Mooching around Helsinki in the cold...

Night view from the window of room 659

I feel sorry for any fashion victims who live in Helsinki and find themselves wandering the streets of the Finnish capital in jeans with slits on the knees and elsewhere on the garment: they must be chuffing freezing! Alright, I've experienced worse weather in Sweden some years ago, when it was minus 26 degrees in Stockholm and a whopping great minus 40 degrees further north in Lulea, but here in Helsinki today the temperature is minus 5 degrees and if you factor in the wind coming in off the sea, well, you're talking fairly unpleasant. Not the sort of weather that makes a stroll around the city anywhere near pleasant.

Tonight, leaving a restaurant that was easily a mile away from the hotel, my colleague asked if I wanted to take a taxi. "No, let's walk," I replied, only to regret the decision as we put our best feet forward. It was brass monkey weather, put it that way, and I was so glad to reach the warmth of the Scandic Simonketta. As soon as the reception doors opened automatically - you have to watch automatic doors when they open outwards - a blanket of warm air revived me.

Helsinki Cathedral

I wouldn't want to be a beggar in Helsinki either, not in January, because the same applies: how the hell can they stay warm? I can't imagine sleeping rough on these streets, it would be SO unpleasant and probably life-threatening in weather the Fins are describing as 'postively balmy' for this time of year.

Fortunately, I am neither a fashion victim nor a beggar. In fact, as I write this, I'm ensconced in my room enjoying the warmth of the hotel and thanking my lucky stars that I'm not outside. I can't imagine how awful it would be on a bicycle. I would need my balaclava and that's a fact. I wonder if there's a bike share scheme?

I did take a mooch around yesterday afternoon, around 4pm, and paid a visit to Stockmann's, Helsinki's answer to a big London department store like Peter Jones. But I wasn't really looking for anything in particular and simply wandered about, taking the lift from the ground floor to the second, moseying about for a while and then going up to the 5th to look at the homewares. I managed a walk too, probably around 30 minutes or so, but the cold stung my face and I simply had to grin and bear it.

Stockmann: Helsinki's answer to Harrods

I've found out some interesting facts about Finland, the main one being that it has a population of 5.5 million. Think about that for a minute: 5.5 million in the whole country, which is a considerably bigger land mass than the UK, which has a population of over 60 million and counting. It's very pleasant in that respect: there's very little in the way of traffic jams and there's never too many people on the streets. Something else I've noticed about this great city is that all the doors open outwards, not inwards, and this, I am told, is fire regulations as it means people on the inside can kick outwards on the door to get it open in the event of fire inside the building. How considerate! I've also learnt that the Finnish language is phonetic so that I could simply read out a page of Finnish writing even if I didn't understand it; apparently the idea is that you emphasise the first syllable of all words. I've probably picked up other facts about this great country, but I can't remember them right now. The main thing is it's freezing out there and I'm glad to be in my room.

I sleep with the lights out and the curtains drawn back so that the illuminated logos on the building opposite bring some light into the room. I lie on my back looking at the ceiling, which is peppered with devices like a fire sprinkler, a smoke alarm and spotlights, listening to the sound of trams as they rumble and creak their way up the hill, but invariably I wake up after a fretful dream of some sort and then find it difficult to get back to sleep. This morning when I check the clock on my iphone it was almost 0530hrs, not bad in a sense, but I didn't hit the sack until midnight. This time I did fall back to sleep and had a strange dream about a group of people, young and old, playing football in the street with a tennis ball. There were other dreams, but I can't recall them. The alarm went off at 0730hrs and I decided to loll about in bed until a quarter past eight before showering and heading downstairs for breakfast. I had a bowl of porridge, a smaller bowl of raspberry or blue berry yoghurt, two cinnamon rolls, which were fantastic and a small sour dough roll. I enjoyed two green teas while simply chilling and looking outside at the sun shining, but knowing it was minus five out there. I woke up with a mild headache, but it's gone now.

I could do with a bar of Karl Fazer milk chocolate. I might nip to the supermarket later and get some to take home. There were two bars in the minibar, but as you can imagine, they're gone now. Yesterday evening I was flagging a bit, but the chocolate pepped me up a little bit.

Check-out is at noon and I've got to pack, but fortunately I travel light, much to the amusement of my colleagues who, fortunately, aren't here to see the tiny bag I'm using for this two-day trip. I say two days but really it's three, but two nights. Somehow I manage to get everything into what amounts to a small bag like those they hand out to conference delegates. I've got it down to a fine art and even manage to get the laptop in there too. No waiting around at the baggage reclaim for me! I can even stow my bag under the seat in front of me.

I need to check out how to get to the airport without using a taxi, nothing worse than taxis and I try not to use them. There's a bus operated by Finnair and I'm sure there must be a train too so I need to pay a visit to the front desk to find out. After that I'm going to brave the cold, head outside, mooch around for a bit and then grab a coffee somewhere. There appears to be an abundance of Roberts coffee outlets dotted around town so I'm planning to dive into one of them later for a mint tea and a read of Michel Houellebecq's Serotonin, my current book.