I. departure

I started my trip to Helsinki on december 30th 2000. I had to get up pretty early at about 4.00am. How
cruel.;) Soon we drove to the airport in Frankfurt. We arrived there too early and so I had time enough to think
about plane crashes which was definitely not the right thing to do at an airport. Well, at one point there was no escape any longer and I had to go into this tiny FinnAir plane for the first time. I can now entirely understand Ville Valo who doesn't like to get into a plane without being at least a bit drunk.:p I don't like flying at all. It was cold and loud and the food wasn't too tasty either. Most of the people on the plane spoke Finnish which was pretty nice to listen to. And I should already notice here that actually no single soul in Finland says 'kyllä' for 'yes'. If you go there use 'joo'. You can hear it everywhere. :) Juuri niin.....However, I also wondered "Where do all those Finnish people come from here in Germany ? What did they do here ?" Hey, I am not any kind of a racist. Believe me ! It's only that I wondered why people who come from such a nice place as Finland dare to come to boring Germany.;) I am sure they were lucky to be at home soon. I should be told a different thing the other day. But more later. While I watched the ice flowers which appeared on the plane window and while I had a look at the landscape and the sea below us time was passing by. When we had left the cotton like clouds behind us the first thing I saw of Finland was snow.;) It really looked very beautiful like icing-sugar on all those litte houses and trees....
 

II. Arrival

So, after about two hours I arrived at Helsinki aiport. I got my suitcase without any problems (luckily), lugged it out of the airport and jumped in the FinnAir bus (bussi in finnish...how sweet ;)) which transported us to the main
terminal next to the station in the centre of Helsinki. It took about half an hour to get there. I looked out of the window all the time and got my first impressions of Finland. Well, everything just looked very normal. Except for the names.:) I could hardly hold back a laugh when I read the inscription 'automaatti' of a petrol station or when I saw a police car with 'poliisi' on it. I watched those red wood houses, rocks with icicles on it. During our trip we were told in Finnish, Swedish and English what we could have a look at at the moment and when we would arrive through speakers. Then finally : Helsinki ! I got out of the bus grabed my suitcase and stood right in the heart of the capital of Finland. Now there was the next problem which had to be solved. Where did I have to go ? Of course, I had looked at least dozens of times at the city map and I thought I knew where my hotel was. But, if you stand there surrounded by houses, cars, traffic lights...well, then, it is a completely different thing.;) As I didn't have a clue where to go, I instinctively chose to turn left where the railway station (which was actually a lot smaller than I had imgined it...) was and tried to find a way through all the doves and the snow. I passed some of those cruel, beeping traffic lights and looked desperately for a street name. Hello ? Names ? Any ? Here, please ? My arm was getting longer, the suitcase was getting heavier, I stumbled over my coat, I slid on the slush....No street names in Helsinki it seemed. Well, never mind, let's go on I thought. Either your are totally wrong and you will freeze to death or you will be lucky for the first time in your life. And I was lucky. I didn't choose any wrong street. I found the totally right way and after 15 minutes I arrived safely in my hotel, Cumulus Kaisaniemi. I checked in. Everything worked quite fine. Until.....I realized I couldn't find my room. Brilliant, girl....You get lost in a hotel. Ah, sauna !  Fine, I had at least found the sauna.....Maybe you could move in there...? No....let's see. Ah, you f***ing coat ! If I stumple across you one more time I will throw you into the Finnish Sea !  Finally I found some numbers rooms 620-30 or blablabla.....And what have you got girl ? 623 ! Success !!! Turn left...one door, another one and....yes ! This should be my room ! Great ! Well, it took me another 2 minutes until I found out about the key-card secret, but finally I threw my suitcase on the floor of my hotel room and myself on the bed.
Then I had a first look at my room. It was really quite pretty and comfortable. I switched on the radio and decided on 'Radiomafia' with Billy Idol's 'Rebel Yell'. ;) My mum wanted to call me at about 3 o' clock so I would have to wait until I could have my first walk through Helsinki. I unpacked my things and then I looked out of the huge window. It was already getting darker again. On the other side of the street I could see a nice building, a cinema, an internet-café and a chinese restaurant. People in coats and with scarfs up to their noses were walking along the snow-covered pavements and from time to time one of those sweet and antiquarian looking trams passed by.
