After our wonderful weekend in Oxford, ‘twas time for me to continue my European Odyssey – the next stop was Finland, where I had about 10 days of hard work (and a bit of seeing friends and family as well, naturally) to look forward to. Thankfully that hard work was carried out at the Ruoholahti office, just down the road from my parents’ flat at Fredrikinkatu. Thing didn’t start very well, as somebody grabbed my bag at the airport by accident (thankfully, his mobile number was on his bag, so I was able to get it back quickly).
This week could be quite well summarized by that famous expression “work hard-play hard”. The play hard bit started on our first day actually, on Monday. Things started off by us Finns (me and Olli) taking our foreign guests (David, Leif and Tony) to Savotta for a proper Finnish meal. Savotta is a very typical Finnish restaurant in the sense that they do serve Finnish dishes (like reindeer, bear, elk) - but also in the sense that it’s really expensive and the service is rather morose… Well, it was pretty entertaining in an Aki Kaurismaki way (the morose service), and I did get to try bear (I was a bit disappointed though – 42 Euros for minced meat and cabbage is a bit much – even if the minced meat is bear).
We carried on to a real Helsinki institution – Zetor. It’s a place where no self-respecting chic Helsinki person would be seen dead (the main attraction of the place is a tractor by the entrance), but it’s a place foreign visitors of Helsinki simply must see. Anyway, we had a great night out there – especially David who I believe didn’t pay for many of his drinks that night (I couldn’t believe my eyes when three Finnish guys – who all at least seemed very much heterosexual – actually bought drinks to another bloke!). In spite of his bold statements to the contrary when we entered the bar, David ended up on posing on the tractor!
After a relatively civilized Tuesday (it was, after all, the Finnish national day), we decided it was time for a proper night out on Wednesday night. We were joined by a few more guys this time (Dmytro, Gunther, Frank and Jocke), things kicked off in Cantina West. After a rather typical Tex-Mex meal, things picked up in pace at Kajsla, when we decided to give our foreign friends a bit of a “quick tour” about Finnish shots. We tried “Fisu”, “Kossu”, “Finski”, “Leijona”, “Fish”, “Jallu”, and of course the legendary “Salmari”. The waitress was very much impressed by our exploits. We continued the fun at Molly Malone’s, another Helsinki institution (THE Irish pub in Helsinki). It was all like a bit of a flashback from my youth – with one upside (this time I actually one at Blackjack!). We finished off the night at a snagare, where else (snagare is a Finnish snack shack where drunken Finns buy unhealthy fast food – it’s a place of many an interesting encounter). I have to admit that the next day at the office was rather difficult…
Thankfully, things were civilized on Thursday, I headed over to my brother Janne’s and Katja’s place for an evening of board game play, my cousin Rasse also joined. Great to catch up with everybody – and best of all I won ;-)
On Friday, after a day of Finnish winter at our Tampere office, I was supposed to just have a couple of quiet drinks with my good friend Jani. It all went quite well, we were planning to call it a night, until my cousin Rasse turned up with some friends. Needless to say, it meant a rather extended night out at Praha bar, and me getting back home rather late, again.
Saturday was Sauna ilta time, as Jani had invited us over to his place at Vantaa. The usual suspects, that is Aki, Riku and Janne showed up. It was a rather special occasion since both Aki and Riku will rather shortly become fathers (which means, in spite of the brothers’ assurance to the contrary, that there will be considerably less “hanging out with the boys” in the future – mind you I don’t get to do much of that anyway; living in France). Anyway, it was a pretty typical Finnish Sauna session, involving (in addition to the sauna) a fair few beers, serious brooding male bonding and of wathing Jean-Claude Van Damme of course! (I get the feeling, as the muscles from Brussels must feel, that I’m getting to old for this stuff…). I finished the evening in Gallow’s Bird (the best Irish pub, or in fact best pub of any kind in Espoo – which isn’t saying much, actually) with Aki and Janne.
Sunday it was time for the Turtiainen clan to assemble – the chosen venue was Ravintola Perho, which is the restaurant of the Helsinki restaurateur school, where my niece Julia works. We had a pretty good turned up; with my parents (who had gotten back from Antibes the day before), Janne & Katja, Maikki & Jarkko, Tomi & Leena as well as Julia, Sofia and Nanna all present. The food at Perho was actually very good (of course since we followed Julia’s excellent advice), it was definitely the best meal I’d had so far on this trip! We carried on at my parent’s place at Freda. Great to catch up with everybody again.
