I especially love the city for its visual complexity and for its recurring architectural surprises. It is the best Art Nouveau city in the world, with only Brussels as a rival, and also a leading modernist city. The public buildings are excellent and, unlike Stockholm, you never really know what’s coming next.
The Finns are good at building charming and comfortable bedrooms. At a used bookstore, you may find a room to sit in a comfortable chair and read. It will look and feel perfect. I’ve even seen a men’s restroom with this flavor, and yes, it had a comfortable chair.
It is striking and instructive that the Japanese have such a strong presence in tourism in Finland. Their groups dominate clandestine visits rock church, For example. Both Japan and Finland have something inscrutable in common? And they both share an obsession with design and small details.
The good thing about Helsinki is that you can find a good restaurant in almost any part of the city. Unlike Paris, New York or London, they do not have “gastronomic deserts” where tasty places are absent for reasons of rent or zoning. Likewise, Helsinki also has some very high quality small boutiques, in areas such as jewelry, second-hand clothing and design. Again, as with restaurants, you can find them in almost any part of town. Helsinki has avoided the trap of looking and feeling like other global cities because the price and rent gradients simply aren’t that oppressive.
Along the same lines, you will see large numbers of non-white immigrants in the downtown area. In Stockholm, on the other hand, non-white immigrants are to a large extent excluded from the center, although, of course, they can be seen working there in service jobs,
The spaces of the new public library are remarkably inviting to sit and read. The interior is also an example of an institution that took a leap into retro, without ever managing to be fashionable in the meantime (the opposite of mobile money in Kenya, overtaking monetary and banking institutions more archaic). In an act of supreme wisdom, they filled the library with “technology,” primarily 3D printers and advanced sewing machines. It now has a quaint and charming appearance, much like the older buildings in the town. It’s smartphones that capture the attention of library visitors, even in this relatively reading-friendly culture.
In Nordic countries, Thai food is generally better than Chinese food. Georgian cuisine is something you could also try in Helsinki. Salmon soup is good, but you don’t need to eat it more than once. I liked the whitefish and small river fish.
It is interesting to talk to the Finns, especially about Finland. One woman said (paraphrased): “We can talk to each other for hours and still not understand, so how do you expect immigrants to understand us? » Several meanings can be attributed to this remark.
Another said something like: “No, Finns are not the happiest people in the world. Once strangers stop asking us how happy we are, we start complaining about everything again. » Was she complaining about it?
Everywhere you go you see Finns doing things with each other.
For me, Helsinki is one of the great cities in Europe, rich in information and out of the ordinary. It’s worth noting, however, that virtually no one else agrees with this assessment, least of all the residents here.
