Look at Helsinki on the map; see how far north I am. The only capital city north of here is in Iceland and they have been bad lately, (silly Iceland). It was 10 degree below when I walked back to the hostel and I was fine except for my face. The people of Finland are tall strapping folks who are healthy and hardy. The men have big faces and big hands and many of the women look like they could happily unload a few tonnes of salmon from a boat. I thought that I would fit right in and was secretly looking forward to being mistaken for a Finn, but no such luck. Everybody spoke to me in English before I even said a word. How did they know? I am the right shape and size and I have matching facial features. It took me a while to work out. No fur! Not on my cuffs, or my gloves, or my coat, or my hat, or my boots, not even around the edge of the hood of my jacket. Therefore, I simply could not be Finnish.
Today I went to a market where the most popular stall was the sushi shop. This makes sense when you consider that they seem to have an abundance of fresh fish right at the front door. The skies were blue so I disregarded all the public health warnings to be out of doors and went shopping. (You are supposed to soak up the rays at every possible opportunity and take a vitamin D supplement in winter.) In the malls, everything was 70% off, but most of it was still ridiculously expensive given the lousy Aussie dollar. The Finnish girls in my room tell me that Norway is in fact more expensive, but as far as countries goes Finland is number two for the cost of living.
I went to the city museum and saw a film about all the things that can go wrong with trams (which Helsinki has). Here are some of the problems that they saw fit to document:
Today I went to a market where the most popular stall was the sushi shop. This makes sense when you consider that they seem to have an abundance of fresh fish right at the front door. The skies were blue so I disregarded all the public health warnings to be out of doors and went shopping. (You are supposed to soak up the rays at every possible opportunity and take a vitamin D supplement in winter.) In the malls, everything was 70% off, but most of it was still ridiculously expensive given the lousy Aussie dollar. The Finnish girls in my room tell me that Norway is in fact more expensive, but as far as countries goes Finland is number two for the cost of living.
I went to the city museum and saw a film about all the things that can go wrong with trams (which Helsinki has). Here are some of the problems that they saw fit to document:
- The driver might be sharing a cigarette and flirtatous conversation with the conductress with the well turned calves whilst driving the tram. They might be enjoying each other so much that they overlook a passenger at the stop.
- The driver and the conductress with the come hither smile might have stopped the tram and got off for a cigarette and a coffee, then a teenage boy might jump on the tram and have a turn of driving it.
- The tram might come off the rails or track, or someone might fall over getting on or off the tram or a car might crash into the tram, or someone might try to overtake the tram and sideswipe another car or someone might get their arm stuck in the door etc.
It was just hilarious. Why bother making such a film? (But they did.) Why bother showing it? (But they did) Why bother watching it? (But I did!)
1 comment:
Hilarious Greta...and why would they put such a film in a museum? What the heck kind of museum was it? This blogs great to keep up with you.
You had me laughing out loud with your expectation to be mistaken as just another Finn;) Can't you buy a fur hat or something and test your theory further?
Do you keep it up when you finally get home and back into your routine: like, got up, had coffee, went to work, ... etc
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