Helsinki - June 14

Land of the midnight sun - also, land of the midnight clouds. The whole daylight thing turned out a little anticlimactic for me. In the north of Germany, where I'd been for the past week, the sun sets at 10 pm this time of year. In Helsinki, it sets at 11 pm (and rises at 4 am). So with the aforementioned clouds, the difference wasn't that much. Still, it was undeniably not dark at 2 am, when I went to bed.
Helsinki is a busy, bustling party city. Just don't try to find coffee before 10am on Sunday. Clearly, the crowds who stand in line for the clubs at 1am have no need for an early pick-me-up, but I was getting pretty antsy without my morning caffeine. The market at the harbor provided relief.

After touring the city a bit in the afternoon and retracing my steps from the harbor to the train station from 22 years ago, when we took the boat from Stockholm, I hooked up with Chris, Monna, Chris' mom and Lonnie for cocktails.

After a nice dinner of reindeer shank, we finished the evening at a local wine bar. Walking back to the hotel, it seemed like there were more people on the street at 1am than 1pm. Many clubs still had lines and all the bars were full. The late sunset really does warp your sense of time when you're not used to it, perhaps even if you are. Note the time in the picture: