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June 19, 2006
Days without end
Mausi is back from the conference she was attending last week in Helsinki, the beautiful capital of Finland. Now that we are approaching Midsummer Night the days never seemed to end in Helsinki. Not easy to get enough sleep during the night if you are not used to sunbeams tickling your nose at 3 in the morning and it never gets really dark ouside anyway. Though why the workmen in the backyard of the hotel had to start construction work at 4.30 a.m. will forever remain a mystery - they probably had to make the most of the daylight.
The market place close to the harbour
Helsinki is a fascinating city. Mausi had already spend couple of days there on two occasions during holidays but she had forgotten just how nice and friendly the town is. Although it is a big city it is neither hectic nor unbearably noisy and the Finns are really friendly people. For one thing you very seldom hear a car driver sounding his horn despite the heavy traffic in the town. And we never heard people shouting at or getting angry with each other. What we noticed, though, were quite a number of tortoise sculptures throughout the town and we wondered if these were supposed to reflect the Finnish character: never rushing at things but doing everything deliberately.
In summer and the absence of ice and snow Helsinki seems to acquire a somewhat Southern European outfit. Even at midnight the streets and places are incredibly busy with people. Every backyard or other suitable bit of space is turned into a cafe or pub or restaurant.
As you see places are packed with people
And there is music all over the town. Several stages were erected in the town center and there were performances of all kinds of music throughout afternoons and evenings. And of course, summer is the time of street musicians.
One of the many street musicians in Helsinki during the summer
They also had a wide repertoire with regard to music that ranged from pop to classic and instruments. It really felt more like being in Italy than Finland with the advantage of course, that there was always a light breeze blowing from the sea which made temperatures in excess of 20 centigrades bearable for Mausi who prefers a slightly cooler climate.
Posted by Mausi at June 19, 2006 12:53 PM
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