Finally the phone rang. I told my parents that everything had worked fine and so on... Now, I put on my annoying coat, grabed my camera, stepped out and there I was again in the streets of Helsinki. Surprisingly, it wasn't as cold as I had imagined it. I could even open the coat and I didn't need gloves. I had a look at one those 'info boards' for temperature and time of which you can find quite a lot in the city centre. 0°C ! Pretty warm ! No kidding. I had expected about -10°C or something. Helsinki has somehow another kind of cold than Germany has. It sounds completely crazy, but it is a fact. It doesn't hurt that much. I decided to visit the shopping streets first which are luckily almost all pedestrian precincts and so you don't have to watch out for crazy car drivers. Believe me or not, they really have a fatal way of driving there. Do never trust a green traffic light. Car drivers there might not believe their lights are truly red. And don't expect them to drive more carful if the weather is bad. They will always drive like crazy. I am sorry, but this is my experience. Well, I simply walked straight ahead. I found Stockmann with its funny show windows. They had a really cute underseaworld created there and you could listen to a strange music via louspeaker. I think it should be the mermaids singing.;) On the other side of the street I stopped at a corner where there were some statues in niches. A long time I was not quite sure about what I saw....Strange.....Are they real or do they belong to the statues ? Some doves were sitting decoratively and motionless on the heads, the shloulders and the hands of the statues. Finally one of them ruffled its feathers. They were real ! Unbelievable, even the doves are sleepy and in a silent melancholic mood here !  It was such a surreal sight that I liked it immediately. Helsinki by night is really beautiful. Well, it wasn't really night. It was about 5.00pm, but it was already quite dark. Soon I arrived at the Senate Place and the Cathedral. There was a huge Christmas tree on the place and in front of the Cathedral there were some colourful illuminated boxes. It looked great ! After having enjoyed that sight for a couple of minutes I climbed the steep stairs to the Cathedral for the first time to have a closer look at the building and a breathless brilliant view over the city with its hundreds of lights. Then I decided to have a look at the harbour which couldn't be that far as I had seen some ships while watching Helsinki. Some minutes later I noticed that the sea there was really frozen. Wow ! I had never seen that before. At the harbour the wind is actually always very cold so I walked on and arrived at Uspenski Cathedral and the old market hall. After that I had a closer look at some narrow streets. Honestly, all the houses in Helsinki are actually very very beautiful. You can really feel comfortable. And I was surprised at how easy it was to find my way home. I didn't have to look at my city map one single time ! It was pretty relaxing. I arrived in my hotel again at about 9.00pm and I have to admit and went to bed then really soon, because -as you might understand- I was endlessly tired. My first day in Helsinki was over.

