In the City

Whilst spending a few hours in Helsinki last week, I wondered how long it takes for you to really get to know a place.

After getting off the boat from Tallinn along with numerous people lugging cheap Estonian booze on trolleys, my few hours in Finland's capital gave the impression of a place that I could easily chill out in. Weirdly, the city seemed absolutely overwhelmed by emo kids - never in one place had I seen so many teenagers dressed in ridiculous looking jeans, t-shirts of bands I'd never heard of and with half a tin of chemicals in their hair.

Which brings me back to my original point: is Helsinki like that all the time, or did I just pick a day where it happened to be so? Maybe there was a gig on that evening.

Despite being only a two hour boat ride (or 20 minute flight), it's a very different city to Tallinn. A lot larger, for one thing, but also more 'familiar' to my English eyes, which I initially attributed to a lack of a Soviet-era influence. Another aspect was that Helsinki seems to be more multi-cultural in terms of it's population, much like Manchester. Weirdly, when asking for directions to the bus station, and then the train station, both the women I asked were American.

Coming from a small town in the back end of nowhere, most cities have always seemed that much more huge to me, which can put me off. London, for example, is somewhere I'll quite happily never go to again. Manchester is different, perhaps as it's much more compact - you can walk across the city centre in no time - which gives it a slightly more easygoing feel, knowing you can get out and into sticks in not too much time. Helsinki felt a little like this, enough to make me curious enough to maybe consider spending a few days more there.

Finally, I did have one unpleasant experience, whilst at the airport. Bored, with time to hill and euro coins to spend, I went to buy a pack of sweets. All the labels said nothing to me, so I picked one at random, hoping to some Haribo-esque teeth rotting delights. Microseconds after putting one in my mouth, I realised I'd bought a pack of the Finnish equivalent of Bassett's Allsorts. Urgh. And as you know, it takes fucking hours to get that taste out of your mouth.