The Finnish TV channel “Nelonen” (number 4) is showing some funny-while-educational videos during commercial breaks, with the theme of “Urban Etiquette”. The videos show some no-no situations, like letting your dog’s poo unattended, and suggest the proper behavior.

I’m especially pleased to see that they are chastising the annoying habit of standing in front of the subway doors without letting people out first (first video from the left, second row from the top in the link above). I couldn’t quite figure out why finns, normally well behaved, become like some sort of frothing beasts when put in front of a tram or subway door. Apparently it has something to do with the fear of keeping the conductor and all the people inside waiting. Go figure!

Urban Etiquette Videos

As an Italian, one of the questions I’m most frequently asked is “where to get a good pizza in Helsinki”. Well, the answer is in the picture above: go get yourself a Dr. Oetker Casa di Mama frozen pizza, and you will have a better pizza than in any restaurant around town. Honest.

If you really, really insist on going out for pizza, then the closest to Italian standards I have found is in “La Vista” in Kamppi, although the quality seems to vary from one time to the next. And you’ll still be better off with Dr. Oetker.

Another option is to make it yourself, but that’s the subject for another post…

(photo credit of Flickr user canchi)

I took the video above in Helsinki last Friday, during the Night of the Arts (Taiteiden yö). This is part of the Helsinki “festival weeks”, where a number of free events are arranged by Helsinki’s notable institutions. Quoting from the website:

On this year’s Night of the Arts, the French street theatre company Plasticiens Volants will transform Helsinki’s city centre sky into an enormous ocean aquarium. Giant floating sea creatures will swim from Esplanadi to the Senate Square, telling their aquatic tale along the way.

I normally don’t talk about Nokia here because of the conflict of interest, but this time I must say that I was really impressed by the video and audio quality of my phone’s camera. I think the video above speaks for itself.

Check some photos as well (these taken with the Canon D20)