The first time I went to this place — 2 years ago
was about two weeks ago and I instantly felt somewhat like home, maybe due to the fact that I left rainy Berlin for a surprisingly warm Helsinki. I loved that!
So what did I do in 5 days?
First I went to see a footballfield in order to borrow a laid-back cruiser of a bike, drove with almost flat tire (felt like floating) to all the sightseeing spots like the Senate Square, the fishmarket and the port. Ate great meatballs with mashed potato at a bar near the football field (I dont remember the name, but it was worth all the 10 Euro – very yummy, but dining out is quite expensive in Helsinki as for anything else, too).
The other day I catched a ferry to suomenlinna with a friend and some beer for a finnish picknick and a sunbath ;-), drove around Töölö Bay, ran through Kammpi Mega Store, watched people in a nice Café at the Esplanade while eating huge cinnamon buns called Pulla.
On the only rainy day I checked out the cathedral, the National museum, where a bag made out of birds fascinated me forever; was invited to a great Circus performance in the Savoy theatre and went for a drink in “Bar 9”.
I had the luck to meet the ‘Prince of Weedbay’ who showed me parts of the Finnish Broadcast and TV Studios where they filmed a scene for the weekly drama “Kotikatu”, had a total free and delicious lunch at a TV-set, made a bacchanal pubcrawl through the famous “Kallio” district, sneaked into some posh Wannabe-Celebrity Party at “Club Priveé”, had a stop-over-drink at “Korjaamo” before heading to my final Party location “Kuudes linja” (=sixth line) where some cool black dudes from Detroit rocked the house.
The last day I had to cure my sweet hangover in Koff park (the park is really named after a beerbrand – Finns definitely know how to do it!). I chilled out in a nice trendy cafe called “fanny goes to hollywood” where I could observe totally wasted people sleeping in broad daylight. I even got to “experience” a private party in “Helmin” and had a goodbye drink in a bar with the meaningful name “We got beef” – no food though ;-)
I really enjoyed the city, the laid-back atmosphere, the sunny wheather, the unbelievably clean bathrooms in all location I was in.
I will definitely return one day – at least to check out the famous sauna and get my tongue twisted in trying to speak some finnish.
