A rather brief foray into Helsinki and Riga

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Well, its been a crazy last few days. Not only has the temperature gone down by 2 degrees each time as we move east, the landscape, the people and the language changes dramatically too.

After Norway, we flew to Finland, from Bergen through the very efficient Oslo airport and onto Helsinki. Me being quite naïve and expecting pretty much all Scandinavian countries to be the same got a wee bit of a shock in Helsinki.

Helsinki is a mixture of the Viennas and Pragues of this world, with a bit of Scandinavian thrown in for good measure. This is my conclusion after spending a sum total of one full day wandering around the city centre. We did the cheap and condensed 3T tram tour of the city which was nice to be able to see a fair bit more than what our pins could take us to, and in freezing cold flurries (that's a meteorological term for snow that isn't quite snow, but isn't rain, either) the city seemed quite dead, which I would have thought was unusual for a Saturday, and indeed it was, as it turned out to be All
Saints Day, a bank holiday, so all the shops were closed. I have to admit I was a little disappointed at the thought of not splurging some cash, (who am I kidding, there ain't nothing else going to fit in MY pack!) but alas was not to be. David, on the other hand, was breathing a mighty sigh of relief. First real threat of shopping, nipped in the bud! So we had to make do with pressing our noses up against the glass window of the Nokia concept store and checking out the latest phone technologies. ah well, there is always Asia for that!

Sightseeing and shopping quickly ticked off, we did what all the Finns seemed to be doing on the flurry-filled Bank Holiday and went to the movies. We had a hunch that rather than dub the voices over with Finnish, they merely provided subtitles in Finnish (and Swedish too, funnily enough, an overhang from when Finland was apart of Sweden way back when -all signs etc are in both languages) and luckily our hunch paid off.

We saw Eastern Promises, a film set in London about the Russian Mafia. Ah...on second thought, would it be such a good idea watching a film about the Russian Mafia when we would actually be in Russia in a few days time and given I was already just a little apprehensive about visiting the place?! Relevant, some might say, I was just hoping not realistic! Too late, we had taken our seats and were more than halfway thru the popcorn, there was no going out now. It actually ended up being upsetting for other reasons than what was originally expected. The London backdrop served to cause a few pangs of longing to be back there, but also the cool notion that I can say, hey! I've lived there! If that's not called homesickness, what is it called? Meloncholy?
Good film anyway, I would definitely recommend. I think that may have been the highlight in Helsinki.

The next day we said goodbye to Scandinavia and left Helsinki bound for Riga, in Latvia. Our introduction to the Baltic States was met with a harsh wintry frost, mostly in the air. But the sun was out, so while -2 degrees, it was nice to wander in the sun and blue skies though not ever for long periods of time. Very interesting to visit a country that has such a rich recent turbulent history, which we got thoroughly educated on, in visiting the Museum of the Revolution. Tell you what, a few years of Social Studies equals one visit to a museum like that! Latvia has been independent and out of Communism for only a little over 10 years so has stark contrasts everywhere you look. The buildings, the fashion (though still very muted), the cars. Beaten up Skodas on the road against brand new X-5 BMWs. Huge glass towers erected against dilapidated but ornate, "seen better days" buildings. However, the Old Town was still the old town and very quaint. We did a self-guided walking tour through the old town and its alleyways, something that everyone else seemed to be doing also!

It was nice to be in a country where things were a bit more moderately priced. I certainly wasn't going to have to wash dishes in Riga where the average price of dinner for 2 was £15.

The highlight of Riga was in fact provided by our taxi driver who drove us to the airport when we left. "Where you from?" he asks in a thick Russian accent. "New Zealand" David explains, and so begins half an hour of light entertainment. He knew a little geography and spoke only very very basic English, but it was enough to have a conversation about NZ, our trip and all that was wrong with Latvian politics. David thought he was hilarious and so tipped him well at the end, just for comedic value.

Next stop, St Petersburg and the Russian Mafia...

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