Helsinki

So... I didnt really do a whole lot of packing for the trip ... but I did some... Going to Finland.... to Estonia... and back.... Some one from the University of Tartu was supposed to meet me at the airport in Tallinn... So I set out... family dropped me off at the airport... nothing out of the ordinary happened....

I got to Helsinki... had a 10 hours layover.... so I thought I would take my chances on the Schengen visa... and arrive at the Helsinki airport.... talked to some people about it and finally decided to do it... I was really skeptical... you know the first time I was gonna do that with the visa... talked with the immigration personnel too... and he said all I needed to get to Tallinn was the boarding pass and my passport... and then I set out...

In flight as I was browsing through the stale collection of movies and tv, I had come across this travel channel show with Helsinki as its topic of the day... I had watched it ... and from that I had gotten to know about the place called the Senate Square, a central place with harbour nearby and a beautiful St. Nicholas Cathedral at the center.... So as soon as I got out of the airport with my bag pack... all I could tell the taxi driver was "Senate Square"... Reached there in certain period of time... started roaming about... saw loads of people sitting on the stairs to the Cathedral... though I might do the what the locals are enjoying... :D

Picture... when I climbed to the top of the stairs...
there were more people on the other side :P

And the other side was the cathedral

The harbour... roamed around here for a long time... looking at things...

One thing about the people here... they speak a lot of English... So this nice lady offered to try
some fish... I didnt really realize what she was giving... tasted like fish... but anyways... I took a whole box of it with some potato on top... It smelled really nice.... I went atop the same stairs and sat down to have a nice greasy lunch involving potatoes and fried fish... and then it happened....

The fish were looking at me... and by all means please click and enlarge the picture... I ate, the one looking straight at me, first... it had to be stopped.... would have ruined my whole lunch had it been left to look and judge... and another one... and another one... with every bite I could feel it... you know the feeling... when the food has a face... Anyways... ate the whole damn thing... with the fried oil and everything... it was delicious... felt like throwing up after it...

Some picture depicting the rest of the place and the inside of the cathedral

The organ

The Palace of the Council of State... designed by Carl Ludvig Engel

Statue of Alexander II backside!

Museum of Contemporary Art... I wanted to visit this one... but didnt really have time... or that is what was going on in my mind.... you know the Schengen visa and all....

So I took another taxi from the Senate Square to the airport... the taxi driver was pretty cool and more fluent in English than the last one... so I started asking about the cool places around town... he said he would drop me off to this one mall near the airport in Vantaa.... Helsinki, Vantaa and two others form like this metropolitan area.... the airport itself is called the Helsinki-Vantaa... so I thought what better to take a look at the teenage population roaming the mall and the shops, brands.... It was called Jumbo for some reason... it looked like it though... the mall was cool.... it was like one of the malls in US... you know not the great ones... but the normals ones... where you have grocery stores as well... sat at the bar in one of the restaurants.... ordered some Lapin Kulta.... good beer.... 4.8% alcohol....

Liquor/Beer Count 1 - Lapin Kulta

I kinda got the feeling, then, that the whole trip was gonna be full of good times with alcohol involved in most.... after some "people watching" as one of my friend says... I set off to the airport... prepared to be surprised by the Schengen laws... but everything sailed smoothly... and at the end of the day I was in the plane to Tallinn... it was one of the last flights... the whole airport was empty... felt a little creepy... but oh well... the day well spent in a different country... on a different soil... among different people.... felt good... another hour to Tallinn.... More later... from Pig ears to cream liquor to the beach to the twisted art to KGB... I need sleep now.