Completely mesmerized by two beautiful performances in Poland, we hit the road towards Helsinki, Finland. The distance between the two cities is 1050 km. Therefore, what was supposed to be a day off turned into a long travel day.
Sometimes, a travel day serves as a well-deserved day of rest, while other times it's more tiring than a day off sightseeing in a city. However, the trip to the Finnish capital wasn't so exhausting.
To the delight of our drummer Fabio Butvidas, we had lunch in Kaunas, Lithuania. His relatives are Lithuanian, and since he knew the city well, we "used" his knowledge to sample the local cuisine.
With little time for sightseeing, we headed to Tallinn, Estonia, to catch the ferry that would take us directly to Helsinki. Once again, we arrived early and, as we had no internet, we had to hunt for somewhere with open Wi-Fi. The funniest thing is that this happened at 2 am, with the temperature well below zero. Unfortunately, we are slaves to our commitments, and being away from Brazil is quite complicated.
We found internet at a gas station right next to the terminal and took the opportunity to recharge our laptops and cameras. However, the unusual thing was that the attendant there called the police as soon as we got into our motorhome. No one knows why. After all, we consumed, paid for, and communicated in English. Who knows what was going through her head… In the end, the police let us board the ferry, embarrassed by what had happened.
The journey from Estonia to Finland was smooth, and we soon arrived at the venue in Helsinki: the famous The Circus. All the bands that are currently popular on the international music scene perform there, and as soon as we entered our dressing room, we were informed that the tickets had already sold out days in advance. With that information, we focused on putting on a great show.
Shadowside's last visit to Helsinki was in 2010, also during their tour with WASP. That performance was very memorable, and everyone was eager for this new opportunity.
The Finnish capital always holds good surprises for us, even more so when we can reunite with Brazilian friends and meet new people. One of the things Shadowside does best when on tour is to bring people together. At the end of the show, we practically formed a circle in front of our merchandise and stayed there for quite a while chatting, much to the despair of the security guards (laughs).
As for the show, it was simply sensational! Music is a school subject in Finland, the people know good music, and once again receiving the applause and cheers of these brilliant people was something magical!
After the show, we took advantage of the short distance to the next city to grab a beer with friends.
Next destination: Tampere, Finland.
Check out the complete Shadowside travelogue
Buy tickets for the Shadowside and SupreMa on May 26th at Via Marquês!
