Anyway, Frank returned from Copenhagen where he got a private tour of parts of the palace and the Royal Stables with his friend Krista. He got to dine with Krista and Leo, Krista's dog, at Ida Davidson's, a famous open-faced sandwich restaurant, take a boat tour and basically had a wonderful time in wonderful Copenhagen (everybody sing the song ... you know you know it).
Back in Finland, Jakke and Antti got tickets to the John Waters musical, Hairspray for our birthdays and since we've seen the show a couple of times, not understanding the Finnish translation would not lesson the experience. We looked forward to seeing how they would mount the show and had the added pleasure of having Marina, an old friend that I know through Jakke, join us. We had dinner and then headed to the theater.
Hairspray
If you haven't seen the movie or the play, the story is basically about a chubby girl who dreams of dancing on the Corny Collins Show (i.e. American Bandstand), racial integration, and weightier issues such as ... the height of one's hair! The mother of Tracy is played by a man in drag, okay a very BIG man in drag. Our seats were great and for once we didn't have to worry about blocking anyone's view (Stadium seating). The set design had two giant wing-back chairs that would rotate around during parts of the show to reveal smaller raised platforms and a giant TV framed the center of the stage and framed the TV show. We were very excited as the lights went down.
The lights come up and two giant (as in 20 feet big) cow heads were in the middle of the tv screen. They spoke in Finnish, then English. And yes, their mouths mouthed (or flapped) with the dialogue.
Imagine the cows laughing and then the cows start speaking in Chinese, which caused everyone to giggle. The lights went out and Tracy started in on her Good Morning Baltimore song in Finnish. Like I said, the staging was a little different and to be honest in some aspects was more complex than the Broadway version. There were some odd details such as the cows, which for some reason showed up at the end of act one with sirens and lights - perhaps they saw someone taking a picture! Other things like the dancing teddy bears at the beginning of the show and the soup kitchen backdrop. I suspect that the picture of the whites in a car driving to "Success" with the blacks in a soup kitchen line up was to illustrate the economic inequity of the time period. This becomes more ironic when the "blacks" were mulato at best, and Motormouth Mabel, while definately blonde and beautiful was not "big" in the robust Ricky Lake big but the big as in "I could nurse a small country to health big." Anyway, she had a great voice and apparently learned the dialogue and music in Finnish (she was a UK citizen).Imagine if cows could speak ... now imagine if cows could speak and did so very slowly!
Cow 1 - I am a br own cow.Cow 2 - I am a black bull.
Cow 1 - And if you don't turn off your cell phone, or take pictures
Cow 2 - or take movies,
Cow 1 - We will bite you!
Cow 2 - Yes, yes. We will bite you!
Other than those minor differences, the show was a hoot from start to finish. The music was fun and with our "mental" English playing along, we didn't miss a beat of the show. Thanks boys!
Out on the Town
Unbeknownst to us, Marina had an agenda and we were going to meet it. She was going to be speaking Norwegian before the nights end. We headed to a local pub, which was packed with the 30 something crowd drinking to the sounds of the 70's and 80's. Getting a table was fine, the conversation was good but the bathroom! The bathroom was cool. Located in the basement, there was a wide stairway going down and when you round the corner you see the bathrooms - literally. The would be solid wall was glass so that you could see the stalls in both the men and women's restrooms and watching people wash their hands. It was very Big Brother.
From there we headed to another pub, Mann's Street, where not only was it a Fandango it was Karaoke night! You know it's bad when you walk in the room and would rather listen to a cats scratching on a chalk board, it's bad. Marina insisted on Salmiakki shots. The liquor tastes like licorice and goes down smooth and burns the throat. We found a side room and continued chatting and during the folk Karoake, folk danced and continued drinking. I switched to water or what I thought was water. I found out the next day that my Finnish Water (i.e. I thought mineral water), was actually soda water with a tasteless vodka. Bad Marina. She met her goal and we put her in a taxi home. Jakke and Antti insisted we go out a little longer so we ended up at Hercules and danced until the lights came up.
While waiting for a taxi, Marina calls and cannot locate her keys. We head over to her house, pick her up and bring her home! Turns out she spoke a bit of Norwegian (i.e. threw up) and felt much better. Me? We danced the alcohol off and with a couple of glasses of water before going to bed and a Tylenol - felt fine.
Porvo - The Wooden City
Our final tourist destination was an afternoon in the small wooden city of Porvo. The town is basically a quaint town of houses that line the sea and now house a series of artist shops. I found a couple of handmade ornaments for Christmas and Frank found some great chocolates which, if were not so politically correct, I would describe here. We took a bus to the town and wandered around a bit before going home and packing for our flight home.
Heading Home
Let me just say that it is nice to have connections. We were walked through check-in, given access to the business lounge and given champaigne with our breakfast on the Helsinki flight to Frankfurt. The flight from Frankfurt to San Francisco was actually pleasant. Frank helped the Swiss stewardess and she became our friend (i.e. gave us free drinks on the flight). The old couple next to me were claustrophobic and were moving about which allowed Frank to move up and leave a seat between the two of us! I finished my third book, The Cloud Sketchers, which was about a Finn who moved from Finland to New York City to build skyscrapers - most interesting considering where we were leaving and the fact that we will be heading to New York City in a couple of weeks.
To summarize:
Countries Visited: Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Russia, Denmark (Frank only)
Cities Visited: Helsinki, Stockholm, Talinn, St. Petersburg, Porvo
Books Read: Eldest, Boys of the Brownstone, The Cloud Sketchers
Modes of Travel: Airplane, Train, Cruise Ferry, Speed Boat, Ferry
Mascot Travel Companion: Mr. Bunny
Pictures Taken: 250 (with Bunny - 75)
Most Unique Food: Bear Meatballs, Moikko (small lake fish), Reindeer
Best Chocolate: Talinn
Best Dinner Service: Roman at Troika in Talinn
Scariest Moment: Walk home from Sinners in St. Petersburg
Best Phrases: (insert city letter)PG (i.e. RPG = Russian Pocket Gay) and Fandango (i.e. 3 or more lesbians in one location)
