That Helsinking Feeling

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Sun, 11 Mar 2012 07:53:54 -0400

I went to the Olympic Stadium today. The snow is starting to...

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 12:24:07 -0500

I went to the Olympic Stadium today. The snow is starting to melt I think. I met a nice German lady at the top of the viewing tower who was from Bochum, Sheffield’s twin city. It’s a small world, ain’t it?!

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Sun, 05 Feb 2012 12:20:58 -0500

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Sun, 29 Jan 2012 09:51:00 -0500

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Sun, 29 Jan 2012 09:50:37 -0500

Just about recovered from my weekend in Tallinn. It was good. As predicted, we ended up late for the...

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 09:49:00 -0500

Just about recovered from my weekend in Tallinn. It was good.

As predicted, we ended up late for the ferry because my stupid Italian housemate thought it would be a good idea to leave at 6.50 when the lack check in is at 7.40, and the port is ages away from the metro station. So we ran a good 2km to make it there in time, and I thought I was going to die I felt so sick/wobbly when we finally made it. I’d like to blame that on my asthma, but it’s more just me being incredibly unfit. But we made it - that’s the important thing. Being on a cruise ship for the first time was an interesting experience. The entertainment was awful. A duo playing traditional Finnish music on a keyboard and then DJ Awa playing Abba songs. Weird.

So after three hours of that we arrived in Tallinn. Tallinn’s beautiful - it’s a weird mixture of Russian, Scandinavian, German and Eastern European influences. Never been anywhere like it before. The Old Town in particular is amazingly well preserved/rebuilt. We stayed at the Red Emperor hostel, and I’d highly recommend it. After eating some massive pancakes at the Kompressor restaurant (also highly recommended) we went on a free tour of the city, which would have been pleasant if it wasn’t MINUS 12 DEGREES CENTIGRADE. I’ve never experience cold like that before. It was awful. We then went to the Balti Jaam market and I bought a Zenit ET camera from a Russian bric-a-brac stall. I bartered with the owner and managed to get 13 euros knocked off the asking price. To be fair, I probably still ended up paying more for it than I should have (27 euros). It is a nice camera though.

Then that night we all got really drunk (obligatory), wandered around the town for a bit the next day and caught the ferry back. The end.

pretty much got the names of the metro stops burned into my mind...

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:34:35 -0500

pretty much got the names of the metro stops burned into my mind after three weeks of travelling on the subway. Brändö is my favourite - BRENDOER

Here's a selection of the words I learnt in my first Finnish lesson today:

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:59:58 -0500

talo - house
talossa - in a house
taloissa - in houses
taloissamme - in our houses
taloissammekinko - ‘Do you mean in our houses also?’

kirja - book
kirjasto - book collection (library)
sana - word
sanasto - vocabulary

uni - sleep, dream
uuni - oven

tuli - fire
tuuli - wind
tulli - customs (as in, at the airport?! weird)

And there was another instance where the only difference between the Finnish for ‘to kill’ and something really mundane like ‘to meet’ was a repeated vowel.

It seems like a really interesting language, but our teacher is so incredibly boring and humourless that I don’t know how fruitful my attempts to learn Finnish are going to be.

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Sun, 22 Jan 2012 16:31:28 -0500

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Sun, 22 Jan 2012 16:30:20 -0500

Currently feeling pretty settled and happy here in Helsinki. I’ve been abroad for 2 1/2...

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 16:28:56 -0500

Currently feeling pretty settled and happy here in Helsinki. I’ve been abroad for 2 1/2 weeks, thus making this the longest I’ve ever been out of the country. I do miss home a little, but I’m excited to have all these crazy opportunities at me fingertips (blergh, cliche alert).

Anyway, on Friday I went to the Kallio district of Helsinki for the first time. Kallio’s got this reputation as being the ‘working class’ area of Helsinki, so I went there expecting it to be like Sheffield’s, er, seamier districts, but it basically just seemed like a ‘hip’, studenty place. So that was cool. As I found to be the case after living in Kontula (‘HELSINKI’S MOST DANGEROUS NEIGHBOURHOOD’ I read somewhere on the internet) for a couple of weeks, what Finns consider ‘dodgy’ is somewhat skewed in comparison to everyone else in the world. I don’t know what they’d make of Broomhall.

