Helsinki - Day 1

A couple of days ago my old friend Tobs sent me a text message. It sayd something like "Ruf mich mal an, sobald du das hier liest", so I rang him and he told me he was planning this trip to Helsinki. It was going to be sort of businessy, but if I came along we could add a couple of days and check out the city. I was in, before he even told me about the details. Tobs took care of everything and we got a superb deal, including direct flights and a freakin' fünf Sterne Hilton Hotel. 

I crashed at Tobi's place the night before and set my alarm to four thirty, just to make sure I got klar im Kopf in the morning, because we had to leave at 5:50. Of course I overslept and got up only when Tobs knocked on the door. I think I'm not much of a morning person. I had a coffee and tried to get my brains working while Tobs repacked his bags. We took a train to Düsseldorf Airport at six. Our flight left at nine. We got there with plenty of time left, so after the check-in we grabbed a mandatory McDonald's breakfast before we went to the gate. Waiting for the boarding we saw the most nastiest dude I've ever seen in my whole life. He was wearing heavy snow boots, Skihosen and a grey wife beater with a huge sweat stain on the back. I mean, I really don't want to judge, but wtf, have some public awareness. Later he sat almost next to us on the plane, I was glad there was the aisle and some random Russian woman between us.

The flight itself was easy, it only took two hours and they served us sandwiches and coffee. When we approached Helsinki Airport we looked out the window and everything was white. I was glad, that back at home all the snow had begun to melt away, and lo and behold, here we are landing on a skandinavian ice rink. We soon got our luggage and took a bus downtown. Sure, it's Finland in January so, big suprise, right, but there was so much freaking snow, seriously, everything was white. Only as we drove into the city, the buldings and streets made it look different. We got off and decided to walk to the hotel without asking for help. And of course we took a wrong turn right away. But it turned out to be a nice little walk. I guess I had missed walking through the streets of a completely foreign city, it felt supergut.

At some point, though, we got sick of our bags. So when we passed a pizza joint and some guy was standing outside smoking a cigarette, probably having a break, we asked him for directions. He must have heard us talk, probably something like "Was meinstn, solln wir den hier einfach mal fragen jetz?". Funnily enough he asked us where we were from and explained the way to us in perfect German. Thanks to that guy we found the hotel pretty soon. The room was super clean, but it had a weird smell to it. I thought it was sort of like an old church, bissl weihrauchig, which was bearable, but then Tobi sayd it smelled like old people which threw me off a little. And I believe that the hair dryer used to be a vacuum cleaner in its previous life. But other than that it was perfectly cool, it had a luxury-in-the-nineties flair to it.

A couple of days ago I tried to call the Embessy of Finland to ask if I needed a visa. I mistyped the adress in my browser and got to a shabby little website about Finland, run by some guy who maintains it as a hobby. We actually had quite a talk, because he just couldn't stop advertising Helsinki while I kept asking about the visa. One of his suggestions was a Pizzeria that has an all-you-can-eat for around nine Euros. That was a cool tip and by the time I was ready to hang up on him I also found out that I probably won't need a visa.

After getting used to the hotel and checking out all of them five TV channels, we went out and into the city again. We were starting to get hungry and lo there was the pizza place that guy had talked about. Of course we went in. The food wasn't that great, but it sure took care of the hunger. Walking through the city we came by a couple of real cool stores. Beamhill definitely left a good impression. They have a number of tight brands and lots of shoes, even a couple of boards and books. We checked out a few other shops before getting back to the hotel. On our way we stopped by a supermarket to buy some essential survival items like lots of Red Bull and a Chesecake.

Later that evening, Sami, one of Tobi's business associates, called and invited us to a drink in their supertight company basement party facility. Man, that spot just blew me off, it literally has everything to provide a good time. While drinking beer and cider we talked about Gott und die Welt. As a midnight snack I got Finnish meatballs with mashed potatoes. So good, you should definitey check that out.