Friday in Finland

So having gotten in to Finland at 12:30 this morning, naturally I slept in till 10. I went downstairs and got my Helsinki card, which gives me 3 days of free public transit and free entry to many museums. I had a Finnish breakfast which included... cereal, fresh melon, sliced lunchmeats and cheeses, cucumbers, tomato, bread and butter, and some sort of potato thing. Maybe if I get there earlier they will have more typical breakfast foods.

After breakfast, I set out and caught the tram (it's basically a trolley mixed with a bus). I had NO idea where I was in relation to Helsinki, so I just waited a while and got off the bus when it seemed like a good time. I had unknowingly disembarked by the train station, so I got to see the statues that I had seen in the guidebook. From the train station, I walked across the street to the National Gallery of Finland. Their main exhibit was called "The Magic of Lapland," which was really neat to look at.

From there I walked to the Postal Museum. Well, I walked there without knowing what it actually was, because I still hadn't deciphered the map. But there were two dots in a row, so I went there. The postal museum was interesting. Lots of postal uniforms, stamps, postcards. I watched a movie and found out how the postcard was adopted in Finland. Also, there was randomly a display of costumes and miniature models of sets from the Finnish Opera there. I guess it's a Finnish thing to have a really random exhibit in an entirely unrelated museum.

From the Postal Museum, I walked to the Kiasma Museum of Modern Art. They had Contemporary African Art. I really liked the photos of various hairstyles and hair wraps. They almost looked like sculptures. This one artist, whose name I wrote down but can't remember, had these beautiful sculptures of African women wearing these amazing dresses in beautiful fabric. There was a piece of art that bothered me. It was a piece of black felt draped like a long hood, that was cut and woven at the bottom. Seriously looked like a dementor.

I walked past Finnish Parliament and to the National Museum of Finland. I loved seeing the old outfits that Finns wore. They even had some paintings of Czars and czar-wives. They had a section that included horse costumes. And, in Finnish tradition, there was a random exhibit about dollhouses.

After that I decided it was time to go, but before I caught the tram I got a look inside a Finnish shopping mall. Finally, took the tram, came home and went to the market to get some dinner. Plain old ham sandwich and pringles. Sat and watched some teens huffing something and getting nosebleeds. People-watching isn't as fun when there are few people to watch.