It’s been a while since my last visit to Finland. The occasion for my visit was festive – my friend Aki was getting married (one of those 10/10/10 weddings). Me and Aki go way back (our paths crossed not only in Finland, we also lived in Ireland and England at the same time) – so it felt very important for me to attend.
My usual Lufthansa flight via Munich took me into Helsinki about noon. Aki had planned a late lunch with some foreign visitors at Suomenlinna, which I was just able to make it on time for, having caught a bus from the airport into Helsinki town centre, dropped off my bags at my parents’ place, and sped down to Kauppatori from where I took the ferry to the famous island fortress. It was a nice boat trip, with the ruska (a Finnish word which describes the time during the autumn when the leaves are at their most colorful) livening up the Helsinki archipelago, in spite of the rather grey sky.
Quite an international group Aki had assembled, with people of at least the following nationalities: Swiss, Swedish, French, Irish, Philippine, German and American. And a couple of Finns. After a quick stroll around Suomenlinna, with excellent commentary from Aki (he actually used to work as a guide here), we headed down for our late lunch at the Suomenlinna brewery. Rather good food, really, to go with the excellent locally brewer beer. A really nice bunch of people – and it was great seeing David again after all these years (he also used to live in Ireland and London, where we ran into each others quite a few times).
Aki even managed to talk me into acting as a “night life guide” for our international group – not that I’m sure I’m really qualified for that anymore these days… (the bar scene changes so quickly in Helsinki, I’m definitely not up to date on what’s cool these days). Fortunately a couple of colleagues of mine from Helsinki, Frank and Jerome (adding a bit of Dutch color to the ensemble) joined us, and kind of got me off the hook. We started the evening in a nice wine/beer house by the train station, and then ended up in a night club up in the Kamppi shopping centre. Jeez, it was probably the first time for years since I’ve been to a proper night club… Pretty nice place, with great views over Helsinki. We really made a night of it; I crashed on the bed in my parents’ place at Fredrikinkatu at around 5AM in the morning…
The next day was Aki’s and Maija’s big day. There was a bus transport from the senate square to the wedding, which was handy. Before catching the bus I took the opportunity to walk around Helsinki for a bit, enjoying the beauty of the ruska. After checking out the teddy bear exhibition at Senate square, it was time to jump on the bus. The bus took us through Helsinki, along Länsiväylä to Kirkkonummi, where the wedding was taking place. We crossed a piece of old Russia on the way (Porkkala used to be Russian until 1956 – apparently taking a train across Porkkala was quite a tourist attraction in those post-WW II years – since the Russians covered all the windows of the trains whilst it crossed “Russian territory”). The church where Aki’s and Maija’s blessing took place also has an interesting history – it used to be a movie theatre for Russian soldiers.
After the blessing, we headed down to Majvik, where the reception was taking place. Again, a place with an story to tell – this used to be the main intelligence post of the Russians (since it was the highest point at Porkkala). I was seated together with “the old gang” – Jani, Micke, my brother Janne and Katja (I don’t know why our table was in a separate room from all the other tables – perhaps Aki was afraid we’d disgrace him with our behavior or something ? :-) ). It was all great fun – with great food, witty speeches (I especially liked Jani’s one – “lyhyt ja ytimekäs” as we say in Finnish), nice dancing (I liked the “wedding dance” – Metallica’s Nothing Else matters!), good drink and great company. It was good to catch up with some old mates again, I rarely see Micke these days, for example.
And then there was the great dramatic moment when the bride was stolen from Aki (one of the robbers apparently bore a striking resemblance to me, would you believe it!?). After devouring the wedding cake (my contribution was significant), downing the cognac, the wedding came to a surprisingly early end at about 9 o’clock (this was a Sunday, after all). We did continue the celebrations at Janne’s and Katja’s place, wehere we were also joined by Riku and his lovely lady Tarita. I ducked out early, since I had to get up rather early the next morning to go to Salo.
Yes, I had the brilliant idea of going to the office on Monday, not sure where that one came from… Anyway, after a moderately productive day at the office, I had to speed back to Helsinki to join the Turtiainen clan at Salve for a family dinner. It’s a very nice place located near by the Länsisatama port, where they serve excellent fish dishes. A nice way to finish a rather intensive trip in my home country (Well, I did actually pop into Tampere for a bit of work the next day, but nothing too interesting to write about that…).
