3rd week in Helsinki is coming to an end.
This one made me busy with search for furniture and small things for the apartment, which I started renting on Monday. Thankfully my Forenom apartment is still valid (till 20th), so I do have some breathing room and do not need to sleep on the floor in a room with nothing but walls.
I was reassured once again: it's expensive here. I already started process of shifting to non-ready meals (that is, I will be cooking for myself once I move) in order to save some extra euros. And I've ben walking most of the time instead of using metro for the same reason. And will do this until commute benefit from Edenred Finland Oy comes. I dread the though of people relocating here without having any savings.
Here are some things I've noticed while walking around:
- Some stores do not turn off the inside lights at night. Is electricity considered to be cheap here? Or is this a way to self-advertise somehow? Or just for illumination?
- The population of pigeons and sparrows is reversed here compared to Moscow: instead of dozens of pigeons I saw only 2 of them so far, but I've seen quite a few plump sparrows. And a titmouse. And a robin.
- Pedestrian semaphores currently annoy me. There are 2 reasons: firstly they are high. So high, that depending on how you walk and where you look you can miss one. I did that twice already, while checking my phone on the go, I saw that I was reaching crosswalk, looked up, saw no semaphore, started crossing and then noticed it much higher than anticipated. It helps with not using your phone on the go, but having them just a bit lower could be more "natural", I think, considering how human perception can work. The other thing is asynchronic switching to green on double crosswalks: for some reason sometimes the one farther from you lights up first. I now need to consciously stop myself from starting the crossover until the one closer to me does the same. I mean, drivers seem to be polite and I have not seen anyone speeding, but I'd prefer not to cross on red "by accident".
