Helsinki saunas and bar scene

Saunas are THE thing to do here. We went to a public sauna in the Kalio district of the city. It was great; the cedar wood smell, the hot hot air that burned your nostrils at first, the stepped seating, being naked, etc. The Finns go in for like 10-15 minutes at a time, then go outside in their towels and chat, drink beer and then go back in and start the cycle over. Sometimes a cold shower is thrown in, to mix it up. According to Ville, the Michigan M.Arch graduate from Finland who showed us around the Aalto designed University, most single family homes have saunas in them. Really interesting.

Helsinki was also voted the design capital of the world 2012. There is an entire district of the city that sells designer everything, from furniture to shoes to textiles, everything in between. There is this famous textile place called Marimekko that had lots of bright colors and patterns. I actually liked a different textile place called Finlayson better. Artek is the furniture store that Alvar Aalto started, and had a lot of cool stuff. My favorite piece was an end table made of driftwood, that was lacquered over. The city is very clean, the green and yellow trams go everywhere, and buses and a metro are available from the Kampii shopping center, close to the central railway station and man bus station. We stumbled across a museum of the tram, that had some cool stuff, including a history of the ticket size and shape.

For dinner after the sauna I had cold smoked reindeer with "belinis" which were basically savory fried pancakes with sour cream, onions, relish and a cold mushroom/sour cream/vinegar salad. Interesting, but it was good. Reindeer tastes like beef jerky, just slightly gamey. They eat a lot of fish (herring, salmon, perch), and use dill a lot which I love.

Night life is interesting, Finns are shy until approached, and then they are super friendly and helpful. Some are not so shy, like Hannu, a designer type with Corb glasses who took us out to a gay club- about the only other happening place on a Wednesday night. We started at a bar called Llamas, which was a Mexican bar with wooden swings hanging from the rafters for seats all around the bar. It was a group favorite, if not just for the fun name. On our free day we found a little courtyard bar, with the most amazing cocktails (and a price to prove it). I had a vanilla ginger basil vodka cocktail, totally delicious, rivaling my favorite cocktail from Violet Hour in Chicago. There is this liqeuer here called Salmiakki, the Finns love it, and Hannu got us all shots of it. To me it tastes like salty coffee with a licorice aftertaste.

We're about to leave to board the Viking cruise ferry to Stockholm, so that's all for Helsinki, for now.