Hitti-Litti
Deity
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2006
- Messages
- 3,767
^^
It's never boring in the countryside.
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OK, I lied.
It's never boring in the countryside.
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OK, I lied.
Things to do in Helsinki when you're dead
- Thread starter Arwon
- Start date
Love
Deity
man i never been in somewhere else place in Finland than helsinki, and it MUST be in finland the worlds most boring place are located...
Hitti-Litti
Deity
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You just have to be that "village idiot" type to have fun in Finland. 
Love
Deity
Yeah, and i live in da big city in da big neigburs lands in da big house!
Mise
isle of lucy
If there was only one thing I could do in a foreign country, it'd be to taste the local cuisine.
Angst
Rambling and inconsistent
Things to do in Helsinki when you're dead:
1. Watch Die Hard
2. Find the resemblance between the movie and Helsinki movie industry
3. Watch it with Finnish syncronised voices
4. Throw up
5. Say excuse to Finnish people
6. Prove that Die Hard is better on English
7. Find out that Finnish film industry don't syncronize
1. Watch Die Hard
2. Find the resemblance between the movie and Helsinki movie industry
3. Watch it with Finnish syncronised voices
4. Throw up
5. Say excuse to Finnish people
6. Prove that Die Hard is better on English
7. Find out that Finnish film industry don't syncronize
Laurencius
Just a tourist.
Best two things to do in Helsinki:
1. Go to a milonga and dance the tango all night. There is more tango in Helsinki than in Buenos Aires.
2. Go to a sauna, preferably with the tango partner you met.
1. Go to a milonga and dance the tango all night. There is more tango in Helsinki than in Buenos Aires.
2. Go to a sauna, preferably with the tango partner you met.
aaglo
Furioso!
Best things to do in Hellsinki:
- bar-hopping
- eating
- sleeping on the steps of the doomsday-church
- bar-hopping
- eating
- sleeping on the steps of the doomsday-church
I've been in Helsinki for about a day and a half and it's a weird little city. Parts of it are pretty in an understated, Baltic, Art Deco sort of way, particularly down around the harbour and the residential area to the south-west of the main harbour. Unfortunately the area around Kamppi and the train station (which I gather is the main shopping district?) is horrendously ugly and messy. I know Finland was never actually part of the Soviet Union, but the mess of bizzare statues and ill-advised, tacked-on globs of various styles of architecture makes me wonder...
This is the first time I have spent any length of time someplace where English isn't a main language (unless America counts), and I'm finding it bizzare. Everything is in Finnish and Swedish and the sheer alienness of the Finnish language has been bringing me endless amusement... glancing at my map at random yields wonderful things like Pursimiehenkatu and Uunisaari. I am pretty sure the Finnish word for American or United Statesian is Yhdysvalttain.
Something I thought was awesome was the sight of dozens of soldiers from he Finnish army apparently collecting for charity on the streets. I can't read the signs on their vehicles, so I don't know what the cause is, but the guy I spoke to said they do ths every year and I think it's somethin other countries should do too.
Also: I found the Finnish Museum of Architecture! Rawk. (Why that's awesome)
Yesterday I took a ferry to Talinn, Estonia, because the novelty of being able to take a ferry to another country was irresistable to me and because it was either that or wander around Helsinki again. Talinn has this medieval 'Old Town' surrounded by grassland and regular streets, which confused me greatly. Basically, it feels like Hyrule has joined the EU. The rest of the city looks pretty much like Helsinki, though with signs saying 'Striptiisi' everywhere just to remind you that you are, in fact, in an ultracapitalist post-Soviet den of sin, not a staid little Nordic republic.
I spent the entire time trying to work out if the medieval Hyrule-esque area was actually lived-in, actually part of the "real" city, or if it was some sort of touristy theme park. I think it's kinda both, in varying quantities. Sure, there's touristyness everywhere, some parts entirely given over to tacky bars and others looking too perfect to be genuine, but there's also dentists and embassies and cars and a school. It's probably like the Rocks area in Sydney where these things coexist (or at least they used to).
I wonder who actually lives in those cobblestone streets and what they think of the world. I also wonder whether they frequent Bar Depeche Mode, an amazingly random find in a basement in the middle of the previously mentioned medieval Old Town. As far as I can tell, it is a bar owned and run by the Depeche Mode fan club of Estonia, and it's all decked out with DM paraphenalia and constantly plays DM music. Words fail me, it was just too random.
I climbed up the tower of St Olaf's church which dates back to the 1200s (the initial Christian subjugation of the Estonia region, I think). Felt deeply unsafe and thus genuine, to be climbing up there around a stone spiral staircase. I still hate heights. Dizziness and fear abounded, but being somewhere so old was deeply cool.
