Helsinki jazz

On a tip I went out looking for Storyville last night—a blues/jazz/live music joint. I thought maybe they'd have food as well. No luck there, but they told me to go down the block to a restaurant. Luckily before I reached the restaurant I found St. Urho's Pub. I've been looking for pub grub all week long but to no avail. Even Molly Malone's Irish pub lacked a kitchen. How strange. St. Urho's was a treat, however.

I had St. Urho's plate. Sausages, steak, chips, and egg. Marvelous! I've been looking for something like this all week (I've mainly been eating fish; the PhD candidate in Joensuu treated us to a smoked salmon breakfast that was simply outstanding—best smoked salmon I think I've ever eaten). I polished this plate off in no time and washed it down with a couple of Hoegardens (my latest favorite wheat beer from Belgium).

After St. Urho's I made my way down to the Storyville basement to hear some live tunes. Rockabilly was on the bill and these boys were smokin'! That guy was slappin' the bass until his fingers bled (I saw two bandaids on his fingers at the start of the second set). The front man sang in Finnish-English but spoke in Finnish. It was a little strange to hear him sing in his Finnish accent, but the driving beat more or less drowned him out anyway (then they switched mics and he sounded better :) They didn't start playing till 10pm, but I think they might have kept going all the way till 4am. And I probably would have stayed too if it weren't for the 6:15am flight that I'm waiting for now. I left the bar around midnight, packed up my stuff, and got in a few winks before rousing out of bed at 3am. The taxi driver was already waiting for me by the time I reached the front desk at 10 to 4am. Checked in, went through security, and am now sitting at the gate waiting to board. The wifi connection is currently "under maintenance" and so is temporarily free. Bonus! (And blazingly fast for wifi, double bonus!)