Ever been to Finland? Me neither. So why not go? In November?
Do you know how cold it is in Finland in November? Me neither.
It is 0.
That's right. 0 degrees (Celsius but who's counting).
The first thing I noticed about Finland, besides the cold, is that Finnish is a completely foreign language. No Romance/Latin basis here. They put 2 U's and oomlots in and all kinds of other weird stuff. Sometimes the G sounds like a G but more often it sounds like a Y. Even German was easier to understand that Finnish.
From now on it's not "all Greek to me" It's all Finnish.
But the people are nice. So nice. And quiet. We were easily the loudest people on the street all day today. Have you met my kids? Yeah, big surprise there.
I really enjoy being able to take mass transit when I am in European cities. We did it in London, Paris, Berlin, and Bergamo. It is a little more difficult here, because, again, Finnish, but for the most part we seem to be figuring it out. We hopped on the light rail to go down town. We found a Starbucks for some coffee, but passed some local shops we might try tomorrow. The kids have been less than thrilled with the food, so we were hoping to find something there, but alas, my picky little eaters made a pass.
We did eventually land at a cool little market where there was a smoothie and gluten free panini stand. Their smoothies were very delicious. Ryan had the "Red" with berries, banana and apple juice while I tried the "Violet" which had mint and coconut water. I really liked the mint as it made it very refreshing considering we were drinking smoothies in 0 degree weather.
Emily preferred the hot sausages from a little market stall outside. This sausage was about 2 feet long and she nearly ate the whole thing. That girl does love her meat. The market was very worldly as I met one shop owner from India, another from Cornwall, and a couple from Peru. When I told Ryan that the gentleman was from India and he was Indian, he kindly corrected me, "They are native Americans, Mom". And I had to explain that no, this really was an Indian from the country of India. Not awkward at all.
Off in the distance we saw a giant Ferris Wheel, the Helsinki Sky Wheel, and of course, being the perpetual tourists, my children were dying to go on it. After forcing them to look at all the stuff in the shops, we finally relented and got tickets and hopped on board. We got to go around the wheel 5 times, which thrilled the children to no end. We were also the only ones on the ride.
Right next to the Skywheel, was a pool. An outdoor, heated pool. The thing that really blew my mind was how many people were swimming in the pool, in 0 degree weather. Apparently Finns really love their swimming and there has been a big push from the government to make sure all Finns know how to swim for enjoyment and safety.
I learned this tidbit because we made our children go through the Helsinki Museum. Someday, as Aaron put it, we will be able to go through a museum and he will actually be able to see and read stuff, but that was not today. They enjoyed the Children's World exhibit and Emily and Ryan taught us our numbers in the old classroom. They liked looking at the toys and they put on a great little puppet show. I really think Emily has found her calling.
We headed back after that because, did I mention it was cold? Emily ended up falling asleep in Aaron's arms and Ryan followed quickly on the railcar. Now they are taking a nap and eventually we will venture out into the cold to get some food.
There are a lot of things that are similar to the states here. I see many familiar brand names and stores, but there are a few huge differences. There are no homeless people here. Or if there are, they have been put away for the winter. Even in the day time, it is too cold for people to be out with no shelter, or even without a jacket for any length of time. There is little trash and very few cars. Even when we were headed back at 4:00 or so, the traffic was certainly heavier than when we headed out at 11, but nothing like 4:00 in a big city in the states. The man I met at the market who was from Cornwall said that there is little crime to speak of here because people have what they need. We saw many bicycles out without locks because, I'm assuming, people don't have to worry about it being stolen.
As we were walking back to the flat, the children were being picked up by parents at their school. We have a school just down the block from where we are, and I'm guessing that many of them live in the apartments around here. There was no long line of cars to pick up the kids, just adults swarming around and then walking home with their munchkins.
My phone died, so I don't have any pictures yet, but Aaron took some good ones which I will try and add on later. More adventures in Helsinki tomorrow.
