Finland Trip Recap, Part I
I went to Finland July 17-22 courtesy of Finlandia Vodka for their annual Midnight Sun event. Here's the recap.
I flew cross-country to JFK, then on Finn Air over to Helsinki. They kindly seated the other writers and I in business class. When the people who work for Brown-Forman, the company that owns Finlandia, found out about this, they were about to stage a riot as they were in coach, and consequently emailed their managers angrily. But once I explained that I've only flown business class once in my life previously, they calmed down a bit. Also, I plied them with Xanax from my pharmacy bag.
We arrived in Helsinki early in the morning (Helsinki time, anyway) only to find that they'd left the luggage for half the plane back in New York. Oops. I was thrilled I'd get to wear my not--for-the-public-but-comfortable-for-flying red Nautica logo t-shirt for another day, as this made me look the the fat slobby American tourist I am.
About the trip: Most of the people flown in for this trip and subsequent party up in Lapland are either employees or distributors of Brown-Forman products. The rest were a few writers, top-selling retailers, and radio and bartending contest winners. But overwhelmingly the mood was set by the B-F people who are exceptionally good at:
In the morning we visited the bottling plant for Finlandia, which is a lot closer to Helsinki than the distillery. It was interesting but many of us were so tired from flying that we didn't absorb as much information as desired. Luckily, I took notes.
We returned to our hotel (Hotel GLO) for a couple of hours then met for dinner. To get to the restaurant we had to take a ferry boat to an island only a few hundred feet from the shore. Odd. The restaurant had a traditional look about it, a shot glass tray that held about 20 glasses and was carried by one person at each end and held over the table, and the largest pepper grinder known to man.
Instead of the meal the others were having I opted for the vegetarian reindeer alternative.
The first night is when I found out that The Horde are not fueled by food and proper rest, but liquor and hedonism. We entered one bar and found it womb-like and semi-creepy, yet stayed for several drinks while very gay dance music played on the stereo. We then hit Helsinki Club, which is a big dance club that was not exactly jam-packed on a Monday night, yet we stayed for a few drinks. Next was the bar next door that was closing shortly so we had to ingest our two drink quickly before heading out. We ended up at RedRum, which was full of people and really fun and I remember little of what happened or who this man is in the picture.
I flew cross-country to JFK, then on Finn Air over to Helsinki. They kindly seated the other writers and I in business class. When the people who work for Brown-Forman, the company that owns Finlandia, found out about this, they were about to stage a riot as they were in coach, and consequently emailed their managers angrily. But once I explained that I've only flown business class once in my life previously, they calmed down a bit. Also, I plied them with Xanax from my pharmacy bag.
We arrived in Helsinki early in the morning (Helsinki time, anyway) only to find that they'd left the luggage for half the plane back in New York. Oops. I was thrilled I'd get to wear my not--for-the-public-but-comfortable-for-flying red Nautica logo t-shirt for another day, as this made me look the the fat slobby American tourist I am.
About the trip: Most of the people flown in for this trip and subsequent party up in Lapland are either employees or distributors of Brown-Forman products. The rest were a few writers, top-selling retailers, and radio and bartending contest winners. But overwhelmingly the mood was set by the B-F people who are exceptionally good at:
- Drinking
- Staying Out Late
- Repeating the Above
In the morning we visited the bottling plant for Finlandia, which is a lot closer to Helsinki than the distillery. It was interesting but many of us were so tired from flying that we didn't absorb as much information as desired. Luckily, I took notes.
We returned to our hotel (Hotel GLO) for a couple of hours then met for dinner. To get to the restaurant we had to take a ferry boat to an island only a few hundred feet from the shore. Odd. The restaurant had a traditional look about it, a shot glass tray that held about 20 glasses and was carried by one person at each end and held over the table, and the largest pepper grinder known to man.
Instead of the meal the others were having I opted for the vegetarian reindeer alternative.The first night is when I found out that The Horde are not fueled by food and proper rest, but liquor and hedonism. We entered one bar and found it womb-like and semi-creepy, yet stayed for several drinks while very gay dance music played on the stereo. We then hit Helsinki Club, which is a big dance club that was not exactly jam-packed on a Monday night, yet we stayed for a few drinks. Next was the bar next door that was closing shortly so we had to ingest our two drink quickly before heading out. We ended up at RedRum, which was full of people and really fun and I remember little of what happened or who this man is in the picture.
Labels: alcoholism, bragging, misanthropy
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