Life in Dulwich

Back from Helsinki. And what a whirlwind 4 days it was. We worked till 20:30 the first night, which was the early night, after getting off the plane (we left at 07:30 in the morning). Then the next two days we finished at 22:00 and 23:45. The structure and stories we were telling changed every two minutes and even between the two performances yesterday (which were 15 minutes apart) we were making additions and alterations. Certainly keeps you on our toes. But it all went well and all the bigwigs were happy apparently.

Security was very tight and we weren't even allowed to use wireless mikes in case someone on a ship in the harbour picked up the content of the presentations/show.

Helsinki was interesting - it has a very Eastern European feel about it. It certainly didn't seem to be a late night party city. We went in search of food on Monday night at 02:30 and could only find a McDonalds open. They wouldn't sell us chicken nuggets as it was past 23:00, so we had burgers and chips. Very strange.

Meals consisted mainly of open sandwiches, although on the first night we had a proper dinner in which I had boletus, reindeer, lambchops and sea buckthorn and birch wrack pie (dessert). There was also lots of snatched takeaway food. Surprisingly, the Chinese and Thai food was pretty good.

Alcohol was hideously expensive - upward of 7 Euros for a pint.

All in all it was a very interesting experience and a shame we didn't see much more of Helsinki than quick 10 minutes rides in the taxi back and forth from rehearsals. Maybe there'll be a next time.

Learnt eight words of Suomi, but can't spell them - so excuse the spelling. Hei for Hello, ei for no, kylla for yes, hyva for good, kitos for thank you, ulos for out/exit and the all important, yhtaus ihmseen for connecting people.

Labels: acting, language, travel