Hella Party in Helsinki

What a whirlwind trip. 8 years ago we took a ferry from Stockholm to Helsinki and absolutely loved it. For the price of a hotel room in Stockholm, we have ferry transportation with a cabin. It's just like a cruise ship, but it's only an overnight trip. Our friend Paul Herring is from Madison and lives in Helsinki with his partner Alyssa. We wanted to visit him and he knew of a friend's birthday party that just happened to be on the night we're there.

We're trying to hurry down to Switzerland so we can hike in the Alps while it's still warm. So it's one night and then returning to Stockholm the next night.

The hotel was right at the harbor and we hit the sights in town at 11 am. The weather was in the upper 70s and they don't get too many of those in Helsinki.

In the early evening we stopped by Paul's apartment and then walked to the party with some friends of his. It was a birthday party for other friends. Kalle is the songwriter and keyboardist for a band called Kemopetrol who had a big hit in Europe about 20 years ago. His wife Mintie is from United States and actually from Macomb, Illinois of all places. That's the home of Western Illinois University. I graduated from Eastern Illinois University so we pretended to have a rivalry.

They were both celebrating their birthdays and had put off the party a couple times because of COVID. What a fun group of smart and creative people. We hit the design museum earlier in the day and were surprised at how creative the Finns are given that their population is about the same as Wisconsin. Fiskar scissors? Text messaging? Heart rate monitor? Nokia phones? Angry Birds? All from Finland.

It was totally safe to walk home after midnight. In the morning we walked all over town and hit a small museum before getting back on a ferry to Stockholm.

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