The Sisu Within

Helsinki, Finland

There is an untranslatable word used in Finland to describe the country and a trait held by it’s people. The word is “Sisu.” The closest English definition would be like an combination of an inner perserverance, bravery, courage, tenacity, resilience and stoicism.

Josh and I decided to exhibit a little sisu and stick it out in Helsinki rather than making the impomptu trip to Sweden. We’re glad we did because we learned a new word! And, the rain yesterday actually cleared up around 10:00 a.m. - so we ended up with a bright sunny day with which to further explore the city.

We started the day with a mid-morning free guided walking tour. The tour essentially took the exact same route, we’d taken on our own the previous day - but it was nice to hear some additional history and learn a little more about the culture.

We even got to try a popular Finnish candy called Salmiak. It is like a super salty black liquorice (people in this part of the world seem to LOVE liquorice for some reason). Somehow the saltiness overpowed the liquorice taste (as if anything could taste worst than liquorice) and the end result was a mildly chalky tasting, chewy tablet of straight seawater with a hint of liquorice. It was horrid, don’t get me wrong, but not as horrid as I had anticipated because the liquorice flavor was so mild.

We were lucky enough to be in Helsinki during the exact same time as two prominate festivals - the city wide Flower Festival and the international World Village Festival, which happened to be celebrating it’s 20th anniversary.

The Flower Festival meant that there were fresh flowers all over the city and different art displays involving flowers placed around public spaces, as well. The main part of the festival culminated in the market sqaure near the docks and even the statutes were given flower crowns.

The World Village Festival was much larger. It took over a huge part of the city hear the train station. The festival is a gathering of international humanitarian and non-profit organizations who then host film showings, musical performances, research presentations, round-table talks and panel discussions revolving around a theme or issue. This year’s theme was Climate Change.

Among all the seriousness of the talks and panels there is also a celebration of different cultures and regions and a HUGE food court that features food vendors from all over the world (or at least serving dishes from all over the world)

Other than the perfomance by Clowns without Boarders (A clown troupe which began at a Hungarian Refugee Camp) we skipped most of the panel discussions - which were mostly in other languages. We focused primarily on the food court and did our best to sample our way around the world - a malyasian spring roll, an ethipoan samplier plate, a Cambodian noodle dish. Honestly, there was so much food, we didn’t even scratch the surface before we were too full to continue.

We fought the urge to go back to the hotel for a nap and took full advantage of the unexpectedly nice weather with a ferry ride to nearby Suomenlinna.

Suomenlinna is a sea fortress on an island off the coast of Helsinki that is home a 1700s fort. Built by the Swedish as a way to protect Helsinki from the Russian Navy.

We spent some time exploring the partially underground bastions (which seems to be a common theme of this trip) and taking in the picturesque seaside views before ferrying back the mainland.

Apparently, a huge hockey game occurred last night with Finland beating Russia and making their way into the World Championship. This mean the resurants, bars and parks were full of drunken revelers. We ended up having dinner at the oldest Chinese restaurant in Helsinki - not far from our hotel. It was one of the few places not completely packed (though the Karaoke Bar next door was filled with patrons). Strangely enough, the food there tasted and looked exactly like PF Changs. Like. Exactly.

Today, we were not so lucky with the weather and there has been a cold and steady rain all day long.

We visited the Market Hall this morning. It is normally a popular tourist destination - but was kind of a wash on a Sunday, as most of the stalls were closed. After that, we paid a visit to the Finnish National Museum.

This was a pretty good sized museum, out of all the collections, I was most fascinated a recreation of a peasant home. The tiny little cabin inside the museum was ropped off. But a museum employee saw us looking inside and let us in and give us a little background information.

The cabin itself was 200 years old but was a recreation of how Finnish peasants would have lived as early as the 1500s or before. When settling in a place, the family would have first built a sauna. They would have lived in the tiny sauna building until such time as the house was finished being built (which could have taken 2 years in some cases). Once built, the tiny cabins would have housed numerous people. The one-room cabin we were in housed 10 people. 2 parents, 2 grandparents and 6 children.

The family would have slept on benches that lined the cabin walls. The children would have stayed indoors and never left the cabin during winter because leather shoes were too expensive to buy for children who would out grow them and the children couldn’t be out in the snow with no shoes. April would have been the hardest month when a lot of people went hungry because supplies would have deplearned and it would have still be too cold to grow anything outdoors.

After the museum, the rain was really coming down and our shoes and clothes got completely soaked on the way to lunch. We decided to make it an early day‘s end and head back to the hotel.

When we got back to the room, we realized we never took the do not distrub sign off and the house keeper had not serviced our room. When she saw us in the hallway, so said she could still clean our room evem though. Her shift was over. This seemed to work out well, because I was planned to visit the hotel sauna and warm up from the rain anyway.

So, I changed into my hotel robe and slippers and headed for the sauna. Josh went down to the hotel bar.

Unfortunately, because it is Sunday - the sauna was closed until later this evening. Even more unfortunitedly, the housekeeper was still cleaning our room (and since she had kindly stayed after her shift to do so, I certinly was not going to intrude or rush her). So, I spent about 30 minutes standing by the 7th floor elevators in my bathrobe, hiding around the corner when I would hear someone coming.