Free hotel breakfast was excellent and bountiful. It included cold fish, cereal, all kinds of bread, sausage, bacon, eggs, orange juice, fruit and more than I can remember. Got really filled up. Caught bus to main bus station and decided to walk east to the water, then southwest to the main market square, the kauppatori, which seems to be the focal point of most Finnish cities.
Upon reaching waterfront I came upon an ice cream stand. Bought an ice cream cone-- a double scoop-- for the first time in decades. I asked the proprietor which flavors were most “Finnish”. She laughed and said chocolate and [unintelligible]. I told her to give me [unintelligible] and change chocolate to strawberry. It was on the good type of cone and tasted great, although I almost lost the scoops a couple of times.
Reached main market-- touristy things, souvenirs, prepared food stalls, vegetables, fruit, all under tents. Bought five postcards, then ruined my appetite for dinner (saving money) by getting a big sausage with some rice creation at one of the prepared food stalls. With a beer, it tasted great. Passed on the REALLY gigantic reindeer sausage plate which was about $11, for crying out loud!
Camera battery started to run out, so I replaced it before it went totally dead. Then my compass went totally berserk! Went back to the subway (where I could more easily tell where I was going) and went east, getting out and looking around at various stations.
Met a young lady at a subway station and asked an idle question. This was the first time I asked a stranger a question the answer to which was not urgently needed. She did not know the answer since she was an Italian tourist! We exchanged tourist stories and she said that she had been in L.A. many years ago with a group of backpackers. They stayed out late at night in downtown L.A. and were stopped by the cops, who told them they were crazy and to get the hell out of there because it was dangerous!
Went to a department store and bought more AA batteries. Asked about a compass and clerk told me of a store nearby and actually printed out a map for me. What service! Unfortunately, I ran out of time before I could go there. Bought some things at a grocery store and found that they charged for bags, too.
Caught the bus back to hotel and again asked driver (a different one) to tell me where to get off and he also did, and very politely, I might add. It was 10:00pm and not dark yet. Watched all the nine free TV channels available. It started to get dark by 11:00pm.
I can see how young people could find Finland boring. Safe, modern, but boring. They have interactive TV and had for an hour a series of questions about geography-- no voices, just mystical, soothing music and a shot of the earth from space, pointing to various areas all over the world and asking multiple choice questions. Scores for participants were displayed.
Finnish TV seems unique-- no violence, a lot of Sesame Street type programming, really lame Finnish sitcoms about farmers, boring public service type interview shows and news, but occasionally in English! Movies and other foreign TV must be available, but would have cost extra.
On my Budapest TV there must have been 80 free channels, including subtitled U.S., British, German and Spanish sitcoms and dramas. In Budapest, CNN (ugh) and BBC (barf) were available as well as local newscasts. Where was Fox News Channel when I needed it? Was up until 1:30am. Did not have a real dinner this night.
--END 10 JULY--
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