when i moved into my apartment here in helsinki 6 months ago, i was handed a thick booklet containing rules and regulations for tenants. initially, i only read the section on rubbish disposal and recycling, but one day i decided to translate a random page as a finnish language exercise, and discovered this:
tenants may hang or dry out their belongings on terraces during afternoons on tuesdays, thursdays and fridays. the cumulative weight of such items may not exceed 200 kilograms at any one time
...
tenants may use their terrace to dry their rugs and carpets on mondays and wednesdays between 1 pm and 5 pm. floors 4 through 6 may "shake out" dust from their rugs and carpets between 3:30 and 4:30 pm. lower floors may do this between 2:30 and 3:30 pm or during the last 30 minutes of the period...
it goes on. i love it! it's all logical really. who wants their laundry covered in someone else's carpet dust? but would you expect people anywhere else to follow such rules? hmm, maybe japan. anyway, that's how i realised it's true what they say about finns and rules.
... which made it all the more strange to see people doggy-paddling in the fast lane at the yrjonkatu swimming hall, where i have been doing laps after work (all those salmon steaks and mashed potatoes must be dealt with somehow). there is a lane for "water-walking" and "slow swimming" so you would expect the fast lane to be reserved for swimmers doing laps free-style, butterfly or breast-stroke, right? somehow, i was more disturbed by this supposed rule-breaching rather than the fact that over half of the swimmers were naked --bathing suits are optional-- and wearing shower caps.
but if i'm going to swim, i want to swim! i put on my goggles and swimming cap and swam between the two lanes of doggypaddlers, thankful that there was enough width. i did about three, 50 metre laps of free-style and paused for a rest when i heard a whistle. i was violating the rule of rotations between lanes! i couldn't quite understand the rule that the swimming hall monitor was trying very hard to explain.
so now i am doggy paddling with the rest. it's much more tiring than proper swimming if you want to cover the same distance, but it does allow you to keep moving for much longer. perhaps it's not such a bad way to burn calories.
after swimming, i usually go upstairs, where i get a nice view of the entire swimming hall and its art deco interior. they offer a choice of three different saunas and personal cabins for resting, and the cafe serves champagne and a variety of drinks as well as snails in garlic and a nice beetroot and goat cheese salad. i feel like i'm in a thomas mann novel, perhaps an aristocratic tuberculosis patient at a posh davos sanatorium, circa 1920...
cameras aren't allowed because of the nudity, but i couldn't resist!