Then I went and got lunch, drank several Saku Tume beers (dark beer, Estonian company, 6.7%) and then went on a slightly drunken museum visit which was entertaining. I learned that Estonia's history essentially consists of being a slushy little possession of all its neighbours, one after the other, then joining the EU.
Then I came back to Finland, and decided against getting dinner because my experiences with Finnish food have been so dire that I did't have the courage to try and find another meal here. Instead I waited til morning and gorged myself on the one edible thing I've had here--the free hostel breakfast tomorrow morning. Mmmm, porridge and toast!
This morning I'm a bit tired so I'just killing time in a cafe with wireless access while waiting to head back to the airport. Next stop, Zaragoza!
This is the first time I have spent any length of time someplace where English isn't a main language (unless America counts), and I'm finding it bizzare. Everything is in Finnish and Swedish and the sheer alienness of the Finnish language has been bringing me endless amusement... glancing at my map at random yields wonderful things like Pursimiehenkatu and Uunisaari. I am pretty sure the Finnish word for American or United Statesian is Yhdysvalttain.
Something I thought was awesome was the sight of dozens of soldiers from he Finnish army apparently collecting for charity on the streets. I can't read the signs on their vehicles, so I don't know what the cause is, but the guy I spoke to said they do ths every year and I think it's somethin other countries should do too.
Also: I found the Finnish Museum of Architecture! Rawk. (Why that's awesome)
Yesterday I took a ferry to Talinn, Estonia, because the novelty of being able to take a ferry to another country was irresistable to me and because it was either that or wander around Helsinki again. Talinn has this medieval 'Old Town' surrounded by grassland and regular streets, which confused me greatly. Basically, it feels like Hyrule has joined the EU. The rest of the city looks pretty much like Helsinki, though with signs saying 'Striptiisi' everywhere just to remind you that you are, in fact, in an ultracapitalist post-Soviet den of sin, not a staid little Nordic republic.
I spent the entire time trying to work out if the medieval Hyrule-esque area was actually lived-in, actually part of the "real" city, or if it was some sort of touristy theme park. I think it's kinda both, in varying quantities. Sure, there's touristyness everywhere, some parts entirely given over to tacky bars and others looking too perfect to be genuine, but there's also dentists and embassies and cars and a school. It's probably like the Rocks area in Sydney where these things coexist (or at least they used to).
I wonder who actually lives in those cobblestone streets and what they think of the world. I also wonder whether they frequent Bar Depeche Mode, an amazingly random find in a basement in the middle of the previously mentioned medieval Old Town. As far as I can tell, it is a bar owned and run by the Depeche Mode fan club of Estonia, and it's all decked out with DM paraphenalia and constantly plays DM music. Words fail me, it was just too random.
I climbed up the tower of St Olaf's church which dates back to the 1200s (the initial Christian subjugation of the Estonia region, I think). Felt deeply unsafe and thus genuine, to be climbing up there around a stone spiral staircase. I still hate heights. Dizziness and fear abounded, but being somewhere so old was deeply cool.
Then I went and got lunch, drank several Saku Tume beers (dark beer, Estonian company, 6.7%) and then went on a slightly drunken museum visit which was entertaining. I learned that Estonia's history essentially consists of being a slushy little possession of all its neighbours, one after the other, then joining the EU.
Then I came back to Finland, and decided against getting dinner because my experiences with Finnish food have been so dire that I did't have the courage to try and find another meal here. Instead I waited til morning and gorged myself on the one edible thing I've had here--the free hostel breakfast tomorrow morning. Mmmm, porridge and toast!
This morning I'm a bit tired so I'just killing time in a cafe with wireless access while waiting to head back to the airport. Next stop, Zaragoza!
Almost right. It should be yhdysvaltalainen (note the small initial letter, in Finnish nationalities are not capitalized). Also that's not actually the word we usually use - amerikkalainen or jenkki are far more common (jenkki comes from Yankee but it's commonly used to refer to any US citizen which might piss of southerners).
Ah. Fair enough. I just saw it on a random TV screen scrolling news, and it said "presidenti yhdysvaltalainen George Bush" or however you people express that phrase in Finnish.
Either way, your language is both cool and utterly utterly alien. Can you guys and Estonians sort of understand each other?
Either way, your language is both cool and utterly utterly alien. Can you guys and Estonians sort of understand each other?
Arwon said:
It was probably for the benefit of the WW2 war veterans. I don't recall ever seeing uniformed soldiers collecting for charity for any other purpose. I might be wrong of course.
The sad part is that we can't really hear the cool and alien bits about it. I speak both Finnish and English fluently and both appear just as mundane/exciting. We can understand Estonians to a degree and can learn each others languages pretty fast.Arwon said:
Ansar
Détente avec l'été
Arwon - Do you speak Finnish or did they simply all speak English?
Hitti-Litti
Deity
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Most of Finnish people, especially young adults, speak pretty good English.
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