Riku

We woke up at 8:30 to the sight of ice fishermen wandering the river, looking for places to drill for fish. I can't help but wonder - how do they expect to fit the fish they catch up so tiny a hole in the ice?

A relaxing morning was spent in the hotel. I missed the end of the breakfast buffet at 10, but my dad snagged me a few things, including some of the best smoked salmon I've ever had. There would be more today, but at the time I mourned the time when I took the final bite.

My father and I wandered through Helsinki for an hour. We saw the presidential palace, a small house on the water, guarded by two Finnish guards with guns and fur hats. How they stay perfectly still in freezing temperatures I will never know. We also saw two churches, both beautiful, one eastern orthodox and one catholic-turned-Lutheran.

Around 11:30 we walked back to the hotel, making the last leg of the journey walking on the frozen water to the dock outside the Hilton. We tried not to get too close while walking, so our combined weight wouldn't risk our falling through. In the end, though, we learned how silly a concept like "falling through the ice" was..

At noon, Riku appeared in the hotel. He brought us some candies and chocolate, which we of course stashed in our room before heading out.

We wandered downtown. Riku, since we parted last summer from the Trans-Siberian Railway in Irkutsk, Russia, had been through Beijing, Thailand, Laos, Malaysia, Cambodia, India, and London. There are probably more places but I forget them all. And it looks like he hadn't cut his hair since. Now he's in Finland working as a substitute elementary school teacher until he reports for Finland's compulsory military service in July.

The three of us headed towards the ferry to Suomenlinna/Sveaborg, a fort that has played an integral part in the constant battle over Finland between Sweden and Russia in the latter years of the conflict. Today, it is a museum of the fort, a residential area for about 1,000 residents, and a chain-gang prison, from which a convicted felon for triple homicide escaped a few days ago (and was caught near Riku's home yesterday).

We found the market square right before the boat. In the summer it's a very lively place, though today it was quiet. Riku and I got some sort of minced meat (possibly ham) in a bread pocket thing for €2 each. It wasn't as good as dinner last night, but better value for the dollar.

We got on the ferry without paying, since they were about to leave, and got to the island for free. It's a (relatively) cheap ride, but Finland is one of the most expensive places in Europe, so it's good to save a bit here and there. It was on the boat that we learned that not only was the river outside our hotel frozen, but the entire sea was frozen, all the way accross. It is only because these ferries traverse the distance between Helsinki and Suomenlinna every day that the ice floes don't freeze to join the ice mass connecting Finland to Estonia, Russia, and Sweden. But they do chunk up, and get churned up, en route. We watched massive, probably weighing several tons, ice blocks get turned and tossed aside as we rolled through the water. They were upwards of two feet thick -- a clear indication of the absurdity of thinking we'd fall through the ice earlier.

Suomenlinna was called the Gibraltar of the North, because it could control the straits between Estonia and Finland from its impenetrable perch on the island archipelago. The fort itself was built by the Swedes a few hundred years ago, but control of the fort has been the role of whichever country controlled the rest of Finland at the time (a constant trade-off between Russia and Sweden). It is built in the shape of a star, allowing the fort to have outward protruding turret points while keeping the entrances to the interior receded. It was sulf sustaining, and could survive any seige. Even in 1854, when the British bombarded the fort from farther than the fort could reach with cannon fire, they were unable, despite an un-checked bombardment of the walls and interior, to take the islands. It was really quite a sight.

We caught the 3:40 ferry back to the mainland, where we wandered to the Center. My dad went into a department store to look for potential gifts for his lovely wife, my mother, while Riku and I ditched in favor of a bar down the street. We ended up at the Dubliner, an Irish pub playing American music and serving Finnish alcohol. Riku paid for the first round, which was Sinebrychoff Gin Long Drink, a gin-based drink that tasted like a cross between that and lemonade. It was delicious, and about the same strength as beer. We had a pint. Then Koff, a Finnish beer, which was good, but no Sinebrychoff.

For an early dinner, we decided to follow a recommendation of a friend of my parents, and wandered through the downtown to find a place called The Root (I forget the Finnish name for it). But we couldn't find it after walking down the entire street. At the end of the street, though, Riku saw a place called the Sea Horse, which his mother had happened to mention as a recommendation before he left home this morning. So we went there.

Right before we got to the Sea Horse, I was stopped by two American girls, who saw my Wash U. sweatshirt and had to let me know that they are Wash U. grad students studying architecture in Helsinki. We chatted for a bit, then went our separate ways.

