FLASHBACK #23: McDonalds At The Kallio Monument

The weekends in Helsinki and the late nights out continued during the dark evenings of Autumn 2002. After being told by a sexy guy that I reminded him of a dead ex-boyfriend, I was starting to realise that all of the people in the bars were either drunk or just downright weird.

One particular evening, however, sparked the beginning of a new friendship. For some reason, Bree wasn't out with us the night I was introduced to 'JP'. JP and I hit it off immediately. There was never any attraction, but instead we could talk for ages about stuff.

We drank alot, danced alot (gay guys can do this, even if they're dating!) and left the bar together when we'd had enough. JP lived in Kallio, but we both walked along Mannerheimintie, Helsinki's main street, deciding to pick up some McDonalds.

Instead of eating in, we continued walking along Mannerheimintie until we reached the statue of Kyösti Kallio near the Parliament Building. At the risk of sounding boring, Kallio became the fourth President of Finland (1937-1940), having already served four times as Prime Minister.

Anyway, the seats around the statue were wet from rain that had fallen earlier, but JP quite cleverly emptied the large McDonalds paper bag and ripped the bag open in such a way that we were able to use it as something to sit on! What a gentleman, I thought. JP had been different to most Finns I had met during my first year in Finland: he was social, he wasn't drunk and he was considerate.

JP came along at a good time. It seemed that everyone in the bars wasn't drunk or downright weird after all!