so I made a plan: go to Eurohostel, leave the note, take the ferry to Suomenlinna, return to the hostel, sleep, wake up, go get my luggage, return to the hostel to shower and change. All went as planned, except for the ferry ride. I waited for 20 minutes and the ferry still hadn’t arrived. It was starting to get dark, so I decided to call it a night. At 10:30 pm, it was still dusk.

P.S. I will add pictures later.