So... does the above mean that I'll be electrocuted if I -
What?
If I what? Film a video?
Oh, right. OK.
Other interesting facts about Finnish include:
a) that it is pronounced as it is written, like Spanish.
b) the first syllable is always the stressed one.
c) that it is Nordic in origin, and not Scandinavian.
2) Helsinki has an uber fashionable Design District that includes furniture, jewellery and clothes:
3) Retro lifts give it that je ne sais quoi:
4) You can sit at a trendy hotel's outdoor cafe and enjoy the morning sunshine:
5) And every private facility is handily accesorized:
6) At first Finland was a Swedish colony. Helsinki was a small town, made mainly of wood, and it burnt down entirely in the early 1800s.
Then the Russians arrived and the Swedes left and the former brought their own influences, which the Finns consider exotic, like this Orthodox church. Here is Sofia, my personal guide, showing me the "living bricks" facade.
7) There used to be a great big boulder of prehistoric (Pat says, "prehistoric"?! antediluvian!) granite smack bang in the middle of town that nobody could do anything about. Then one day a team of Finnish architect brothers were authorised to blast it with dynamite and build a Lutheran Protestant church inside (Finland's official religion). Amazing!
8) The street market down by the pier is beautiful:
9) These medieval-styled/art nouveau buildings in downtown Helsinki were designed and built within a 15-year span at the beginning of 1900. Can't remember the architect, but don't think it's Aalvar Alto, maybe Eliel Saarinen or the German Carl Ludvig Engel. In any event, they went out of fashion quite quickly for some reason, and have not been built since. They're spread all over the city centre and have an array of ecclectic influences.
10) Russians have no qualms about eating bear, but the Finns do. They like bears, and think they shouldn't be eaten. Having said that, Sofia says that if the Finns decide to go ahead one day and eat "the bear", then "we put the skull and the paws of the bear at the head of the big table, and lots of us are eating the bear, so no one feels particularly guilty, but so, this way we enjoy. But normally we like the bears." (alive)
But then - they're quite happy to chop up poor Rudolph and serve this Lapland delicatessen for a hearty full on dinner, rosemary stig jutting out like a delicate feather and all. "Much grease because we need up there, y'know? For the cold". Yikes. It was delicious, though!
And there you have it.
