The Doctor will see you very soon

Unfortunately, today is the day I find myself in a holding pattern, and Helsinki, while being a nice place, is, by my hotel manager's own admission, "A small town". And as cities go, I can view it right now as nothing more than a very nice waiting room. I start the day by filling up on food at the Smorgasbord buffet (I actually find the lox here too salty!).

The hotel offers to buy my last 100 Euro Travellers cheque at a 5 Euro charge, but I have heard Forex only charges 2 Euros, so I head over there, and it is correct, except they only pay 98 cents on the Euro for Travellers cheques! So I save 1 Euro for my troubles. Which is fine, since I have to do laundry before I go home, and every last Euro helps when laundry costs 10 Euros a load! At least I have someone to take care of it for me, and I wait it out back at the hotel, which is a 10 minute walk from the laundromat.

Tonight is going to be no fun. My flight leaves at 6:15 am so I've established that I need a 3:30 pickup to get me to the airport the requisite 2 hrs. before departure (As it will turn out, Helsinki airport is small and I could have cut it much shorter!) I plan to go to sleep between 9pm and 10pm. To accomplish this, I discover movie theatre a block from my hotel, and they are showing Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest at 6:15, which is the perfect time, the movie will end around 9pm, and should exhaust me as it's probably a fairly busy movie. I also find a Nepalese Indian retaurant near the hotel called Pikku-Nepal. I will eat at 5pm, catch my movie at 6:15pm, and be in bed by 10pm. Dinner and a movie sounds like an evening.

Having reclaimed my clothes and mostly packed, I eat lunch at a cheap (8 Euro) pizza buffet, stuffing myself on salad, Chicken Wings, and lots of Pizza along with all you can drink Soda. No amazing culinary experience, but a cheap thrill.

I walk about 10 minutes, to Finland's most famous building, Finlandia Hall, which was designed by Finland's foremost architect, Alvaar Alto.


I found out about the 2pm tour last week, so this week I am in time to catch it. It's a bit dull, but it goes nicely into the technicals of the architecture, although it puts the hall into an historical context, several European and North American leaders met there in 1975 to make acords on Economic cooperation. Knowing I was Canadian, the tour guide went out of his way to mention that Pierre Trudeau waved to his mother from a passing limousine, and it was a moment she never forgot. Whatever one's opinions on Trudeau are, he had that effect on people. I saw him once on a flight to Toronto, and was a bit starstruck. Didn't say anything though.

I learned on the tour about the Alto vase, which is apparently a popular design in Finland, and is a popular gift. I bought a vase for myself, hopefully it will look nice in my new apartment, it is quite expensive. There was one in a beautiful flaming red colour, but for the same size it was double the price!

I had hoped to do a Sauna in my hotel before dinner, but unfortunately, free time for men is 7pm to 8:30. I had already arranged my movie plan. If I wanted, I could have booked a separate timeslot for 14 Euros for an hour and a half. Sauna will have to wait until I return to Finland.

Dinner was very good, and for 12 Euros I ordered the Lamb with Saag (Spinach), which was very tasty, and came in a Thali plate with Rice, Naan Bread, raita and a somewhat watery Daal. The Mango Lassi was very good too.

Pirates was the perfect movie to see. At 2 1/2 hours it's stuffed with comedy, drama, humor, some occasional action, great effects and look and Depp is still fun to watch in this role. I have often said I wasn't wild about the first, but it's only because everyone had built it up to the point where I was bound to be somewhat disappointed! For this movie my expectations were for some silly and very loud fun. I was not disappointed, and was exhausted by the end. Sleep was not a problem, I fell asleep just after 10pm.