Finland’s Capital of Modern Living

In the prelude to summer, when the midnight sun floods its festive pubs and music-filled harbors until the wee hours, Helsinki exudes the spirit of Europe in the 1990s: low necklines, gourmet fast food, new-found political unity and all.

In the years I lived in Moscow, a city still lingering somewhere in the 1950s, Helsinki was the place I went for a quick fix on what was happening in the modern world. It was two years ago in a glitzy hotel room there, surrounded by voice mail and push-button room service, that I first learned of the massacre in Tian An Men Square, an event that went largely uncovered in the Soviet press.

Even visitors from fast-moving American cities will be surprised at how sparklingly newfangled the capital of Finland is. As much as any Northern European city, it is ably riding the crest of Europe’s new wave--right down to the fancy taxis that are summoned, directed and paid by computer.

Walking Helsinki’s streets is the closest I have come to a foray through Wonderland. At one corner, natives are wearing hair that is dyed pink and spiked. At the next, they are wrapped in strapless evening gowns from Christian Dior. They all speak fluent English and are anxious to use it--in conversation about things such as John Updike’s latest novel or Madonna’s latest video or any other latest book, record or trend.

With a population of less than half a million, an abundance of lakes and birch trees and a language that bears little resemblance to any other known tongue, the capital of Finland has all the makings of a quaint backwater. And yet spending a holiday in Helsinki is like wandering into a forest and stumbling on a cultural smorgasbord.

The skyline alone, blending Ferris wheels and other man-made wonders with the surrounding Gulf of Finland, captures the city’s distinct mix of modernity and nature. And even in a three- or four-day stay, an industrious visitor can get healthy helpings of both the old- and the new-fashioned Finnish charm--by balancing, say, a tea of cloudberries and other local delicacies with a visit to one of the afternoon strip clubs popular among Helsinki women, or by topping off an evening of Finnish folk dancing with half an hour of water-skiing off the coast.

At night, downtown is a sea of neon lights, drawing attention to the sale of every consumer good from Big Macs to mink hats. “We like to be on the forefront of modern European living,” says Teuvo Tikkannen, an executive at Finnfacts, a Helsinki-based information service. “Maybe we’re not quite there yet, but not for want of trying.”

By far the most up-to-date aspect of the city is its contemporary approach to design, including everything from clothes and flower vases to icebreakers used in the Arctic Sea. Apartments often are furnished with chic Finnish home decorating: slender black metal lamps, chairs crafted from chrome and leather and delicately sculpted glassware. Functionalism continues to influence local tastes; furniture and buildings alike are pared of decoration to the point that they often look undernourished.

Curling up with a beer in a steamy sauna is perhaps the most sacred of all traditions in Finland. “When a Finn buys a house or an apartment,” a friend in Helsinki once told me, “he first puts in a sauna and then he tries to figure out if he has any money left for furniture.”

For visitors who scratch a bit beneath the shiny surface of Helsinki, these aspects of life that are delightfully Finnish--business conferences held in steamy saunas, ballroom dancing, cocktails in the middle of the afternoon, some of the best music festivals in the world--are wonderful antidotes to the newfangledness that hits you when you first arrive.

For an Old World capital, Helsinki is quite new. Even in American terms, the construction of the heart of the city took place recently--mostly since the beginning of the 1800s. And the process of making it an authentic capital only began in 1917, when Finland gained its complete independence from Soviet Russia.

Like any small European country, Finland is trying to carve out a place for itself that is different. Combining its natural resources with a knack for design is one way for Finland to compete with the rest of Western Europe, for instance. Another reason Finns always seem to be in fashion is that contemporary Finnish designers carry a very high profile among natives.

Marimekko, the maker of bold fabrics and brightly colored housewares that pledged in the 1960s to change the way Finns thought of fashion, has gone far toward fulfilling its promise. Products made by such famous Finnish firms as Arabia, which specializes in glassware, and Lapponia, one of Europe’s leading jewelry makers, are considered accessible to the highbrow and the average Finn alike.

Finns commonly dress in the neon colors and futuristic styles that other women only stare at in shop windows. “The difference between Helsinki and an artistic city like Rome is that there, people put nice art on shelves and in museums and look at it from a distance,” Finnish sculptor and jewelry designer Bjorn Weckstrom told me once. “Here, people like to wear nice art, to touch and to live it.”

Westerners who come from the Soviet Union to Helsinki have come to think of it as an oasis. The shelves at Stockmann’s, one of Helsinki’s enormous and very classy department stores, are heavily stocked with all the things that Western vacationers in the Soviet Union drool about: good wine, freshly made pasta and lean steaks.

But there is a hitch to Helsinki’s heaping offerings of modern materialism: the price. Everything from hotel rooms (averaging $200 a night for a single), dinner on the town (averaging $150 for two) or a beer in a bar (as much as $14) ranks among the most expensive in Europe. According to a poll taken by the Finnish Tourist Board, the average American visitor in Finland spends more than $200 a day, not including air fare. In a poll taken by the board, the biggest single complaint American visitors had last year was that things cost too much.

Shaped over the past century and a half by a tiny handful of architects, the facades in the city’s center are a combination of the kind of elegant neoclassical buildings that are common in Western Europe and distinctly Northern European structures--buildings cut in sleek lines out of dark stone. Finlandia Hall, a classical music concert hall set in a park near downtown, is typical of the style.

The fare offered in the city’s restaurants--quiche alongside Finnish specialties such as willow grouse, reindeer chops and cloudberry cake--also combines the continental European and the pure Finnish.

One way to dive directly into Finnish culture is to take part in one of the arts festivals that are staged in Finland every year. This year, the Finnish Festival Board is sponsoring dozens of them, ranging from the Ikaalinen Accordion Festival to the internationally famous Pori Jazz Festival.

GUIDEBOOK

Helsinki

Getting there: The most charming way to arrive in this harbor city is by boat. Overnight cruises, departing every evening from Stockholm and arriving early morning in Helsinki, are great fun. Aboard the Viking and the Vaasa lines--Swedish cruisers with restaurants and other conveniences--a nice cabin for two costs about $100.

Finnair flies directly to Helsinki from LAX on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Round-trip coach fare with seven-day advance purchase is $1,092.

Where to stay: Summer reservations are recommended. Expect a double room to cost as much as $300 per night. If you like large hotels, the InterContinental and the Marski are good. For more intimate settings, try the Torni or the Hotel Helsinki.

Where to eat: Fish is almost always featured, usually prepared delicately and with a lot of imagination. One good restaurant offers raw salmon soaked in vodka; another features herring ice cream with gravlax. Another local favorite is game.

For lunch, I have two favorites: the Torni, at Kalevankatu 5, which has an excellent smorgasbord of salads and fish, and great desserts; and the Piekka, at Mannerheimintie 68.

For an elegant dinner, try the Havis Amanda, at Unioninkatu 23. The specialty is fresh seafood. Another option is the Palace Gourmet, inside the Palace Hotel at the Market Square. It features game and local fish specialties and is probably the No. 1 gourmet place in town.

For more information: Contact the Finnish Tourist Board, 655 3rd Ave., 18th Floor, New York 10017, (212) 370-5540.