Reviews
Helsinki feeling
Ken Snowdon encounters some friendly Finns in Helsinki, samples moose burgers and discovers a novel use for throat lozenges.
I WAS once given some very wise advice. You can't say you've really arrived in a country until you've put as much distance as possible between you and the airport and gone for a drink with the locals. Those fine words were spoken to me in Ireland, but it's a sound theory that should work anywhere.
So I tried it out in Helsinki.
Now Finland has plenty of opportunity for drink and so I fell out of my airport taxi and into Iguana, a nice enough looking bar with tables and chairs outside on Keskuskatu street. With a beer ordered, delivered and rapidly consumed, I felt able to ask the guy sitting next to me if there was a national drink I should be trying. He looked at my tourist map before he shook his head, but with a little coaxing suggested something called Kossu might come close. This stuff (its full name is Koskenkorva Viina) used to be made from potatoes but its now distilled from barley and sweetened a little, no doubt because it sounds horrible. I found out later that they use the same distillation process to make high-purity industrial ethanol.
However, the Finns like a drink and they worked hard on making it palatable, adding stuff like cola or orange juice to it. But then it got worryingly bizarre because my new friend told me a popular choice is to get a Fisherman's Friend, crush it up and add it to the bottle. I thought I'd misheard him but I hadn't. Apparently, it's the number one drink in many pubs and nightclubs in Finland. I'm sure that when James Lofthouse invented the Fisherman's Friend in Fleetwood in 1865, he would never in his wildest dreams suppose his Lancashire lozenge would end up pounded to bits and dissolved in Finnish spud potcheen.
I know I should have investigated further but I convinced myself that I had neither the time nor the liver to discover its effects. I did, however, have time for another beer.
Helsinki is a splendidly compact place with cobbled streets, park-like spaces in wide boulevards (which someone told me have under-pavement heating so they don't ice up in the winter) interesting looking architecture and its got trams. I love cities with trams (apart from Manchester) and the efficient public transport will get you around well enough. You might also try the open topped bus tour for 24 euros, although Helsinki is easy to explore on foot, too.
Find time to visit Senate Square, a huge open space commemorating Finland's independence from Russia in 1917. Helsinki's magnificent Lutheran Cathedral looks down from the top of impressive stone steps. To the left is Helsinki's University main building and to the right is the Palace of the Council of State.
In the middle of the square is a statue of Russian czar Alexander the Second, who was kind towards Finland and they returned the favour. Incidentally - and I guess a reminder of Russian occupation - Hollywood often came to this square instead of making the impossible trip to the USSR. Bits of Gorky Park and Dr Zhivago (among others) were both filmed here.
My other favourite building is the railway station with its impressive clock tower and four granite giant statues holding lamps on either side of the main entrance. One feature you probably won't get to see is the private waiting lounge exclusively for the use of the President of Finland and her official guests. It was originally intended for the Emperor of Russia and during the First World War it was converted into a temporary military hospital. It's thought to be the only one of its kind in the world.
After all that sightseeing it was time for lunch at Kappeli. This restaurant and café bar looks as good as the food it serves, a kind of Victorian Gothic fantasy conservatory in the middle of Esplanade Park, near the harbour. Originally built in 1837 as a rendezvous for artists and "high-society gentlemen" (Sibelius the Finish composer had a favourite table here and gets a mention in the menu), it was closed for years until its restoration in 1976. You can get everything here from a beer and a sandwich to a splendid three course lunch and it's worth it for the atmosphere alone. I had traditional salmon soup (nice) and a moose burger (not as big as you might think, but also nice).
Helsinki has almost 60 miles of coastline within the city limits and over 300 islands and, once again, the Finns have the ability to surprise. There's the harbour with sizeable passenger ferries coming and going, the private yachts of all sizes tied up in neat impressive rows, the shipbuilding yards that, unlike the ones that remain in the North-East of England, still seem busy and, of course, you get the women washing their rugs in the sea. Honest.
Finns prefer to wash their carpets in the Baltic so they've built little platforms into the water to make it easier. Each spring people carry their rugs from their flats down to the salty water and wash them with pine soap, rinse them and hang them on racks to dry.
If shopping is your thing, there are plenty of opportunities. Lasipalatsi is the centre of Helsinki with the usual department stores but there are plenty of independent small shops that have all but disappeared from our towns. If you want a Finnish take on the shopping centre, don't miss the Kamppi. With 129 shops and 21 restaurants arranged on "themed" floors, it even has an Events Centre that promises "something will happen every day" although when I was there whatever it was eluded me.
It's not often you can actually gauge the effects of fine food and drink beyond that feeling of well-being one gets after a thoroughly good time, but after my stay in Helsinki I found I could. Seeing me struggle with my seatbelt on the flight back home, the Finnair stewardess offered me a seatbelt extension. I suppose you could say it was a case of fat meets Finn.
TAVEL FACTS
Finnair flies direct to Helsinki from Manchester and Edinburgh www.finnair.com
Helsinki Tourist guide www.visitfinland.com
Ken travelled on First TransPennine Express from Durham to Manchester Airport www.tpexpress.co.uk
Budget Helka Hotel www.helka.fi/ Double room for two from £65.
Boutique Hotel Klaus www.klauskhotel.com/ Double room for two from £110.
Pamper yourself! Hotel Kamp www.hotelkamp.fi/en/Index/ Double room for two from £255.
Shops are generally open 9am-6pm on weekdays and 9am-2pm on Saturdays; department stores and shopping centres are open 9am-9pm on weekdays and 9am-6pm on Saturdays. In summer and before Christmas the department stores may be open on Sundays until 9pm.
9:05am Saturday 27th October 2007
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