Many years ago, when Boris first moved to Finland, he told me he liked nothing more than feeling the warmth the moment he stepped through the building’s front door. In Russia, the hallways were never heated; it used to be still cold until you entered your apartment (I do not know whether it changed later, or whether it became the norm for newer constructions/remodeling).
It is not always the case in the US either, and I agree with Boris that that’s a distinct Finnish thing. But it’s more than that. Somehow, any public space, whether it’s a shopping mall, a library, or a train station, feels incredibly warm and welcoming, especially in the cold weather. I don’t know any other place in the world where I would feel this good, even when it’s cold, dark, and rainy. Just step inside any place, and you feel it.
I arrived in Helsinki on Saturday and planned to meet with my friend Natasha on Sunday. Just a day before my arrival she asked me whether I would be interested in a mushroom-picking. to which I replied with an enthusiastic “yes” – it was my first opportunity in thirty years!
The kind of mushrooms we were going to forage presented a little challenge, because they were trumpet chanterelles, which I never picked in my life, and you need a eye for each mushroom specie to be an efficient forager, but eventually I figured it out.
I saw a surprising number of butter mushrooms around (they should have been gone by that time of the year), but since those were the maushrooms I used to go for as a child, I could spot them right away. Unfortunately, all except for one I picked were too old and I ended up throwing them away after they got home, but we cooked what was left :).
There were also some russulas, some too old, but some still healthy and perfectly eatable, and some other mushrooms I was unsure about, possibly white and black milk-caps, but since I was not sure, we prefereed not to experiment. And there were lingonberries – all over the place! I already bought a box in a grocery store, but the ones staight from the stems – they were bigger and sweeter than the ones from the store, and I couldn’t stop munching on them!
Over two hours in the forest. Almost severn pounds of trumpet chanterelles. Breath-taking views. Slightly wet feet. Priceless :).
Each time I work from Valo in Helsinki, I like it even more (if it is possible :)). I’ve mentioned a couple of times that my only challenge with working there is the uncertainty about exactly when a room will be assigned to me on any given day. The standard reservation time is from 9 AM to 5 PM, and I rarely start working before that, but until my room is assigned, my key button doesn’t open the gym door, and I love using the opportunity to work out before work.
On Monday, I saw that the room had already been assigned at 6 AM, so I happily departed for Valo. When I saw Jarko at his usual place at the “catpatin deck”, he greeted me and said that he saw that I had reserved the rooms for three days, and he made sure that for all three days the rooms would be assigned starting from early morning, so that I would have time to go to the gym and have breakfast. I can’t even describe how touched I was!
There are very few people working at the beginning of July, and the entire staff at their main cafe is on vacation for six weeks. Lunch is being served in a smaller cafe, and breakfast time is extended until 11 AM, because most people are staying in the hotel rather than co-working 🙂
A very short trip to Helsinki. Left lots of loose ends in Chicago, in the office, and otherwise, and trying to take care of at least some of them remotely.
My flight was on Friday evening, and I decided to take the L to the airport, thinking that at least the travel time would be predictable and I could do some work on the train. Didn’t exactly work as planned, since I had a medium-sized luggage which was rolling around all the time, and I had to hold it, and a Blue Line train moved as if it was a race car, but I made it to ORD, and even had a relaxing hour in the LOT lounge (that’s where Finnair is sending their eligible members these days).
It was nice to see the welcoming screen 🙂
I have been in Finland for three days, and I did a lot of biking, met with friends, attended an organ concert, and worked from my favorite coworking space. Some clothes shopping. A lot of time with Boris. Sleeping for 7 hours a night (I will be back to six tonight, most likely, but the first two days are like that).
When we biked to Natasha’s place on Saturday evening, we passed multiple green areas with lots of wild flowers everywhere. All the flowers were the ones I saw in the countryside when I was a child, everywhere I ever spent my summers. If there is anything from my childhood I am nostalgic about, it is nature in the places where it was almost untouched by civilization: meadows, strawberry patches, wild blueberries, and lingonberries; high pines, ferns, and horsetails. And this soft light-green grass, which is surprisingly different from the prairie grass, and I never thought about it until the first time I came back from the prairies to the European North. And that might be the main reason I would always want to come back to Finland 🙂
Helsinki has memorials for several Presidents of Finland (possibly for all of them, and I just don’t know), but unless you know that they are president’s memorials, you would never recognize them. On Sunday, Boris suggested we visit all the presidents he knew, and since it still felt not as cold as in Vienna, I agreed (and barely made it, because it was actually pretty cold!)