My trip was nicely summed up with a sauna evening with my brothers Janne and Tomi on Monday. All in all, it was a very intensive week, both work- and otherwise. It was really great to catch up with everybody again, especially since I won’t make it to Finland this Christmas, unfortunately. It was, as always, too quick… A pity about the typically miserable southern Finnish December weather (dark, wet, no snow – the worst) – well at least I saw a bit of snow in Tampere.
This week could be quite well summarized by that famous expression “work hard-play hard”. The play hard bit started on our first day actually, on Monday. Things started off by us Finns (me and Olli) taking our foreign guests (David, Leif and Tony) to Savotta for a proper Finnish meal. Savotta is a very typical Finnish restaurant in the sense that they do serve Finnish dishes (like reindeer, bear, elk) - but also in the sense that it’s really expensive and the service is rather morose… Well, it was pretty entertaining in an Aki Kaurismaki way (the morose service), and I did get to try bear (I was a bit disappointed though – 42 Euros for minced meat and cabbage is a bit much – even if the minced meat is bear).
We carried on to a real Helsinki institution – Zetor. It’s a place where no self-respecting chic Helsinki person would be seen dead (the main attraction of the place is a tractor by the entrance), but it’s a place foreign visitors of Helsinki simply must see. Anyway, we had a great night out there – especially David who I believe didn’t pay for many of his drinks that night (I couldn’t believe my eyes when three Finnish guys – who all at least seemed very much heterosexual – actually bought drinks to another bloke!). In spite of his bold statements to the contrary when we entered the bar, David ended up on posing on the tractor!
After a relatively civilized Tuesday (it was, after all, the Finnish national day), we decided it was time for a proper night out on Wednesday night. We were joined by a few more guys this time (Dmytro, Gunther, Frank and Jocke), things kicked off in Cantina West. After a rather typical Tex-Mex meal, things picked up in pace at Kajsla, when we decided to give our foreign friends a bit of a “quick tour” about Finnish shots. We tried “Fisu”, “Kossu”, “Finski”, “Leijona”, “Fish”, “Jallu”, and of course the legendary “Salmari”. The waitress was very much impressed by our exploits. We continued the fun at Molly Malone’s, another Helsinki institution (THE Irish pub in Helsinki). It was all like a bit of a flashback from my youth – with one upside (this time I actually one at Blackjack!). We finished off the night at a snagare, where else (snagare is a Finnish snack shack where drunken Finns buy unhealthy fast food – it’s a place of many an interesting encounter). I have to admit that the next day at the office was rather difficult…
Thankfully, things were civilized on Thursday, I headed over to my brother Janne’s and Katja’s place for an evening of board game play, my cousin Rasse also joined. Great to catch up with everybody – and best of all I won ;-)On Friday, after a day of Finnish winter at our Tampere office, I was supposed to just have a couple of quiet drinks with my good friend Jani. It all went quite well, we were planning to call it a night, until my cousin Rasse turned up with some friends. Needless to say, it meant a rather extended night out at Praha bar, and me getting back home rather late, again.
Saturday was Sauna ilta time, as Jani had invited us over to his place at Vantaa. The usual suspects, that is Aki, Riku and Janne showed up. It was a rather special occasion since both Aki and Riku will rather shortly become fathers (which means, in spite of the brothers’ assurance to the contrary, that there will be considerably less “hanging out with the boys” in the future – mind you I don’t get to do much of that anyway; living in France). Anyway, it was a pretty typical Finnish Sauna session, involving (in addition to the sauna) a fair few beers, serious brooding male bonding and of wathing Jean-Claude Van Damme of course! (I get the feeling, as the muscles from Brussels must feel, that I’m getting to old for this stuff…). I finished the evening in Gallow’s Bird (the best Irish pub, or in fact best pub of any kind in Espoo – which isn’t saying much, actually) with Aki and Janne.
Sunday it was time for the Turtiainen clan to assemble – the chosen venue was Ravintola Perho, which is the restaurant of the Helsinki restaurateur school, where my niece Julia works. We had a pretty good turned up; with my parents (who had gotten back from Antibes the day before), Janne & Katja, Maikki & Jarkko, Tomi & Leena as well as Julia, Sofia and Nanna all present. The food at Perho was actually very good (of course since we followed Julia’s excellent advice), it was definitely the best meal I’d had so far on this trip! We carried on at my parent’s place at Freda. Great to catch up with everybody again.My trip was nicely summed up with a sauna evening with my brothers Janne and Tomi on Monday. All in all, it was a very intensive week, both work- and otherwise. It was really great to catch up with everybody again, especially since I won’t make it to Finland this Christmas, unfortunately. It was, as always, too quick… A pity about the typically miserable southern Finnish December weather (dark, wet, no snow – the worst) – well at least I saw a bit of snow in Tampere.
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