I plan on leaving my heart in Helsinki.

I am so blissfully hammered right now.

Let me catch everyone up. I'm in Helsinki on business this week. This is the most stunningly beautiful city I've ever been in. Granted, I'd been here before, but I was so messed up on jet lag that I didn't really appreciate the 6 hours that we were here at th time.

This week, instead, I'm getting to soak up the full glory of the ridiculously beautiful city that is Helsinki.

Imagine the city that you always fantasized about as a kid. When I was a kid, I had a mental image of what big cities were like. Busy people swiftly moving through town, lots of trees, clean sidewalks... it turns out that the perfect city of my childhood imagination is Helsinki. First of all, the city is spotless. Most of the sidewalks are cobblestone, and you could eat off of them, they're so clean. The buildings are all also clean, and the architecture is amazing- a wonderful selection of modern, simple, clean Scandinavian design, and a few select historic buildings. Throw some gorgeous blonde people, adorable green and yellow tram cars, fresh air and lots of healthy trees and parks into the mix, and you basically have Helsinki. This place is a fantasy world. I don't care if the sun doesn't come out for 3 weeks in the winter. The rest of the year is worth it.

Anyway, back to being drunk. The day I found out that I would be spending a week in Helsinki also happened to be the day I stumbled upon the list of the Top 50 Restaurants in the World. No. 39 is Chez Dominique in Helsinki, the only Finnish restaurant on the list. So I said to myself, man, I get per diem, I should see if I can get in on that. So I made a reservation, and tonight I went. Besides the utterly mind-bogglingly delicious food, I got wine with every course. It was supposed to be a full glass with every course, but that would have meant 6 glasses (!) of wine, which, I gently explained to the waiter, would have made me pass out in my plate by the 3rd course. He suggested that I get a half a glass of wine with each course, which sounded fabulous to me, but it turned out to still be enough to get me wrecked. Not wrecked enough to be sick, but wrecked enough to be giggly on the tram ride home, not to mention drunk enough to think to myself as I was carefully eating with my knife in my right hand and my fork in my left, tines down of course (which is incredibly hard when you're seeing double), "My God, how did a Nebraskan end up at the 39th best restaurant in the WORLD in Helsinki, Finland? I grew up on Arby's, for cripe's sake!"

Anyway, so I had a wonderful tram ride home and then called up Jonathan, whom I was missing and whose company is the only thing that could have made the meal better.

Oh, and even while sobor, I've noticed an amazing thing about Finns- never in my life have I met a more law-abiding society. After strolling around in Russia for a while, where people will gladly step on you to get ahead (whether it be cutting in front of you in line, pulling out in front of you while driving, etc), it is so refreshing to have people, say, actually STOP when you're in a crosswalk. It's like you can actually hear the mantra of "this is good for society" going through people's heads.

Example- yesterday, while I was taking the tram back to my hotel, it started to POUR down rain. Absolute buckets falling from the sky. The gutters became overflowing rivers, moving fasters than the trams. When I got off the tram, the walk light for the street was red. I had an umbrella, but there was a lady waiting at the corner who was without one. She'd obviously been stranded far from home- she was SOAKED to the bone. When I saw her, I immediately considered offering to share my umbrella, but it looked like she was about to cross the street. And then I saw it- the wheels of social progress spinning in her mind. I could tell that she was cold and wanted to cross the street so badly to get closer to home, but, gasp, the light was red!! Never mind that no one was coming for MILES around. There she stood, teetering on the curb, looking left, looking right, picking up her foot as if she was about to go; then she glanced up at the still-red walk light and her brain started saying, "If I cross the street, AGAINST THE LIGHT, that will be the end of our society as we know it. It will be the start of the slippery slope. This is my own fault, I should have brought an umbrella. Here I stay, for the good of us all." It's amazing how quickly this mindset rubs off on Helsinki's visitors as well. I, too, waited for the light to change, as I have every other time I've been at an intersection while here. I've even missed my tram in the morning because I've been at an intersection and my Scandinavian blood kicks in, telling me to obey laws even when no one's looking. It's incredible.

It's also incredible how I've been rambling. Amazing what the 39TH BEST MEAL on the PLANET will do to you. It's also amazing how disturbingly fortunate I am. Between the food and this beautiful city... man. And honestly, what compelling reason is out there that should prevent everyone on earth from experiencing this glow at least once? If spread around properly, through a people's respect for each other (a la the Finns), there should be enough out there for everyone.

I hope all my readers are in happy places tonight, because I am. :)