Friday, June 24, 2005

Makkara Man!!!

Greetings from Helsinki.
I left hot Zürich yesterday evening and arrived in pleasantly cool Helsinki at around 11:30 p.m. By the time I arrived at the Hotel Kämp at around midnight, the restaurant was closed. I could have ordered room service, but I decided to walk around town a bit...and I'm glad I did! The reason for my glee? A hot dog (makkara)cart on every other street corner. I walked up to the first one I saw, asked for two hot dogs, and the guy gave me a choice of two hot dogs on two buns for 4 Euros, or two hot dogs on one bun for 3 Euros (the Finns think of everything!) I opted for the latter with mustard, relish, and grilled onions, and then I told the guy I'd be back for more if I was still hungry after eating it.
I walked around for about a half hour (the sun doesn't set in Helsinki until about 11:30 p.m.), did a little window shopping, observed a bunch of drunk young Finns stagering out of night clubs, and then I went back to my now-favorite makkara purveyor and ordered more grub. After inhaling a couple more hot dogs with nary a bite, I went back to the hotel.
Perhaps it was the fact that it wasn't really that dark out, but I ended up not going to sleep until about 2:30 a.m. At 4:00 a.m. (I'm estimating), I woke up in makkara induced distress but was too tired to do anything about it.
At 8:00 a.m., I was rudely awakened by my watch alarm, showered, and went down to breakfast where I probably ate - and I'm not exagerating - twelve to fifteen breakfast makkaras!
LONG LIVE FINLAND!

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