Relander, second president of Finland, called “Upwards, Outwards.” Symbolises stability and growthRisto Ryti, the fifh president of Fonland, served in 1940-1944. His personal history is really tragic, and the memorial symbolises it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risto_RytiThe is not a president’s memorial, but the only building which survived after the old sugar factory was demplished to give place to the new Ppera building.A memorial to Finnish sugar industry 🙂A memorial tp Urho Kekkonen, the eight and the longest-serving Finnish President (from 1956 to 1982)A closer view100 years of Finnish democracy monument, The sculpture was initiated by a women’s organization to honor the first 19 women elected to the Finnish Parliament in 1907; first ever elected women in the worldMauno Koivisto, nineth Finnish President, memorial, dubbed as “Mediator,” reflects the role of Koivisto “between East and West”Juho Kusti Paasikivi, the seventh President of Finland, served from 1946 to 1956, right before Kekkonen. The memorial is dubbed “East and West”, because he had to balance between the demands of the neighboring Soviet Union, but he still tried (successfully) pull Finland towards integration with the West. The inscription reads: The start of all wisdom is acknowledging the facts.
In short, all post-WWII Finnish Presidents had to balance between being the USSR neighbor and trying to do the best for the people of Finland
On Saturday, I met with my friend Natasha and her daughter (and my goddaughter) Sonia, and Natasha suggested we go to Tapiola, a 1950s project of integrating urban development with nature. I have never been there, and for Natasha, that’s the place she lived when she was a kid, and she wanted to show it to me.
Once again, it might have been better if it weren’t so cold, but it was still very interesting. Retrospectively, I should have taken more pictures!
Used audio and video materials sale in the local libraryAn outdoor pianoThere is a small but really interesting toy museum in Tapiola, but unfortunately, we could not find descriptions in any language, so we often had to guess what period the toys belonged to.
We ended our field trip with a visit to the cafe that makes the biggest cinnamon buns one can imagine:
Natasha and I shared one bun but even a half was of a size of two regular buns!
My local friends do not pay attention to many things that I marvel at each time I come. For them, it’s a part of their daily life, and for me all these things are a never-ending source of a “good envy,” things I hope to see in Chicago one day.
Seven-year-olds taking public transportation by themselves with confidence.
An abundance of family-style buffets pretty much everywhere; the ability to choose what exactly and how much you put on your plate
Absence of homeless people. I know that I do not see them, not because they are artificially “hidden” from other people’s sight, but because it’s almost impossible to become homeless in Finland.
Stainless steel public toilets everywhere. I can write a large blog post just about these toilets, their perfect design, their unbreakability, their convenience, and ease of cleaning. And yes, I saw them being used for different purposes, same as in Chicago, but still.
The widest network of bike paths, which allows you to get by bike anywhere and safely.
An abundance of public spaces that are used by everyone.
And one more time about unhoused people, because the housing crisis in Chicago is becoming worse every day. In Helsinki, people do not need to use bus stops for living, do not need to pull around the city all their possessions in a grocery cart, and do not need to use library bathrooms to wash themselves or take a nap in a safe space. And just to be clear, I see poor people in Helsinki. I see people scavenging the garbage cans. An antique shop next to Boris’ house in Helsinki distributes stale buns (unsure from where) every morning, and I see people lining up two hours ahead of the distribution time.
And I am not even mentioning the healthcare, eldery care, and many other things. I do not think I will see it all happen in Chicago during my lifetime. But I will do what I can to make it happen.
Yesterday, we were trying to do everything we didn’t have time to do during the past two weeks :). We went for a bike ride, which was great, especially because I might not have an opportunity to go for a bike ride for a while (looking at my schedule realistically).
We went to Regatta in the afternoon, and they were serving glögg in addition to their usual coffee and hot chocolate, so we ordered glögg and blueberry pie with vanilla sauce and enjoyed being inside this little fairy tale, as always.
And I can never miss their outdoor creativity!
When it became darker, I went to see whatever Christmas lights were already up:
To my surprise and delight, I found that not only Stockmann Christmas display was already up (it was not up five hours earlier when I went to get chocolate!)
And then I spent two hourse packing, and ended up with two luggage pieces!
I am so glad we went to this concert! Boris was doubtful whether we should go, and with it’s been raining non-stop, it was very tempting to saty at home hybernating. I am so glad I changed my made and made an executive decision to get us tickets!
After the concert, when I was energized beyond the level any espresso drink can deliver, Boris told me he underestimated how new this experiense would be for me. And actually, I do not think I ever heard Bach in a church, believe it or not! The boys choir is absolutely out of this world! (That’s a different music, but I just can’t get over them!)
And on the way home back from the concert I saw that Helsinki is being decorated for Christmas – not the full regalia, but getting there, and I hope to catch a glimpse of it tonight!
After spending time in the Oodie Library, we relocated to the Helsinki Architecture and Design Museum. Since the whole of Finland (and probably the whole world) is celebrating the 80th anniversary of the first Moomin book, the museum opened an Escape to Moomin Valley exhibit.
I feel like it’s the best Moomin exhibit I’ve ever seen. It was so interesting to see how Tove Jansson’s ideas can be viewed through the architecture and design lens.
