Suomi Fever

I'm in Helsinki now.  This is the first time I've been here in the winter.  The days are about five hours long, and it is cold.  The darkness takes a while to get used to.  It's odd feeling fully awake when it is pitch black outside.  There's nothing quite as disorienting as a 4PM that looks like a 9PM.  The positive thing I'm getting out of being here over a weekend on a consulting trip is that I have plenty of time to write and code without distraction.  If I do want distraction, I wander the city a bit, but, again, it is cold.

The people here seem to cope well with it, though.  Mexican food is big, and I guess I understand why.  Mexico is the absolute anti-thesis of the Finnish winter experience.  But, it is funny to see Mexican restaurants with huge snow cakes outside. 

I've found a couple of Mexican restaurants I like, but one puzzles me more than the rest, it's called Amarillo.  I've gone there twice so far.  The first time, I was met at the door by a coat room attendant and he said "Oh, if you want to eat it will be about an hour."  Having nothing else to do, I said "okay."  I usually have a notebook on me and I can do just about anything with that notebook that I'd want to do with a word processor on my computer, so I went and stood where he told me to.  A waitress came over and asked me if I'd like to be seated.  I said "yes."   She seated me, I ordered, and I got my food within about fifteen minutes.  Odd, but workable.

Last night, I went to the same restaurant and was met at the door by a different coat room attendant.  The people in front of me were told that it would be about an hour and they walked off.  I asked the same question, and I was told, as well, that it would be about an hour.  I put on a big grin and said "okay."  Now, the coat room attendant wasn't expecting that, so he started to look a little sour.  But I told him that the last time I was there, I was told it would be an hour, I was seated in a minute and got my food promptly so I decided to take a chance again.  He told me where to stand, and again a waitress came over and sat me immediately.  It took a little longer to get my food but not much.

I tried asking the waitress about it but she smiled and didn't have much to say.   It's good food, so I'll probably go  back, but I'll definitely be tempted to use a classic Larry David Stare Down the next time the attendant mentions an hour.

On this trip, I'm going to get a chance to meet up with some people from Agile Finland.  I'm looking forward to that.

Comments

[Juha Tukkinen]

Sounds like an authentic Finnish restaurant experience :) Hopefully we'll meet at the Agile Finland dinner next week.

Before that I could also recommend other (non-"Mexican") restaurants as well such as http://www.kynsilaukka.com, http://ravintola.lasipalatsi.fi, http://www.gastone.fi in no particular order.

BR,

- jtukkine

[Michael Feathers]

Juha, thanks. I'll have to check them out. Look forward to seeing you next week.