Going Somewhere
Hei Hei Helsinki
 October 5th 2019

This is a translation of a German post. View original or Never translate German
Capital collection

13:10, up in the air above Norway. I leaf through the on-board magazine and learn how to properly eat lobster and where to find the trendiest bars and restaurants in Shanghai. I'll file that under 'might come in handy someday'. Romy taps on my arm from across the aisle, pointing to a page in her magazine: An interview with Marie Ulven Ringheim aka Girl in Red — her phone in the other hand shows the open Spotify app: Girl in Red — watch you sleep. Neat.
The connecting flight in Oslo takes off at 13:35, so that might be kinda tight. About ten minutes later a crew member stops by and explains that we are booked through to Helsinki via Stockholm about an hour later. Cool. All three capital cities in a single day.
On the second flight to Stockholm I am seated next to a suited-up man who sneaks a pre-takeoff selfie snap and later orders a coffee with mjölk — Nordic languages are amazing.
An air plane docked to a gangway illuminated by warm orange evening night with clouds on the horizon
Stockholm Stopover
After another 45 minute flight into the setting sun, during which I barely manage to listen to one podcast episode, we finally land in Helsinki. By the time we get to our apartment around nine most restaurants have already closed for the night and we end up seated in front of a panorama of the Himalayas with yak shepherds at the Yeti Nepal after a stroll through the cold. There's hardly anyone here besides us, but they serve really tasty Nepalese food nonetheless.
After dinner we start into a short gender-debate around the question of who should invite whom on the first date and way. Romy and I put up a bit of a fight against the stereotypes of the older generation and then let our father pay for the food.

Meet Helsinki

Behind the counter full of bagels at the Brooklyn Café are two young women, one of them with blue hair, the other with a Vaporwave-Glitch shirt and a Chinese tattoo on her neck (二, whatever that's supposed to mean). A couple of girls sit around a table across the room.
Romy: "Haha, dad's the only man in here". Alright, so there's that.
A golden sculpture of a double-headed eagle sitting on a gold ball on top of a stone pillar against a cloudy grey sky
Keeping watch
Red neon letters reading 'Amos Rex' forming a spiral in front of a grey sky
Amos Rex
No description available yet
Photosynthesis
A child in a yellow raincoat sitting on a warped, patterned concrete surface
Yellow Raincoat
Behind the Amos Rex Museum with its alien-organic shapes — too bad it's closed right now — we find an oval wooden building with a chapel of silence inside. Photography is not permitted inside, but the room is really beautiful: Tall, round, completely covered in wood and flooded by daylight from above, with Nordic-puristic furniture all around.
A featureless, oval building with a facade made from copper-coloured metal strings
Urban Ark
Two orange doors up on the side of a white wall, connected by narrow red stairs, inaccessible by any other means, with a white ladder leading to the roof of the building
Doors to Somewhere
The next point of interest on our tour, the Rock Church, lives up to its name: There's rock, there's church.
Light falling in through radial slits in a concrete ceiling of a round, cave-like rough rock room
There's concrete, too
A bit further at the coast we find shelter from the freezing rain and the first snow in a tiny cafe that is so full of old photographs and antique lamps that the guests have to squeeze in quite a bit. We have some tea and warm Korvapuusti as we watch more and more snowflakes mixing in with the rain outside. Quite cozy here.
A small red wooden cabin on a lake, viewed through some tall brown reeds
Such a cute little place
A light blue and red bird painted on a wooden cut-out leaning against a deep red wall
Bird in Red
Capital letters spelling the word 'Partihall' above a door frame on a red brick wall
Partihall
A cubic white lamp on a red brick wall reading 'B SIDE'
B Side
A person in a dark hoodie spraying large orange letters on a wall covered in grafitti
Redecorating
A red neon sign on a rooftop at night reading 'Oxygenol', with the 'N' partially broken
Oxygen
Interiour of an empty cafe flooded by red light from a neon sign outside the window
redlight
Before we have to leave Helsinki again around noon the next day, we take a bus to the outskirts of town in the morning and cross a long white wooden bridge onto an island where old buildings from all over Finland have been rebuilt and combined to an open air museum.
A small rock island with yellow autumn trees in a still lake
Calm sea
Classical Scandinavian architecture really has something to it — with its small red church, farmhouses and the smooth rock floor that has been eroded by glaciers over the centuries, the island would make a great backdrop for all sorts of movies.
A small, traditional wooden house standing amidst dense reeds on the edge of a lake
Landhouse architecture
A squirrel sitting on a branch up in a tree, holding something in its hands, bushy tail curled up against its back
Squirrel
A small bird perched on a branch with red leaves and berries in the background
Berrybird
Finland Review

I know, I know, it's a bit early for a review, but I'll try anyway:
Helsinki is pretty small, but feels large for its size. The city is not a tourist metropolis with dozens of highlights, but it doesn't have to be: Helsinki is young, artsy, often trendy and always chill. The people here have a relaxed air about them — they tend to keep to themselves, but are extraordinarily friendly.
All over the city you'll find beautiful little spots and 20 minutes by bus will take you out to densely forested ocean islands.
A man standing in front of a bright orange arriving train in an underground metro station
Moving on
So, yeah, I love it: Puristic design everywhere, a super aesthetic orange metro and a language in which you can use Hei (speak: Hey) or Hei Hei both as a greeting and a goodbye — what's not to love?