Hard Rock Hallelujah

Well I arrived in Finland and thanks to the amazing last-minute generosity of jari , I stayed the night with him and his mate. And what a fantastic night it was!!

We ended up drinking Finnish (and Polish) beer and watching a vast array of weird YouTube clips including Toupa Poupa (or something - a Finnish satrical show), Drunk Star Wars (I'm not going to even attempt to spell that one) and Protocop. I also ate some Grill Pringles, which we don't have in England and (a couple of chocolate) Little Mouse in memory of Jack Morgan (BSc). It's great that the guys appreciate the genius of Look Around You. The guys room is fantastic, with lots of (very distracting) furry art on the wall - including the Kama Citra, which I spent a lot of the night staring longingly at.

I like Finland although that may have something to do with seeing two billboard advertisements involving fursuits in the first 20 minutes of being here. After that, I saw many more around the city. I think it's for a local water park (but Finnish, being unlike any language I have ever studied means that I cannot translate anything here nor are there any clues - which is fun). Swedish is also the second language here and the signs are multi-lingual even though only 4% of the population actually speak Swedish. This makes translation a little easier but still difficult.

I am hoping to go into town later this afternoon to check things out. The weather is cool and cloudy (this is Finland, what did I expect?) and the city has lots of waterways, it being on the coast and all. Later on I am going to sample the delights of the Finnish rail network as I head towards Tampere and Hiru...

P.S. Jari's taste in German industrial metal is legendary and I have now heard so many fantastic bands that you simply can't get in England. I feel my record collection is going to improve substantially in the coming weeks...

P.P.S. This abomination scares me. I hope I don't bump into him on a random wander...

Lupestripe's Beer Watch:
Olvi - a cheap beer with a nice tang to it. Eminently drinkable with a good nose. I'm getting hops and barley and right on your tits...
Lapin Kulta - a beer you can get in England if you look around enough. A little too much gas in it makes for a flat affair when you pour it. It's got a fairly weak taste too but it does have the French word for "rabbit" in its title so earns some bonus points for that.

Lupestripe's Keyboard Watch:
Finnish has some new characters, namely ö ä å. This is not as bad as the Portuguese keyboard though as the apostrophe is only shifted one space to the right and I can live with that. So no ä this time. Apart from that, aside from a few minor differences (like where the ? is), the Finnish keyboard is largely the same.

Hard Rock Hallelujah

Well I arrived in Finland and thanks to the amazing last-minute generosity of jari , I stayed the night with him and his mate. And what a fantastic night it was!!

We ended up drinking Finnish (and Polish) beer and watching a vast array of weird YouTube clips including Toupa Poupa (or something - a Finnish satrical show), Drunk Star Wars (I'm not going to even attempt to spell that one) and Protocop. I also ate some Grill Pringles, which we don't have in England and (a couple of chocolate) Little Mouse in memory of Jack Morgan (BSc). It's great that the guys appreciate the genius of Look Around You. The guys room is fantastic, with lots of (very distracting) furry art on the wall - including the Kama Citra, which I spent a lot of the night staring longingly at.

I like Finland although that may have something to do with seeing two billboard advertisements involving fursuits in the first 20 minutes of being here. After that, I saw many more around the city. I think it's for a local water park (but Finnish, being unlike any language I have ever studied means that I cannot translate anything here nor are there any clues - which is fun). Swedish is also the second language here and the signs are multi-lingual even though only 4% of the population actually speak Swedish. This makes translation a little easier but still difficult.

I am hoping to go into town later this afternoon to check things out. The weather is cool and cloudy (this is Finland, what did I expect?) and the city has lots of waterways, it being on the coast and all. Later on I am going to sample the delights of the Finnish rail network as I head towards Tampere and Hiru...

P.S. Jari's taste in German industrial metal is legendary and I have now heard so many fantastic bands that you simply can't get in England. I feel my record collection is going to improve substantially in the coming weeks...

P.P.S. This abomination scares me. I hope I don't bump into him on a random wander...

Lupestripe's Beer Watch:
Olvi - a cheap beer with a nice tang to it. Eminently drinkable with a good nose. I'm getting hops and barley and right on your tits...
Lapin Kulta - a beer you can get in England if you look around enough. A little too much gas in it makes for a flat affair when you pour it. It's got a fairly weak taste too but it does have the French word for "rabbit" in its title so earns some bonus points for that.

Lupestripe's Keyboard Watch:
Finnish has some new characters, namely ö ä å. This is not as bad as the Portuguese keyboard though as the apostrophe is only shifted one space to the right and I can live with that. So no ä this time. Apart from that, aside from a few minor differences (like where the ? is), the Finnish keyboard is largely the same.