III. Päivä  kaksi , 31/12/2000

I got up pretty early at about 6.30pm and realized that it was still deep deep dark outside and that not a soul was on the street below. It was in fact always only dim from about 11.00am to 3.30pm. I decided to have a look at Finnish TV, but gave up soon as there was only a documentation about elks, a Finnish version of a serie with Richard Chamberlain and EuroSport. This time I chose RadioCity as alternative. Reamonn and 'Supergirl' ! ;))) Well, soon I was bored and I decided to have breakfast and walk a bit trough Helsinki again. The town was quite empty and you could really start to feel very lonely and depressed as it was a bit colder than the evening before, it was still dark, the wind was as cold as at the harbour and everything was very quiet. Well, you can survive, but I was in fact quite happy when I finally met two girls at 11.00am. We had arranged to meet in front of the railway station. We decided to visit Temppeliaukio. It's a church that was constructed kind of into some rocks. The roof is made of bast and glass. The walls are the actual rock. It was really interesting. It's worth a look if you are in Helsinki. After that we walked a bit through Helsinki, visited the inside of the Cathedral (not as interesting as the building itself) and then we decided to have something to eat. We chose the Cantina West for that. I have to say it was one of the highlights of my trip to Helsinki. Honestly ! It's a fantastic place !!! If you go to Helsinki then don't miss to go to the Cantina West ! :) People there are kind and the style of the whole thing is brilliant if you are craving for some change from the grey winter city. Everything is in a Texas like design. It looks pretty terrific ! You can just lean back and relax. It's something that makes you forget the arising depressions.;) The only annoying thing is the mexican music and the fact that the food is not made for vegetarians. So....the Cantina is actually made up of several floors and rooms as far as I could see. We chose the one with life music. On the walls there were a lot of 'western' photos. And in a very small corner a band tried to put up their equipment and to prepare their gig for New Year's Eve. Obviously it didn't work very well as you could regularly hear "En tiedä, en tiedä..." which means "I don't know." It was pretty funny to watch this performance.;))) Some time later we moved to the bar. I can only say...those heartchairs (you know, the ones the guys tried to steal and as a result where banned for a certain time from the Cantina...) are actually just ugly  ! Believe me ! Nothing special. And you can't even sit on them properly ! I am convinced that you have to be very drunk if you try to steal something like that in hiding it under your coat, especially as there is always the staff of the Cantina present. You simply cannot get out without being seen. It's an impossible thing to do. I think it's only fair that such an unbelievable foolishness was punished. :p  So, we were sitting there waiting for a friend and watching Finnish TV, MTV3. "Look Who's Talking" with Finnish subtitles.:) Finally our other friend arrived, full of snow, it had started to snow very very heavily. We were talking a bit when suddenly a guy asked us if we were German and as we confirmed that this Finn started to talk like a fairy tale book. Please remember here that Finnish people are said to be not talkative at all ! He told us that he was in the army at the moment. That's how he excused his bald head.;) He said that he had actually had very long hair. How interesting...ehm...yes...Did I tell you he talked to us in German ? He did ! And even not too bad. He could speak German that well, because he had studied in Germany and he still has some acquaintances there. So, he started to tell us about his friend and his wife ! My goodness....The most astonishing thing for me was that he liked Germany obviously a lot !!! He was looking forward to visit it again ! How can they like it here ? Unbelievable....Well, after this silent Finnish guy had asked us tons of questions and after having smoked his third cigarette he finally gave up and dedicated his time again to his girlfriend....After another hour we were finally able to overcome our reluctance and stepped out again into the snow and the cold. It was about 6.00pm and we arranged to meet again at Tavastia Klubi at 8.00pm. So, I went back to the hotel and tried hard to find something that made me look not too dark. I am sorry, but you might already know that I can't stand it when all the people around me have black clothes, black nail polish and black make-up. I don't like this underground army thing......Well, I chose very light make-up with glitter and white nail polish, a grey trouser, a black pullover with a white collar and a grey jacket. Unfortunately I couldn't do anything against the black leather boots and the black scarf.;) Didn't matter.  I have actually been the only one with such a style as far as I have seen. I know it is completely uninteresting for you, but I am just too proud that I haven't been a part of the army. :)) Sorry. Well, let's go on. Finally, I was ready for the HIM gig in Helsinki and I had 35 minutes to find Urho Kekkosen Katu 4-6. It was still snowing and I slid on the snow again. I decided to go to the railway station first. It's a good point for orientation. At least I thought that. Well, let's have a look at the map....Map! Pull out the gloves girl...Urho Kekkosen, where are you ? Ah, there it is....now, where will you have to go......? I see. Let's go straight ahead, turn right at the end of Simonkatu and left for Urho Kekkosen ! Sounds like a good plan ? Right, it sounded good to me, too. Until I had crossed a street and turned left instead of going straight ahead. What means crossing a street ? Committing suicide is the better expression ! At the moment I had arrived at this annoying beeping traffic light the noise suddenly stopped. What was that ? Oh, how smart....They turn off the traffic lights at a certain time ! Fine....Well, so I am going to die in Helsinki...brilliant... Well, I survived it.;) I arrived at Stockmann again....That could definitely not be correct. I had evidently lost my way. Another 25 minutes to find Tavastia Klubi.
