Sunset in Finland 1:00AM

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First full day in Helsinki and spent most of the day in meetings... But, I did manage to explore the city a bit, which is all you really need because it's not all that big. Took a jaunt over to Senate Square - www.google.com - no time to post pictures right now, and walked around the Government Palace, the Univeristy building and the Cathedral.

The Catherdral was by far the most interesting of the buildings sitting high atop a pyramid of large stone steps. The stone statues along the upper roofline were beautiful enhanced only by the lovely seagulls perched on the head of each statue. Perplexed over how to spruce up that ancient historical artifact? For the finest accessory - think Seagull. Available at exclusively at Fred Seagull.

Come on... You were thinking it, I just said it.

I walked into the Cathedral and found towering ceilings and rows of polished wooden pews. The decor was simple but beautiful and very well maintained. As I turned to leave the Cathedral, I spotted on the balcony above - what can only be described as the world's largest pipe organ. There simply are no words to describe the sheer scale of the pipes. Apparently, "loud" wasn't going to be adequate for this church and so they implemented the "organ of death" aptly named because patrons would never see it while entering the church and would be ill prepared for the heart attack that would certainly be forthcoming upon the striking of the first note while in earnest prayer.

Try as I might, I was unable to locate the stairs to the organ much to my dismay. How could one resist the urge to bang out a few notes and scare all the tourists, and seagulls, don't forget the seagulls. What the lady managing the place didn't realize is that I would actually be helping improve tourism... Oh, to play Phantom of the Opera on that thing would have been worth a little jail time in Finland. If I could have only found the stairs... If I would have only known how to play the organ...

After sightseeing I did a little shopping but was unable to determine what exactly Finland is known for making. Certainly, I know about the cheese but is this the place to buy the china with the blue windmills or is that Denmark? It would appear that there is a special type of glass made here but I couldn't think of anyone that could use a small flower vase and even if I did, do you know how hard it would be to keep that thing in one piece while trapsing around Europe? I wonder if I should bring back some hotel soap instead?

Had dinner at an amazing pastry restaurant this evening. As you can probably guess by the name, this place is well known for their pastry desserts, but before you could get to the dessert, you had to order dinner. So, the waiter gave us a choice of ordering the 4 or 7 course meal, we opted for the 4 of course. Little did I realize that the course selection had nothing to do with dinner but with the dessert. Dinner was 3 courses, dessert was 4. Much to my delight, the first dessert course was... wait for it... cheeses from around the world. My new Finland friends were delighted with the opportunity to give me a bad time over more cheese. There was a few conversations with the waiter in a language I don't speak, so I suspect the Fins set the entire thing up and laughed about it later over a bottle of vodka and more cheese.

The second course was an amazing pineapple pastry with ice cream and carmel. I was done at that point as this thing was easily one of the finest pastries I've ever tasted. Surprisingly passing the hot glazed donut from Krispy Kreme (note the sarcasm for the slower folks out there).

Third course was a warm strawberry tart with more ice cream covered in a warm strawberry sauce. At this point I'm just eating for the taste because I can no longer feel my legs... length of dinner at this point = 3 hours. Strawberry tart was epic. This place clearly doesn't mess around when it comes to dessert.

Fourth course - warm, flaky, peach torte covered in glazed carmel sauce with a touch of ice cream... seriously it was THAT good.

I dragged my bloated carcass out of my chair hugging the chef in gratitude as I stumbled outside. It's 1:00AM and the sun has finally set.

Ahh... dessert. I've decided that in America, we just don't take dessert and cheese as seriously as we should. There aren't that many overweight people over here, they are doing something right. I think they've stumbled upon something magical!

Off to watch the sunrise - 1:30AM

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