Arrived in Helsinki today...

[turk96]

Nice city from what I've seen of it so far, but very dreary, wet day. Hopefully the weather will improve tomorrow when I go see Jokerit. In the meantime, my hotel has a surprising selection of fairly rare brews. Cheers!

Oops, double post

Click to read more...

 

[Loffer]

Welcome to the "White Daughter of Baltic" (or something,eh...), man! Hope you enjoy your visit.

 

[ChadS]

Enjoy the game tomorrow! It gets dark early (around 4?) so if you want to avoid the darkness I suggest you don't sleep in too late

 

[Gaps]

Hate to break it to you, but this weather is very very typical for this time of the year. It'll get better once (if) we get snow because it won't seem so dark anymore, but it's a little early for that, at least for permanent snow. We don't have a lot of sunny days this time of the year and even if the sun shows up, it won't warm you at all.

But still: enjoy your visit!

 

[QnebO]

We could be getting snow any day, its about few degrees celsius at this time of year - does it rain or does it snow. With snow, the city is obviously much more lighty and beautifull, it kinda replaces the sunny summertime. Looks like not this week though :/

Enjoy! Get your mind in relaxed mood and chill out

 

[Finnpin]

Sun is shining now , rare stuff during this month. Enjoy your stay and hopefully Jokerit ain't rusty tonight.

 

[CPFC]

Yeah, this kind of weather is a rare treat in November.

Since the skies are clear, I'd recommend visit to the Hotel Torni tower, there's a bar at the top floor and you will get an awesome view of central Helsinki and the surrounding sea.

 

[JFG]

It's a beautiful city. Enjoy it!

 

[QnebO]

If you're reading while intermission, there's a GDT too where you can say your opinions about the game!

http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?p=92403321&posted=1#post92403321

Game against Minsk is slower tempo than KHL regullary, but nice puck controlling from Jokerit. Somehow minsk just does't make this one a game. I really hope you can catch another one but at least Jokerit was very good with the puck, there was just no need for more tempo.

 

[turk96]

Sorry I missed a lot of responses while I was there. But I did meet some hardcore HIFK fans, and they introduced me to Finnish homemade shots.

But both games were tremendous, with one caveat: they don't let you take beer down to your seat during the game?!? I thought it was a bit unusual when I got to the Jokerit game and I apparently had "club seats" where I was in a private section of the stadium with a really nice bar and beers served in glasses. But I found out quickly enough, there is no alcohol allowed into the seating area. Mind blowing. And a cattle rush between periods for people to order and slam their beers.

Regardless, magnificent city, unbelievably friendly people (who know how to drink), and just overall a great time. I enjoyed myself immensely while I was there. And both Jokerit and IFK won!

 

[FiLe]

(who know how to drink)

Out of curiosity, does this refer to a) civilized drinking manners or b) unusually high tolerance for alcohol?

 

[Finnpin]

Glad to hear you liked your time here and found some local drinking buddies!

 

[Finnpin]

Out of curiosity, does this refer to a) civilized drinking manners or b) unusually high tolerance for alcohol?

99.9% sure it's closer to the b)

 

[QnebO]

Glad to hear you liked your time here and found some local drinking buddies!

That actually sounded sarcastic. But in reality in Finland, drinking is not even ssame for you at all as long as you work / have some sort of respectable life outside of drinking anyways. You see our biggest starts like some hockey players, Kimi Räikkönen or just about any one, drinking and not being shamed at all

 

[turk96]

99.9% sure it's closer to the b)

Definitely meant b). I don't remember much about getting back to my hotel the first night, but my wallet and passport were intact, so all was well.

One thing I would knock in Helsinki; unsurprisingly, the Tex-Mex is horrible. But I was desperate late at night and they were open. The other food I had there was much better. And some of the locally brewed beer was much better than expected. I should have given myself more than three days, especially with two games to go to. But, I wanted to hit Sweden, too, so three days each for a weeks trip. It was fun, regardless, if a bit hectic.

 

[Finnpin]

One thing I would knock in Helsinki; unsurprisingly, the Tex-Mex is horrible. But I was desperate late at night and they were open.

Those late night "cheaper" food places often aren't very good here. Just "grease and salt" to feed the drunk party people. Can you remember the name of the place or where it was?

 

[turk96]

I believe it was "Cantina West", because looking at the map that is a couple blocks west of my hotel (Hotel Haven). So, I'm almost certain that is it. Although I did meet a Canadian who worked there (he was off duty at the time drinking at the bar) and with a few of his Finnish friends, we hit a dive bar and got really loaded. So, all worked out well...

 

[Finnpin]

They don't deliver the real tex-mex even though they try. IMO it has always been more of "drinking place" than restaurant. Haven't been there for years though and the times I were I was more interested drinking than eating.

If you ever hit the town again, try mexican restaurant Patrona. Not tex-mex but very good modern mexican.

 

[Tissotti]

Honestly there's no great tex-mex, or very least the variety in Finland or whole Europe. I was surprised just how prevalent it was in California when I was on exchange there for a a year back in the early noughties.
Something that's hardly surprising when there's no big immigration push from that direction to Europe via old colonies or work based. Compared to example Indian food in UK or Indonesian in Holland.