Yksi, kaksi, kolme - Finnish 101:
”Voi” means butter, or maybe it’s simply a brand, I don’t know and I honestly don’t care. It took me about half an hour to find a stick of butter in the local supermarket, and then they only sell it by the pound, now that’s a lot of butter!
Shopping in a country where you don’t understand the language is pretty damn time-consuming. I mean, putting the butter next to the yoghurt which is not next to the milk which in turn is not next to the cheese which obviously is located far far away from the previously mentioned butter, is a serious attempt to test my patience… however it turned out fine until I reached the line to the counter. Seriously, back home you might wait for 3-4 minutes maybe a little more (I know it seems longer, but it’s not!), here you wait for 15 (Fifteen!) minutes, honestly! Maybe it was because the shops are closed tomorrow, it’s the 1st of May you know, and you guys are probably going to Fælledparken to have beers and what not. Anyway, this leads me to the fact that here in Finland, they celebrate something the day before the International Workers’ Day…. I.e. my visit to Helsinki started of with a brawl (not in the “Gangs of New York” sense, but more like a festival!):
People who have, at one time or another, graduated from university put on their caps and flow into the streets to drink and party, even older people whose caps look rather scrawny!! Most of the Helsinki-youth also put on either some stupid costume and mask, or a, maybe even stoopider(!), full-body suit that makes them look like a mix between a Danish high school graduate and a drunk Formula 1 pit crew member…. To accompany the vast array of beautiful colours you see in all the shop windows of Iitalla, Alvar Aalto and Marimekko, some universities sport crazy colours like purple or turquoise, apparently each university has its own colour!
Even though I bought myself a guide-book in the airport, it had not quite come to my attention that this event was going down today. I kinda figured it out when I promenaded around town to look for some lunch and most people were trying extremely hard to get suspiciously drunk! Later on, after I had dinner at my cool flat (right in the city-centre yessir!), I wanted to take a sunset-stroll down to the harbour, when a massive gathering of drunken youth at the stairs to the enormous cathedral at Senate Square caught my attention… not only had they taken over the streets and parks, this untamed mob was trying to do a 360 on the crusades and take over the church….. naah, I guess they were just attending some concert, but hey, don’t blame me for trying to spice things up a bit here… I’m in Helsinki on my own, so my stories are universal truths, belie’ dat!
It might seem like I’ve written this in a hurry, and I have, my computer is running low on battery and my Danish three-legged plug won’t fit anywhere in cool flat (right in the city-centre yessir!)!!!
Anyway, everything is good except grocery-shopping and the language… speaking of language; I’ve chosen to do the blog in English since it is more explicit and fun than Danish, sorry!
This was quite a good start for my blog-comeback, so hopefully I’ll keep it up!
You stay classy Helsinki!
Shopping in a country where you don’t understand the language is pretty damn time-consuming. I mean, putting the butter next to the yoghurt which is not next to the milk which in turn is not next to the cheese which obviously is located far far away from the previously mentioned butter, is a serious attempt to test my patience… however it turned out fine until I reached the line to the counter. Seriously, back home you might wait for 3-4 minutes maybe a little more (I know it seems longer, but it’s not!), here you wait for 15 (Fifteen!) minutes, honestly! Maybe it was because the shops are closed tomorrow, it’s the 1st of May you know, and you guys are probably going to Fælledparken to have beers and what not. Anyway, this leads me to the fact that here in Finland, they celebrate something the day before the International Workers’ Day…. I.e. my visit to Helsinki started of with a brawl (not in the “Gangs of New York” sense, but more like a festival!):
People who have, at one time or another, graduated from university put on their caps and flow into the streets to drink and party, even older people whose caps look rather scrawny!! Most of the Helsinki-youth also put on either some stupid costume and mask, or a, maybe even stoopider(!), full-body suit that makes them look like a mix between a Danish high school graduate and a drunk Formula 1 pit crew member…. To accompany the vast array of beautiful colours you see in all the shop windows of Iitalla, Alvar Aalto and Marimekko, some universities sport crazy colours like purple or turquoise, apparently each university has its own colour!
Even though I bought myself a guide-book in the airport, it had not quite come to my attention that this event was going down today. I kinda figured it out when I promenaded around town to look for some lunch and most people were trying extremely hard to get suspiciously drunk! Later on, after I had dinner at my cool flat (right in the city-centre yessir!), I wanted to take a sunset-stroll down to the harbour, when a massive gathering of drunken youth at the stairs to the enormous cathedral at Senate Square caught my attention… not only had they taken over the streets and parks, this untamed mob was trying to do a 360 on the crusades and take over the church….. naah, I guess they were just attending some concert, but hey, don’t blame me for trying to spice things up a bit here… I’m in Helsinki on my own, so my stories are universal truths, belie’ dat!
It might seem like I’ve written this in a hurry, and I have, my computer is running low on battery and my Danish three-legged plug won’t fit anywhere in cool flat (right in the city-centre yessir!)!!!
Anyway, everything is good except grocery-shopping and the language… speaking of language; I’ve chosen to do the blog in English since it is more explicit and fun than Danish, sorry!
This was quite a good start for my blog-comeback, so hopefully I’ll keep it up!
You stay classy Helsinki!
posted by Per Holsteen Larsen at 10:57 AM
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