Finally some snow! Customer visit to Finland

In early January I flew to Helsinki in Finland with a few colleagues to visit Nokia headquarters. We arrived on a Tuesday night in time for dinner with some marketing and communications people at Nokia at the Loft Restaurant & Lounge on Yrjönkatu 18. This turned out to be a very good restaurant with Scandinavian cuisine, located in central Helsinki between Bulevardi and Uudenmaanaktu. Since we were supposed to have a whole-day meeting with Nokia at their offices in Espo the day after, we did however not stay out very late.

We stayed at the Hilton Helsinki Kalastajatorppa hotel which had convenient rooms in Scandinavian clean design and a huge lobby with a nice bar and lounge area. The hotel also gave guests access to sauna, Jacuzzi and a pool area, which we unfortunately did not have time to take advantage of.

This was the first time this “winter” that I had seen snow. When I was home in Sweden for Christmas, the temperature was rather mild and it was raining. London has not even come close to snow. And believe it or not, I have actually missed the white coat of snow on wintry streets and trees, and feeling the cold bite your cheeks!

When we came back from dinner with Nokia the first night, I felt very upbeat when we got out of the taxi at the hotel because it had been snowing and there were still some snowflakes in the air. I bent down, took some snow and made a snowball and threw it at my British male colleague from Sales. I giggled happily, but he did not look amused at all. Ooops, culture clash? Perhaps my childish and spontaneous action was not considered appropriate. Or he was just tired.