Buskitechture in Helsinki, Day 8.5

I took a break from busking today (6.19.10) to rest my voice and decided to wander about Suomenlinna. It was wonderful. The place itself was lovely, but it was the company mostly. I met a friendly girl also traveling by herself from Chile. She'd just quit her job and finished school and had decided to wander for a while also. It was her 4th month of traveling and her first stop in Europe after Asia and Russia. We started speaking in English but when she found out I was from Florida she said, "So you must know a little Spanish then?" I responded "Por supuesto, si quiere, podemos hablar en espanol, pero mi espanol es terrible porque no he practicado por muchos anos..." After which we spoke nothing but Spanish for the next 2 hours as we walked every path on the set of islands. I prefer to take the trails that split off from the cobblestone streets, so we wandered through beautiful grassy hills and by the rocky coast often. One area reminded me distinctly of Hobbitton in Lord of the Rings, which is only appropriate, as Finnish sounds to me like rather a lot like Elvish (Tolkein did base Elvish on Finnish after all). Our conversation ranged far and wide, from personal things like family to travel related things to music - hardly stopping the entire time. It was phenomenal and I felt very proud of myself for being able to converse the entire time in Spanish with only a few mishaps and pauses. We parted ways after returning to Helsinki, but not before exchanging emails - and she'll be arriving in Stockholm when I do, so I may well run into her again.


At Suomenlinna with Zebra, photo courtesy of Paula.


Hobbiton, Suomi.

I went to a couchsurfing party that evening with Harri. I brought my guitar. That night really gave me the confidence to busk again. Janina, Berita, Jari, and Soria were huge fans and buoyed me throughout. Around 2300 it got a little too rowdy for me, people getting drunk and me not, and shortly thereafter I took my leave. But it was a wonderful night and made me not want to leave Helsinki so soon. I'm starting to really like the peacefulness of life here and the people, too. If only the weather had been better while I was here...