Fears And Queers

I'm currently sat in DTM on Iso Roobertinkatu - the biggest gay bar in Scandinavia. Typically they are playing the usual clubbing fare and true to form, "Dancing Queen" by ABBA has just come on the jukebox. Apparently Finland, and Helsinki in particular, are very gay friendly. Gay marriage was legalised in 2002 and it is fine to fly rainbow flags on the streets etc. I started talking to the barman here but he seemed perplexed that a strange little Englander wanted to speak to him so we didn't get very far.

I am beginning to find out that Finland is a very cool country indeed - for a country of a mere 6 million, there are roughly 200 furs and I have already seen a few ears and tails being worn on the streets around the capital. Sadly, I have also seen many market stalls selling real fur, often with the head and tail still attached but stuffed. I understand the need for fur coats in Lapland and the far North, potentially, but I fail to see why you need them in the capital of a bohemian city. There are lots of adverts for fur proprietors here and it highlights an interesting juxtaposition between furries and fur-wearers, particularly if real fur is a Finnish cultural entity.

Jari had to go to work today so his mate showed me around the city and also took me to a restaurant where I had battered baby mackerel, a Finnish speciality. Sadly, the fish were all battered in their original form, including head and tails (the eyes had been removed thankfully) which made eating them slightly difficult for a former vegetarian who has just gone back to eating fish. It was still very tasty but there were about 60 on the plate, making me feel somewhat barborous for being responsible for all that death and destruction. It came with what must be one of the most gorgeous mashed potato ever - with added dill - and a creamy dip that was great too.

Apart from that, I have just been touring the city. Architectually, it's a mix between Russian and Swedish styles as both countries occupied Finland until it claimed independence in 1918. There are a lot of Russian Orthodox cathedrals, which look very impressive. The three main cathedrals include a stunning white domed structure (Helsinki Cathedral - now probably Protestant but it is Russian Orthodox in style), a more remourseful brick effort near the harbour (Uspenski Orthodox Cathedral) and a double turreted cathedral more in the Swedish style and which reflects the cathedral in Köln (it is also near the impressively drab buildings of the Design Museum). I also saw another church that looks down on the main highstreet (near Hakaniemi) and from which there is an excellent view and also the blue mariner buildings near the harbour too.

Finally I would like to say all power to the Underground system. No matter how lost you are, provided you can work out how to pay and use the railway system, you will always have a friend in a foreign country, particularly when the language is weird.

Fears And Queers

I'm currently sat in DTM on Iso Roobertinkatu - the biggest gay bar in Scandinavia. Typically they are playing the usual clubbing fare and true to form, "Dancing Queen" by ABBA has just come on the jukebox. Apparently Finland, and Helsinki in particular, are very gay friendly. Gay marriage was legalised in 2002 and it is fine to fly rainbow flags on the streets etc. I started talking to the barman here but he seemed perplexed that a strange little Englander wanted to speak to him so we didn't get very far.

I am beginning to find out that Finland is a very cool country indeed - for a country of a mere 6 million, there are roughly 200 furs and I have already seen a few ears and tails being worn on the streets around the capital. Sadly, I have also seen many market stalls selling real fur, often with the head and tail still attached but stuffed. I understand the need for fur coats in Lapland and the far North, potentially, but I fail to see why you need them in the capital of a bohemian city. There are lots of adverts for fur proprietors here and it highlights an interesting juxtaposition between furries and fur-wearers, particularly if real fur is a Finnish cultural entity.

Jari had to go to work today so his mate showed me around the city and also took me to a restaurant where I had battered baby mackerel, a Finnish speciality. Sadly, the fish were all battered in their original form, including head and tails (the eyes had been removed thankfully) which made eating them slightly difficult for a former vegetarian who has just gone back to eating fish. It was still very tasty but there were about 60 on the plate, making me feel somewhat barborous for being responsible for all that death and destruction. It came with what must be one of the most gorgeous mashed potato ever - with added dill - and a creamy dip that was great too.

Apart from that, I have just been touring the city. Architectually, it's a mix between Russian and Swedish styles as both countries occupied Finland until it claimed independence in 1918. There are a lot of Russian Orthodox cathedrals, which look very impressive. The three main cathedrals include a stunning white domed structure (Helsinki Cathedral - now probably Protestant but it is Russian Orthodox in style), a more remourseful brick effort near the harbour (Uspenski Orthodox Cathedral) and a double turreted cathedral more in the Swedish style and which reflects the cathedral in Köln (it is also near the impressively drab buildings of the Design Museum). I also saw another church that looks down on the main highstreet (near Hakaniemi) and from which there is an excellent view and also the blue mariner buildings near the harbour too.

Finally I would like to say all power to the Underground system. No matter how lost you are, provided you can work out how to pay and use the railway system, you will always have a friend in a foreign country, particularly when the language is weird.