I wanted to keep a weekly journal about my life here in Helsinki. For the first week I decided to note down the strange things that I have noticed. Some of these things are bad, some good and some just odd.

If I were in the click-baiting game I think the title of this post would be “Six shocking things about Finland that you didn’t know! Number 4 will surprise you!” Well, missed opportunities are my jam!

Smoking
The amount of people who smoke here is just unbelievable. And I find it so odd seeing all these people smoking when Finland advertises them to be so healthy. A healthy diet, always exercising, sauna, etc and then so many people smoke. I have seen parents smoking as they hold their infant child, I have seen a pregnant woman smoking, people are smoking everywhere! I am constantly inhaling secondhand smoke, and I hate it.

The No-syndrome 
The first word you will hear from a person here in Helsinki is no. You mostly hear it from people who are doing any kind of customer service. This was an actual conversation I had with a bartender.

“Do you know how long the wait is for the food?”
“No.”
*Silence*
“Can you check?”
*Silence*
“I can.”

I always feel like I have to force the people working actually doing their job. It is like asking the staff to do the simplest things is viewed as a death sentence. The hard part that it isn’t only just staff in bars but also in banks and other organizations that are quite important as you are trying to move to a new place.

Everything is somehow the wrong way around.
This one has nothing to do with people but with actual things. The way you lock a door is the wrong way around and even the electrical outlet is the wrong way. Several times I think that the bathroom doesn’t lock when in reality I am trying to lock it the wrong way around. I have been having such a hard time opening my front door since I keep on turning the key the wrong way.

So many toilets!
This one is just amazing! There are SO MANY toilets everywhere and they are FREE AND CLEAN! It is the greatest thing. I don’t know why there are so many, maybe Finnish people have a tiny bladder. Coming from Iceland where we have serious lack of toilet (yes, that is a thing) it is just very freeing drinking all the liquid you want without having to worry about where you can pee!

Yellow cars.
I recommend stopping playing the yellow car punching game when you are here! There are so many yellow cars. I’ve asked people why there are so many but no one seems to know. The Finns I have spoken to are actually surprised I think there are many and have later on noticed this phenomenon and mentioned it to me that yes, there are a lot of yellow cars here. I am seeing about 5-6 yellow cars every day!

The underground system
Such a big part of Helsinki is reachable by underground tunnels you can walk in! At this moment I still get quite lost when I am trying to get from one place to another. I never know where I will emerge from this fantastic underground tunnel system! I need to study them better before winter hits. But I have figured out the shortest way to get from my train to the university with the least amount of time on the surface! I have always found this to be such an amazing thing about Helsinki but never took the time to actually see where all those tunnels led. But that will change this time around.

Until next time!

Katrin