A few days of REAL winter

After all the sun on the Cote d'Azur, it was time for me to confront the real winter. Yes, I was going to Finland...

After the usual lost luggage problems flying in (this time, my bag got lost in Amsterdam), I got a lift from dad into Helsinki. The weather was as it was to be for the rest of my – cold, dark, with snow everywhere. I don't think I saw the sun once during my stay! Once we arrived, I headed out to have lunch with mum and dad – we ended up in Rivoletto, a rather decent Italian restaurant with pretty authentic Italian fare (but the prices were decidedly Finnish though!)

In the evening, the plan was to meet up with the lads for a few beers. We ended up going to the rather oddly named English pub – Angleterre. Strange name or not – nothing wrong with the beer selection. The usual suspects showed up – Aki (who recently became a dad), Jani and Janne. Micke even showed up later on, much to our surprise. Several beers later, I stumbled back home, rather happy about this nostalgic gathering.

Next day was actually the Finnish National day. My initial ambitious plan had been to go and take some pictures of one of the ceremonies no doubt taking place, but alas, I was way too ambitious. I got up rather late (getting too old for all-night beer sessions, it would appear...), and just didn't have the energy to do much. Anyways, this afternoon, it was time for our family gathering, so I helped mum and dad in the meal preparations. Pretty much everybody showed up: Janne, Katja, Tomi, Leena, Sofia, Mick and his two children. Julia also showed up later on. We passed a very nice afternoon and evening together: eating, chatting away, catching up, and watching the amusingly appropriate movie “En enkel till Antibes” (my parents live in Antibes). Once the gathering was over, I took the opportunity to watch the latest Bond film with my dad - Skyfall. Not a bad effort from Mr. Mendes and Mr. Craig, I have to say, definitely better than Quantum Solace! (about on par with Casino Royale, I would say)

On Friday, I wandered around town, doing a bit of shopping, and just enjoying Helsinki. For lunch, I met up with Sakari, a former colleague from Nokia (and one of many ex-Nokans who have thrown in their lot with Intel), at Karljohan's. A pretty decent place for a quick lunch, I had some quite good reindeer stew. Later on, in the evening, it was time to grab a few beers again. This time I met up with Frank and Rasse in Bruuveri, a German-style brew-pub located in Kamppi. It was all good fun, we ended up doing a bit of a mini pub-crawl, checking out first O'Malleys, then Aussi Bar, and finally Teerenpeli. Considering the number of venues we had visited, my head was in a surprisingly good shape the next day.

I continued doing the social circuit the next day by heading into “Kaunis Grani” for lunch. Kaunis means beautiful in Finnish, but given the “post World War II lesson in how not to make a charming town center” that Grani town center is, I don't know who came up with that nick-name (well, there are actually plenty of nice houses in Grani, it is after all the richest commune in Finland). Anyway, I didn't come here to enjoy the architecture, I was there to have lunch with Jani and Jocke. We lunched in the rather oddly named MOMS (or perhaps appropriately named, MOMS means Value Added Tax in Swedish – and Grani is after all the “tax heaven” of Finland). After a decent steak and a nice catching up session, I jumped on the train and made my way back to Helsinki.

For the evening, the plan was to meet up with Jarkko and Maikki in Atelje Finne – Janne, Katja and my parents also showed up. Atelje Finne is quite a cozy little eatery, I liked the interior decoration. The food is maybe more style than substance, unfortunately. The dishes are quite well presented, and I enjoyed the starter and the dessert, but the main course was a bit of a letdown. And the place is rather expensive, too... Still, we had a really nice evening, catching up with Maikki and Jarkko, first at the restaurant, and then at my parents' place.

On Sunday, I was invited over to my brother's Janne's place for a late lunch and a bit of gaming. I passed a very nice afternoon at Sockenbacka, first getting hammered by Janne at Magic the Gathering (ah, MTG, what memories my brief moment of humiliation brought from my nerdish youth...), then eating way too much of Katja's delicious lasagne, followed by a short board game session. All in all, a very nice way to spend an afternoon! Then made my way into central Helsinki where I met up with Jose for a couple of beers, first at Vltava, and then at Praha. Good to see Jose again – last time would've been after our trip to Octoberfest.

That brought and end to my all-too-short Helsinki visit – time to take the train to Tampere, for what is, I suppose, my last business trip for Nokia.

After a day of meetings, I hit town. Tampere is a nice city, but I rushed past the sights, as it was pitch dark and bloody cold (that's Finnish winter for you – and Helsinki felt positively Cote d'Azurish in comparison to wintery Tampere!). I met up with my colleagues at one of my favourite drinking establishments in Tampere – Plevna (it's a micro-brewery located in the old Finnlayson factories). Pentti and Frank also joined – good fun to catch up with them. I rounded off the night with a beer with my old Riviera-colleague Hannu – very nice to see him as well (seems that he still misses the Cote d'Azur – not a hard thing to imagine especially this time of the year...). The next day, after some more meetings in the morning and some tearful goodbyes (well, I'm kidding about the tear-filled bit – this is after all Finland!), it was time to catch the flight back to Nice.

I have to say, in spite of a great few days spent seeing friends and family, I was rather happy to head back to the warmth. I guess I'm getting too used to the southern climate to enjoy the Finnish winters... ;)