Helsinki nightlife, fisu and sisu
From ice bar to sauna bar plus communist kitsch in Cuban and Russian flavors, Helsinki drinking establishments are not lacking in novelty. This of course means they are slightly corny and very expensive! A recent travel-section article in USA Today confirms that this trend of theme bars is on the upswing.
After reading the article, I can’t say I’m sad that we didn’t actually make it to the Arctic Ice Bar when we tried a couple years ago, at my insistence. The hours were all messed up and then our party of eight balked at the cover charge. Didn’t even know at the time that the room only seats 12 and has an average visit length of 20 minutes! Sheeeeeeeeeit.
As my charming cousins had already shown us, there are much better places to have a drink in Helsinki. This sounds good tho:
“The most intriguing offering is the $7.25 Fisu shot, found throughout the city. It’s a blender drink made by mixing chilled vodka with pastilles of Fisherman’s Friend, a menthol-flavored cough drop. The result looks filthy brown-black, but the taste is all fresh, Arctic icy burn. It has supplanted in popularity the similar but far more vile [lies!] salmiakki shot, made from vodka and salty licorice candies.”
IDK about “Arctic, icy burn” but it sounds yummy to me, like mentholated Jägermeister, maybe? Or maybe not. This blogger Cracker Lilo from whom I, ahem, borrowed the “fisu and sisu” line (but who is wrong about fisu meaning fish; I think it’s probably based on the name Fisherman’s Friend?), tried it at home after reading the article, even going so far as to try other kinds of cough drops like Sucrets and Halls. LoL!
Another blogger at Necroblogicon was less inspired but equally LoL-able. “The body of a Finn seems to be immune to the nigh-magical hangover inducing quality of this concoction. As a weak American, I spent the next two days dancing on the razor’s edge of vomiting and contemplating suicide. I didn’t cough at all, though, although that may have been because of the acid reflux ripping my esophagus to tiny mentholated pieces.”
In related news, the stereotype of Finland as a nation of alcoholics remains undiminished.
Filed under finnish ish, travel | Comments (2)of lampreys and shellsuits
Learned something new about Finland on this travel-video site. I wonder if they eat the heads, or they have to cut the teeth out?
Lamprey have nothing to do with this hilarious article in the Helsingin Sanomat about the “authentic Finnish national costume,” the shellsuit (tracksuit in U.S.-English). However, in the lamprey video, you can see a Finn citizen happily eating flame-broiled lamprey while wearing what looks to be the notorious shellsuit.
There is a reason this get up doesnt make it onto Hel Looks.
Filed under finnish ish, media consumption | Comment (0)light summer reading
Even without any major travel since our jaunt to the Bay Area in May to see Bjork in concert at Shoreline Amphitheatre, my summer was busy with the freelance writing I mentioned and the big deal in July, our QuadMag.com 10-year anniversary party.
Never mind that I was supposed to be working on my MA project, I managed to squeeze in a couple books just for fun: Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia and the last half of Paul Theroux’s Dark Star Safari, which I had on loan from the library since ah, 2005. (Gotta love the generous faculty/staff borrowing privileges.)
The title links above go to amazon via my affiliate name and if anyone buys following these links, I’d get a small commission. I’ll be surprised if this turns into a revenue stream but figured why not, I shop amazon for books, CDs, movies, all kinds of things.
My impressions of these books after the jump.
Filed under media consumption | Comment (0)
