Concentrated goodness, Finnish style

How do I put five days of deeply satisfying quality time with some of the best people I’ve ever met into words? I can’t. Words seem trite. But the phrase concentrated goodness would at least be an attempt in the right direction. My eternal travel buddy Lina and I went to Helsinki last week to discover a new city, stroll around town, fine dine etc. - a.k.a. ”the usual.” We’ve been to Málaga, Portland, Montreal, Budapest and now Helsinki together, and each trip blows the last one out of the water. We don’t know how we keep pulling that off, but I call it living in the favor of God. 

Part of the reason why I wanted to go to Helsinki was to meet up with Sami and Topi, a couple of Finnish guys I’d met at a conference in Berlin last year (see previous post ”Some personality types are just meant to take over the world”). I hadn’t seen them since then, and as we’re practically neighbors, I figured it was high time for an HQSM (high quality short meeting). In short: best decision ever. Here’s how it went down: 

We stayed at the Klaus K, a very cool design hotel situated in the middle of town, in the Design District. Lina and I agree that it has the best hotel breakfast we’ve ever eaten.  Everything was delicious, super healthy, locally sourced and thoroughly designed to make people happy. 

The Klaus K

Our hotel room

The Design District is completely unpretentious, full of stylish boutiques that offer anything from paper products to tea to locally designed clothing and home decor. Inviting cafés and fine dining experiences abound. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to take advantage of our surroundings quite to the desired degree as it was Easter weekend and things were closed. Besides, we were kept busy as Topi and Sami took it upon themselves to show us a good time. We’re a few gentlemen short here in Sweden, but these two men are gold. 

The day after we arrived, Topi took us out to his farm where we went out in his rowboat, caught a couple of fish, ate lunch and took a siesta.

The view of the lake from Topi's farmhouse

Yup, I caught a fish (and when I say "I," I mean the net caught the fish and I caught the net).

Once Sami joined us after work, the guys introduced us to an authentic Finnish sauna experience. I can now say that you haven’t really lived until you’ve sat in a sauna with sweat pouring out from every imaginable opening on your skin. It was amazing. Politicians should solve world conflicts in this manner. At first I was skeptical about the whole sweat-profusely-then-jump-into-ice-cold-water thing. But after trying it once, the shock became addictive. We alternated between steam and ice for two and a half hours. Simply marvelous.

The Finns take their saunas very seriously. Topi is building this two-story smoke sauna, soon to be inaugurated!

Then it was time for dinner! Topi fried up the fish we’d caught earlier and we ate until we were completely stuffed. Then we ate some more. And then we had mämmi for dessert. It’s a bit unfortunate tasting, but apparently it’s an Easter tradition. It looks like gooey chocolate brownie pudding, but chocolate it is not. It’s more of a malty mishmash of grains that tastes like that black German bread nobody likes. 

Lina and Topi frying fish

Lina being gorgeous as usual, Topi and Sami

Mämmi aside, the day was complete and utter bliss. Disregard every bucket list you’ve ever made. This is the only one you need:

1. Go to Finland.
2. Sit in a sauna.
3. Dip yourself in a lake.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 as many times as desired/necessary/forced upon you.
5. Catch a fish.
6. Eat said fish for dinner.
7. Fall asleep on the couch with a glass of wine in your hand. 

Other things we did: 

-Attended a ”Holy Thursday” service at the Rock Church whose sanctuary is literally hollowed out of a huge piece of rock with a giant copper disc for a roof. Very cool. 

-Ate dinner Sami’s place, made friends with a ”Mexinadian” named Allen, witnessed the ascent of a red moon and watched Despicable Me (which, incidentally, becomes a lot funnier when watched after midnight). 

-Visited the Charlie Chaplin exhibition and did our best to channel his persona. 

Good Friday was indeed a good Friday. Sami took us to a worship service at a bilingual evangelical church with tons of hip, English/Swedish/Finnish-speaking young adults who love Jesus. Then we stopped by Topi’s place (he’s got an apartment in the city in addition to the farmhouse) where he offered us ”something cold” to drink (I thought he meant water, but indeed he meant Cava). The man’s knack for hospitality is unparalleled. (**A side note on Topi: He marches to the beat of his own drum more than any person I’ve ever known. He listens to opera, studies theology, farms beans and grains, takes road trips through Eastern Europe and drinks Cava on weekdays. The quintessential bohemian. One is blessed to know him.) 

Topi

Friday night was spent in good company at a local jazz club called Storyville. As luck would have it, on this night the traditional jazz had been replaced with the unfortunate genre of country boogie. Not awesome. But we compensated with a spontaneous prayer meeting in our hotel room later that night - hot seat style. Which brings me to my final thought: the global church is an amazing thing. In what other context do random people from all over the world, some of whom have just met, congregate in a hotel room and pray for each other with words of knowledge, love and encouragement? The body of Christ is beautiful and worth fighting for. Regardless. People like Sami and Topi make me love Jesus even more. Amen. 

Sami, Lina, Topi and me