Parenting the Nordic Way

I was first introduced to Finland by my Mom who only knew the Scandinavian country by its Chinese name, 芬蘭. (Pardon the traditional Chinese strokes, I am in love with it.)

I was taught that was where Santa Claus lived and came from and only knew that it is a very, very cold country. My knowledge of that remained that way because I am not a very curious person and I am very lazy, until Tex and I visited Helsinki last autumn.

It was clean.. and simple. I tried so hard to think of an adjective to describe but "simple" hits me hard. I'm not going deep into their social structure because I'm no expert to comment but I'll just describe what I saw, as a traveller.

All their tram platforms were level to their tram carriages. It was practically effortless to wheel a pram into the tram. Adults who had season tickets need not whip out their cards to tap that often - only during their first leg of the journey. The fare that they pay initially would sustain for, say, about one and a half hours? So even if you are changing trams, just alight and board again, no more tapping. Don't find fault with my accuracies, I'm just saying it's rather hassle-free to take public transport. Besides, being cheapo Singaporeans, we winged our way through and forgot to pay for many trips. I don't think at Helsinki, anyone worried about not having enough space in a tram to bring a pram, much less to collapse a pram before you can hurl it onto the tram.

Ask a parent to wake his/her sleeping child up. The last time I did that to my niece, I got a cold hard stare from my sister that could turn me into stone and was made to babysit my niece for the next four hours. Let's just say I will never do it again.

Collapsing a pram before you board a bus? Not as easy as you think, CEOs of bus operators. Wake a child up, carry him, carry the bags, collapse a pram, board and squeeze into the bus with many other commuters and THEN fish out your EZ-link? I'd like to see the CEOs do that. Of course, it's not like there isn't a choice. We can also adapt and make do with the cards that we are dealt with. Hence many resorted to buying cars and.. the rest is history.

I've digressed. Truly a Singaporean at heart while I complain happily away. I just wanted to demonstrate how EASY Helsinki made commuting for parents. Even with my super big bagpack then, we had little trouble entering and exiting the trams and subways.

Then I came across this little article - Why Finnish Babies Sleep In Boxes. Apparently, "for 75 years, Finland's expectant mothers have been given a box by the state. It's like a starter kit of clothes, sheets and toys that can even be used as a bed. And some say it helped Finland achieve one of the world's lowest infant mortality rates." Every year, mothers look forward to receiving The Box as the rest were left curious about the contents of the box. It was easy to know what year the babies were born in as the design of clothes changes a little every year. Well, to me, that sounded a lot more like checking out what your NDP goodies bag contained this year. Same same but different, you get the idea.

Now, isn't this AWESOME?! Talk about meaningful gifts, it's like someone from the government cares. So I gave this link to Tex, thinking he would enjoy it tremendously. And so he did. He countered me with this even awesome-r article - The Babies Who Nap In Sub-zero Temperatures. We finished the article with one common memory - there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing.

As you can see, I am deeply fascinated with the Nordic way of parenting. Resilience to them is in-built right from a very very young age and in many aspects. Leaving the kids to nap outdoors? I think I like that idea already.

Erm, not in this haze lah.

Travelogue - Helsinki to Estonia September 2012

This must be one of the most expensive and short ferry rides I have ever taken in my entire life. The cost of living and standards in the Scandinavia region that they mentioned in travel magazines? It's true. T.T



This is how their tram looks like!

Referring to my previous post, we took a tram from that marketplace and arrived at Helsinki West Harbour. There are several companies offering routes to Estonia from Helsinki. It's kinda like us going Batam from Singapore. Many Helsinkians take the opportunity to head there for a weekend and to buy cheap booze! Things in Estonia is significantly cheaper as compared to Helsinki.

We found out that one can even take a ferry to Stockholm! We're quite determined we're gonna try that out one day! :)

Carrying our heavy backpacks, we thought we arrived at the right place. Alas, the company, Linda Line, that we wanted to take the ferry with did not sail off from that harbour. Hence, we had to leave. Linda Line provides one of the cheapest and fastest routes to and from Estonia. We could have booked online, but we weren't sure whether we could make it in time for the ferry. Booking your tickets online first is definitely cheaper!



