Chapter 1
My first full day in Finland was a tale of two completely different volume levels. The first half of the day was a solo mission and I didn’t talk to anyone until the beginning of chapter 2. I had a quiet morning mapping out my plan of attack and preparing for the day. I made myself a nice little breakfast of yogurt and granola and set off to check out the island military fortress of Suomenlinna. It was a great afternoon with just my iPod, my thoughts and some gorgeous scenery. I’ve never really been interested in the details of history so the significance of the fortress and the battles fought there is best left for Wikipedia to describe. What remains is a remarkable track of land with tunnels, canons and tourist trap café’s and stores. I wondered the fortress without a map and spent a good chunk of my time checking out some tunnels that ran deep underground. Not a lot of light makes it that far underground but luckily the light on my camera doubled as a flashlight. After about 4 hours of exploration it was time to head back to the hostel and chef up some average (at best) pasta. I have a new understanding of what it’s like to be illiterate, as shopping for groceries in Finland is a bit of a crap shoot. The words resemble nothing I can comprehend or pronounce, so I was forced to shop based on the photos on the packages. My photo recognition skills were good as my meal did consist of ground beef, tomato sauce and pasta. A quick shower and it was on to a night out.
Chapter 2
The second part of the night started with a bang…literally. The tram ride down to meet up with my houseboating friends, Michelle and Natasha, was an adventure in itself. A group of teenagers started a brawl in the back so the driver was forced to stop the tram and kick them off. 500 M further down the road my tram crashed into a delivery truck which meant the track was blocked and I’d have to walk the rest of the way. I made it to Tavastia Kulbi just in time to catch the last few songs of a concert and try my first shot of Fisu. What the hell is Fisu you ask? It is the new drink sensation that will be sweeping North America as soon as I return.
Recipe: Take a large bottle of vodka and empty out a bit, ground up some fisherman’s friend, dump the FF into the vodka, allow the powder to fully dissolve, poor into a shot glass, enjoy!
We bar hopped around Helsinki led by our Finnish tour guides, Antti, Monte and Henrik. We stopped at Elmo the sports bar, Green Room the rock bar (my fav of the night) and our last stop was Onnila the dance bar. Some tasty late night pizza capped off a fantastic night, or should I say morning. 5 am and finally off to sleep makes for a short nap until day 2 of exploring Helsinki. Anyone for Fisu?
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