tänään on pääsiäinen

Just about everything in Helsinki is closed for Easter, so it seems like a good time to make my first post.

I arrived in Helsinki three days ago, a little after midnight on the 5th. Everything went smoothly: my luggage arrived intact, I was able to withdraw Euros from the airport ATM, it was no problem to get a bus to the airport to the center of town, and the key to my apartment worked. As it was a clear night and I was tired of the hot stuffy air of British Airways and Heathrow airport, I decided to take the bus rather than a taxi, although this meant lugging my suitcases a kilometer from the train station to my apartment. (Incidentally, Heathrow has an impressive shopping mall. I was able to find Ribena, a beverage which is Britain's foremost culinary accomplishment; I didn't buy anything at the fountain pen kiosk, though, so I'll have to get by for the next five months with just two pens.)

The next morning I was able to take a look at my apartment. It's tiny, more or less a single U-shaped room wrapped around the bathroom. The building itself isn't remarkable, but it's located in Kruununhaka, the old part of town. I'm only a few blocks away from the cathedral, Senate Square, and the kauppatori market on the harbor. The cobbled streets, dense Neoclassical buildings of uniform height (typically about six stories), and light colors (here, yellow buildings with white trim) remind me of Paris, although this part of Helsinki is planned on a grid and is considerably quieter than Paris - the only sound at night is the ticking of my clock. The fixtures in my apartment continue the Kruununhaka color scheme: walls, cabinets, and tiles are white, while the furniture and tableware are yellow. It's amusing to eat on Arabia plates, drink out of Iittala glassware, and sit on Artek furniture, but I do wish the apartment had a better kitchen. There are just two stove burners and no oven, although there is a microwave/toaster contraption that I will need to figure out.

Between odd sleeping patterns caused by jet lag, time spent running errands, and short hours of operation - Good Friday and Easter are more important here than in the US - I haven't spent much time inside buildings other than my apartment. Still, it's been architecturally exciting from the night I landed, when the bus drove past Aalto's Finlandia Hall en route to Saarinen's railway station and when I pulled by luggage by Engel's cathedral. It's amazing how many remarkable buildings fill this small city - but I'll get to buildings in another post.

Hyvää pääsiäistä kaikille!