Anyway, thanks to Maija and Aki for a great party, and if you read this do enjoy your trip to Italy!
More photos here.
My usual Lufthansa flight via Munich took me into Helsinki about noon. Aki had planned a late lunch with some foreign visitors at Suomenlinna, which I was just able to make it on time for, having caught a bus from the airport into Helsinki town centre, dropped off my bags at my parents’ place, and sped down to Kauppatori from where I took the ferry to the famous island fortress. It was a nice boat trip, with the ruska (a Finnish word which describes the time during the autumn when the leaves are at their most colorful) livening up the Helsinki archipelago, in spite of the rather grey sky. 
Quite an international group Aki had assembled, with people of at least the following nationalities: Swiss, Swedish, French, Irish, Philippine, German and American. And a couple of Finns. After a quick stroll around Suomenlinna, with excellent commentary from Aki (he actually used to work as a guide here), we headed down for our late lunch at the Suomenlinna brewery. Rather good food, really, to go with the excellent locally brewer beer. A really nice bunch of people – and it was great seeing David again after all these years (he also used to live in Ireland and London, where we ran into each others quite a few times).
Aki even managed to talk me into acting as a “night life guide” for our international group – not that I’m sure I’m really qualified for that anymore these days… (the bar scene changes so quickly in Helsinki, I’m definitely not up to date on what’s cool these days). Fortunately a couple of colleagues of mine from Helsinki, Frank and Jerome (adding a bit of Dutch color to the ensemble) joined us, and kind of got me off the hook. We started the evening in a nice wine/beer house by the train station, and then ended up in a night club up in the Kamppi shopping centre. Jeez, it was probably the first time for years since I’ve been to a proper night club… Pretty nice place, with great views over Helsinki. We really made a night of it; I crashed on the bed in my parents’ place at Fredrikinkatu at around 5AM in the morning… 
The next day was Aki’s and Maija’s big day. There was a bus transport from the senate square to the wedding, which was handy. Before catching the bus I took the opportunity to walk around Helsinki for a bit, enjoying the beauty of the ruska. After checking out the teddy bear exhibition at Senate square, it was time to jump on the bus. The bus took us through Helsinki, along Länsiväylä to Kirkkonummi, where the wedding was taking place. We crossed a piece of old Russia on the way (Porkkala used to be Russian until 1956 – apparently taking a train across Porkkala was quite a tourist attraction in those post-WW II years – since the Russians covered all the windows of the trains whilst it crossed “Russian territory”). The church where Aki’s and Maija’s blessing took place also has an interesting history – it used to be a movie theatre for Russian soldiers. 
After the blessing, we headed down to Majvik, where the reception was taking place. Again, a place with an story to tell – this used to be the main intelligence post of the Russians (since it was the highest point at Porkkala). I was seated together with “the old gang” – Jani, Micke, my brother Janne and Katja (I don’t know why our table was in a separate room from all the other tables – perhaps Aki was afraid we’d disgrace him with our behavior or something ? :-) ). It was all great fun – with great food, witty speeches (I especially liked Jani’s one – “lyhyt ja ytimekäs” as we say in Finnish), nice dancing (I liked the “wedding dance” – Metallica’s Nothing Else matters!), good drink and great company. It was good to catch up with some old mates again, I rarely see Micke these days, for example. 
And then there was the great dramatic moment when the bride was stolen from Aki (one of the robbers apparently bore a striking resemblance to me, would you believe it!?). After devouring the wedding cake (my contribution was significant), downing the cognac, the wedding came to a surprisingly early end at about 9 o’clock (this was a Sunday, after all). We did continue the celebrations at Janne’s and Katja’s place, wehere we were also joined by Riku and his lovely lady Tarita. I ducked out early, since I had to get up rather early the next morning to go to Salo.
Yes, I had the brilliant idea of going to the office on Monday, not sure where that one came from… Anyway, after a moderately productive day at the office, I had to speed back to Helsinki to join the Turtiainen clan at Salve for a family dinner. It’s a very nice place located near by the Länsisatama port, where they serve excellent fish dishes. A nice way to finish a rather intensive trip in my home country (Well, I did actually pop into Tampere for a bit of work the next day, but nothing too interesting to write about that…). Anyway, thanks to Maija and Aki for a great party, and if you read this do enjoy your trip to Italy!
More photos here.
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