Apr 19, 2008

Elämä Jatkuu

It means "Life Continues". And indeed it does. Today consisted of hoovering, cleaning, spending long hours trying to fix M's computer which, for no reason, slowed down to the speed of a Belgian civil service bureaucrat (for those of you who don't know, that means very slow. And for those of you who have suffered through this interminable ordeal, I feel your pain and I sympathise), and taking part in an activity which has gained growing importance over the last few weeks. This is lying/sitting/standing around with M and talking in increasingly desperate tones about where we can go next, which wonderful destination will receive us next time we get out of Helsinki, and in how many days this escape will take place. We've talked about South America and Iran. I've talked about Afghanistan, and M has looked at me doubtfully. Africa seems to be too big to be done this year so we need a trip to pass the time. Most likely the next one will be a day trip to Estonia when we really need something to do, but the will is there. Proof: we've reserved the Lonely Planet guide to Iran from the library and we're going to pick it up when it's available. Oh yes.

On Thursday I took part in a Finnish student tradition - the early-starting pub crawl. It also started in a traditionally Finnish student way - an agreement to go for "a beer". This beer was bought in a supermarket and drunk slowly with a donut on the stairs of the cathedral. We were then called up by a friend of a friend to go for a beer in a bar. OK, we said, but only one. Virtanenska, who lives downstairs, had to be back to do some hardcore studying and so had an especially good reason to be back early. We went to the bar, had one, then another, moved to another bar, had a couple there, and I won some money on the poker machine. This of course only encouraged me to carry on. M didn't need any encouragement (and she got bought a drink by a big hairy biker in the next bar so it certainly was a good choice) and Virtanenska was beyond caring by this point too. We called M's friend and had a few more with her. I remember coming home on the tram but I'm not really sure what time it was. The next day, in any case, I did nothing at all. This whole story isn't very interesting, we did nothing much interesting apart from sitting down, drinking beer, talking about various things and, in my case, get involved in an animated discussion with a Bangladeshi barman about why his colleague flatly refused to tell me where she was from, but I've written about it for you in order to complement my previous post.

My parents called the other day and wondered from my tone of voice if i was depressed. They also thought this last time I was here, and I haven't been. Last time I wasn't having the best time but I wasn't depressed. This time I'm very happy. They may have picked this up for two reasons: a) My dad called to talk about his dad's funeral, during which time I was obviously not going to sing him a cheery song and tell some jokes; and b) I think this is also slightly what Helsinki does to you. So to all of you who are concerned for my wellbeing, I'm not depressed at all, I'm purely slowly becoming an average Helsinkiläinen - monotonous and uninspired by my surroundings.

I'm also resolved to writing something positive for my next post - watch this space !!!

Apr 10, 2008

Life In Helsinki - Part 1

...And so begins my series on life in Helsinki.

Disclaimer : This series may not be completely pleasing to any Helsinkiläiset who are especially proud of their city. To them, I say I'm very sorry. You have a beautiful country, but your capital city is, in my opinion, a bit of a hole. Having kept my identity secret from all except those who know me (and let's be honest, does anyone else actually read this thing ?) I will proceed to be completely undiplomatic safe in the knowledge that no hordes of angry citizens will be showing up at my front door armed with axes, hockey sticks and smashed bottles of Lapin Kulta and Suomi-viina baying for my blood. So here goes.

The first section will be dealing with quite a regular scene for most people in this city - the "restaurant". This is a name that Finns give to a pub or a nightclub in order to make it seem different to what it actually is. Despite the fact that the Finnish word for restaurant, ravintola, includes the word ravinto which basically means food, there is no guarantee at all that such a restaurant will serve food of any sort. They will be full of people of all ages, from the "just out of school" kids exploiting their newly-found freedom, to the aging women who will happily tell you through beer-soaked breath that their 6-year-old son is waiting for them at home. They are generally boozed up on overpriced crap beer and dancing to awful music (in the case of a night club) or sitting down listening to awful music (in the case of a bar). In fact, these are the only two types of place to seek entertainment in Helsinki's night scene. Being out at night in one of Helsinki's night-spots can be compared to being in a middle-sized English town. Someone who parachutes into an English town can never know where they are as they all look exactly the same. Similarly, someone who wakes up in a bar in Helsinki will have no idea where they are as all places play the same music and have the same atmopshere.

This, however, appears to be attractive to the average member of the clientele as most places are absolutely packed over the weekends in particular. I went to a bar called "Cuba" last week, which opened since I left in October. M tells me it used to be good but it now sounds and looks much like every other bar in the city. It does sell mojitos, though, which does make it retain the faintest air of Cubanness. When I listened very carefully, I could also hear faint latin rhythms being played in the toilets. Quite sad.

There is also the tradition of pikku-viikonloppu, which means "small weekend". This, in turn, means Wednesday night, where people once again emerge from their homes to get battered. Whether this is because they are unable to wait from Saturday to Friday to get battered again or if they want to enjoy to atmosphere of Helsinki's delightful nightspots I'm yet to find out, but in any case the rate at which they charge through the sauce is quite impressive. You know when you've got accustomed to living in Helsinki when seeing middle-aged men fall over tables on terraces outside without blinking, and going to morning lectures sitting next to some completely battered guy on the tram at 9am. A few years back my metro was delayed because a drunk had fallen off the platform onto the tracks at 11am. Instead of thinking that this was ridiculous, I saw it as an inconvience instead. Minä olen Helsinkiläinen.

It's somehow difficult to avoid this though as Helsinki gets its grip onto you. "What shall we do today ?" is usually followed by a brief pause as the mind thinks well... the weather's too crap to do anything outside. What else is there to do ?...

"...Let's go for a beer ?"
"Yeh, spose so."

A few hours and many Euros later, the conversation will generally turn to how crap the nightlife is. In our own little way, while trying to entertain ourselves, we are contributing to our own downfall.

Apr 5, 2008

Clouds, Beer, Blonds

You guessed it - I'm back in Helsinki ! It had been about 6 months since I last set foot in this country but when I landed in Tampere airport it seemed like just yesterday. Nothing much has changed here and everything seemed familiar. It's great to see M again and I've moved in with her, living in a one room apartment by the sea in a suburb not too far from the centre. It's going to be hard to fit back in I'd imagine - the culture, the language, the climate, the fact that life is quite different here to what it is like in Brussels. Still, it's temporary - I'm going to finish the studies, I've got my old job back and life is going to get started again after this week of moving in, sorting things out and bumming around with M getting to know each other again.

The 6 lane road has disappeared to be replaced by the Baltic Sea but the itchy feet are still there. Coming here is the next step towards the big rollercoaster of life - a place where I can get money coming in, work a job which actually pays, get the Masters finished and find out where I'm going. As long as I can avoid spending it all on overpriced beer...

On that note, I'm off for a beer.