Okay, plan B. Stay cool and be naive enough to trust your instinct. I followed Mannerheimintje and after some minutes I decided to turn right into Lönnrotinkatu. At the intersection to Fredrikinkatu I thought it would be good to have a look at the map though. 20 minutes to Tavastia Klubi. God in Heaven, what is the bloody use of a map if there are no street names in this country ?! Give me a street name...come on....And I really discovered the street names. They're pretty small and not very easy to read as they're put up quite high. And it was dark in addition. Okay, turn left and follow Fredrikinkatu. Cross Kalevankatu....I started to feel uncomfortable as the streets were pretty dark and almost deserted. Cross Eenkinkatu, follow Fredrikinkatu....Kansakkatu where the hell are you ?!  10 minutes to find Tavastia Klubi. Finally I crossed Kansakkatu. The next one had to be Urho Kekkosen Katu. And it was indeed ! Success again !!! Just a few more steps, pass the building site and there I was right at the entrance of Tavastia Klubi, Urho Kekkosen Katu 4-6. Yes ! It was 7.58pm. And I was the first one of us girl who arrived there. Well, not surprising that I arrived there on time. It was well-planned, wasn't it ? ;) On a building opposite there was again one of the boards for temperature and time. 0°C. 8.00pm, 31st december 2000, Tavastia Klubi, Helsinki. A brilliant feeling !!! ;)))) The others arrived about ten minutes later. They had had to take a taxi as they couldn't find the street. Not very amazing. In fact it is not very easy to find. We would have to wait another hour until the doors should be opened. We were sourrounded by dark styled fans from Switzerland and Germany. Just a few Finnish people. They arrived at about 10.00pm. And they were right. Well, we listened amused to a telephone conversation of a girl from Switzerland who said that people were freezing their arses off there. A bit too direct, but it was actually correct. Soon we tried to interpret the announcement poster of the gigs for the evening. It showed the cover of the "Greatest Lovesongs Vol.666" album. It looked very worn-out, dusty and pale. Another inscription told us that the HIM gig was sold out. At 8.35pm my feet had become numb. "Then move your feet!" was the advice of one of the girls. "I try to. But they're almost dead, there's not much going on with any moving thing then." I answered shivering with cold. I was a bit annoyed as it became really pretty cold and you had to pay attention that you were not hit by one of the regular water drops all the time. Finally they opened the doors and we went in.
 

IV. Tavastia Klubi HIM gig

We had to follow a long and narrow corridor. There were a lot of b/w pictures of bands which had probably had gigs in Tavastia Klubi hanging on the walls. After a couple of minutes we arrived at a door, our tickets and passports were checked. We went on and gave in our jackets and I put my purse in my waistband which was not comfortable, but at least secure. We were hanging around at the bar. The doors to the room where the gig would take place were not opened before 10.00pm. Soon we were wrapped by fog of all the smokers. My back was aching, my feet were aching and I felt in fact quite miserable. I tried to lean on the bar, but gave up soon. The room got fuller and fuller. The people from Switzerland gathered together and welcomed every new fellow. It was really cute.;) I watched the photos on the walls and realized that Finnish musicians usually all seem to look quite similar. No kidding. Some minutes before 10 o' clock they opened the magical doors to the room which I should not leave before the beginning of the new year. At that time I had actually still been thinking about watching the firework at the Senate Place. We placed ourselves in about the tenth row somewhere on the left where Migé would probably be. Should I tell you something about the room itself ? Okay. It's pretty small. I was told Tavastia Klubi would be rather a rat hole. And it is.:) Really. It is more like a cellar. But not completely unpleasant. It was quite okay. At the end of the whole thing there is another bar and you can go upstairs on the left side and watch everything from kind of a balcony. The stage is small but high enough so that everybody should be able to see no matter where you stand. Well, we waited and waited....what else could we do ? People behind us were sitting on the floor, drinking and smoking Lucky Strike. No comment.:) Btw, the 'shrine' of the Tavastia, the backstage area where all the bands have left a signature on the walls (you might have seen that on BravoTV) must be directly behind the stage. When the door opened from time to time I mean having seen something like that. Well....After about half an hour I decided to sit down as well. What a wise decision ! We should have to wait for