Saturday I woke up at 2pm feeling pretty hungover from the night before. Finnish beer gives me hangovers comparable to Frosty Jack’s, but at about five times the price. In the evening we went to the New Student House to have an indoor picnic (I think this is some sort of Finnish tradition). Me and Francesco brought Pringles, crisps and cookies - most other people seemed to have cooked their own cake or nibbles. Poor show on our part. After that we went to the Aussie Bar where you had to be 21 to enter. Luckily they didn’t check my ID, as apparently I’m the only person doing Erasmus who isn’t 21. After that we went to a club, yadda yadda yadda

And today we took the ferry to the island fortress of Suomenlinna which was interesting but SO cold. I’ll post a couple of photos up after this.

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Sat, 21 Jan 2012 10:52:09 -0500

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Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:19:24 -0500

Had a productive little wander around Helsinki earlier - went to Stockmann’s and bought a...

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 12:03:00 -0500

Had a productive little wander around Helsinki earlier - went to Stockmann’s and bought a vintage postcard to adorn the currently blank walls of my room. Then went to the Academic Bookshop aka the biggest bookstore in Scandinavia and found Aldous Huxley’s The Doors of Perception in the sale for 6 euros! Amazing. And then I bought a dinky (I haven’t been using that word nearly enough since I stopped playing FIFA 12 with Jake) Finnish-English dictionary, also in the sale.

Prices in Finland: a ‘Teach yourself Finnish’ book - €33 (!!!!! what even) a copy of The...

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:33:25 -0500

Prices in Finland:

a ‘Teach yourself Finnish’ book - €33 (!!!!! what even)

a copy of The Wire magazine - €8.50

a pack of rubbish soya hot dogs - €4.30

one pint…no, 400ml of slightly warm lager (the cheapest available in the bar) - €5.60

200g of Cathedral cheddar cheese - €4

one 500ml bottle of Fanta - €2.60

Okay, I’ll shut up now

In Finnish laundrettes (well, the one in the flats where I live) you have to phone a number which...

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 12:37:43 -0500

In Finnish laundrettes (well, the one in the flats where I live) you have to phone a number which charges you €1.38 to press a button which turns your washing machine on. I just don’t even know WHY NOT JUST HAVE A COIN SLOT

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Sat, 07 Jan 2012 14:58:02 -0500

not the best photo but the sky’s nice

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 10:17:00 -0500

not the best photo but the sky’s nice

So I’ve arrived safely at my accommodation for the next five months. It’s okay here -...

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 09:32:00 -0500

So I’ve arrived safely at my accommodation for the next five months. It’s okay here - the accommodation itself is much larger than I expected and the cooking facilities all look in order. But the location’s not great, as it’s about a 15 minute metro ride to the city centre. Too far to walk.

Anyway, I managed to get from the airport to Helsinki without running into any problems. Was pretty great arriving at the big square in front of Helsinki Central train station. Then I managed to get lost on the way to picking up the keys for my accommodation. What should have taken 20 minutes took 90 minutes thanks to my poor sense of direction, and I have the budding blisters on my hands to prove it from dragging my 23kg Samsonite suitcase up and down every street in the Kamppi district of Helsinki.

Now I’m at a slight loose end as to what to do with myself. I’ve only met one other person who’s living with me and he’s gone out somewhere, so I’m on my own. This kinda feels more weird than freshers did. Might just have a lie down and wait for my hair to dry, and then go and buy some bread and beer or something. I haven’t had anything to eat since that brie and cranberry baguette on the plane last night. Hopefully the rest of my blog won’t be as banal as this.

One thing I’ve noticed about Helsinki is that there’s a lot of antique shops and hairdressers

I suppose now would be as good a time as any to write my first proper dispatch from Finland....

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 18:33:00 -0500

I suppose now would be as good a time as any to write my first proper dispatch from Finland. I’m currently sat in the arrivals lounge of Helsinki-Vantaa airport, eagerly awaiting the morning, when I’ll be able to get a bus into town and collect my accommodation keys.

The flight here was okay. I did not enjoy taking-off at all - it was pouring down with rain and the lights of London were reflecting off the mist, making visibility pretty close to zero (I’ve never flown in the rain/at night before, you see). But the visibility was good enough that I could see just how high we were for a period when the turbulence was at its worst. As you may have guessed, I don’t enjoy flying. My ears still haven’t popped back to normal. I had a whole row of seats to myself on the plane, which was pleasant. I was given a complimentary brie and cranberry baguette by the good people of British Airways - hats off to them, it was bloody brilliant. I haven’t really got anything else to say. I should be writing an essay on fetishes but I’m not.