Hello all! My name is Tom Mickelson. You may have seen me at Krown Bakery, or more recently, Oakwood Cafe in Anoka. I have been designated (or rather, self-appointed), as scribe for our grand Nordic adventure. Much of the following posts and write-ups are going to be primarily from my perspective, but rest assured, I am working closing with my lovely wife Shay, and our great friends and business partners, Madi and Derek. It’s merely simpler for me to write in a first-person manner. However, I feel I should make it perfectly clear: I am a baker, not a writer. I ask that you, dear reader, forgive my not-so-great grammar and the inevitable spelling errors. Also worth noting, I am by no means an expert on Nordic culture. I was born and raised in the U.S. and the most foreign place I’ve been to is Iowa. To any of our Nordic friends that may end up reading this at some point, apologies for any misunderstandings found here. I am trying my best, but I’m afraid I am terminally confused. With that in mind, let’s start at the beginning.

Our travels began at the Minneapolis airport, like so many domestic trips I’ve taken in my life. We had a seven and a half hour flight ahead of us, and we were eager to get underway. We ate at a restaurant by our gate; I had the walleye sandwich as a last taste of home before departure. We all sat, had a drink, and contemplated exactly what we were expecting this journey to be like. For myself, I had really no idea what to think. This is my first trip outside of the North American continent. I grew up around Finnish-Americans in Ironwood, Michigan, and of course, my family tree has several branches extending from Finland. However, actually going to Finland was something I never felt truly prepared for. I did not know what to expect, how we would be received, or how the average Finn lives. This was both exciting and intimidating, as we all desire to be good guests of all the countries we planned to visit.

...But we were still half the world away at this point, and we had a flight to catch.

We boarded our flight and were soon after underway. It was important to sleep as much as possible on this first flight to ensure we were at least partially on Helsinki time. Unfortunately this was not to be. Apart from having extremely limited space to get comfortable, every time we reclined our chairs, moments later the passengers behind were kind enough to return our seats to their upright positions. Sitting in a very upright position is one thing, but trying to sleep like that is another matter entirely. I believe I had something like two hours of restful sleep on that seven and a half hour flight, but we survived the flight, albeit with some bags under our eyes.

We disembarked at Charles De Gaul airport in Paris. It was muggy and hot, and the layout seemed to be the result of five different people designing different airports and then at the last second, scrambling to combine all of them into a single airport. We navigated the twisting, non-air-conditioned corridors with vague signage and eventually made it to our gate, just in the nick of time for our four hour layover. The next challenge would be staying awake, again, as a measure to try to get acclimated to the new time zone. It was midnight in Anoka, but it was 8AM in Paris. We all managed to make it through with only several micro-naps. We boarded our flight and at long last were on the last leg to Helsinki, Finland. The second we reached out seats, which, ironically, were much more spacious on a smaller plane, we were collectively out like lights. Another restful two and a half hours of sleep.

We were then on the final approach to the Helsinki airport. The aerial view of Finland is gorgeous; emerald green forests dotted with deep blue lakes (lots and lots of lakes) and bordered by the sea and a vast archipelago. We quickly set down on the tarmac and everyone clapped. I’m not joking, this was a first for me.

From there, we needed to head to the trains. The airport was strangely quiet for a Nordic capital. We managed to make it to the station, and after several attempts to understand public transportation (a rare delicacy for a most Americans) we managed to crack the code. After that, it was comically easy to understand. There is little else that can squash an ego so quickly as over analyzing a system that the average 3rd grader could easily understand.

We hopped on the “I” train to Helsinki and were quickly underway. The train ride was s
mooth and fast, and before you could say “hey, this is pretty quick” we were in Helsinki.

This is the face of a man that only slept 4 1/2 hours over the course of 36 hours.

The city was quiet, but beautiful. We took some time to get our bearings and proceeded to navigate the cobble streets to our accommodations, a cozy apartment in Helsinki. Our kind AirBnB host left us a handy guidebook for navigating around Helsinki, complete with recommendations.

At this point we were famished, so we hit up Apple Maps (don’t worry, we checked out some of the proprietor’s recommendations later) and found a local spot that was open. A large amount of restaurants were closed at the time, which was strange to us since it was about 6PM on a Friday. We ended up at a small, hole-in-the-wall pizza and kebab place called Raventola Sivukaide. We were elated to learn they had combined both offerings into one dish, Kebab Pizza. This has been recommended to us by many of you, and you are all correct. It is delicious.

Here we see Madi and (a very serious) Derek enjoying a good ol’ slice of pie and large beers.

To our foreigner-minded horror, an employee attempted to ask us a question in Finnish. I imagine from his perspective it was something like staring into a fish tank; all of us blankly staring back.

We sheepishly asked him, “English?”

He chuckled to himself and went over to another table and asked the folks sitting there if they would be willing to translate. One local graciously obliged. It turned out to be a simple misunderstanding; the credit card we used to pay for the pizza and beers produced a strange receipt (I’m sure this was because it was a U.S. credit card), and he just wanted to make we didn’t get charged twice, which was exceptionally thoughtful.

Then something very cool happened: the local woman who translated for the shopkeeper, struck up a conversation with us. Now, I’ve read a lot about Finns and Finnish culture in preparation for this trip. Some of which I found hard to believe, some of which I discovered to be flatly untrue, but I came to understand one universal, simple thing: Finns do not make small-talk. You may be able to imagine my surprise when she asked “do you mind if I ask you a question?”

From this one simple question, a veritable spider’s web of questions was spun. It was tremendously serendipitous (since we had only arrived about two hours prior), and was exceptionally informative. For the sake of her privacy, I won’t use her name, but if you are out there and happen to come across this, kiitos paljon. Sincerely.

We spent the next couple of hours asking each other questions, learning about Finnish culture, and sharing some notes on American culture. I learned rather quickly that my Finnish is no good. I believe the exact words from her were: “No, no, it is fine, I find it funny”. We all laughed.

She then proceeded to recommend some delightful Finnish pastries, places, and drinks. She had mentioned a liquor which is popular in Finland called “salmari”. Naturally, we bought shots for ourselves and our gracious hosts as a ‘Thank You’. It was fantastic. Basically, it is a vodka-based salted black licorice flavored liquor. I really do not care for black licorice, but I must admit I found the drink quite tasty.

We continued to chat, I asked about things to avoid when interacting with Finns, and was informed of two key elements which have been quite helpful. First, indeed it is true that Finns do not make small talk like us Americans. We were told plainly, do not ask “how are you” at a check out. Or in general. Finns are quite reserved generally, and when Derek’s Minnesota Nice kicked in and he asked “how’s it going” to a cashier, the cashier looked like we had just asked him if we could stay at his place for the week.

Second, and this really is a pro-tip if you speak little to no Finnish, when you enter a business simply say “Hi”. This immediately clues in the staff that you speak English, and many Finns in Helsinki speak better English than some Americans I know (myself included).

We wrapped up the festivities with a hearty ‘kiitos’ (pronounced poorly of course), and we headed back to our AirBnB for some much needed rest.

One final postscript: I mentioned how quiet the airport and downtown Helsinki were. Our local friend clued us in on something that, in hindsight, should have been obvious. It’s Midsummer! This is a very big holiday in many countries, and just like in the States on the 4th or Memorial Day, everyone heads to the cabin (or summer cottage). In our fugue-like travel state we didn’t even catch this.

To be continued tomorrow in Day 1 in Helsinki!

Day 0 - Travel and Helsinki

Krown Bakery & Eatery