Reached the Makasiiniterminaali! I know right, what's up with the Finnish spelling. LOL

Caught another tram and arrived at the right terminal after asking for directions from the tram drivers! Tram tickets in Helsinki are quite pricey - we're talking about €2.30 for a ticket and this ticket allows you to board any tram, bus or subway within one and a half hours. We didn't meet any conductors checking our tickets, hence we suspect the whole system is highly based on guilt. Hahaha. I must say, we saved quite a lot on transport because.. well, us Asians being Asians. :P

Hey, cut us some slack, we were on a shoestring budget la. ;)



What we saw at the terminal

 

Went straight to the ticket counter and bought our return tickets. Because we bought only on the day itself, it was crazy expensive! Came up to €135 for two persons' return tickets. I read online later that someone caught an offer and got it from €35 per person for return! T.T

 

On board the ferry



There was a mini bar and we could almost immediately sense our sausage craving coming on. There's just something about Europe, the weather and the sausages. They blend together sooooo nicely. We saw many travellers lugging their golf clubs as well. Guess Estonia is a pretty popular place for golfers.

After about one and a half hours' journey, we reach the Linnahall! It looks nothing like a jetty, seriously.



Weird place to dock a ferry.



There.

Doesn't it just look weird to you. We thought it looked like some abandoned fort and we arrived at the wrong place. Had totally no idea how to get out of that place and the cabs available there seemed ready to leech our money so we refused to get into one. We climbed the fort-looking stairs, hoping we can 登高望遠 and get a sense of directions. While climbing, we noticed a lot of graffiti on the walls and glass shards that seem to litter the entire place. Good thing I was wearing boots, not flats.

Very very weird. But I like.

I ran a Wikipedia search on Linnahall and turns out that it is a concert and sports venue, and a heliport! How cool is that!

Looking over the other side after we climbed to the top, away from the sea

Seriously looking like a fortress.

If you no say, I thought it's Roman grounds. Hahaha!

Civilisation on the left. Quite a vast difference.

So we walked down the stairs on the other side and foolishly made a long detour with our heavy bags, trying to locate our hostel for the night. After what seemed like half an hour's walk with our (okay, MY) crazy heavy bag, we finally found Old Town!

Not the kopitiam hor.

Cobbled streets.

The entire Old Town looks like this. Our hostel is the building on the left in green. Thank goodness Tex had the awesome foresight to suggest that I bring a backpack for this trip. If I had brought a trolley luggage and having to lug it around on this kind of road conditions, the wheels would have given way long ago. I would have been stuck with a luggage that I cannot wheel. ZZZZZ.

 

Luckily the weather was really cooling so we didn't mind the walk at all.


Very famished so we asked the receptionist to recommend where we could go for lunch! She suggested an African restaurant down the street so there we went!

 

 

So African.

Hot food; Alfresco dining in cool weather is loveeeeeee.

May I add that the wedges were really delicious? So delicious to the extent that I doggy-bagged them when we couldn't finish!

 

 

*Smiles coyly to myself*

 

 

Hot bread rolls that we koped. 

After a really full lunch, we started our day proper! Note: we still didn't shower because our beds were not ready when we checked in but we didn't want to waste time! Only scheduled an overnight stay in Tallinn.

 

Read up that our highlight visit of the trip - Patarei Prison, was within walking distance from our hotel. Just nice to walk away our full lunch!

 

Lovely views everywhere we went.

So pretty hor.

Found an apple tree! Saw some Finnish girls picking up some of the apples and they very kindly gave us some! They left with their biycles later on. Why ang moh so eng one? No need to work one meh?

Reached our destination! *Excited*

Patarei Prison

Patarei Prison used to house inmates from the Soviet Union era and was abandoned in 2002, due to unhygienic conditions for the inmates. Talking about welfare, huh? Everything there was left untouched and it is now an open museum for the public. Visitors are free to roam the entire compound (if you dare to). Most rooms are opened and lit, including the Blood Room (where they executed criminals) and the Hanging Room (where they hung criminals). We could still see the hooks, shackles and recess in the ground in the Hanging Room. Very haunting. I didn't even dare to step into the room by myself. Had to wait for another group of visitors to enter together. :O

Apparently the inmates really very eng sia, can draw on the walls!

