From London to Helsinki. 5/31/2019

Greetings.. Well I think I messed up on some of the dates and will try to adjust when I have time. But today is definitely May 31 (here in Finland) and we left London and headed to Helsinki.

Hei Hei..

Dinner last night at Bright, a tiny restaurant that serves a northern Italian-inspired (?) menu, although the owner of the restaurant is a Kiwi (New Zealander) who was also serving tables. The restaurant is fairly new and he was quite humble in describing the dishes and also all the attention the restaurant has received. We started with a simple antipasti and moved on to a range of small plates, a pasta dish – followed by turbot. Good thing there were four of us (Elliott and Lara had made the reservation). Skipped dessert (duh! I think we’ve had enough to last for a month without dessert), as we had booked reservations at the London Cocktail Club in Bethnal Green, where a good friend/roommate of our god-daughter and recent Mount Holyoke graduate (we were at graduation about 10 days ago) is a bartender.

There are about six London Cocktail Clubs (LCC) throughout London. Very hip grunge décor, and a very very long and complicated cocktail list with names like Nuclear Daiquiri, Stone Fruit Sour, and Crack Baby. Lara and I got the Confessions of a Cucumber Salesman, and Mike and Elliott opted for straight up scotch (so boring when there were all these exotic choices with funny descriptions). Nadia was totally surprised to see us as we strolled in and ran from behind the bar to greet us. We chatted (it was a slow night), drank, and talked about what’s next for a philosophy and politics major from Holyoke (after the bartending stint, which I think she sees as a six month reprieve from academics, before heading to either law school or a PhD in Philosophy). So I think bartending is a great experience for either career. Anyway, she’s quite the mixologist which she apparently learned while working at LCC last summer. Nadia’s family is originally from Pakistan, but they live in London.

We left the bar after last call after midnight… and headed by tube back to the hotel to pack – which somehow seemed to take forever (don’t understand since we lightened our load by giving out our gifts to baby Finn). Eventually hit the pillow. This morning we taxied to Paddington and took the Heathrow Express to catch our Finnair flight to Helsinki.

This will be a whirlwind four days with lots of nostalgia and reconnecting with good friends. It’s been five years since our last visit and decades since we lived here. I think we’ve returned to Helsinki about 8 times since living here, maybe 10 times. While each return visit brings back lots of memories, it’s also a totally changing city. Still the Finnish lifestyle and culture remain – a country with high social values, which drive decision making at many levels. And of course a legacy and continuity of aesthetics and phenomenal design. Anyway, we are excited to see what’s new and to retrace old steps. Tonight we have dinner with old friends we met so many years ago.

The flight on Finnair was as to be expected – very organized and they manage to bring Finnish design to the service settings for the meals with Iitala glasses for wine and water, as well as plates and cups, and even the paper napkins are from Marimekko. Ah the Finns!

And of course the airport is just pure understated elegance, with birch wood veneer ceilings and everything in tones of grey (a far cry from the craziness and shopaholic wonder of Heathrow); stores are all beautifully designed and “packaged” into the architecture of the building. Every detail has been thought through. Furniture is all Finnish design and generally designed and built for the uniqueness of the space. In one part of the airport there is a great art piece – curved wood painted as a forest high above the seating, with the sounds of birds in the space. Since the airport is nowhere near as busy as many large city airports, it’s pretty quiet and the sounds of the birds are charming and effective in transforming you into another pla

We checked into the Hotel St. George (a new hotel in ann old building, in the downtown area – just a few blocks from where we lived oh so many years ago… but the neighborhood, once home to puliokis (drunks) is now the “art district” with apartments going for astronomical amounts). It’s just one year old although housed in a building dating back to the 1800s, so it’s our first time here. It’s located directly across the Old Church Park in the heart of city. It formerly housed the Finnish Literature Society, the Helsinki Finnish Club, and some other institutions. They’ve really tried to incorporate a lot of the history and arts into the building’s very very contemporary interior renovation. Included within the building is a good deal of art including a large Ai WeiWei dragon hanging near the entrance. They’ve also incorporated literature into the flow of the building including little cards left under the pillow with quotations from famous authors and philosophers.

The hotel and the room have so many electronic contraptions it’s difficult to figure out how to navigate. The door to the room locks and unlocks electronically; the bathroom has a remote control to let you determine the temperature of the seat which also has a light inside the bowl when the room lights are out; all doors within the hotel open automatically as you walk to them; and I’ve barely begun to investigate..

We had decided to eat at the hotel (Andrea Restaurant) since we were arriving in the evening and it just seemed to be the easiest thing. We were met for dinner at 9 pm by our really close friends, Antti and Heidi who lived in our old neighborhood in Helsinki. Antti is a rather renowned interior architect having designed the President’s Palace, The Opera Hall, among other significant projects; Heidi was in public health and I believe before she retired had been the director of public health or something like that at the national level. It was great to reconnect; it had been 5 years since we were last here and spent time with them. Andrea turned out to be quite wonderful…they say the menu is Anatolian/Nordic !!! We shared many small and larger plates including: horse meat tartare with horseradish shavings, rye crumble, and sorrel; spicy roasted squash with yogurt; sweetbreads; incredible octopus with pomegranate vinegar.. an amazing rhubarb dessert..

But mostly, it was good to talk and find out what’s been happening – how Finland is faring, how their children and grandchildren are doing… and to plan the next four days in what we often refer to as “our second home.” Tomorrow we will explore on our own, visit the neighborhood we lived in, see some new buildings that are getting high reviews internationally, and just stroll. It’s light out until about 10:30 pm and indeed it’s sort of light until midnight.. just days away from the longest day of the year and in Finland that is a spectacular time. Tomorrow is also the “white cap” day – when all the graduates who will be attending university come out of ceremonies wearing their white caps.. Lots of celebrating. We’ll also meet up with another friend for dinner. On Sunday we’ll spend the day at Antti and Heidi’s house in Espoo..

Excited to be here; just wish it was a longer visit. Next time.

Hyvää yötä and also Näkemiin  (Good bye and Good night)

Until tomorrow.

Fern