Helsinki recap

So today at home there was a near-tragic incident. It began like this- our friend Tom bestowed upon us the incredible gift of nearly every Nintendo/Super Nintendo/N64/Genesis/Apple game EVER in emulator form. I finally got it working yesterday, and today Jonathan sat down to relive his childhood. When he discovered that he could now play Elevator Action for the first time in 20 years, he was so excited that he knocked over his coffee. It narrowly missed splattering all over the laptop itself, and left an impressive puddle around our external hard drive. I unplugged everything immediately but had some MAJOR panic about losing every photo, document, and piece of music from the last, oh, SIX YEARS OF OUR LIVES. After the clean-up, we plugged everything back in, and it all seems to be fine, but it did scare the crap out of me enough to finally back the thing up. So now I'm staying up late, re-loading blank DVDs into the computer every 45 minutes as it lovingly compacts and copies all our precious files.

Along the same lines, while staying up late, I figured I should also give a run-down of my Helsinki trip before something happens to my brain and it's all gone forever. On our old laptop, of course. The new one is busily humming away.

My most faithful readers already know about the amazing meal and wine I had on Wednesday, and the social-mindedness of Finns. But, I'll throw out a basic overlay of the week while I'm at it. It's not like anything interesting has been happening in Russia this week, anyway.

Last Monday I took the train to Helsinki. About a 6-hour ride, or rather, 5 hour ride with an hour of sitting at the border so Russian border control could go through all the cars and make sure no one was stealing any Russian artifacts, followed by Finnish customs agents going through all the cars to make sure that no one was tainting their country with any god-awful Russian artifacts. The train ride overall was bland; as was the food; and the heat was CRANKED, so I rued wearing a turtleneck.

When I arrived, I hauled my massive suitcase to the hotel across the street, which is where I thought I was staying. Turns out I was in the other hotel, owned by the same company, that was a kilometer and a half away. I was too chicken to try to figure out the public transportation just yet, and didn't have enough euros for a cab, so I yanked the suitcase the kilometer and a half uphill to my actual hotel. After sitting in my hotel long enough to stop sweating, I loaded up my camera bag and hit the town. I saw the Sibelius monument, which was in a beautiful park with leaves changing color; as soon as my film is developed (say, in November), I'll post pictures. Then I went to this church that was apparently carved straight into a hill made of granite. When I arrived, however, it was closed. Rats. At this point I was shaking from hunger, so I stopped at a place called Hesburger, which, it turns out, has the most incredibly awesome, fat-laden hamburgers that I've ever had.

After my "snack," I went downtown. Besides work training, the true reason for my trip, my Helsinki sub-plot was finding a dress for an upcoming formal event. St. Petersburg "formal wear" is either black, slutty, or both, so I thought I'd find something more colorful yet subdued in Helsinki. Turns out, they have "colorful yet subdued," but only in specialty shops for around 400 euros and up. Ouch. So half my evenings were spent running into bridal stores hoping I'd find something on the clearance rack. This is how I spent most of my Monday evening, trying out Stockman's, the Macy's of Scandinavia, and then taking side excursions to H&M and Marimekko. I finished my night with dinner out at an Indian place, the first time I've ever eaten at a "real" restaurant All By Myself.

Tuesday- work during the day- boring- at night, more desperate dress searching- boring- then intending to go to an "authentic!" Finnish restaurant, which turned out to be closed for a private party- which was followed by my going to a chain called Carrol's for another hunger-desperation hamburger.

Wednesday- more work- then the world's most fabulous meal at Chez Dominique. If you're ever in Helsinki (and have some major per diem to spare) I HIGHLY recommend it.

Thursday- work- then one final hunt for a dress. Finally found one that didn't make me look like a cheap hooker for around 200 euros, so I figured I'd buy it and get it over with already. By the time I bought it, I was barely able to grab a pastry and hop on the tram to get to the opera in time. I saw a cozy performance of Don Giovanni (with another pastry at intermission). Afterwards met up with an American coworker to go be silly tourists at the "Ice Bar," a bar where the tables and everything are made of ice. You even get a borrowed parka when you go in. Neat. After pretty much no dinner, a cup of coffee, and then a shot of vodka (all they served at the ice bar), I needed some food. I decided I'd introduce my colleague to Hesburger- but lo and behold, despite the hours posted, they weren't open. Ended up going to McDonald's. Desperation hamburger #3.

Friday- final day of training- then off to a great Thai meal with coworkers, then out for a night on the town. Let's just say I got home really late.

Saturday- Ice Bar coworker, who was staying in my hotel, called me at 9:00 AM. We had some free breakfast at the hotel, then putzed around the city a little. Thankfully the air was cold and fresh, so I didn't feel too tired. Wandered around the herring market by the piers and took some more pictures.

At 3:30 PM my train back to St. Pete departed. (This time, I took the tram between the hotel and the station, and a strapping young Finn immediately stepped up to get my suitcase on and off. Such nice people, the Finns.) Once I boarded, I was in major need of a nap. My ticket was for sharing a 6-person cabin. I boarded and saw only an old Russian man in my car. I figured he'd never speak English. I figured he'd find out soon enough that my Russian is terrible, then I'd sleep the whole way home. He said "sdrastvitya," I replied in kind, then he asked me something in Russian. "Izvinitye," I said, gesturing hopelessness.

"Well, do you speak English then?" he asked. !!

"Yes I do," I said.

"Well, why didn't you say so?"

Turns out this guy- who had to be pushing 80- was a scientist and had been giving a lecture at a college in Helsinki. Andre, his name was. He'd worked with the W.H.O., fighting AIDS in Africa, and some kind of epidemic in Cuba in the 70s, all kinds of stuff. He was a genius, and a riot.

"Are you Finnish?" he asked.

"Nooo, I'm American."

"American! What state?"

"Nebraska."

"Nebraska!" He studied me carefully, then stared at my feet. "No cowboy boots??" Then burst out laughing. He also knew some great dirty jokes, had some choice words to say about Michigan, and was quoting Russian poets all over the place. Currently, he's working on studying the effects of pollution on Baltic species of animals and plants. What a great guy.

As we neared the Finnish border, a young Russian couple entered our car. Andre translated for me- apparently they'd been driving to Helsinki when their car broke down. They left it in a repair shop in Finland and decided to take the train back to St. Petersburg. While waiting, they visited a tax-free shop and bought a huge bottle of whiskey and a big bar of Swiss chocolate. They also heard on the radio that it was Putin's birthday, so they insisted we toast to him, and graceously shared the whiskey and chocolate. The woman was named Olga and spoke English; her boyfriend was another Andre (I swear) and didn't, but Olga and old Andre were good translators. Olga was an economist but had wanted to be a travel agent until she'd found out how badly it paid. I told her she should be a flight attendent. She wrinkled her nose at me and proclaimed that she didn't like serving people. Haha. Like most Russian women, if she could get to the US, she could easily make a living as a model.

I arrived back in St. Pete around 9:30 PM, where Jonathan met me and took me out to sushi to catch up, then it was home again. After all the wine, clubbing, and whiskey, I spent the rest of the weekend re-hydrating. :D

So that's the entire log of my happenings in Helsinki. Jonathan is immensely jealous and we're already planning another trip before New Year's. Not to diss on Russia too much though. It was still wonderful to come back to "Peter" and feel like it was home. :)