HIM more than two hours.....We had to listen to some stupid music. Then the support act appeared. They would have better disappeared again very quickly. It was a nightmare !!! The most horrible thing I have seen in my life ! The music was -refraining from the fact that each of the much too long songs sounded completely the same- more than shitty ! And that was not everything: you should have seen what the guys looked like ! You truly got sick by that sight. I am sorry, but I think everybody there felt the same. I mean, the guy couldn't sing, really, he was just not able to. It was only senseless screaming and then......he took of his shirt and presented his beer belly ! I have to mention that he didn't wear a trouser from the beginning. So, he did his pitiful performance in his underpants ! It was so disgusting, I can tell you......The bassist wasn't any better. He wore a red and green squared suit and his bare belly was hanging out of his jacket. That is what I would call obscene Ville Hermanni Valo ! A pink album cover is such a harmless thing....If you've seen that, you know what horror is. You might think that I am too impolite. Well, I guess you weren't there. You haven't seen that....that ....thing. I mean, there's nothing more wicked you can do by people on New Year's Eve. Well, everybody started to feel annoyed and to crave for, to beseech an end of this misery. But they showed no mercy, song by song the people's pain was increasing. But everything must come to an end. Even this torture. Finally they left the stage ! Everybody was obviously relived. It was about 11.15pm and the next surprise for me didn't wait long. People in front of us pushed the others, someone tried to pass through our row, passed me, pushed the person behind me which .....spilled out a whole glass of beer over me. My left side was wet, wetter than wet and smelling like a rotten dive. I couldn't help doing something I usually never do. I started to scream as loud as I could. After that I felt a lot better and started to dry my clothes with my scarf. I didn't work. Well, luckily the room was very warm so you could survive it. In the meantime I had lost the hope to see a firework this year. Again we had to wait. The room was very full now. Some minutes before 12.00pm the owner (I suppose it was the owner...) of Tavastia Klubi appeared on stage and did the countdown. Everybody joined him, even I. The Finnish numbers are one of the few things I can understand and speak without too many problems.:))) Kymmenen, yhdeksän, kahdeksan, seitsemän, viisi, kuusi, yksi....Onnellista uutta vuotta !!!! A Happy New Year !!!!
Then the lights went off, we were pushed towards the wall and found ourselves somewhere in row 16....
HIM had appeared on stage !  About 12.03pm. It was very dark, just some blue light and flashes of cameres enlightened Ville's face. They started with a new song. I really don't know its name. It was a fast and rocking one, quite melodic and pleasant to listen to. I really can't rememeber the order of the songs they performed. I am even not quite sure which songs they played ! Sorry.  I thought it was Poison Girl, Resurrection, Death Is In Love With Us (fantastic !!!), It's All Tears, Bury Me Deep, Wicked Game, Gone With The Sin, Razorblade Kiss,.....En tiedä. I cannot remember more. When Ville had to do his "Nobody loves no one' it was very very loud and the echo hurt in everybody's ears so that you had to protect your hearing with your fingers. I don't know.....Ville didn't seem as if he had noticed that the high frequency of his voice was hurting. Or it was his turn to show no mercy. Well, the ground under our feet was vibrating and we all were certainly deaf after the end of this song.:) During the whole time Ville was talking like a book. Again it didn't fit into the stereotype of the silent Finnish people. I have never seen Ville speaking so much, so lively and relaxed before ! He was talking and talking and joking around. Mainly with Migé.:)  I can't tell you what HIM did on stage. It was very dark all the time. I remeber Migé and Lily kissing once. Well, nothing more. Should I tell you what they wore ? I suppose some of you might be interested in that. Ville wore a black wool cap, a black worn-out jeans with the black adhesive tape design and a strange black washed out T-Shirt. It had the image of a cowboy on it. Typical.;) It's amazing that Ville manages to put bottles in the trouser-pockets ! Migé had something like a light blue fur jacket and one of his usual trousers. Migé-fashion, you know.;) Lily once more without a T-Shirt, only with a black jeans, Juska with a tight black pullover and a black skirt. It's hard to explain what Gas wore. Do you know the Flinstones ? Something like Fred, but usual fabric, black and with only strap over a shoulder. Really amusing !:)))) I liked his clothes best !
