Bevy of beards, part four

And the last installment of the Track My Beard feature, with faces from Copenhagen and Helsinki. Mysteriously, I made it through Amsterdam without a single beard shot!

Getting cultured with Calder at the Louisiana, July 23, 2010.

Freezing the beard at the Ice Bar, July 24, 2010.

Singing with the pipe organ in a city park in Helsinki, July 31, 2010.

Do widzenia, Auf Wiedersehen, Farvel, Tot ziens, and Näkemiin, Europe: Some thoughts on my time in Central and Northern European cities

The month in Europe has had a different flow from that of the first three in Asia and the Middle East. Instead of two to three weeks in a place, it was more like four to seven days. So my reflections are a bit more numerous and pull from aspects seen in some, but not all, of the places I was in July.

The food can be quite tasty but it can also be wretched: My European destinations were, to put it nicely, not well known for being culinary destinations. But I had some great meals over the course of the month! For example, really tasty German food that was hearty and fresh at the same time (I'm looking at you, Gugelhof). And most of the meals didn't suck. But there were a couple that did (stop feeding me, you bad bad restaurant of U Babci Maliny!)

Lots of the good food has been imported: The flip side of shaky food cultures is that there's room for more. And, with centuries of exploration and contact beyond Central Europe under their respective belts, these places had managed to import some decent food. The Turkish food in Berlin, ah, I would love more doner kebab in my life. The Surinamese food in Amsterdam, a new treat that would get even better the more it was explored. And the list goes on.

World War II has left many scars and they're everywhere: Though I purposely went to Hiroshima at the beginning of my trip, I wasn't expecting World War II to be such a present theme. Yet it was. The unmistakable absence of Jews in Krakow. The horrible terror at Auschwitz. The memorials, some very recent, in Berlin, Prague, and Munich. Even in Amsterdam, where Anne Frank's house serves as a daily reminder to those bicycling the canals.

Cities so livable it hurts: In many ways it was a very urban month. Yet I didn't get any asphalt dreariness. A big part of that comes from the fact that these cities were just so nice to be in. Berlin and Amsterdam, in particular, bring well-rounded places just dying to be explored in depth. I won't soon forget the joys of bicycling Amsterdam. Or the ease of doing so in Copenhagen. These places have put effort into making the human scale the right scale for life in the city and it shows.

The roots of the English language become more clear: Knowing only a bit of Spanish in addition to English, I've been confused before as to the origin of much of English. Sure, some come from Romance languages, but others...? Now it is much more clear, having been exposed to German and Dutch especially. Even when it doesn't look like it, it sounds like, just with a very strange accent and some awfully unfamiliar words in between.

Finnish food at 35,000 feet

Before I know it, it's time to head to the airport. For a plane to the United States! 122 days have come and they have gone. More reflections soon...

But first. Through some quirk and massive luck, my round-the-world ticket was done on frequent flier miles and is in business class. Though I don't much get business class on little flights, on longer flights it is an amazing dream.

My seat even turned out better than the rest. It was the only seat on my side of the aisle, so effectively both a window and an aisle seat. Sweet!

I love the little menus I got saying what we'd be eating. And, the chanterelles on the front looked so good!

I asked for a little champagne to celebrate a really fun trip. I got that, and a batch of fresh strawberries. Wow!

Next came my appetizer plate. A chicken caesar salad, Finnish Emmenthal Black Label cheese and Bla Castello cheese, and cream of black salsify soup. The soup was great, full of earthiness and with a little bit of fresh parsley to brighten it up. I need to learn what salsify is. The cheeses were also spot-on: the blue was gooey and rich without whacking me on the head with it and the hard cheese was nutty and a bit sharp.

Next came my main, which was rolled salmon filet with pepper, Hollandaise sauce, and dill potatoes. This was really quite good for being on a plane. The Hollandaise sauce mixed with the little beans wonderfully. The salmon had a fair amount of flavor and sufficient moisture, hard to do with airplane microwaves (as we all know from Top Chef...). And the glass of French red wine I had didn't hurt.

To end, a raspberry mousse cake, of which the best part was the berries on the side. Fresh berries are the best in Northern Europe!

Awhile later, as we were approaching New York, we got melty ham, bacon, and two cheese sandwiches; potato chips; and more fresh fruit. The sandwich was again surprisingly tasty.

And then we were touching down. My ridiculously lucky and extravagant set of flights were done. So was my trip.

The food and drink in Finland I did manage to try

Ok, so I didn't make it to Juuri's. But what did I eat?

As mentioned, I stopped off for Finnish coffee and cinnamon cake at the Regatta Cafe. Both sadly were let downs. The coffee was really really weak and really really watery, when all I wanted was a stiff cuppa joe. And the cinnamon cake was bizarrely stale. Bizarrely so, as I could see it being made freshly in the back.

I ended up getting a snack at Ravintola Taberna Bacchus, a neighborhood joint that had been there since 1878. I had a lead on a place called Ravintola 10 at the same address, so I thought this would be good.

