(no subject)

After a night of very little and very poor sleep, I got up and went to the morning breakfast buffet on the ship, for which I had paid 53 swedish crowns as part of my fare. They offered a pretty typical scandinavian breakfast, nothing too extraordinary. I drank a zillion cups of coffee and balanced it out with some orange juice (gotta fight the scurvy, you know), and the usual smorgås and prinskorv and so forth. I felt much better afterwards.

I collected my belongings from the locker and went up on the deck outside to watch our arrival in Helsinki. The docks at Helsinki looked pretty much like the docks anywhere else, although some onion-domed russian-style building rose up in the distance. I thought something profound, like ``So this is Helsinki.''

Off the boat, I withdrew some money from an ATM, one hundred marks I think, and then took a bus to the city center. The bus was exactly like the busses in Lund. At the central station I locked my belongings into a locker for another ten marks. At this point I was still planning on continuing to St. Petersburg to visit Kristen, so I set off in search of a Russian visa.

On my way to Central Station I'd passed the offices of Aeroflot (`Russian International Airlines') and I figured they'd probably have useful information for me on my quest to enter Russia. (Aeroflot used to be the Soviet national airline, and flying on their planes is reportedly a bit of a hair-raising experience. Now seeking to survive in the market economy, they have a professionally designed (and downright `hip') website which contains an amusing history of the organisation. For example, they write ``Did you know that Aeroflot actually designed the first supersonic airliner, the TU-144? Its maiden flight took place on December 31, 1968, two months ahead of the Concorde.'' Well, the Tupolev-144, more popularly known, both mockingly and affectionately, as Konkordski in the West, was based so much on Concorde plans obtained through espionage that it even looks like a Concorde, complete with the movable nose. Then, spectacularly and in front of hundreds of thousands, a ``new improved'' Tu-144 broke up in mid air and crashed at the Paris air show in 1973. Anyway... In modern times, Aeroflot is proud to announce that it just purchased its first two Boeing 777's.)

I began with some airline-related questions: ``I'd like to fly to St. Petersburg'' resulted in the rather unexpected response, ``We don't fly.'' Well, they do fly, but only to Moscow. Very well, I asked where I could find the Russian consulate, and they gave me a map and drew in the consulate and told me how to get there. Everyone says that the Russians, especially when serving in an official capacity, are as unhelpful and as bureaucratic as possible, but these Aeroflot people were quite helpful and downright amiable.

I set off for the Russian embassy but quickly became extraordinarily lost. Actually, I thought I knew exactly where I was, but I was completely wrong. Helsinki is surrounded on all sides by water, and there are little harbors on all sides, so it's easy to get confused when you're sort of assuming that the water is in a particular direction. Some elderly Swedish-speaking Finnish couple set me right (I was completely on the wrong side of town), and I took a streetcar and then the subway back to the city center (ten marks). From the subway I had the bright idea to actually call a travel agency specializing in last-minute travel to Russia, had the following 30-second conversation on my mobilephone: ``I'd like to go to St. Petersburg, ... tomorrow if possible.'' ``Hm, what is your nationality?'' ``American.'' ``Oh, I'm sorry, it's not possible.'' While it would normally be possible to get a visa within an hour or two (for about $120) at the Russian Embassy in Helsinki (reportedly the Russians' `friendliest embassy'), it turns out that the Russians were on some kind of extended winter holiday. Oh well, so much for that plan.

Time to figure things out in Helsinki. I happened upon an Akademibokhandeln book store in the city center and cruised over to the tour book area to read the Lonely Planet tour guide to Finland and Helsinki. I don't know what it is with Lonley Planet tour books (or phone numbers for that matter), and the rest for that matter, but the phone numbers are always wrong. They print a new edition every year, but still the phone numbers are never right. The other annoyance is that they only print the local numbers, so you have to search elsewhere in the guides for country codes and area codes, etc.. Anyway, I looked up the phone numbers for some youth hostels in Helsinki and after various ``the number you have dialed has changed...'' messages (fortunately not just in Finnish but also in Swedish) I got through to Stadion Hostel: ``Can I book a room?'' ``Oh, no need, just come on down.'' That's the joy of traveling in the winter season: there's plenty of room everywhere, no need to make reservations.

I didn't really know what to do in Helsinki, and I wanted to get out of the cold, so I decided to tour the National Museum, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art. One thing I really liked about this museum was that the curators of the exhibition had compiled a book describing the exhibition and the philosophy behind it, the questions that they wished to address. Copies of this book were placed strategically around the exhibition for visitors to look through. Furthermore they had a video consisting of three minute interviews with each artist. Together these materials provided a background for the exhibition that made it vastly more meaningful.

I spent the night at the Stadion Hostel, which is actually part of Helsinki's olympic stadium. The stadium had been built for the 1940 olympic games, but those games were canceled on account of the war, and the stadium saw its first olympic games twelve years later.

ATM withdrawl	(FIM 100)	SEK 197.39
Lunch	FIM 35
Helsinki Public Transit	FIM
ATM withdrawl	(FIM 200)	SEK 359.78
National Museum
Stadion Hostel	FIM 110 (€18.49)

Hello from Helsinki

Just wanted to say "Hi" from Helsinki, Finland. (Hi) It's *COLD* here! Oj, & I still feel like I'm on a boat. I took the all-night ferry from Stockholm last night, which was highly entertaining but did not involve much sleep (not least because I didn't pay for a place to do so) but I met some interesting people.

Apparently the Russian Consulate is on some kind of holiday until sometime next week so my scheme to invade St.Petersburg isn't going to work out this time. In a way this is good, because I can come back later with more time (train to moscow, find Simon!) and better prepared (learn cyrillic
alphabet, have visa), but it's still quite a bummer. After exploring Helsinki a bit I think I'm going to go to Estonia (no visas required) or something.

BTW visited University of Helsinki today. Not too much exciting stuff going on there now (everyone on holiday), but they have a nice library, and I believe that U. of Helsinki is where Linux originated.

Finland switches to (begins use of) the Euro currency (notes & coins) on Tuesday. Everything is already priced in Euros.

Finland's two official languages are Finnish and Swedish, which is quite convenient... Finnish is some bizarre mutation of an old form of Hungarian, so being able to communicate (and read signs, which are mostly in both languages) in Swedish is quite helpful.

Just visited the National Museum.

Have to be back in Lund on the 7th.

Had a very nice Christmas with Tony's family in Kristinehamn.

If anyone wants to rendevoux in finland/ estonia/ latvia/ lithuania/ poland/ sweden in the next few days, you know the number.

Gotta go, this store is closing.

-- Tobin