Thursday, August 07, 2003
Almost Finnished
The countries are just whizzing by now. Hanna (the Finn) came and met me in Tallin last Saturday and we took the ferry to Finland, Helsinki to be exact, that evening. I was sad to leave Estonia after only three days there, but such is the life of a traveller on a time-line.
Hanna sure is a cutie though. She and I palled around Turku, her home town, quite a bit over the past week. Turku is a slow, very scandinavian town. Lots of Finnish flags, tasteful teak furniture, and steel and glass buildings with smooth lines: Scandia Supreme! Her studio apartment is straight out of an Ikea catalogue. I'm so jealous. It's on the eighth floor of a neat building with a view of Turku and the river out of her large window. We made a Finnish dessert called Kiiseli (Key-selee) which is a not-so-sweet and not-so-thick version of jello comprised mainly (2/3) of real fruit. So, not much like jello at all really. I got the secret Finnish recipe, so don't tell anyone and I might make it for you one day.
But now I'm back in Helsinki, and am crouching in the corner of a fasionable cafe' in the trendy old Naval Yard area of town. Greqt view, but I'm being subjected to a Mel Torme remix of somekind, and, trust me, it's worse than you're imagining.
It's great to go trekking about the city watching the beautiful Finns greet eachother and speak their quite humorous language. Here's an example of Finnish as compared to other "more common" romance languages:
English: One, Two, Three...
Spanish: Uno, Dos, Tres...
Finnish: Ewk-see, Cok-see, Coh-lem-ehy...
I rest my case. One doesn't realize how valuable one-sylable numbers are until you're trying to discern the price of your groceries at a Finnish shop... But, I love it!
Here are the basics for you future frolickers in the frozen Far-North:
English: Hey / Hello / Bye
Finnish: Moi / Hey / Hey-Hey
English: Yes/No
Finnish: Yoh/Ehy
Now you're fully equpped for your first few hours in Finland! Fun!
...only a few more hours until I meet Mo (My "Mo"m) in Brussels, Belgium. :D
The countries are just whizzing by now. Hanna (the Finn) came and met me in Tallin last Saturday and we took the ferry to Finland, Helsinki to be exact, that evening. I was sad to leave Estonia after only three days there, but such is the life of a traveller on a time-line.
Hanna sure is a cutie though. She and I palled around Turku, her home town, quite a bit over the past week. Turku is a slow, very scandinavian town. Lots of Finnish flags, tasteful teak furniture, and steel and glass buildings with smooth lines: Scandia Supreme! Her studio apartment is straight out of an Ikea catalogue. I'm so jealous. It's on the eighth floor of a neat building with a view of Turku and the river out of her large window. We made a Finnish dessert called Kiiseli (Key-selee) which is a not-so-sweet and not-so-thick version of jello comprised mainly (2/3) of real fruit. So, not much like jello at all really. I got the secret Finnish recipe, so don't tell anyone and I might make it for you one day.
But now I'm back in Helsinki, and am crouching in the corner of a fasionable cafe' in the trendy old Naval Yard area of town. Greqt view, but I'm being subjected to a Mel Torme remix of somekind, and, trust me, it's worse than you're imagining.
It's great to go trekking about the city watching the beautiful Finns greet eachother and speak their quite humorous language. Here's an example of Finnish as compared to other "more common" romance languages:
English: One, Two, Three...
Spanish: Uno, Dos, Tres...
Finnish: Ewk-see, Cok-see, Coh-lem-ehy...
I rest my case. One doesn't realize how valuable one-sylable numbers are until you're trying to discern the price of your groceries at a Finnish shop... But, I love it!
Here are the basics for you future frolickers in the frozen Far-North:
English: Hey / Hello / Bye
Finnish: Moi / Hey / Hey-Hey
English: Yes/No
Finnish: Yoh/Ehy
Now you're fully equpped for your first few hours in Finland! Fun!
...only a few more hours until I meet Mo (My "Mo"m) in Brussels, Belgium. :D
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