Europe Trip Part 6: Take a Good Hard Look at the... Boats

Helsinki, Finland

Wednesday, June 9

Things were looking up on Wednesday, because we were scheduled for a field trip! I have to say, I'd been particularly exhausted the last couple of days. My thought was that after a week of running across three countries and getting practically no sleep due to my unfortunate habit of staring out the window instead of napping, the fact that I was sitting in a classroom for 8 hours a day meant that all my pent up sleep debt was finally catching up with me. So I sincerely hoped that getting out and getting moving again would be good for me.

So in the afternoon we loaded into a bus and headed around the outside of town via ring road 3, the outermost circumfrential highway, to the newly completed Vuosaaren Harbor. You see, Helsinki used to have two smaller harbors very close to downtown, and a combination of outdated facilities, overcrowded freight lines, and skyrocketing land values caused the city to decide to relocate the port. The new one, built from scratch on the outside of town at the end of ring road 3, opened earlier this year.


All of us in the conference were expecting a tour of the harbor complex, perhaps with a drive through enormous stacks of shipping containers and under towering gantry cranes. However, and to our slight disappointment, the visit consisted of us watching a series of presentations - albeit engaging presentations about planning the layout of the port, overcoming environmental difficulties during construction, and then the problems they encountered in linking the new site up to existing highway- and rail-based freight infrastructure. I do have to admit, it's hard to be upset at a company who didn't meet your expectations when they did provide us with a bunch of interesting stories, from the need to construct the second longest tunnel in Finland to the way they were able to separate overseas traffic from domestic traffic before it went through customs. Plus, they gave us a bunch of snacks. I told you, the Finns love their coffee breaks.

Oh, right, and the conference room was located on the 13th floor (yes, they have those here) of the harbor operations complex. So during the break we were able to wander out onto the balcony and have a look around.

Yep, I was there.

Anyway, eventually it was over and we headed back. As if understanding the need for a visual display of just how tired I was getting during the presentations, Donny took a nap on the bus.


Anyway, we got back to downtown around 5pm, as usual. Donny and I both remarked that we had been remiss in getting postcards for our family, so we stopped by the main post office building on the way back to the hostel. At that point, we both decided we were hungry, so we decided to head to the center of town.

At this point, I decide that I must be imposing myself on Donny's dinner plans, but he assures me that he enjoys the company. He's far more traveled than I, and he responds that "the worst thing about traveling alone is that there's nobody to share your thoughts with." I nod in agreement and am about respond, but at just this moment we get to the main tram junction in the center of downtown and decide to take the first tram that arrived in whichever random direction it happened to be going.

We just so happened to pick the tram that went back towards the port, backtracking the route our tour bus had taken earlier that afternoon. Fortunately, Jukka had told us as we went past that there were a lot of cheap eateries in this direction owing to the fact that a lot of students live in the area. So, we figured, we were set for a good dinner.

But that still didn't tell us where we should get off. We both peered out the window, waiting for some unresistably appealing restaurant to go by, but nothing really caught our eyes. Then, out the window, we saw a crowd of people shouting at a bunch of guys who appeared to be playing baseball. But we knew they weren't. We knew, based on what some of the Finns had told us, that this was Finnish baseball.

Finnish baseball, or Pesäpallo, is a curious sport. The locals at the conference had told us that it was like a bunch of Finns had watched a baseball game on TV and then decided to try it themselves, not knowing the layout of the field or the rules or how to play. Plus, they were probably a bit drunk. Donny and I watched for a while, not knowing what was going on, as you can tell from our video commentary. People didn't run when we thought they were in a forced situation, the base paths are different, there were significantly more than 3 outs, catching the ball didn't get the batter out - it was just generally confusing. Wikipedia's article tries to make some sense of it, but I think it's still fairly confusing.

Anyway, eventually Donny and I found a place to eat. Interestingly enough, it was a Tex-Mex/Italian/Indian pizza parlor/bar. True to Jukka's declaration, we each got a pint of beer for €2.50 on top of the €14 "kebab pizza" with big strips of meat and onions and the like. It was delicious, but I completely burned the roof of my mouth. By the time I left, I had a big blister, and it really stung quite a bit. Ehh, still worth it.

We finish up and head back to the tram. This time, we decide to ride around on the 3T tram, which is widely regarded as the tourist tram. It does something of a figure eight around downtown, passing all the good, touristy sites. So it seemed the perfect way to relax after a filling dinner.


Eventually, after rolling gradually throughout town we decided to get off and go on a crazy quest to find the US embassy. You know, just to see what it looked like. We wandered around, passing various embassies from a variety of countries before admitting to each other that we really had no idea where we were going. No address, no nothing. Again, I'd say that we could just look it up in a phone book... but once again, I'm compelled to point out that there are absolutely no pay phones in this country. We saw an internet terminal in a cafe with a VOIP phone attached, but I hardly think that counts as the same thing.

Anyway, we (and by "we" I mean "Donny") then started asking around for information. It turns out that most Finns - aside from knowing that we were in the section of town full of embassies - had no idea where any specific embassies were. Eventually, just as we were on the verge of giving up and getting back on the tram, Donny found a guy who pointed us down the appropriate street.

A few blocks down, and we eventually reached the embassy. It was a stately complex of brick buildings, surrounded by a very aggressive fence. We snapped a couple of pictures and were remarking that it reminded us both of the Independence Hall complex in Philadelphia before we noticed a series of signs that warned tourists not to take pictures of the complex. Oops.
So we hastily left before the feds came after us (neither of us had our passports) and found ourselves on top of an old fort or something with views out over one of the city's numerous harbors. Thinking this good enough for the day, we turned around and headed back to the hotel.


Aside from passing what we agreed must be the most popular party in Finland at the moment, the trip back was fairly uneventful so we had some good time to talk. On the way, I begin thinking that Donny represents the "What-if"s in my life. What if I'd done more traveling between high school and college? What if I had the confidence to go up and ask a stranger how to get to the US consulate in a foreign language in a foreign country? And, perhaps most importantly, what would my life be like if I'd gone to Georgia Tech.

People outside on top of an European Winnebago pregaming for The Biggest Party in Finland

Now that I've met back up with Donny, I've been thinking a lot about what things would have been like at GT. I think a lot about the time I spent with Dr. Meyer, a pretty cool guy, and also about that evening I spent with the students coming back from The Front Page News. That whole night where I was spending time with the whole compilation of students seemed great and like I was a part of a family group. Sometimes, I wonder what things would have been like if I had gone to Georgia Tech.

But I try not to let things like that bother me much. I'm trying not to be so sentimental now.

Tomorrow, more information about the remainder of my time in Finland.