We went to a club on the Saturday night, and got back to the hostel at about 3am. In the hostel there was a sauna, available from 6am until 8am, and me and Moh decided to get up early to take advantage. A few trips between the sauna and the cold showers were a great way to start the day. We got a ferry across the harbour to Suomenlinna, a fortress on one of the many islands. Before Finland was a part of Russia, it was a part of Sweden, and the fortress is still known to Swedes as Sveaborg (Swedish fortress) instead of Suomenlinna (Finnish fortress). Ignoring the politics of the situation, we wandered around the island. It was grey but not too cold, and we sat outside watching boats coming and going for a while. Looking back to the skyline of the city, it was surprising to see so many Russian-influenced buildings. I later found out that during the Cold War, Helsinki was often used in films that required a Russian-looking backdrop.

Kiasma was great. We went there after the Uspensky Cathedral, and on a cold wintry afternoon it was a warm place to be. Generally with contemporary art galleries I find that I think about a third of it is a complete waste of time, a third I am more or less indifferent to, and a third I really like. Kiasma pretty much followed the rule. The exhibit that impressed me most was one that I initially put into the first category. It was a darkened room, containing a chair, a table, a lamp and a mirror, and that was it. “This is rubbish”, I thought, and I was about to walk out in disgust. But then I thought that surely there had to be more to it. This couldn’t be as banal as I thought it was. At the entrance to the darkened room there had been a sign saying do not touch or move any part of the installation. And then I twigged – the mirror was not a mirror but an opening into a second room, which was an identical mirror image of the first room. I was impressed. The illusion was so convincing that even once I’d [...]

Trip number 10 of 2003 was to Finland. As my desire to go to parts of Europe further afield was increasing, so was Ryanair’s, and when I saw that they had started flying to Finland, I decided it was time for me to head that way as well. I went with John and Moh. For no clear reason, when we arrived in Tampere, the immigration formalities were desperately slow. For about an hour the queue inched forward, frustration boiling over among some of the passengers. When we finally got to the end, completely inexplicably John and Moh got Finland stamps and I didn’t. I felt robbed as we got the bus into Tampere, and then found our way onto a train to Helsinki. There was snow on the streets of the capital when we arrived. The morning was grim and cold, and we wandered from our hostel towards the city centre. The first thing we passed was the Uspensky Cathedral. I had been pretty ignorant before coming here of how closely linked Russia and Finland were. Finland had been a province of the Russian Empire until 1918. Inside the cathedral, it felt like I was back in Russia.