SUOMI - Part One

Hey hey Helens!

Right, am back in from another jaunt. This time to Finland. I am listening to the hot Finnish hit of the summer as I type. It is by Valvomo and called 'Mikä Kesä' which means 'What a summer' apparently. I had SUCH a good time!

On Weds last, lovely Nathalina from the Pinkies came to Stockholm. She is Finlandsvensk, which means she, like 6% of Finns, is bilingual in Finnish and Swedish, as well as being shit hot in English.

We had fun in Stockholm on Weds night, and got drunk in Torget, the only gaybar I seem to frequent nowadays, and I showed her the sights. Then on Thursday, I skived Swedish class (bad!) and we got the ferry to Helsinki (Helsingfors in Swedish). We got a photo taken as we boarded (the 'm/s MARIELLA', fact fans) which I will post if I ever find a scanner here.

We had a super time on the ferry, even though Nath was sleeping with a Finnish wrinkly and I had to share a cabin with two swarthy Finnish leather bikers (oh! poor me! Ritchie, I couldn't help but think of you :o))

After my very first smorgåsbord (it was ace!) sitting next to a Russian lady and child who seemed very keen on wearing the ship's curtains, we danced in the onboard disco, had a cocktail called a 'Flash Gordon' with a flashing icecube in (!), watched a cringe-makingly rubbish English magician, drank salt licorice vodka, Jagermeister (something wrong and German) and beer, and we went to bed totally off our faces.

Woke up what seemed like 3 minutes later on my face to be informed it was morning and time for breakfast. Krrrrr. But all was well in the end. Lots of cold meats and cheese and eggs and not looking at the people sitting opposite us because that would have put me off my breakfast (not sure how kind the gene pool has been to Finland).

Right, have to go to class. Laters...