NORMAL LIFE: The Best 'Alternative' Vappu

May Day Eve, 2008

As an expat, you often come up against things that, in your own culture, would be considered just plain wrong. Vappu - the Finnish name for May day or labour day - is one such thing. The heavy drinking associated with Vappu kind of ruins it for me with the eve, April 30th, being perhaps the worst of the celebration. This year, however, proved to be exceptional.

Bree and I had a friend round for an evening snack who, quite early, left us but promised to return when we were ready to go out for the evening. In the meantime, Bree and I had a couple of drinks in-house whilst watching various music videos on DVD. The time came, just after 11pm, to get our dancing shoes on and head into town, sidestepping the countless trails of human urine and the broken bottles and drink packages that had been so casually disposed of. As we reached a crossing, there was a young guy happily talking to himself in a drunken stupor, very much alone. This really is the worst part of Vappu when you see humans suddenly dispose on their usual city-like behaviour in favour of a more primitive form as if regressing back into Neanderthalism.

We flagged down a taxi, bound for Hercules, our favoured gay bar in Helsinki. Fortunately, there was no queue outside, but there were already quite many customers. The bar continued to fill up and, both of us drinking deadly Long Island Ice Tea, I ambled among the crowd, hitting the dancefloor every now and then before bumping into my old friend, Jonni, who I hadn't seen for more than four years. We chatted, his high pitched giggle somewhat succeeding to cast off the four years of no communication. When I returned to Bree, he was fending off a youngster, a 24 year-old who didn't seem to understand the concept that Bree and I were together. I told him to back off, but he was incredibly insistent!

When we left at 4am, I downed some of the left over pizza, trying to limit the damage inflicted by the two pint-sized portions of Long Island Ice Tea. Somewhat inebriated, I slept soundly, waking up suddenly at 9am on Vappu day.

May Day, 2008

Bree woke up shortly after myself, but I slept on for a further three hours, waking just before midday. By the time I had woken, Bree had done all the work, preparing - from scratch - meatballs, green as well as potato salad, and a colourful bowl of fruit salad. It was a 1pm when the first of our four guests arrived, an hour earlier than expected; he had been in the city, he explained, where it was just so busy and depressing with drunk people everywhere. He had to get away, he told us. The hour went quickly, with Miss. Knight and her friend, The Teacher, arriving together following by one of Bree's friends.

Together, we toasted to the summer, with Sparkling Rose wine. We devoured plate-loads of food, the supply of which exceeded the demand, even for this hungry group. Afterwards, one of Bree's friend's left, leaving the five of us to get comfortable on the sofa for an afternoon of giggles. Bree's remaining friend told about how Vappu is a pressure, a manufactured attempt to get the Finns to be happy. Meanwhile, Miss Knight told of her trip to China many years back with The Teacher, recounting her experience of going to the toilet! By god, we had a giggle!

The hours flew by, none of us intent on setting a foot out of the door to join the hordes in the city. The cork of another bottle of rose was opened and, munching on crinkle-cut crisps, we made plans for the summer ahead, among them being a picnic on Pihlajasaari, an island off the coast of Helsinki. I looked at my diary, noting my forthcoming trip to Scandinavia (June 1-9), Midsummer in Barcelona (June 18-23), the photographic course in Oulu (June 27-29) and this was before our sixteen day stay in England (July 18-August 3)!

It was 10pm when Miss Knight and The Teacher left us, with Bree's friend remaining. The three of us retrieved the leftover lunch from the fridge, feasting once again on sausages, meatballs and salad! The three of us commenting on what an alternative Vappu it had been, deviating somewhat from the usual festivities of prowling around town and peeing in bushes when nature called; such is the ritualistic reality of Vappu these days when countryside folk come into town so they can simply leave their mark in the most animalistic of ways.

When Bree's friend finally left after 11pm, we proceeded with washing up, collapsing into bed after midnight. In the dark, we spoke of how relaxing it had been and I thanked Bree for, despite my depression, what had been the best of the seven Vappu's so far!

May 2nd, 2008

Today was a Friday, and most of the country had booked the day off work. We took it easy, reading in the morning, changing the roof of the convertible in the garage before crusing around town in search of a Chinese restaurant for lunch. Afterwards, we drove to Kaivopuisto where we ate post-lunch soft ice cream with hot, strong coffee! The weather was fantastically sunny, the suns rays threating to burn my bald head.

Moving my chair back slightly so that my head was in the shade, we watched avid sailors navigate their way out of the marina while, on land, it became evident that people truly were making the most of the weather; for the first time time in eight or nine months, we saw legs and arms in the form of shorts and t-shirts! In comparison to the long Autumn, the dark, but warmer-than-usual winter and the cold start to the Spring, people seemed naked. And with that nakedness, combined with the clear blue sky, you felt liberated, free, able to cast of shackles of the four-plus layers of winter clothing!

With full tummies, we drove home, napping the afternoon away. We woke around 6pm, just in time for an evening workout - it kind felt of wrong to go to the gym when the weather was so good, but it can't be fun, fun, fun all the time. After ninety minutes of huffing-puffing cardio, flexing the chest and back muscles and tensing the abs, I headed home, grateful for the warmth of the shower. When I got into bed that night, I slept deeply.

May 3rd, 2008

Now Saturday, that Vappu feeling continued. Life was pretty much back to normal now, the city centre full of shoppers like any normal Saturday. What wasn't normal was the weather because the sunny spell, granting us temperatures of nearly 20C, continued. We passed Tennispalatsi, home to the 12-screen cinema in Helsinki's Kamppi area, where we noticed that we still hadn't seen 10,000 BC. We reserved tickets for the evening show, before going to the supermarket to stock up on food.

When we got home, we napped once again, before jogging around Töölönlahti (I ran twice, Bree three times) ahead of our weekly sauna! I asked myself: could this week get any better? After the sauna, we had a lovely dinner before walking to the cinema - in our t-shirts! If you haven't seen the movie, 10,000 BC, you should go and see it - the special affects are amazing and the storyline is a damn sight more believable than the crap you see on TV these days. When we walked home that night, the air had chilled considerably, but nothing that a nice cup of tea (how English!) before bedtime wouldn't remedy.

May 4th, 2008

Bree had plans for the day and, yet another lovely day in Helsinki, I packed up my new camera into my new camera bag, hooked up the tripod and started a day-long cycle ride. Over the course of six or seven hours, I observed and captured the city; the continuing greening of the leaves on the trees, the marina of Taivalahti, the Sibelius monument, the villas on Töölönlahti, the marina and ornate houses edging onto Eläintarhanlahti. From the city centre, I cycled to Arabia to capture the Old City Falls.

At the Old City Falls, I spent considerable time there playing with a new filter I had bought for my camera, with very pleasing results - using what is known as a neutral density filter, I was able to keep the shutter open for longer, enabling me to capture the flow of the water without overexposing the image.

I made my way back to the City via Kalasatama and the neighbourhood of Merihaka. During the day, I had cycled some 18km or so and taken more than five hundred photos. And each day for the next week, I will be posting a new picture, images from what turned out to be the best of the seven Vappu's!