This time the encore was "Join Me" and now we come to the most depressing part of the evening. Juska came out first. There was some blue light, and Juska playing the keyboards in the spotlight. Everything else was dark so that you could only see Juska and concentrate on him playing the legendary intro of Join Me. It was actually very beautiful and magical. When Ville appeared on stage the audience screamed. I was a bit annoyed by that as nobody screamed when Juska came out. What's so special about this nicotine junkie ?! I like Ville, but people tend to exaggerate. Ville started his speech. I really don't know what he said exactly, because he talked Finnish (except for one 'thank you!') all the time which I think was really okay as it is his home town and he should be allowed to speak his mother language there. Ehm, I think he said something about the Join Me song and the time they practised it. It seems there have been some problems when it was Juska's part to play after Ville sings at the beginning of Join Me, you know....Ville performed the "Uouoooh" thing all the time while speaking "Uouoooh ja Juska blablabla" that's why I suppose to know what he was talking about. He talked very very fast. Finnish is a lively language. The only thing I was able to understand was actually 'kiitos', 'ja' and the numbers. Especially when he announced a song from the album "Grrrreatest Lovesongs Vol. kuusi kuusi kuusi." :)))) All right, so, Ville was talking about Juska. He talked a lot ! It sounded quite sentimental and kind. At the end of this speech there was a cute 'Kiitos' from Ville and Gas applauded Juska. A strange atmosphere. Even the non-Finnish-speaking people sensed something had happened. We should find out about it later. But now, Ville asked us to sing the intro for him and show Juska when he had to start to play. Of course we did so ! And it worked fine !!!;))) Everybody was singing Join Me with Ville as usual. The most famous part is obviously the "This life ain't worth living" thing where everybody screams as loud and convinced as they can. And, I have to admit, it's fun ! ;) If you scream that with all the other people and Ville though it's totally stupid it creates the completely other feeling. Life is worth living and fun ! That's for all the people who still think Ville writes songs about committing suicide. He doesn't. It's all about life, living it as intensively as possible and enjoying it. That's what I think.
Ehm....yes....after Join Me, the gig was over. How sad. They had played about 70 minutes....You can beat me, but after the gig there was a weird villish version of "Heal The World" in my opinion. The room got emptier again and I was told the depressing truth: This had been the last concert of Juska Salminen. It was like a stroke.
My first thought was dedicated to my friend who is a fan of Jussi and my second belonged to Ville. How could he do that on New Year's Eve ?! Did he really think this was a good beginning of the new year ? It was such a cruel and wicked thing to do. I was annoyed and sad. Well, I got over it now. And I think it's okay what Ville did, because he said goodbye to Juska in quite a nice way. It was a sensitive action and I appreciate it a lot. You can say what you want. Anyway....we went to the bar outside had some alcohol, grinned at a girl with a KISS-shirt and decided to leave the location as the next band would certainly not be worth staying and it was simply to full.
It was still snowing. I walked home quite slowly, watched the city by night again very intensively, enjoyed the sight and was surprised at the queue of people waiting for a taxi in front of the station. Back in my room I called my parents wished them a Happy New Year and said "Guess what ? They keyboarder is leaving !". Later I listened a bit to the radio again while looking out of my window and watching the snow falling. Half an hour later
I went to bed. 2.30pm, 1st january 2001, the HIM gig was over. One and a half day to go....

