NYE
We had a sedate but fun New Year’s Eve. Two of our friends, L and S came over to our place (with S’s darling miniature schnauzer!), we cooked some food together and watched Ant Man.
For midnight, we went to see the fireworks. As Finland is celebrating its hundred years of independence in 2017, there was a big party in Helsinki, but we all figured we were too old and lazy to make the trek there and suffer the drunk, rowdy masses.
Instead, we drove to a nearby manmade hill (an old landfill site) that stands tall above the very flat capital region (at 90 metres tall, it’s actually the highest point in Helsinki). It turned out that we weren’t the only ones to decide it would make a great spot to observe the fireworks, as it was incredibly crowded.
Though the hill is in frequent use by people sportsing on and around it, and even has stairs going up the side of it, it’s not lit, so it was quite the sight to see a queue made up of hundreds of people slowly snaking up the stairs in pitch black, only lit by the flashlights on their phones.
We just about made it to the top of the hill (it’s very steep, and there are 426 steps; I was still wheezing some 15 minutes later) and elbowed our way into the crowd. The view was brilliant, and come midnight we could see fireworks going off all around us. We were even able to see the celebratory fireworks all the way from central Helsinki. As far as viewing platforms go, it was great, but people were also shooting fireworks from below us, from the sides of the hill, meaning they went off very near us. Nothing happened, but it did make things a bit scary. Pitch black, a massive crowd of people in various states of inebriation, a very steep hill… You can see where it could’ve all gone very wrong.
After we made our descent down the hill, we discovered that, due to some quirk of the weather, all the smoke from the fireworks had also descended down the hill and then just lingered in the valley-like space between it and the nearby houses. Between the almost complete darkness, explosions from the fireworks still going on all around us, and the thick smoke, the whole place looked and felt like a warzone. Also all of us kept coughing long after we’d gotten back to our place, so that was fun.
Originally posted at Dreamwidth. You can also comment there using OpenID.
For midnight, we went to see the fireworks. As Finland is celebrating its hundred years of independence in 2017, there was a big party in Helsinki, but we all figured we were too old and lazy to make the trek there and suffer the drunk, rowdy masses.
Instead, we drove to a nearby manmade hill (an old landfill site) that stands tall above the very flat capital region (at 90 metres tall, it’s actually the highest point in Helsinki). It turned out that we weren’t the only ones to decide it would make a great spot to observe the fireworks, as it was incredibly crowded.
Though the hill is in frequent use by people sportsing on and around it, and even has stairs going up the side of it, it’s not lit, so it was quite the sight to see a queue made up of hundreds of people slowly snaking up the stairs in pitch black, only lit by the flashlights on their phones.
We just about made it to the top of the hill (it’s very steep, and there are 426 steps; I was still wheezing some 15 minutes later) and elbowed our way into the crowd. The view was brilliant, and come midnight we could see fireworks going off all around us. We were even able to see the celebratory fireworks all the way from central Helsinki. As far as viewing platforms go, it was great, but people were also shooting fireworks from below us, from the sides of the hill, meaning they went off very near us. Nothing happened, but it did make things a bit scary. Pitch black, a massive crowd of people in various states of inebriation, a very steep hill… You can see where it could’ve all gone very wrong.
After we made our descent down the hill, we discovered that, due to some quirk of the weather, all the smoke from the fireworks had also descended down the hill and then just lingered in the valley-like space between it and the nearby houses. Between the almost complete darkness, explosions from the fireworks still going on all around us, and the thick smoke, the whole place looked and felt like a warzone. Also all of us kept coughing long after we’d gotten back to our place, so that was fun.
Originally posted at Dreamwidth. You can also comment there using OpenID.