Helsinki Times

Why am I still in Helsinki?

I have been asking myself this question for about a year now. My answer is not a definitive account of why one should move to Helsinki, nor was my moving here inevitable; the last city where I called home had run its course. I left the UK for a common and prosaic thirty-something reason – I needed to experience something fresh and new.

After 12 years of living in Glasgow I was more than happy to up sticks in April 1998. I was just about done with ambling and picking my way through the last scraps of Jack McConnell’s Scotland, a puppet of Tony Blair’s New Labour. Initially, Helsinki was a faint bleep on my radar of possible places to move to, but after a visit in January 2008 (and yes, it was extremely dark and cold), I became smitten and immediately felt a sense of self-renewal in the more relaxed atmosphere of Helsinki.

There is more of a tension in the Glasgow air and enough treatments to the rough ends of impudent tongues to fill the thickest of notebooks. One is also immediately struck by the extent of social strife and, to paraphrase the novelist Iris Murdoch, those areas that are either “necessary” or “contingent.”

There are things that bother me about living in Helsinki.

Waiting: I have often entered half-empty restaurants and sat twiddling my thumbs for what seemed like an eternity before being clocked by a member of staff. Once I even got up and walked out and ate elsewhere. In bars I have learned to be more obvious about my queue position since staff will often serve someone who just pushes their way to the front. Also, when people stand and casually chat in doorways they are oblivious that I am in a hurry.

Prices: Whilst I am in favour of supporting the local economy, I refuse to pay through the nose when I can order exactly the same product online, if I am prepared to wait a couple of days. The prices of international magazines are extortionate here.

I came to Helsinki in search of a new life of my own making, looking to meet interesting people. I had been pining for an escape from the grime and chewing-gum streets and the hassle of negotiating Glasgow. I wanted to be part of something found elsewhere, but not just anywhere. Helsinki summoned me. I lent it my ear. I still listen. And I have rediscovered my appreciation of the sea, something that was a constant in my childhood back in Northern Ireland.

I live in the world of travel cards, orange Metros, Marimekko, Fazer and functionalism. Helsinki largely defines me now and has restored my faith in the belief that my better days are in front of me. I intend to make it up as I go along, and shape things to my own habits and fancies as long as this city allows me. I don’t know my immediate neighbours. My true neighbours are scattered across different postal districts. I have, finally, binned my tourist map and I feel that I am very much on form.