At the Helsinki Airport
I quite like the Helsinki airport. It’s perhaps one of my favourite airports I’ve been to. And that comes from someone that hasn’t been the fondest of airports before.
See, here’s the thing. The Helsinki airport is not particularly fancy or spectacular. It’s not ugly either, but its not the prettiest out there. If I have to highlight one part of it, it’s the long, brutalist, escalators with opera and ballet playing against the tall wall. That sight always signals a transition for me; a threshold into Finland, or away from it (as it is the case now, that I’m leaving for Spain).
But that’s not why I like it. I somehow was accustomed to shitty airport experiences. Back home in Peru, or visiting the US, airports used to be tedious experiences of long wait times, walking through confusing wings and rushing to get to gates & tense security checks that hold you back from making it on time.
None of this happens in Helsinki airport. Most things work smoothly most of the time and inconvenience can be easily resolved. I’m baffled every time by how quickly I go from arriving, to passing the security checks, to sitting at my gate. And it’s not just the speed of things; it’s the fact that hassle feels minimized at every turn. It can be this easy. It literally is. Why can’t more airports work like this? Yeah, I know scale is a part of it. It is not a huge airport like some in big US or central Europe cities. But it’s also not one of those small airports with 1-3 gates.
It really helped me work through the dread I used to feel when travelling.
Now that I’ve moved out of Finland, I hope I get to see it once again, when I get a chance to visit.