Sadly, today is our last in Helsinki. We began the morning with a great breakfast – I have been eating herring with alarming regularity this last week – and then took the advice of many and planned a day trip to Tallinn, the largest and capital city in Estonia. After hopping on an enormous ferry – replete with cafes, casinos, supermarkets, and the like – Patty and I arrived at Tallinn and walked around this at once modern and medieval town. We traversed streets, ate in a restaurant that looked like a white cave from the 1800’s, and visited a fort.
When we got back in the late afternoon, Patty and I began the unhappy chore of packing, and grabbed a bite to eat in the hotel bar. Mikko came by to present us with a six-pack of Koff beer (a local favorite), some books, and t-shirts. It’s hard to believe that this city I knew so little about just a week or two ago, now feels like home. But it’s true. I am really going to miss it and wish we could stay another week, at least.
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I had the morning off today and used it to walk around the city and do some shopping. Patty went to Marimekko, a Finnish textiles/clothing store, and bought some souvenirs for our families.
Next, I headed to a meeting with Bob Helsinki, a political marketing agency here that has done very successful work with the Coalition Party. Over sushi, we discussed some of the tactics and messaging that was so successful for Obama, and they shared with me some of their innovative campaigns for their candidates, including the foreign minister. Bob has pioneered the use of simple, colorful advertising in Finland where the norm has been more issue-oriented messaging. They were successful in taking candidates few had heard of and making them very competitive. One of their most interesting ideas was to create “ear” cafes, where voters and politicians can go to listen to each other.
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After a few busy days, today may have been the most action-packed one yet. We met Tapio in the hotel lobby, and headed over to Helsinki University where we met with professor Markku Henriksson, chief of the North American Studies department. Professor Henriksson was wearing a New York State tie in my honor and was extremely knowledgeable about US politics. I proceeded to give a speech on President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton. This one was a bit less formal than the one to Parliament (eg, the other one used PowerPoint slides, while this one was more free-wheeling) and the students had excellent questions. The audience was mostly students, along with some scholars and teachers. I have to say I was pretty surprised to get a question referencing Al Sharpton!
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Today was an early morning, to say the least. Still adjusting to the local time here, I awoke at 5am for a live TV interview with Yle Morning TV for an appearance on a widely watched morning show. Funnily enough, this is the same show I had watched yesterday morning when I was getting ready.
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No such luck on the jet lag mission. Patty and I forced ourselves to stay up until 9 or 10, but woke up around 2:30. After reading for a few hours, I was able to sneak in a few hours of sleep before rising at around 8 or so.
I was greeted in the lobby of my hotel at 9:30 am by Rita Ekelund, a communications staffer at Helsinki City Hall. Rita was warm and friendly, with a great sense of humor, and made me feel right at home. She was also very polite about my tardiness, pretending not to notice. Rita escorted me to Helsinki’s city hall for a TV interview with Yle, the Finnish Broadcasting Company, for its nighttime TV magazine news program on current affairs.
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After days of planning, months of e-mailing with my new Finnish friends organizing the trip (eg, Mikko, Hilkka, etc), and hours of packing, my wife Patty and I finally departed for JFK Airport to Helsinki. We got to the airport around 3:30 for our 5:55 pm flight, and hoped we’d be able to sleep on our flights (one to Brussels, the second to Helsinki).
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