Next Stop Helsinki | Day 16

Was up and out about 9:30am. My flight was at 11:35 and wanted to leave myself plenty of time. The airport was 30 or so minutes away and when I walked inside the baggage line was lengthy. I would say an easy 50 people all waiting for 2 windows. Still had a lot of time so wasn’t to concerned. There were more than a few Metallica fans in line and everyone was talking to each other about previous shows they attended or commenting this was there first show. People were speculating about setlists and what songs they wanted to hear the most. The couple behind me runs the Cleveland Metallica Fan Club Chapter. I talked to them for a few until it was my turn to check my bag. I’s starting to think that it is just Americans who stressed out about flying and needing a passport. I walked up and gave her my bag, she scanned my passport, and that was it. She did ask if I wanted to help save space on the flight and she could check my other bag in for free. I wanted to help the cause so I said sure no problem let me just take something out of it. I passed her the bag and headed to the security line. Again, a real easy process. Europe sees passports as America sees our drivers license. Was through security and had an hour to kill. My gate was next to an airport bar so why not continue the airport tradition and have a beverage. Again with these beer prices! I tall glass hazy beer was $6.50. Shoot thats like giving away beer. I had my beer and then walked to the gate. As I walked down the jet bridge I came to a split and a flight attendant asked which row I was in. I had seat number 8 and she told me to continue down the jet bridge. If you had a seat past a certain row then you walked down the stairs, out on to the tarmack and up a set of stairs that led to the back of the plane’s door. This is now the second flight I have been on where people actually walk outside of the plane. I think America did away with that years ago unless you are in some spot like Puerto Rico or a Mokulele flight in Hawaii. I found my seat and had the insane fortune of no one sitting next to me. We backed out and were off to Finland.

I spent the flight working on the computer and before I knew it we were descending in to Helsinki. Finland is one of the northern most countries in the UK. It is a seaport town and the weather is a bit more sporadic. There was a bit of turbulence on the way down and when we were under the cloud layer it was raining. The land was a deep green and there were trees everywhere. It reminded me of Washington or Oregon. Once we were on the ground, like in London, we walked down a flight of stairs and loaded on to busses. We were then transported to the main terminal. It certainly wasn’t large by any measure but there was roughly 9 baggage claim belts. I followed the signs to the correct customs area but found that there were no customs agents. All roads led to the baggage claim area. I waited with others from the flight for our bags. Some time went by and finally my large roller bag came out. The man standing next to me was waiting for his bag as well and before too long we were the last ones there. No sign of my carry on roller bag I nicely let them check. I pulled up my phone to see where it might be. I had added Apple Airtags to all of my bags for this very reason. The “Find My” app opened and sure enough “seen 6 minutes ago” was my roller bag sitting at Terminal 1 in Vienna. I closed the app a few times just to make sure that there wasn’t a delay in updating but nope it was sitting in Vienna. I cannot tell you how mad that made me. This is now twice that I have done the “right” thing and been screwed. The first time was last year in Boston when I went to the counter to volunteer my bag and then they said it was to large and had to be checked anyway and was charged $30. Here we are again same scenario but didn’t even make it to the next country. I marched to the baggage service area and the lady there was calm. I’m sure she gets a ton of frustrated people every day so I appreciated her calmness. I handed her my bag tags, which luckily I had because if you’re like me I hardly ever keep them, and she ran it through the system. She pulled it up and said, “yes I see here where the bag wasn’t added to the load list and it remains in Vienna.” She then told me to go to the site, file a claim, and add your hotel and they will deliver it asap. I went through that process and the claim was filed. Not the end of the world exactly as I had my computer, camera, and main bag with my clothes just a minor inconvenience. I found the Uber line and we made our way to the hotel.

The hotel was called City Box Helsinki. They have a staff member there to help but the checkin process is just self used kiosks. I walked up and followed the prompts. It first asked for my reservation number when I typed in the Hotels.com number. Naturally the number was one character to long and wouldn’t accept it. I looked through my email but came up blank so had to press the help button and wait for the staff member. She took my passport and looked up on her iPad my reservation number and then typed it in. The lobby wasn’t to crowded but there were a few people milling around and some that had their Metallica shirts on. The kiosk printed my key and I headed to the fourth floor. The room was a little bigger, but not by much, than the previous one I had in Vienna. There was no tv in the room and I best could compare it to a dorm room. The tv thing wasn’t a big deal and honestly I haven’t watched any tv in 2 weeks. It was already later afternoon and I decided just to hang out in the room and continue to work on the computer. I did that for about an hour or so and then wanted to go out for a quick bite. Silly me not learning from the past that there is no such thing as a quick bite. I looked on my maps and there was seafood place on the inlet just down the street. It seemed a bit pricier but was better than pizza again. It was about 60 degrees out and a bit windy. The weather felt great coming off the last spots there were 75-80 degrees. I walked the walking path and came to Restaurant Meripaviljonki. It was a half circle restaurant that you walked across a small bridge to get to. I opened the door and looked over the setup. They had large glass windows all facing the water and tables that were nicely setup. A lady in her 50s came out from the side kitchen and asked if I had a table reservation. There weren’t to many people dining and would say 6 tables were occupied. I replied that I didn’t and was hoping to come join them for a beer and some food. She looked and almost chuckled and told me that they were completely booked for the evening. She said that they sell out most every night starting at 8pm so if I wanted to dine with them best to go online and try make a reservation. With it not being super crowded I at least asked if I could have a beer. She said of course you can you just have to go sit at one of the few tables outside. It reminded me a bit of the smoking section haha. There were two guys sitting our their with their coats on and I passed. I thanked her and said hopefully can come back another night. This started the longer journey to find food. I searched apple maps for familiar food options. There was a burger pub about a mile away that looked pretty decent so I figure I walk there.