Dinner was a fancy version of traditional Finnish dishes. Riku had the Finnish Meatballs, my dad had Pike Perch with wild mushrooms and grilled onions, and I enjoyed the Scandinavian Hash, a hodgepodge of ham, potatoes, onions, and some other unidentified creatures. My father drank a pear cider, and Riku and I took another Sinebrychoff. We got frozen cranberries and Finnish pancakes (i.e. crepes, i.e. blintzes) for dessert.

Oh, and I learned a new way to say "Cheers!" "Hölkynkölkyn!" (hOHlkin kOHlkin)By far my favorite term for drinking yet. Second in line is the Swedish/Danish/Norwegian "Skål!" And third is Germany's "Proost!"

We rushed out of dinner around 9 and sped-walked to the train station so Riku wouldn't miss his ride home. We arrived with several minutes to spare.

Apparently there's a YouTube craze in Finland which consists of foreigners saying "Turku is the asshole of Finland" in poor Finnish. Riku insisted I record a video, and record one I did. Turku was once the capital of Finland, before Helsinki, and the videos are going viral on the web. I'm not sure if I want the video of me to catch on or not...

We said goodbye to Riku and started to leave the train station. On the way out, however, we figured we might as well take a metro ride.. so we could say we did it.

There were three machines to buy tickets. They were different colors. None had English... but after clicking randomly through some buttons we discovered the way to grab two tickets and went downstairs.

The subway is plain, and hardly extensive. There is one line, and it goes from east to west. We flipped a coin and got on the train the coin told us to get on, then went one stop. When we wandered out of the stop, though, we found ourselves standing next to the casino, across the street from the train station! What a waste! We walked farther to get to the train and get out of the station than it would have taken to walk twice to the casino on the surface..

It was 9:40 when we entered the casino. Our passports were checked to make sure we were of legal age (the gambling age is 18 in Finland).

Apparently, gambling is illegal in Finland, except in specially licensed places. These places, after paying employee wages with winnings, pay the remaining money to the Socialist Bureaucracy of Finland to help pay for social welfare programs. In essence, poorer Finns come to the casinos to lose money to a state that then invests it in poor Finns. That, plus a 50+% income tax rate, a 12% food tax and a 23% sales tax is what funds the €500 a month that students get paid to be students and the €2000 a month that poor immigrants get paid to assimiliate, as well as the universal health care and other government welfare programs. Finland is the second most ridiculous bureaucracy in the world, after India. It is also, as I wrote earlier, one of the most expensive cities in Europe.

So I took €120 and got into a poker game. €50-200 buy-in and a €2 anti for big and small blinds. I got bled dry for about thirty minutes, dropping my stack down to about €60. I went all in on a pocket pair of 9s against what I figured was a low pair in the man across the table. I was right, and was holding €180 as a result. I got to chatting with a Lebanese man to my right, who managed to lose €500+ while I was slowly eating into my positive earnings. Then I lost a big hand, where I was holding Queens and Fours, against an inside straight that was made on the river. It was bad luck, but I found myself back down to about €50. Again, though, I climbed my way up, raising all in when I got a pocket pair of fours and flopped a third four amidst two spades. Two players called me (including the one who had beat me with the straight), and I watched in horror as the eight of spades flipped out on the turn, completing a flush draw. Both remaining players checked, and the river came out; an 8. I had a full house. I breathed a sigh of relief, and waited for the other players to show before proudly throwing my hand down. I was up to €169.

About this time, a Russian Oligarch sat down and immediately started cleaning up. He targeted me in particular, baiting me with comments including "Nobody folds at this table!" When I folded to him, and "You'll never win if you fold!" To which I calmly responded, "You can't lose what you don't put in." I decided it was time to get out. But I held out for a few more hands.

I picked up a Jack-Ten off suited. I called the €4 preflop, and saw a queen and a king appear in the flop. I raised big, and was called by two people. Then a 9 appeared on the turn. I had a straight; and a damn good one. There was no flush possibility and no full house potential. And that was made certain when the river came out and didn't help anyone. I had won. Another player raised €40. I tried to raise by throwing in my last €100, but I didn't say "raise" when I did, so by the rules of the casino I had only called. It was a poor blunder. But the third player called the €40 as well, and I pulled in a huge pot.

I left the casino after that, at 11:30, with €330 in my pocket, worth a little over $460. Only 2 hours of playing, and I was making $230/hr.

We walked back to the hotel and got to bed.