Sometimes, hardships make trips much more memorable
I and Jonne agreed to go on this trip for many reasons.
# We are good friends; Jonne was accompanying me in every walking practice after I removed my cast (check BAL Diary here).
# This is summer. We are not just working and neglecting the most beautiful, lively Finnish season eh?
# Finland is safe from Covid_19, for now; the number of cases has dropped significantly and now Finland has opened borders.
# I personally want to re-discover Helsinki; most of the time, Helsinki was like a transfer for me to go to other places. This time, it’d be the star.
So, here we go!
The mean prank
Our VR train leaves at 8:40am from Lappeenranta to Helsinki. I arrived at the train station at 8:25, knowing that Jonne came earlier by bike. I saw him looking around for me, and somehow he didn’t see me there.
So I came up with a joke. I snuck in a random corner, then called him:
“Hey J, I’m so sorry, I missed the bus. I overslept”
From the mile away everyone can see Jonne’s face turned grey; he was trembling (I’m so sorry bro lol).
“Okay…so you can not come..?”
“I will try my best, don’t worry” – I tried not to laugh.
Then I exposed myself. And had him totally fallen for it. We still laughed it off even now.
The national gallery of Finland
As today’s goal was to explore Helsinki and Finnish history, the best place to visits would be museums. Honestly, I had been to great museums worldwide: the Louvre (Paris), Museuminsel (Berlin), Hermitage (Saint P.), Art Science (Singapore), and yet I haven’t witnessed the heritage reservation centers of where I lived for the past 2 years.
A bit of information: The Finnish National Gallery is the largest art museum institution in Finland. It consists of the Ateneum art museum, the museum of contemporary art, Kiasma, and the Sinebrychoff Art Museum (Wikipedia).
Vietnamese lunch
As there are many good Vietnamese restaurants in Helsinki, my next goal was to introduce my prestigious cuisine to Jonne. We went to Phở Việt restaurant – one of the best-knowns for both locals and tourists.
Needless to guess, I picked Phở, for having not been able to eat this for 4 months or so. Jonne chose fried noodles with chicken, and we deserted with summer rolls (gỏi cuốn).
Even though having to struggle with chopsticks at the beginning, Jonne quickly enjoyed the best combination of flavors and spices. Dude especially loved the mixture of sate and hoisin sauce on everything. Meanwhile, my Phở was also nicely cooked, with lots of meat of all kinds (tái nạm gầu gân).
Choosing Vietnamese food is a good choice, as we were going to spend the rest of the day traveling, so a big and delicious meal provided enough energy for a long day.
The Kiasma
I barely ever enjoyed contemporary art. For me personally, they are too abstract and are usually overvalued. Today, the Kiasma museum more or less changed my opinion.
There are still boring arts to be honest, but also some really impressive ones as well.
Where I got robbed. Twice.
Around 4pm, we walked the lively Esplanadi avenue until the harbor.
Numerous activities were going on in this festive part of the city:
Boat trips around the harbor area and towards Suomenlinna.
Kiosks for Finnish, Asian, Muslim cuisines.
Street artists’ performances.
All took place under the bright sun – you can scene summer in the air.
We were sweating from the sun. I asked Jonne
“Hey, you want some ice cream?”
And this is when the robbers took notice of us.
They worked as a gang right there in the harbor areas. Some were noisy to draw attention, while the others silently approached their victims.
On that day, I was the victim. And I took a good shot of him.
In a matter of seconds, I almost lost my ice cream. The robber screamed in anger. Everyone was laughing around.
But this was no fun. This was my ice cream. We ran away from the gang, to another corner.
I checked whether I caught the robber on my camera. And that was a huge mistake.
The moment I lost attention, the seagull – robber came again. This time, I lost my ice cream; they carried it to the sea and ate all. Jonne was laughing and hiding his ice cream cup away.
Moral lesson: Watch out for the seagulls in Helsinki harbor – they are ferocious gangsters who would rob anything from tourists.
Some activities before heading home
Losing my sugar supply, we eventually ended up in another coffee shop on Esplanadi for a nice latte.
Then we continued to Stockmann, checked out Moomin store, another bookshop, until 6pm when we had to hit home.
Long story short, we had a great time in Helsinki.
About my companion
I first knew Jonne since last August, when we were training to be University’s tutors. Unlike other Finns, who were rather shy away from foreigners, Jonne was approachable, friendly, and especially had a good taste of fashion. Dude was planning to go to Augsburg, Germany this summer for a school project but got canceled because of Covid_19.
From my view, this trip was the first time I traveled since removing the cast, and the sign that I officially came back to normal phase.
And to all of my readers out there: Summer is here. The darkness will soon be gone. Grab your time and make it meaningful.
Khanh Tr.
moink20.com 