It turned into pretty straightforward beer and pizza. The pizza was frutti di mare, with some good seafood and some sketchier seafood (tuna, were you canned?). The beer was a barely passable light lager. Not the homespun salmon soup I had been hoping for...

But then things started to look up. I made my way to the working-class neighborhood of Kallio and to the bar named Ravintola Tovari. Inside was a classy beer pub, with books on the walls, games on the shelves, and beer on tap.

The first beer I had was Kesayo Vehnaolut. It was excellent, just really good. A full of flavor wheat beer with an odd northern kick.

By the time I got my second beer, I was well into the book "Those Without Shadows" by Francoise Sagan. I have to admit, when I pulled it off the shelves, I was hoping it would be by Carl Sagan. No luck there, but I did have a nice read of twenty-something French youngsters in the past wondering what life is for. Good existentialism! And the second beer was good too, a Keisari that was a light ale.

Oh, and I almost played Monopoly with Helsinkian towns, too.

The next morning, it was time for my last meal. I decided to explore the Hakaniemi Open-Air Market. Worth it! This market was a mix of everything, from garage sales to cheap clothes to fresh fruit.

And they had stands selling freshly fried little fish, some kind of sardine. They were fried in an unbelievable amount of butter, topped with lemon. And they were unbelievably good. Buttery, full of flesh, bite size, and buttery.

A fabulous food experience just out of my reach

One dining establishment had caught my eye in pre-country research. Juuri Reittio and Baari bills itself as a Finnish tapas establishment. I was very curious and planned it to be the last stop of my walk.

Alas, my walk took too long! And they closed earlier than they said they would! When I showed up at 10:45pm (admittedly, kinda late), they were just closing up (in advance of midnight which the internet proclaimed as their closing hour).

Peeking at their menu, my disappointment grew. "Slightly smoked reindeer heart with gelee made of rowanberry wine"? Holy cow, I want to eat that. "Crayfish-cottage cheese filled cabbage leaves, melted dill butter"? Yes, I want to eat that! "Cold smoked pike with nettle mayonnaise and buckthorn malt bread"? Let me eat that! But it was not to be.

Has anyone ever been to this place? If you go, let me know. And, if you're in Helsinki, you should go.

One evening to get to know Helsinki

A quirk of my plane ticket has taken me to Finland. Helsinki, more precisely, in which I have 18 hours to see the city. And to sleep as well.

Arrival, baggage, transportation, and hotel suck up some of the time. Finally, I am oriented and I am ready to tackle this town. I head out. It is 5:55pm on Saturday night.

Except, it turns out, that all the stores close at 6pm. All of them, except perhaps for some convenience stores. I guess this means I won't do any shopping in the Design District!

I head north in a very random walk.

This statue is the first picture-worthy sight I encounter. I am not sure what it celebrates, but the contrast of the three figures is delightful. As is the weathered green look.

While I don't shop, I do window shop, a bit. One intriguing item is this face that is actually a chair (you sit on the other side). Intriguing, that is, until I see the price tag: 1,019 euros! Whoa...

I had heard about the Nepalese food in Helsinki. Apparently, Nepalese is the stand-in word for typically North Indian food. However, I am not sure what exactly authentic Nepalese fantasies of the culinary sort would be.

More design, this time of of the clothing variety. Looks like she got tangled up in a fisherman's net.

A glass building that tapers on the far side from a normal rectangular building to this cylindrical glass end.

And the first top 10 sight! The Rock Church is a church built into the rock. It was hard to find a good angle from which to photograph this, but it was pretty neat in person. They seem to have concerts every now and then as well, but not tonight.

Up in the northwest part of town, the Sibelius Park contains the Sibelius Monument, dedicated to world-famous composer Jean Sibelius. It is the first time I've heard of him / her.

Shortly, I come to a little cafe, perched on the waterfront. This looks to be a popular little wharf. I have a cup of famous Finnish coffee and a cinnamon bun. I gaze out over the water.

Not a bad respite.

Not sure what happens inside the Biomedicum Helsinki, but the exterior was pretty neat.

I've been navigating long enough now to notice that every street has two names. And those two names are posted at all intersections. My only guess as to what this could be is Finnish on top, Swedish on the bottom. Anybody else know?

Speaking of Finnish, this was the longest word I saw on my walk. It is 24 letters long. I have no idea what it says.

The Olympic complex! The Finns were hosts back in 1952 and have a massive sporting structure to show for it. There's also a hostel onsite, a cheap and easy way to stay in an Olympic village.

I come to the Korjaamo Cultural Center, a refurbished tram station that has been made into an arts center. This would be a good place to come back to during the day.

Public WCs! And, my choice of a pay full toilet or a free "pissoir". The pissoir is, amazingly, unisex. And a steal.

Right at the end of my now-4-hour walk, I am startled when I peer through a window. Psychedelic dinosaur bones all lit up? I hope this is a natural history museum...and not the Finnish version of Jurassic Park!