Hei! (That's Hi in Finnish!)

For those of you that don't know (like Xin before today) the capital of Finland is Helsinki and that is where I am. Finland itself is the home of Santa and Nokia phones.

There are a number of things one immediately notices as decidedly odd here.

Firstly Helsinki is a really small capital - at least in terms of the sights. I haven't really had to hop onto public transport to get anywhere, you can just walk. A decided change from the vastness of Shanghai.

Secondly there are pokie machines in convenience stores!!! So here, when people nip down to the corner shop or supermarket for a bottle of milk they also stop to play the slots. I have this theory that it's because gambling raises intense emotions (eg guilt, happiness, despair) and so if they gamble before they leave the supermarket then they are in such a weird emotional state that they can't notice how freaking cold it is outside!!!

Thirdly there is a disproportionally high percentage of red vehicles. I don't know if this is a subconcious tip of the hat to Santa and his particular mode of transportation but from the air the combination of red cars, roofs and the white snow really makes it look like Santa's 'hood here.
Last but definitely not leastly it's soooooooooo COLD here!!!! Yesterday it was approximately -14 degrees celcius. And it's not just cold it's also windy!!! So when you go out, even if you have rugged up completely you face still feels like it's being sandblasted.My sightseeing here has been largely a refinement of the warm shop shuffle developed in Beijing (see earlier post for details) only more acute. I spent extra time in boring museum (yes there is such a thing even to crazy museum people like me) and galleries than any outdoor activity.

Anyway Helsinki is a very beautiful city. I got up early yesterday to go to the island fortress of Suomenlinna. Taking the ferry across was just magic - the boat cuts a swathe through the frozen Gulf of Finland churning up chucks of ice and I got to watch the sun paint the sky a beautiful pink hue. The fortress itself is amazing - it feels so stoically lonely - especially when you did what I did and sat in a battlement next to a huge cannon to watch the sun rise. (Actually I mainly did this to get out of the cold for a good 15 minutes but no one has to know that... :p)
Easily my favourite part of Helsinki though is the churches. They are absolutely stunning and so solemn in their majesty (note the Stone Wall chuch, which is basically a church cut into the rock face so that all the walls are natural, is excepted from this description as it feels more like a cool auditorium than a church).

Anyway now I am going to catch a train to Turku and then a boat to Stockholm! :p