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| Enjoyed the port |
As it turned out, Helsinki was hosting some kind of
international fair. It was located in the city’s giant botanical garden, which
was about half a block from our hotel, and it was about a football field-sized
area of booths with handicrafts, food and other stuff from practically
everywhere. I took it that most of the people running the booths were
first-generation Finns, immigrants or businesspeople with roots from
everywhere.
It was fantastic. I held off buying a whole lot, but I did
get some toiletries from one of the African-ish booths, and ate Filipino.
Finland is WAY more expensive than, for example, the Philippines, and I was
horrified at paying 3 Euros for spring rolls, but they were pretty darn good. We
mostly wandered around, checking out all the booths. The weather was fantastic
and it was just nice to be outside in a crowd of people and not stand out.
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| Movie theater snack. Not my movie theater snack. |
That’s really something I miss, just being able to disappear
in a crowd. Both posts I’ve been in, as well as the other two countries in
which I’ve lived, I tend to stand out and draw stares. Istanbul isn’t as bad as
China or Morocco, but it’s pretty clear I’m not exactly from around here.
But Finland? I could blend in. I like that. I could also
drink water straight out of the tap, and I liked that too. There’s just some
stuff that’s underrated.
Like going to movies. I really like movies, but right now, I’m
not able to. In Istanbul, we’re still told to stay out of malls, and that’s
where the movie theaters are, so by default, I can’t go. And I miss that!
So we got the movie listings in Helsinki and set out to see “Pirates
of the Caribbean,” but not in 3D, so the timing was off the first day. Instead,
we discovered “Beauty and the Beast” still playing. I really didn’t have any
intention of seeing the remake, but when I learned Emma Watson was Belle, I
changed my mind. I like her, so, since it was playing, I gave it a shot. It was
pretty darn good – much better than I figured – even though the “Be Our Guest”
scene went *way, way* too long.
But if I ever bring home a man with a bow-tied ponytail,
shoot me.
The following day, against Rotten Tomatoes’ better judgment,
we went to see “Pirates.” It was pretty bad. Even within the confines of the
movie, the opening scene was implausible. Hopefully, with the way it ended, it
put itself out of the additional misery of another sequel, but that final,
final scene – the one after all the credits – hints are more. It’s just done.
There were three “surprises” in the movie, and I nailed each. Either it’s done,
or I should be in screenwriting.
The movie was close to a 7 p.m. start, so we let out after
9:30 p.m. And it was still daylight! Now, I am positive that Finland has
horribly cold, dark and long winters, but it was so gorgeous and wonderful to
be able to walk around in the light of day at 10 p.m.
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| Teemu! Found in the casino. |
And it’s on the water, so that made it perfect for me, too.
I had great time. It’s a port, and our hotel hosted a couple of cruise ships’
worth of guests, and the daily visitors meant that there were a lot of made-in-Finland
booths right on the docks. They were there every morning and rolled everything
up early in the afternoon, once the ships came in.
I loved the stuff, except that it had “Finland” etched in
everything. Reindeer is big, and they had lots of kitchen stuff made with the
antlers, which would have perfectly matched my ulu, except my ulu doesn’t have “Finland”
etched on it. (And why would it, as it’s Alaskan.) So I wound up getting a
magnet.
I also had been looking for a little coin purse-ish bag that
I could take with me on international trips and then stash the money from home
in it when I have the local currency in my existing FSU coin purse. There was a neat one at the international
market – made with map material, is there anything more appropriate? – but I’ve
been burned by zippers and am kind of careful what I get. At the little port
shops, I found one made with a fish-printed material – and it was Velcro. How
perfect is that? It’s big enough to hold my Turkish lira and my metro pass.
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