Helsinki

Seriously lovely evening. I can't think of a better way it could have gone. Borscht, shouty drunk russians, pub quiz, charlie parker on the jukebox. Thanks to you all.

http://static.flickr.com/11/91355907_321e8d32f5.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/26/91356551_7effd502ce.jpg

Further photos in my flickr.

Until I saw that photo I'd totally forgotten we actually danced in that bloody ten square meter pub! I must've been rather pissed by then.

I am very jealous, it looks like you had so much fun. Are Tuomas and all his friends as cute in person as they look in photos?

Like namesake = person with the same name

Looks like one of your friends has long, blond dreadlocks in the photo above (though in the other photos, his hair is not as long as Ed's, but still.)

Particularly good were AES-F's huge digital painting called 'The Last Riot'. Hyper sexualised teens fighting each other with samurai swords and big pink Missiles; Charles Sandision's big text projections, letters and words coalesing into images etc.; Kalleinen and Kochta-Kalleinen's 'Complaints Choir of Birmingham'; Martin and Munoz's Snow Domes; Mariele Neudecker's wierd mountains in fish tanks; The crazy moving floor room by I forget whom. Loads of other great stuff as well. Looking forward to going back.

Tuomas! Do you still live in Helsinki? I hope so, because I will be there around Christmastime and want to drink beers with you!

so i have two fairly long layovers in helsinki (one's 8 hours, one's like 15 or 16), both overnight. is the airport reasonably convenient to fun stuff to do? any ideas for late night hijinks?

so I am staying in Töölö next week; any tips on that neighborhood, where to eat, etc.? also I have never been to Helsinki generally so I dunno what else to do there. I'm there to work obv but there will be some time to look around. in particular I'd like to see puzzling Finnish visual art, I want to feel like I'm in an alien place where people eat beaver sausage or vegan beaver sausage or whatever, rather than another European mall (unless the mall has puzzling visual art and sells beaver sausage)

Well, in Töölö you have this place, which is a combined restaurant/pub/gallery/music and theatre venue, it's well worth a visit:
http://www.korjaamo.fi/en

Also in Töölö is one of the famoust art galleries in the town:
http://taidehalli.fi/en

If you want to eat some "authentic" Finnish food, you should visit one of the street grills, they're very popular after the pubs close. This one is probably the most famous, and it's also in Töölö, near the Parliament House:
https://fi-fi.facebook.com/pages/Jaskan-Grilli/111680452244862

Oh, and if you're here on April 30th/May 1st, there'll be loads of people on the streets. May 1st is a national holiday, and traditionally both students and left-wing parties celebrate the day, so there'll be some street rallies (probably not in Töölö though, it's a fairly bourgeoise area) and people having picnics while wearing their "student hats". (The hat is something you get once you graduate from the gymnasium, and a lot of older people wear it on May 1st too.) On both days there'll also be a lot of students on the streets drinking booze and wearing all sorts of coloured overalls. (Different schools each have their own type of overalls with their own colour.) It's basically the closest thing Finland has to a carneval.

Cool thanks! I'm leaving fairly late on the 30th.

coming back again today! anything fun going on this weekend?

There's the "Wonderlust" conscious/feminist/queer sex festival, don't know about anything else.

http://www.wonderlust.fi

Seems like on Sunday they have an afternoon techno/house music party at Ääniwalli, which is the hippest electronic music club in here at the moment:

https://www.facebook.com/events/1791026327794166

Here's another club that's hip at the moment, they have some house parties on the weekend too

https://www.facebook.com/clubkaiku

Thanks!

in this cold and dark place again

going to Lapland tomorrow, in January. brrrrrrrrrrrrr

Hey, it's pretty warm in here for mid-January! Won't disagree with you on Lapland, tho.

It's as cold in Paris today as Helsinki, so yes. tomorrow up to Kilpisjärvi. a guy in Helsinki just told me that Kilpisjärvi is exotic, but in a very different way than how we normally think of exotic. I've never seen the auroras and I am happy to do so.

I am here and it is delightful.

What are you up to in Helsinki, are you staying here for long?

Hi Tuomas!! I just got here last night and am here until Saturday morning. My wife and I went to Estonia for the national Song Festival and traveled around there for about a week, and now we are in Helsinki for a few days before we go back to Chicago. Today we went to Suomelinna and then wandered around the Design District for a bit. Before we leave, we're planning to go to a couple of museums and maybe a sauna. What are you up to? Wanna hang out? We're staying in Kallio.