V. Päivä kolme, 1/01/2001

I woke up surprisingly early at about 8 o'clock. One thing I recognized was that I have never been as tired in Helsinki as I am here. It seems you can't get tired there though it's usually dark. I switched on the radio and watched the dark town outside. It had started to rain and most of the beautiful snow had disappeared. Nevertheless, I decided to have a long and relaxed walk in the city. There were only a few people outside and this time I was quite happy about that. This day was probably the one when I finally fell in love with Helsinki. Again I passed the corner with Stockmann and I went on to the Cathedral took some photos, discovered some sleepy side-streets and followed Kirkkokatu to Pohjoisranta where you can have an excellent view over the sea. I don't know how long I was standing there.;) It was just okay to watch the sea and the seagulls, feel the wind and the cold rain. You must think I am weird, but the harbour is in my opinion one of the places where you can loose your mind.:) I took some photos of Uspenksi Cathedral, walked along Pohjoisesplanadi and again had a look at the Cathedral where I noticed that some small streets in the city have nice street lamps with gas ! Brilliant ! ;) Then I walked along Aleksanterinkatu and went back home again as my coat had become really really wet. Back in my room I switched on the radio. I can only say the radio programmes in Helsinki are fantastic. They have such a good music ! Much better than here in Germany. So, I was sitting there in the armchair with my feet on the heating. I was watching the rain outside, listening to Depeche Mode and "Enjoy The Silence', Blue Öyster Cult's 'Don't Fear The Reaper' and again  'Rebel Yell'. No kidding ! I had to grin all the time.;) I just began to feel very very comfortable in this city. At 4.00pm I met my friends again in front of the railway station. It had already become very dark again. We were not sure about what to do and so we decided to look for the sex-shop of Ville's father. I can't remember the street names. Anteeksi. It's rather a ...ehm....a bit grubby district. At least at 'night'. It's a small quiet street. The girls decided to visit the place again the next morning. The way back home we were constantly forced to slide as the wet pavements had become ice rinks in the meantime. We passed a CD-shop and laughed about some KISS-shirts and CDs. It's amazing, but in Helsinki people seem to be much more interested in music. I mean, you can have live music in so many bars, the are countless music specialist shops (for example next to my hotel:)) and -as I have said- the radio programmes are mostly excellent. It's quite different from where I live. In Helsinki they seem to have a lot more sense for every kind of music. In fact I had the feeling that in Finland people are very open-minded regarding everything. It gives you a certain feeling of freedom which is really pleasant.
All right, so, we were back at the railway station and again didn't know what to do. We looked at the timetable of the FinnAir busses and arranged to meet at 2.00pm the next day as our bus for the airport should leave at 2.15pm. Then we chose to be childish and had a look at the phone book of Helsinki to find names like.....Lindström, Karppinen...Paananen or Salminen. I think we left out Valo. ;)
Later the girls left to spend their evening in a café or a bar, I decided to take again some photos of Helsinki by night. Hey, photography is my passion ! ;) Then I went home to write postcards I had bought in the morning. They played Join Me in the radio while I was writing. Btw, I recommend you to listen to 'Radio City' or 'Radiomafia' when you are in Helsinki. Again I tried to go to bed early. However, I was just not tired enough so I spend almost two hours with reading and viewing the street below from my window. I always had to think about that tomorrow I would have to leave Helsinki.....

VI. Päivä neljä, departure

Again I got up early. I decided to pack my things, check out, neglect a breakfast and to visit the city one last time. I had a last long look at my hotel room which had been my home for four days while they played Right Here In My Arms on RadioCity (I have nerver listened to my favourite song on the radio here in Germany!), then I switched the radio off, grabed my heavy suitcase, jumped into the elevator and left home for the railway station. I passed the cinema, stumbled over my coat as usual and ignored the red and nervously beeping traffic light just like every native of Helsinki does.;) I have to tell you. If there's one thing Finnish people don't take into consideration then it is to stop because of a red traffic light. Tourists will wait. But Finnish people will walk on completely unimpressed. Red lights, a car comes closer with fatal speed....The Fin doesn't care. He has a short look at the situation and....crosses the street. The most amazing thing is that they survive all the time.;) As with the red traffic light, it's the same with people. Finnish people don't tend to make way. They will always go straight ahead even if they see you carrying an elephant and simply being not able to get out of their way. They will expect you to do that. I have never tested what happens if you don't. I won't do anything that suicidal !:) So, I had to jump from left to right and from the right to the left all the time with my suitcase and my rucksack while looking desperately for a locker in the railway station. It's a tricky thing. If there are no more lockers inside the hall then go out where the rails are, keep to the left side. There is another room where there are usually enough empty lockers. Remeber that. It might save your arm from getting 2 metres long.;) Well, so I decided to go to Stockmann again and to buy some souvenirs, I took some photos of my beloved sleepy doves at the corner and then after having said goodbye to Helsinki I went back to the railway station to spend some of my last money on postcards and a cinema magazine.
