Tuesday 12 April 2011

Shopping

Now that the weather is warmer and it's lighter for longer I've noticed how late the shops stay open in Finland. Today Emmi and I were buying shoes for her wedding outfit, and I noticed it was 7.15pm! It's rare for shops in England to be open at that time, but very normal here. Gives you extra shopping time so it must be a good thing. It also gave me more time to lust over shoes, and create a mental wishlist for when I have a job, and that's probably not such a good thing.
It did make me wonder why Finland doesn't have 24 hour supermarkets or corner shops though. It's definitely something I've taken for granted in England, and here I realise how useful such places are. The K-Extra opposite my house is open until 11pm but I believe that's the latest in the center of Turku.
I also heard today about a Finnish Easter tradition of growing a little patch of grass. Emmi didn't explain it too much but she insisted I take the free packet of seeds offered in the coffee shop. She said it's mainly a thing for children. English children normally just eat their chocolate egg and are satisfied with that. Maybe I should grow my Easter grass. I'm not entirely sure what the point of it would be but Emmi was very keen that I should try.

1 comment:

  1. A couple of Siwa's used to be open 24h in the center but now I think they're open only 06:00-24:00, at least the one on Stålarminkatu is. The only markets open 24h atm are the ones found in the gasstations like ABC so here in Turku that would be Auranlaakso and Koulukatu.

    And you should definately grow a patch of easter grass, why?
    A)it's a funny Finnish tradition and you love those
    B)it cheers you up in this grayness that is still the main colour outside

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