Helsinki, Finland Day 16

Day 16, September 16

We woke up to rain. The breakfast buffet tasted good, but took second place to the Radisson in Stockholm. Umbrella in hand we marched out to the tram stop in front of the hotel and rode the circuit past residential areas, parks, the Olympic Stadium, down town buildings, and back to the train station where we departed to collect some information. The tourist information agent pointed out areas of interest on the map and when I asked about the very early plane departure indicated we had but one option, TAXI. I have never had a good taxi experience other than Sydney, Australia. He thought the fare would be around 40 euros/$56 or about the same as our flight from Helsinki to Dusseldorf and train to Frankfurt. We could not walk, so resigned ourselves to an expensive departure. We followed his directions to a tram stop and got off near Olympic Stadium which we had passed on a different tram earlier. Walking toward the stadium we took pictures of Paavo Nurmi, the Flying Finn, winner of 9 gold and 3 silver medals in the 1920,24, and 28 Olympics, holder of 22 official world records and more unofficial records. In 1925 he toured the United States and won 53 of 55 events. At a ceremony honoring his outstanding achievements his speech accepting the honors was: "Thank you." The nude stone statue outside the stadium immortalized him. When he first saw it he commented, "I've never run in the nude." At Olympic Stadium we rode the elevator to the top of the tower and looked down into the stadium and surrounding facilities used by the 1952 Olympics. At Senate Square Cathedral a recital held the throng of tourists out for 20 minutes. Inside Martin Luther stood in a corner under the impressive dome ceiling. A short distance away we walked up to Uspenski Cathedral with elaborate and impressive detail everywhere in the church. Still raining we hopped the puddles to a market by the docks and looked at souvenirs inside a tent. The girl began talking to us in English, and I asked her how she knew we were not Finnish. "Well for one thing there hasn't been a local her all morning. It is all tourists." It turned out she spoke 6 languages, Finnish from her father, Swedish from her mother, and the other 4 from school. I'm amazed how they can learn so many languages and speak them fluently. We bought some bells, and a Viking magnet. We walked to the free city museum which traced Helsinki's development but did not rival Oslo's movie and displays.
Back on the tram a strange little creep sat across from us dressed in black with a streak of purple in dyed black hair. "Creepy" made strange noises and hand motions which the old lady sitting beside it did not appreciate. The creep clicked metal rings on a bag flipping them against each other one at a time. We moved as soon as 2 other seats emptied. Later, I commented on the demented effeminate boy. Lee said it was a demented masculine girl. Whatever the gender, "it" was demented. Later on the same ride, a little scruffy piece of crap walked on carrying a beer bottle. He wore blue jeans, a T-shirt, a ragged chin beard, and a chip on his shoulder. Seconds later a really slobby fat completely drunk ugly slut smoking a cigarette and carrying a bottle stumbled past us as we prayed she wouldn't fall into our laps or flop near us. Obviously a pair, the two parked in the back of the tram fouling the air with smoke and BO. On the door of the tram it had the no drinking, no smoking sign, but these two didn't care and no one said anything including the driver. On another tram we sat behind a drunk who had his arm propped on the seat next to him while he drifted in and out of consciousness like a broken bobble head. His head with short blond hair flopped back and forth, and although crowded no one sat next to him. After a short nap, he tapped the shoulder of a lady on a cell phone in front of him. She pulled away, ignored him, and continued talking on the phone. He undoubtedly had no ticket, and probably got on the tram to escape the drizzle outside. The poor unfortunate man only needs a little counseling, a chance, and a nudge in the right direction to become a contributing member of society (that's sarcasm). Public transportation show cases the underbelly of society where the car-less collect to move from area to area keeping one step ahead of the police and annoying the general population. We need to thin the herd.
We found the "free" ferry to the Sea Fortress, but with the rain and wind decided to make it tomorrow. Back to the hotel, out to a toy store, back to the hotel, to McDonald's we had 2 McFeasts, 1 fry, 1 Coke, and one pie McDeal for 8 euro/$12. On another tram ride a weird little guy with a yellow T-shirt, formerly white pants, rope belt, 4 day beard and a nervous demeanor paced around, leaned into a woman, got off at our same stop, paced around some more and luckily disappeared. At another bus stop a guy came up with a sign written in Russian begging for money. Maybe if he hadn't been dressed better than us with a nice red "Honda" jacket I might have been more sympathetic - not enough to give him money but sympathetic. At the train station, while I got information and again asked the "transportation to the airport question" with the same answer, a guy approached Lee speaking to her in Finnish. When she didn't respond, he left. What do you suppose he wanted? One last tour on tram ten with no drunks and back to the hotel we rode for another night.

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