Helsinki

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.