We decided to come to Helsinki on a whim. We’d never really spent much time in Scandinavia, so, why not? That about sums up our decision-making. Surprise! We really like it (in the summer when it’s light most of the time).

First off, it’s entirely walkable and has an excellent public transportation system. We have a 13th floor corner apartment with the Vanhankaupunginselkä (a bay off the Baltic Sea) on both sides. The view is breathtaking and if we wanted to, we could take a dip off the private dock for the building. I’m not so keen on freezing water, but apparently many Finns are. Of course, there’s also a building sauna. (For those of you who looked at the name of the bay and thought wow that looks hard to pronounce, you should know that all the names seem to be that long and that unpronounceable.)

We arrived a week ago Saturday night and were able to eat dinner at the restaurant downstairs, which is run by our AirBnB owner’s daughter. Sunday, we did our usual initial grocery shopping stint. It makes total sense that activities here are mostly organized around the indoors and the big mall just a few minutes’ walk away from us is no exception. It has a “Food Port” full of restaurants, a kid’s play area, library, our new gym (oh yay, we get to go to the gym, I am so excited – not), the Metro station, and, oh yes, some stores, including, oddly, two giant grocery stores (K Supermarket and S Supermarket — such creative names, I know) right across from each other plus a Lidl and an Asian market. The big differences between K and S seem to be a few different products and the addition of English (!) categories on the aisles at S. We happily discovered that can get almost everything we are are used to eating (for those of you who wanted to know: yes, there is lots of herring of many types; no, we did not buy any; yes, my rule of not putting anything that lives in the water in my mouth is still in place; yes, you know who you are).

Finnish, if you couldn’t tell by the name of the bay above, is completely out of our reach. I’ve done two Pilates classes now and I only know what is going on by watching everyone else. Luckily, pretty much everyone speaks English.

We love working on an EU schedule, since Steven doesn’t have to get started until around 4 p.m., which means we can go to the gym (once again … yay) and explore the city before work. Our EU routine also includes eating a big lunch and salad for dinner and we quickly jumped back into those habits, making for long and tiring, but very enjoyable days. I say days because it doesn’t get fully dark here until after 11 p.m. and the sun rises at some hour (4!) of the morning that I will never see (unless we book a crazy flight).

Steven has been mapping walks for us so we can explore different neighbors and Saturday, I found a self-guided walking tour of the city. We hit the centrum, or downtown, and wandered among the impressive buildings. As Steven said, “It’s amazing what a city can do when they are willing to put money into the infrastructure.” The library and museum buildings are works of art as is the Parliament. Even in the touristy area, it wasn’t crowded and we noticed that nobody is yelling or playing loud music anywhere — even in the parks. So different from what we are used to.

After the walk, we relaxed at a bar in the square and people-watched until it was time to head out to a game of the Finnish version of baseball or pesäpallo. While it’s a professional sport, it was very low key. Maybe 1,000 spectators sitting on general-admission wooden bleachers. If you’re interested in the rules, check out the link, but the key differences are that the pitcher stands near the batter and throws the ball straight up, the bases are somewhat in a diamond but each base is farther away from the last and hitting the ball too far is not a home run but a foul. Oh yes, and if an outfielder catches the ball, the batter is not out, but instead has three chances to put the ball in play. Or something like that. We’re not sure. We just know the home team won and we had a great time.

Sunday, we took the ferry 15 minutes to Suomenlinna, a fort island that once served to protect Helsinki and is now a UNESCO heritage site. It is linked by footbridges to two smaller islands where people live. We had a nice wander in beautiful weather and although it is a tourist site, again, it was not overly crowded.

Something we’ve talked about since being here is the adherence to the social contract that people in the U.S. seem to have completely forgotten exists. While, I wouldn’t say people here are friendly, then will gladly help if you ask and then go about their merry way. They also will pay for transportation tickets even though there is no turnstile and, as of yet, no one has asked us to prove we bought one. At the end of Pilates class, students dutifully line up to get a towel to clean their mats and put them back on the rack. there isn’t even any cutting in line! If only it weren’t so darn dark (and cold) here most of the year.

Sue has done an admirable job of describing our first week here in Helsinki, but has missed by far and away the most important thing. Finland seems to be the center of 1980s heavy metal music. Everywhere we look, there are people, young and old wearing black T-shirts with white lettering and logos of heavy metal bands, some we recognize (AC/DC, Iron Maiden, etc.) and some we don’t — sorry can’t remember them. It is so odd that such a calm and rule following people, love music that is chaotic and anti-establishment. Note from Sue: Or could it be the six months of dark?!?!?