Helsinki

Had a really good weekend for Easter. It started off with us leaving on Friday night on the ferry from Stockholm to Helsinki with friends David and Kristine. It was a bit chilly on the top deck, but inside it was nice and we had a good night with a meal and a bit of dancing and even a couple of cocktails…

Once we had arrived in Helsinki we tried to check into our hotel which was the Hotel Presedentii, but unfortunately they had no idea that we were coming and no record of our booking. After a half hour of phoning around, we got our room and rushed out to get to the Rock Church to attend the wedding of my friend Kaiyu that started in four minutes time. Luckily, the church was only three minutes away so we made it with plenty of time to spare.

The wedding was great and the setting was perfect. The rock church is actually built underground, a bit like a cave with a big glass and copper roof. The service was mostly in Chinese, but with a blessing in English from a local minister and big cheers and applause to let us know that they got married!

The reception was next door with traditional Chinese singing and even a full Chinese choir (and of course champagne and cake and food).

Afterwards most people headed back to the boat to Stockholm after a little trip to the cathedral, but me and Maria stayed on for an extra night and headed back to our hotel room.

After dinner we visited the cathedral again to see an Easter passion play that took place on the steps of the cathedral and at various different locations around the heart of the city. The couple of thousand in the audience followed the actors around the streets and the actors done brilliantly as they soldiered on even though the whole thing took place in a snow storm and the temperature was down to -7 or -8.

The play was excellent and the 15th year that it had been done. I would really like to see something like this in English to mark Easter, but it probably wouldn’t happen in Britain as it would be deemed un-PC and offensive to people from Whitburn or something.

Afterwards we headed to the Nightclub Presedentii until about 2am. This seemed a good idea at the time, but I regretted it when the alarm went at 7:30 because we had decided to go swimming in the hotel swimming pool before breakfast. This swimming pool was the coldest I have ever been in (and I’ve been swimming in Paisley). After 15 mins, I couldn’t take any more, but luckily this being Finland, there was a hot sauna to jump straight into.

After breakfast it was off to Sveaborg or Suomenlinna as the Fins call it. This is a group of islands just outside Helsinki that were turned into a fort and used from the middle of the 1700’s through to the second world war. It’s a UNESCO heritage site, but that didn’t stop it from being very, very, very cold, perhaps even a bit colder than that.

Back on the boat and off to Stockholm we had a few drinks and dinner and then went dancing in the entertainment lounge with a live band. Maria thought that she recognised the singer of the band and when they finished she went over to talk to them. Turns out they were Bulgarian and quite a well known band back in the motherland. We got invited “back stage” to the entertainers deck and the party went on til 4am when we disappeared back to our cabin.

Great weekend, great wedding and great party on the boat! Now I need a great nights sleep…