Helsinki - Day 3

After chatting serious stuff with Tobs till four in the morning the sound of the alarm wasn't exactly pleasent in the morning. I mean, it's a good alarm, since it's doing its job properly. So for that matter, it doesn't matter what sort of alarm it is, I think it's just the act of getting ripped out of the land of dreams that I don't like. I think it's very important to always respect other people's stuff, but Tobi's phone was so annoying this morning, that I wanted to throw it into one of those ice fishing holes on the frozen river outside.

Getting breakfast felt strangely natural, even though it was only our second time having it. After checking emails, Tobi went out to meet Sami. I decided to stay and nap some more before working on a new translation job I received yesterday. I spent most of the Mittag looking up words and typing at the desk. I had the rest of the chesecake and instant coffee for lunch and went out to take another stroll through the city. 

There's this little magazine called "We are Helsinki". It sounds like a guide book for tourists, but it's way cooler than that, and it has no map. It contains a bunch of articles mixed with shopping and eating suggestions. We got it at Beamhill on Day 1, so I went back there to check out the store once more. I wanted to buy something, like a t-shirt or a hat, but ended up only asking for directions to this bookstore that's introduced in the mag. People in Helsinki are really friendly. 

As told, I took the Tram No.4 or No.7 from the city centre. I got off after a few stops and asked a nice lady about the shop. I was lucky, because the woman lived in that exact same building and was just on her way back home. The smalltalk was a bit awkward, she wasn't good at it, but she was nice enough to lead me to the store. I thanked her, we said goodbye and I went in.  

The bookstore is called Arkadia and it's by far the most bestest bookstore I've been to in my entire life. The owner is a super mellow guy called Ian Bourgeot. He's a French-German-Guatemalan who was born in England and went to school in Malaysia, Mexico and France, where he met his Finnish future wife. They came to Finland and opened a language school, he taught English and French. At some point he started to sell his private book collection and now he's running this amazing bookstore. 

I stayed for about an hour, chatting and reading and writing, before I met up with Tobs again. It was our last evening in Helsinki and we wanted to at least get some drinks. We went to Bar No.9, which was packed when we had finally found it. So we decided to get a snack and come back, although the kitchen in Bar No.9 was really really good, too. But it looked like a too long wait. On the next corner there was a McDonald's and a Delish, the spot with the meatballs and the Kartoffelpüree from the first night. Tobs went for a burger and I smuggled a paper carton with chicken noodles and meatballs on top into the McDonald's. Luckily, Paulina, the blonde clerk who could make a burger uniform look halfway good, was too occupied to notice the Delish package under my arm.

We took our time eating our burgers and meatballs and actually talked about vegetarianism. Tobs told me that he's reading 'Eating Animals' by Jonathan Safran Foer. I feel bad, because I sort of recommended it to him without reading it myself. We talked about not eating meat before, and I told him about this book by Foer, because I like his novels. Tobs was like "Jimmy, du solltest das Buch auch lesen, echt mal. So als Mensch, ohne Scheiss, geht Fleisch essen eigentlich echt nicht. Ehrlich jetzt" which is something like "You really should read this book, Jimmy. You just have to. And as a human being, really, people need to not eat meat anymore. Just, no". So I decided not to read it. 

After our controversial but really funny dinner we went back and found a good spot on the bar. We ordered beer, beer and coffee and checked out the place. It's a super simple bar, sort of Café-like, but with a proper kitchen, too. The interior is not too fancy, kind of homey even. Maybe that's why we liked it. Tobs had a middle-sized glass of not so good white whine and I got a cocktail, recommended by a very friendly girl named Ninja. After a little chat, we went back towards the hotel. Somehow we found our way to another McDonalds for a final late night snack.