Surgery Room

I had a very creepy feeling when I entered the Surgery Room. Just imagine how many people died there. There were many things left behind, it's almost like they abandoned the prison in a hurry. I don't think you're supposed to touch the things but I've seen other photos of Patarei online and this surgery chair appears in many photos in different positions. Oh well.

Calender from 2002

Bottles were left opened and stethoscopes lying around.




"Chicken or fish, Sir?"

Such a dreary place.

A nice red chair to brighten things up.

 

 

Old typewriters and phones left in a room.

We left the place feeling a little sombre and haunted. We never found the Blood Room. I secretly think it's tucked in that dark little corner where Tex wanted to walk in but I refused because it just felt wrong. It was extremely dark and the next light bulb was like 50 metres away. I stayed in the light and encouraged Tex to go ahead if he really wanted to explore. He gave me a kiss on the forehead and walked in while my eyes were glued on to him. I mean, if he gets any paranormal activity at least I saw it with my own eyes right?! But he walked for no more than 20 metres, he came back. Too creepy for him as well and he isn't even a scaredy cat. T.T

Us walking down the street out of Patarei Prison to lighten our mood.

Streets of Tallinn

Got tired so we walked back to our hostel. It has been truly a long day for us. We reached the hostel at about 5pm Estonian time, that would have been around 11pm Singapore time. Which meant we haven't showered for more than 24 hours! Gosh.



Where we stayed!

Common dining room.

Common corridor where we had to walk through to get to our room.

Another kitchen!
 

Hmm, why take a photo of this oven?

We were both very intrigued by the oven because on the flat surface, it's actually an induction stove! Cool right? What a save of space!

Crashed into bed at about 5.30pm their time after showering and I slept like a log until the next day 7am. Slept my Estonian night away T.T what a waste. I vaguely remember Tex waking me up and asking me to go eat but I refused to open my eyes although I felt really hungry.

Next post will be about our day in the Old Town of Tallinn! Stay tuned! :)

Thanks for reading this super longgggg post. :D

 



Travelogue - Flight to Helsinki

Ahhh, I finally get to start penning my travelogues! Working OT in office hence might as well make use of the fast internet to do some blogging! :P Will refrain from using Instagram photos 'cos for those who already follow me on IG, you would have seen them! Hence, I will be using photos from my iPhone and camera. :)

On 12th September 2012, Tex and I started our little Europe vacation. Something we both had been looking forward to - getting out of Asia! Bought our tickets in May and we were sooooo trigger happy! Months and months of research and preparations - it was finally happening!

See us:



Specky us. Ready for a 12-hour flight.

Can't be arsed to put on make-up for a 12-hour flight. But I did pack some light make-up in my handbag for some touch-ups! Finnair does not give out night packs like Singapore Airlines does hence it was essential that I packed my toothbrush, facial foam and contact lens on board!




Thank you to the parents who sent me to the airport

Very excited to jet off!

I love trying out new airlines. The blankets, amenities and services that they provide just rouse my interest and curiosity every single time! I would say the flights I had on Finnair were awesome and I've joined to become a member! :D




Tex blowing up a neck pillow that he brought for me.

Funny thing was, I didn't enjoy using it. I don't really appreciate having anything under my neck. Could stay that way for quite a long time.




Nitty gritty details that makes me happy.



Dinner

I love inflight meals. Do you know that they are normally cooked slightly saltier than usual because in high altitude your taste buds change? I particularly like Finnair's conscientiousness because they quickly served us the meals once the take-off was stable and quickly took the trays away so we could all go to bed. Flight took off at 11.35pm and I was fed, ready to sleep by 12.45am. That's how quick they were!

Had an straight 7 hours' sleep and woke up to this:



So pretty!

My timing is like damn awesome la. Woke up and within half an hour, they served breakfast!



Omelette with wedges! :)

So very the yummy la. By now, I sound like a Finnair fangirl. I just generally love food la, can?



Hello sun.

And we land!

Hello HELSINKI! Felt the chills the moment we stepped out of the plane. Temperature must be around 15 to 16 degrees! Took an airport bus that cost us about €4.50 each to the city centre to catch another tram. We were trying to get to the jetty to catch a liner that would take us to.. ESTONIA!



Some market which I forgot the name to.



Tex's get-up

Alright, I gotta go. So sorry for the abrupt end. Let me keep the Estonian hype just that little bit more. I promise to come back with more photos!

Thanks for reading! xx