happy in HEL

More marvels found in Helsinki, the capital of Finland:

* a proper mixture of things

* streets paved with real stones, for that authentic European feeling

* trams ( lovely trams! ), and tram tracks to stumble over in high heels

* a Burger King that looks like a church

* the gigantic, enormous, ginormous book store Akateeminen, of which Michael Cunningham ( author of The Hours ) reportedly said it was the best book store he'd seen

* icebreakers looking very pretty in the evening sun

* an interesting fake fauna - the elk is somewhat understandable, this being Finland, but the giraffes on the balcony were entirely unexpected

* the ugliest presidential palace in the world ( OK, only temporarily... undergoing renovation )

* and another tourist, happily singing as she wanders the streets for hours ( that would be me )