Dubai Or Not Dubai
Jul. 17th, 2008 06:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lupestripeLife can be weird sometimes. Currently I am sitting in an internet cafe in Finland's third largest city, sipping Twinings Earl Grey Tea (a little taste of England) and waiting for Hiru to finish work. Eighteen degrees has never felt so cold...
Other points noticed in Lupe Shoots:
1)wolfie_uk will be delighted to hear about the prevalence of Salty Dog crisps in Finland, particularly the poor puns on the packets. These are the crisps with a bark with every bite although when I went through the bagel hole earlier, they weren't selling them there.
2) There's a supermarket here call KKK Supermarkt. I was looking for white hoods but sadly they were nowhere to be seen.
3) Hesburger is a national chain of hamburger restaurants similar to our Wimpey. It's great to see a national burger brand challenge the American super giants and they appear to be winning as there are 3 Hesburger restaurants in Tampere alone and they are branching out into Sweden. Still, McDonalds and Subway are as ubiquitous as ever. I will go to Hesburger but Finnish is unlike any language I know so I can't translate anything on the menu. Being vegetarian, this causes a massive problem and this is why I went to McDonalds today (you can always judge a country on what you can get in McDonalds). It was no different to home - in fact they didn't even serve beer - but they do a mint swirly ice cream thing that I don't think we can get back home. Hesburger, meanwhile, sell bagels.
4) The Finnish national tabloid Iltalehti has, as its logo, a dog scribbling furiously on a notepad. It's really sweet :-)
5) The town of Nokia is on the western outskirts of Tampere and I think it is the place of Nokia mobile phone fame. I'll check this out and get back to you (unless any of you guys know...).
6) The Finns, like the English, seem to have succumbed for the virtues of concrete in the Fifties and Sixties. There's a lot of that around here and it looks even more drab than it does back home.
Last night was just as surreal as today. On the train between Helsinki and Tampere I got talking to a Finnish guy who was coming back home for a three week holiday. He is a business analyst and is currently working in Dubai. We got talking as soon as the train set off and throughout the whole of the two hour journey, we ended up discussing politics, culture and religion. He was one of life's genuninely interesting guys, particularly as he has lived around the world, including London. He also had some of the most juicy and tasty strawberries I have ever sampled - they reminded me of Michael Palin's comment in 1991's Pole To Pole - that the Finns "cannot just have what they want, but they can have the best of what they want". The fruit on the streets of Helsinki certainly looked magnificent.
Anyway, long story short he has invited me to go out and stay at his place in Dubai. From here, he said that he may be able to take me to Iran and Syria, two countries I have always wanted to visit because I know people from those places and also because of the vast cultural differences (he assures me they are safe). I already had a plan hatching to travel to Singa-paw (sorry, couldn't resist) next year and Dubai is a handy stopping off point. I'll give it some thought.
Moving on to more imminent events, I arrived in Tampere around 9pm last night and met up with Hiru, who took me back to his place. We spent the evening chatting before his flatmate, Yin-Wolf, and his brother came home from work.
After that we watched Monty Python's And Now For Something Completely Different (excellent film) before we went out to the local pub for a drink. It was great to see the jukebox full of decent tunes and a lot of Finnish stuff too, which makes a change with respect to Europe's obsession with synthetic Anglophone pop. The pub shut at 1:30am after which we played a game involving jumping over car park spaces, before we headed home. I was useless at the game :(
Today I have been touring around Tampere and there's not much to see. There's a couple of nice churches and the market square is impressive, as is the cathedral which is grey and made of stone. The red roof contrasts the stonework well.
However, the best bit about the town is that it appears to be built around a nineteenth century brick dam, which has created a little lake behind it. There are two factories with chimney stacks on the banks of the river, making it an unusual urban scene and one that is the pivotal point of the Keskustori Central Square. Behind the dam is the town's entertainment district with theatres, cinemas and bistros. There is a little quay (Laukontori) further downstream and I also caught a glimpse of the sports stadium.
Finland's tallest building, a huge tower (Pyynikki Observation Tower) not unlike the Post Office Prick (one forshep_shepherd there) is in an amusement park between where Hiru lives and the City Centre. It is a very communist style concrete structure and has a revolving restaurant at the top (which must be a laugh if you're pissed).
Anyway, long story short he has invited me to go out and stay at his place in Dubai. From here, he said that he may be able to take me to Iran and Syria, two countries I have always wanted to visit because I know people from those places and also because of the vast cultural differences (he assures me they are safe). I already had a plan hatching to travel to Singa-paw (sorry, couldn't resist) next year and Dubai is a handy stopping off point. I'll give it some thought.
Moving on to more imminent events, I arrived in Tampere around 9pm last night and met up with Hiru, who took me back to his place. We spent the evening chatting before his flatmate, Yin-Wolf, and his brother came home from work.
After that we watched Monty Python's And Now For Something Completely Different (excellent film) before we went out to the local pub for a drink. It was great to see the jukebox full of decent tunes and a lot of Finnish stuff too, which makes a change with respect to Europe's obsession with synthetic Anglophone pop. The pub shut at 1:30am after which we played a game involving jumping over car park spaces, before we headed home. I was useless at the game :(
Today I have been touring around Tampere and there's not much to see. There's a couple of nice churches and the market square is impressive, as is the cathedral which is grey and made of stone. The red roof contrasts the stonework well.
However, the best bit about the town is that it appears to be built around a nineteenth century brick dam, which has created a little lake behind it. There are two factories with chimney stacks on the banks of the river, making it an unusual urban scene and one that is the pivotal point of the Keskustori Central Square. Behind the dam is the town's entertainment district with theatres, cinemas and bistros. There is a little quay (Laukontori) further downstream and I also caught a glimpse of the sports stadium.
Finland's tallest building, a huge tower (Pyynikki Observation Tower) not unlike the Post Office Prick (one for
shep_shepherd there) is in an amusement park between where Hiru lives and the City Centre. It is a very communist style concrete structure and has a revolving restaurant at the top (which must be a laugh if you're pissed).Other points noticed in Lupe Shoots:
1)
wolfie_uk will be delighted to hear about the prevalence of Salty Dog crisps in Finland, particularly the poor puns on the packets. These are the crisps with a bark with every bite although when I went through the bagel hole earlier, they weren't selling them there.2) There's a supermarket here call KKK Supermarkt. I was looking for white hoods but sadly they were nowhere to be seen.
3) Hesburger is a national chain of hamburger restaurants similar to our Wimpey. It's great to see a national burger brand challenge the American super giants and they appear to be winning as there are 3 Hesburger restaurants in Tampere alone and they are branching out into Sweden. Still, McDonalds and Subway are as ubiquitous as ever. I will go to Hesburger but Finnish is unlike any language I know so I can't translate anything on the menu. Being vegetarian, this causes a massive problem and this is why I went to McDonalds today (you can always judge a country on what you can get in McDonalds). It was no different to home - in fact they didn't even serve beer - but they do a mint swirly ice cream thing that I don't think we can get back home. Hesburger, meanwhile, sell bagels.
4) The Finnish national tabloid Iltalehti has, as its logo, a dog scribbling furiously on a notepad. It's really sweet :-)
5) The town of Nokia is on the western outskirts of Tampere and I think it is the place of Nokia mobile phone fame. I'll check this out and get back to you (unless any of you guys know...).
6) The Finns, like the English, seem to have succumbed for the virtues of concrete in the Fifties and Sixties. There's a lot of that around here and it looks even more drab than it does back home.