Ehm, yes, I'd like to add....people in Finland, at least the ones I have met, are very polite. Not that you have a bad impression of them just because most of them don't know what making way is.;) Really. Everybody's is kind if you are. You can usually be sure that they speak English very good. They quickly notice that you aren't Finnish and then they smile and start talking to you in English. People have a slight up to a strong Finnish accent. At first it is quite hard to understand, but you get used to it. Actually you get that used to it that you might start to speak Finnish-English yourself !:) If you ask for help, people will try to help you. So, don't hesitate to ask somebody if you don't know anything. It's easy. Sometimes Swedish expressions might help you on, too. Well, if you don't speak Finnish perfectly you better don't use too many Finnish words you consider to be correct. Simple are 'kiitos' 'hei', 'päivää' or things like that. They will probably not understand you if you talk too much 'Tourist-Finnish'. Use English. Nobody will be mad at you ! They are already happy about a correct 'kiitos'. And as people are very open-minded nobody will look at you suspiciously even if you behave in the most weird and embarrassing way.
On the bus I was told about the sex-shop visit of my friends. I must have missed something.;) Ville's father seems to be a very polite and funny person. He welcomed them with a "Guten Morrrgen!", showed them a newspager with an article about the HIM gig in Tavastia Klubi in it he was reading when they came in, gave them discount and a magazine with the cover where Ville holds this rabbit as a gift. Wow ! He said he had already been in Stuttgart and how much he liked it there. Oh my....Finnish people are crazy ! How can they like it here ?! I die from boredom and they like it ! I will never understand that.....Well, he has a copy of a Germany map in his shop so that he knows where Ville and HIM are he explained. He must have been talking a lot. He had also been in Tavastia Klubi and he said that he is very proud of his son. Ville's father hopes that HIM will have a gig in Helsinki again this New Year's Eve. Let's see....;)
At the airport we first checked in. We had about one hour until we should finally be forced to leave Finland. So, I bought two newspapers Ville's father recommended. We had a look at the stores there and thought about buying Finlandia, Finnish vodka, and about opening a branch office of the Adult's Toy Shop in Germany as it is such a nice country.:) Then we had to say goobye to each other. I got in my plane and left Finland behind. The flight was nothing special. Except for the fact that I drank cold punaviini [red wine] and got almost sick of it.:) I watched the moon outside from the plane window. Everything worked quite fine. Soon I had to look for my suitcase again. And again I got it without any problems. Well, the airport in Helsinki is actually a lot nicer and more comprehensible than the labyrinth in Frankfurt. I smiled at my parents that had been waiting for me and said "Redwine tastes shitty." My trip to Helsinki was over.
 

Now, in spite of the darkness, the cold and the rain and the numourous depressive attacks I can only say that Helsinki is a beautiful, interesting, funny and very pleasant city. You don't expect it, but it's a lot different from for example towns in France or Germany.
Concerning HIM I mean that I can understand the guys now a lot better. I know why they want to go home again after a certain time and why they miss their city. And I think HIM are actually not deep goth. Just Finnish.:)
First I didn't notice it, but there are just two possibilties: Either you hate being in Helsinki and forget it or you learn to cope with melancholy, to enjoy the way of life there and to love it. If that happens you will never forget Helsinki, you will be homesick each day. That's the case with me.;) It's cruel, but nice.

Thanks for  bearing this novel.;) I hope you enjoyed it a bit. Criticism is always appreciated, but please try to express yourself in a nice way.  If you would like to ask me anything or if you feel the need to correct me, don' t hesitate to send me an e-mail !