The streets are mostly made of stone bricks. There is a rail system that goes in every direction. The green and yellow street cars come and go from all the various stations. I should be more in tune with the metro by now but I was in a new place so I just continued to walk. After about half hour I came to a large square that had a large beautiful building that appeared to be a museum of some kind. I waked through what appeared to be the city center and it was filled with shops, cafes, and various ethnic food restaurants. I finally got to Stone’s Pub and walked in the door. It wasn’t overly crowded outside on the patio but inside a majority of the tables were filled. I grabbed a menu and a beer and decided to sit outside. It was chilly but not cold and figured it would be better than sitting in another pub. The waiter came out to see if I wanted any food but said I might just join them for a drink. I looked at the menu and they had some “different” items. The two items that jumped off the menu at me that were “different” were the Moose and Reindeer burgers. I gotta say that was a first. With the poorer burger I had the other day wasn’t sure I was feeling that adventurous. I stayed for one additional beer and then continued the walk. I was running in to the same problem as I had had in other places. There were lots of cafes but the menus didn’t grab my attention. I do like all kinds of food so it certainly isn’t that I only eat burgers or pub food but just didn’t really wanted to have a coffee and pastries. I decided to walk across the large square and see what I see and if nothing then I will just sit somewhere or venture back. I walked past these two pubs that were filled with Metallica fans. These places were jumpin. I walked past because I thought I saw another place that looked good but I had been down that food road before so I just turned around and went to On the Rocks. I found the lone table on the patio and sat down. The QR code on the table read “Place all orders inside at the bar.” I stood up and walked in. All the tables were occupied and they had a shuffleboard table as well as a pool table. I stood in the line and ordered a beer. I figure start there and see what food we can find. In the other countries I had tried native things and so I said screw it! GIVE ME THE REINDEER BURGER!!! I had assumed it was going to be good but you never know, and certainly I had never seen this offered anywhere else I had been. The couple next to me looking at the menu said something about the reindeer burger so I chimed in saying, “I mean you gotta try it right?” The wife laughed and that seemed to convince her husband and he said he would take one too. They had asked where I was from and when I replied Hawaii the bartender said she had been there. Her grandmother had an apartment in Honolulu and she had visited a bunch of years ago. We all chatted for a few minutes and then I retreated back to the table outside. The burger came and I gotta say it looked pretty damn good. It looked like a regular bacon burger and was served with fries. I cut it in half and thought, well here we go. 10 out of 10 would recommend! It was awesome haha. The meat was a bit tougher but not in like a well done or cheap piece of meat. It was extremely flavorful and I killed it. The thought of eating a Christmas movie character, Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer, was a bit odd but I assure you it was delicious. After polishing that burger off I for sure needed to walk home haha. Just a nice walk would do me some good. It was 10pm and it looked like 3:30pm outside. It was a real trip. I started to walk back when my mom had called and she wanted to chat. We chatted for a while and on the way back I ran in to a little boat that was converted in to a bar. Since I was chatting might as well sit and support. I boarded the boat and ordered a hazy beer. My mom and I chatted for a while longer as I had my beer. Soon enough it was 11pm and was just starting to reach sunset and the temp had dropped. I finished up my beer and chatting with my mom and started the walk back to the hotel. People were still lining the sidewalks and enjoying the evening. Mentally it is pretty tough to overcome the insane amount of daylight. Just with it being light out you don’t feel tired and you still want to be out and about. There was a 24hr market on the corner so I popped in there and got an ice cream and water before getting back to the hotel.

Safely back in my room I drew the blockout curtains and sat down at the computer. I worked for maybe about 30 more minutes but with the blackout curtains it actually felt like bedtime and I got sleepy. My initial reaction to Helsinki is that it feels “cold.” The people are extremely nice and most speak english but the architecture and building colors are “cold.” I deem it is from the Communist days that the buildings are that way. I can only imagine what this town is like in the dead of winter when there are only a few hours of light and it is bitter cold. I can understand why everyone is out and about during the summer because their attitude must change when it is grey outside and the architecture supports that mood. Tomorrow is the first show in Helsinki and I have finally run out of clean clothes. I think tomorrow I will take the day to catch up on laundry, which luckily they have machines in the building, and then walk over to the show. Tomorrow we rock!